Gray wrung out his hand, looking totally put out. “I think I made it pretty clear, if anyone so much looks in her direction, you die.” In a split second, his cool demeanor vanished, and he gripped him by the collar. “Does your dad like working at Crowne Industries?”
“Uh…”
Gray’s grip became a vise, pulling him closer. “How’s that coke habit working for him? Probably not as good as his love of jailbait.” Geoff’s eyes widened. “Touch her again, see what happens.”
Gray dropped Geoff with a slam to the deck. The dick ice sculpture jostled and fell, shattering into chunks of ice on the maple floor.
For the first time all night, Grayson looked at me.
I had to say something. “Thank you.”
Gray stepped to me, forcing me against the railing he’d just bloodied his friend on. Beyond him the ocean raged iron blue, brackish and unusually cold for summer.
“What are you doing?”
“Do you think I did that for you, Snitch?” he growled. “Do you think I give a single shit about you?”
He gripped my waist, pulling me close, and slid his palm along my back, over my ass, gripping.
“We’re in public.”
Maybe they couldn’t hear what he was saying over the music, but his actions were crystal clear.
“Didn’t stop you last night.” His voice was cold against my ear. “I saw the look in your eyes this morning. You’re like every other girl out there. You want me. You’re brazen about it. If I stuck my hand between your thighs, you wouldn’t stop me.”
He probed me from behind, through the thick fabric of my pleated black skirt. I looked around us, along the massive yacht. At his peers just waiting for Grayson to confirm everything that Geoff thought I was: a nobody for these somebodies to use and play with.
Finally, I made eye contact.
His breath warmed my lips when he spoke. “You’re disgusting.”
Hurt slammed into my chest, but I wouldn’t let him see. He took a step back, as if to leave me with that. Leave me to feel worthless.
“I feel sorry for you.” I whispered my venom. “You don’t have any friends. Not really. They think your favorite food is steak, and they’ve never seen the inside of your wing. Everyone wants a piece of you, but no one could give a shit who you are.”
Anger, and something else, flashed. “What the fuck do you mean they think my favorite food is steak?”
Fear battled with adrenaline. I was calling Grayson Crowne out on his shit, and if he wanted to toss me over the ship, leave me to drown, none of these perfectly beautiful people would bat their eyelash extensions.
“You’re afraid to tell the girl of your dreams you love her. I feel so, so sorry for you. You’re so fucking lonely, Grayson Crowne, that friendship feels like a trap.”
“Do you think you’re my friend, Snitch? You’re nothing to me in private; you don’t exist to me in public.”
“Liar,” I breathed.
He froze, eyes hard.
I couldn’t say all my words. That in private, behind closed doors, in the dark…he needed me. We’d started to need each other. It took all my strength just to look at him. So I settled on the one word I could get out.
My mouth was dry, my heart pounding.
I dragged my lip between my teeth to hide the tremble. Even though I wished I wasn’t, I was scared. This world was harsh and cruel like an icy tundra, and no amount of living as a ghost around them had prepared me for when they would finally notice me.
Gray’s hooded eyes dropped to my lips, then lazily, slowly, so slowly, he found my eyes. I knew I should look down. It was growing impossible not to look him in the eyes. Yet there was something smoldering in his stony blue eyes. A heat I knew was impossible—insane—because there was no way he wanted to kiss me.
Not after calling me disgusting.
After saying I was nothing.