“Your things are in the bedroom.” Sinclair spoke softly but I heard him even from across the room as we opened the door to leave for my room.
“Excuse me?”
I didn’t turn around but I could tell by the sudden silence that everyone was as confounded as I was.
“I said your things are in the bedroom.”
Finally turning around, I glanced helplessly at our audience. He had a girlfriend, for God’s sake. What was he doing announcing to them that we were sleeping together? Obviously, we hadn’t been completely discrete especially tonight but still.
My frantic eyes found his and I opened my mouth to speak but clamped it shut again when I saw the stern expression on his face. He was daring me to protest over his lack of respect for my privacy or my individuality. I own you; his words from the drive to the marina echoed in my head. I swallowed past the rising fear that he did and he would continue to own my heart long after we left this place.
He sighed, tucking his hands in his pockets as the shutters slammed down over his features. “Go get dressed, Elle. We will wait for you.”
I stood there for a minute as he turned to talk to the men, ignoring the last ten minutes of public affection and humiliation as if it had never happened. Margot watched me curiously with her head cocked to one side as I hesitated.
“Are you okay?” Candy whispered.
“I’m just not used to being controlled,” I hissed, even though this seemed like the millionth time this week that Sinclair had done so.
“What are you going to do about it?”
I pursed my lips as Cosima’s accented voice echoed through my head and urged me to follow her example. I picked out the tiniest dress in my arsenal, one that Cosima had bought me for Mama’s restaurant opening two years ago, and held it up for Candy with a smile.
“I’m going to make sure he doesn’t regret it.”
Chapter Fourteen.
The dance floor vibrated with the pulsing beat of the techno music blaring through the five feet speakers surrounding the dance floor at the Pink Kitty nightclub. Scantily clad dancers ground against each other, their bare skin glistening in the blue and pink lights flashing overhead. My long hair was tangled and damp against my exposed back so I lifted it from my skin, wishing fruitlessly for a breeze to pass through the open front of the club into the back where we moved to the throbbing beat.
My eyes sought out Sinclair over at the bar talking to Santiago and Candy. I had politely implied that if he could distract those two then maybe Cage and Kat would dance together. He had raised those strong brows but done as I requested and now Kat stood close to me, laughing as Cage danced around her with the flare of the expert performer he was.
Smiling to myself, I pushed through the crowd, desperate to get some air. My feet were sore from dancing so long in my only pair of high heels, a ridiculously high pair of nude pumps that I had purchased in Paris when Brenna invited me to the premier of one of her movies. Sinclair had seemed to like them though, if his dark promise to fuck me with nothing else on was anything to go off of.
When I had emerged from the bedroom, everyone but Sinclair was gone, waiting for us in the lobby. He apologized with a twisted smile for Margot’s inappropriate behavior. I hadn’t corrected him – our behavior was far more inappropriate than her concern – mostly because the way he looked at me in the short, tight white dress I wore was enough to distract me from the truth.
The cool air hit my sticky skin as soon as I pushed open the heavy door to the fire escape and I breathed a sigh of contentment as I lifted my hair from my neck.
“You’ve got a beautiful smile,” a hot voice breathed into my ear.
I scrunched my nose against the foul smell of the stranger’s breath and tried to step further down the stairs so that he could get by. When he didn’t move I turned to look up at him, finding a vaguely attractive frat boy leering down at me.
“Thank you,” I said coolly, drawing my arms across my chest to hide my ample cleavage from his gaze. “My boyfriend thinks so to.”
The deception fell from my lips too easily and for a second, I allowed my mind to go there, to imagine what it would be like to be Sinclair’s girlfriend. I wondered if he would call me darling and give me space to express my independence or if he would be the man I knew him to be now, deliciously possessive and spontaneous.
“Come dance with me, babe.”
The man’s voice rudely interrupted my daydreams and I looked up at him sharply, noticing that he had closed the distance between us and now stood only a step above me.
“I’m good, thanks.”
I turned to walk further down the steps, thinking that I could make my way around to the front of the club where there would be more people but his arm snagged me just as I was taking a step. A squeak punctuated my fall as I slammed into the railing and the air collapsed from my lungs. Taking advantage of my position leaning over the iron banister, he pressed into my back and slowly righted me so that I was flush against his front.
He groaned. “This is nice. What do you say we skip the dancing and I take you back to my hotel?”
My heart was beating painfully hard but I knew how to think through the fog of panic thanks to my experiences with Christopher.
“Like I said, I have a boyfriend.” My voice was surprisingly calm and I was thankful for it. Some men did this for the thrill of the fear, I knew.