SWNOVELS Hate You: Chapter 28
“She told me to speak to you. So here I am. What the fuck am I missing here, Zach?”
“Not here,” I say, dragging my sister out of earshot of other guests.
“Well?” she prompts once we’re alone.
“Now isn’t the place or the time to dive into my life. If you really cared you’d have asked before now,” I snap.
“Now, that’s not fair. I always ask what you’ve been up to. I’m curious as fuck as to what you do with your time. Aside from banging my best friend it seems and making her keep your secrets.”
“Yeah, well they’re my secrets. Just like she’d keep any of yours from me. She’s fucking loyal, thank fuck.”
“What the hell is that meant to mean?”
“Nothing. Look, I’ll tell you whatever you want.” Her eyes light up. “But not today. Let’s just do what we’ve got to do today then you can interrogate me tomorrow.”
“Really?”
“Really,” I agree with a sigh. “Now can you drop it?”
“Sure,” she sulks. “I’m still pissed at you, though.”
“When aren’t you?”
She slaps me in the chest before I turn to walk away. I almost immediately find the happy couple and Harrison pulls me in for a brotherly hug, not something that happens all that often.
“Congrats, you two. Has it been everything you hoped it would be?”
“Better,” Summer swoons before she’s distracted by my sister.
“What the fuck is going on?” Harrison asks, his tone brisk and cool, much like I imagine him to be at work.
“It’s nothing.”
“It better bloody not be, because if you ruin any part of—”
“Chill. It’s not going to happen. I’ve got it under control.”
“When have you ever had anything under control before?”
“I’m more capable than you want to believe,” I say, hoping like fuck it’s true.
The second I saw Christian sitting with the daughter of my parents’ friends not so long ago instead of his date, I almost lost my shit. Fuck knows why I care, though. He can do whatever the fuck he wants, and if it hurts Tabitha, all the better.
Leaving Harrison with his new bride, I walk towards the bar. It’s been at least thirty minutes since some alcohol passed my lips.
“Well, well, well, look who it is,” I say, sliding in next to Christian.
“Zach, man. I had no idea this was your brother’s wedding, I swear to you.” I look at him and raise a brow. “Or that you and Biff have a—”
“Have a what?” I interrupt, suddenly desperate to hear what she’s told him about this whole clusterfuck.
“A… uh… thing going on.”
“There’s no thing. I fucked her a couple of times, that’s all. Really, I can’t fucking stand her. It’s a good fucking job she’s a stellar lay because I wouldn’t keep her around otherwise.” I don’t see his fist coming until it’s too late.
“Ow fuck.” My hand comes up to my lip, and it starts swelling almost instantly. “You fucking…” I fly at him, but hands landing on my waist from behind stop me.
“What the fuck did you just promise me, bro?” Harrison growls in my ear. “Sort your shit out or fucking leave.”
I take a deep breath, holding eye contact with Christian, letting him know that he’d be on the floor by now if I had my way.
“We good?” Harrison asks and hesitantly releases me.
“Whisky. Make it very large,” I bark at the waiter when he appears from nowhere in front of me.
“Coming right up, Sir.”
I can feel Christian staring daggers into me, but I refuse to look at him until I’ve had a drink. I’m too sober to deal with this shit right now.
“I had no idea she even worked for you until today. She wasn’t in last weekend.”
“No, she was too busy at Summer’s hen do it seems. I should have put two and two together that night. But you said there were like, four hen dos, so I just didn’t think.”
“Why would you? Did you see her there?” he asks with a wince.
“You mean, did I see you gyrating your naked arse in her face? Then yeah, I fucking did.”
“Sorry, man. It’s just my job.”
“Really? Because it seems it got you an invite here.”
“I met her before that night, actually. That night just gave me the chance to ask her out again.”
“It was you she was with Tuesday night.” I don’t ask it as a question. I already know the answer. “It couldn’t have been a very good date.”
“What makes you say that?”
I down my drink and lean over. “Because she ended the night with my cock inside her.” If he looks shocked, he doesn’t show it. It doesn’t mean I still don’t look smug as shit, though.
I push my glass towards the barman, gesturing for another, and stand.
“You don’t stand a chance with her, so if you feel like continuing things, then I strongly suggest you stop. You won’t win.”
“And you will?”
“Nah. I don’t want her.” Even before the words have left my lips they feel like a lie, but it still doesn’t stop me, and it won’t stop me showing her just how angry I am with what she’s done either. “But I sure as shit don’t want you having her.”
With that, I pick up my new drink and walk away. Sadly, the second I do, she walks into the room.
She’s fucking beautiful, and I hate that I’ve come to know her well enough to know she’s on the verge of breaking down. She clearly stood up for me with Danni, seeing as she’s since come to me for the answers she wants. But even knowing both of those things, as our stare holds, my blue to her tormented grey, I can’t help but need to show her exactly how angry I am with her.
Her eyes drop to my lip and concern flickers through them, but it’s not enough to make her ask about it.
My grip on the glass tightens, and my cock swells with the need to drive into her hard and fast. To feel her body trembling beneath mine.
My jaw grinds and the muscle in my neck pulses with every thump of my heart. I hope she can see how close to the fucking edge I am right now.
“Come on, let’s dance,” a familiar deep voice says behind me before Tabitha lifts her hand and slips it into Christian’s. The fucker has the audacity to wink at me before he pulls what is mine to the dancefloor.
I tell myself to walk away, to find a dark corner where I can hide and get shitfaced, but my legs don’t comply and I’m forced to stand and watch as he pulls her body into his and together they start moving to the music.
If he’s trying to get a rise out of me, then he’s going to be bitterly disappointed. I have every intention of showing Tabitha who she belongs to, but I also have every intention of doing it when we’re in private, where she has no one to come to her rescue.
I’m eventually distracted when some fucker I don’t recognise calls my name and starts gushing about what a beautiful day it’s been and asking when it’s my turn.
I just about manage to hold in the ‘fuck off’ that’s right on the tip of my tongue.
No sooner has whoever the fuck he is disappears than another couple turns to me. They give me the ‘wow, haven’t you grown’ speech that I really don’t fucking need. Apparently, the last time they saw me I was seven, seeing as they couldn’t come to Harrison’s first wedding. I manage to refrain from pointing out that seeing as twenty years have passed since then, it shouldn’t be a fucking shock that I’ve grown.
As the night passes, so do the people who insist on sparking up a conversation with me. I start to think it’s a game. They must be able to see that I’m balancing the fine line between sanity and losing my shit, but still they insist on asking me the same bullshit questions again and again.
The only good thing about the many nosey visitors I get is that they pay attention to what I’m drinking and almost always arrive with a glass. It does help with my quest to drink today out of my system.
There’s a break in people as Harrison and Summer take to the dancefloor for their first dance and I take the opportunity to visit the empty bar and convince the guy to just give me the fucking bottle.
I forgo the clean glass he tries to give me and take the bottle outside. I am done with this.
The loud bass of the music soon starts thumping through the wall, making me even surer that I made the right decision to escape. I see a couple of others who venture out to smoke, but mostly they’re guys wanting a little peace as well so no one really says much as I continue drinking from my bottle.
When I eventually head back inside, the bottle is long empty, my legs are a little unsteady, and it seems that the party has come to an end. There’s a whispered little voice in the back of my head that tells me I’ll be in the shit with my parents for bunking off the rest of the party and not saying goodbye to everyone, but why would anyone care? It’s not my fucking wedding.
Spotting my sister propping up the bar, I head over.
“Where is she?” I slur, slamming my hand down on the bar and making her jump.
She looks over, her eyes running down the length of me. “Fucking hell, Zach. You’re wasted.”
“I think I have every right to be after what that bitch has done.” Danni’s chest puffs out as if she’s about to defend her, but at the last minute she must remember all the lies and keeps her mouth shut.
“I’m not telling you.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you? She fucking lied to you.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to feed her to you, arsehole.”
“What will it cost me?” Her brows draw together in confusion before the penny drops. Now the thought of being inside her hotel room and being able to get my hands on her has filled my mind, I won’t stop until it’s happening.
She considers my question for a few seconds. “Tell me where you met her.”
“She works for me. She came to me for a job and one of my dumb arse colleagues thought it was a good idea.”
“She works for you? What the fuck, Zach?”
“Surprise, Pipsqueak. I’m not just a fucking dumb arse who pisses his trust fund up the wall. I’m a fucking businessman, and a fucking good one at that. Now tell me where the fuck she is.”
Danni looks at me as if she’s suddenly seeing an entirely different person. “You… you have employees?”
“Where the fuck is she?” I ask again, ignoring her question.
“R-room five-one-four.” I turn, but her voice stops me.
“I might not like her very much right now, but my warning still stands. You hurt her and I’ll hurt you.”
I salute her before walking away and directly into the open lift.
My heart pounds faster and faster the closer I get. It’s been hours since I’ve had her alone, and even longer since we’ve been in private. I’ve got plenty I want to say to her, but I feel that on this occasion actions might speak louder.
I’m not the kind of guy people lie to and are able to get away with it. I haven’t got where I have by allowing people to walk over me. Especially pussy cats like Tabitha. She’s chosen the wrong man to go into battle with, and she’s about to discover what a fucking mistake she’s made crossing me.
I lift my hand to her door and something inside me settles. This ends now, Tabby Cat.