A woman dressed head to toe in black leather sat down beside Cole and leaned in to speak to him. He inclined his head in her direction but his gaze never wavered. Her arm curled around his shoulders, her fingers playing with the longer strands of his hair.

She was speaking to him but he wasn’t responding. He was too busy hurling nasty eye daggers my way.

Why was he so pissed to see me?

What the hell had I ever done to him?

“It’s so loud in here,” Theo yelled. I tried to smile but I felt like it was more effort than I was suddenly capable of.

Theo tucked my hair behind my ear, his fingers trailing down the side of my neck. “Can we go back to your place for a while? I can barely hear myself think,” he asked, his eyes heated.

I sipped on my drink and my eyes, of their own volition, crawled back to Cole.

Only he wasn’t there anymore. And neither was the slut who had been talking to him.

My stomach knotted up and plummeted to the floor. I knew exactly where he had gone.

I finished my drink, feeling the alcohol burn my throat and gave Theo a blinding smile. “Sure. Let’s get out of here,” I said.

Theo waved down the bartender so we could pay our tab and I looked around the crowd, my head bobbing in time to the beat of the music.

Someone wrapped their hand my waist, fingers clutching the silky material of my dress. And then I was being yanked around.

“What the hell?” I retorted angrily, only to stare up into the furious eyes of none other than Cole f**king Brandt.

“Cole,” I breathed out. His arm was tight around my middle, my chest pressed against his, our faces dangerously close. I could smell the liquor on his breath. And from the flush of his cheeks and the wild glint in his eyes, I knew he was loaded.

“Who is that?” demanded, inclining his head towards Theo, who had his back to us.

My irritation sparked and I pulled out of Cole’s retraining grip.

“None of your damn business!” I bit out.

I started to back up and knocked into Theo who turned around to give me a kind smile. His expression turned curious when he saw a very angry Cole breathing fire in his direction.

“Who the f**k are you?” Cole asked him. Theo looked over his shoulder, as though Cole were talking to someone else.

“Excuse me?” Theo asked, glancing at me.

“Why are you with my girl?” Cole demanded and my eyes widened.

His girl? Was he serious?

“I think you are mistaken. I’m on a date with this woman,” Theo argued reasonably.

“You’re what?” Cole roared, garnering the attention of everyone around us.

“Cole, enough! You’re drunk and you’re acting like an idiot,” I hissed, pushing him squarely in the chest. He stumbled back a step but then steadied himself as much as he was able to, even if he was still swaying on his feet.

“You’re on a date with this douchebag, Viv? Are you kidding me?” Cole started laughing maniacally, clutching his gut as he bent over in hysterics. My rage started to mount.

“Vivian, do you know this guy?” Theo asked, watching Cole with growing concern.

Cole righted himself and took a menacing step toward Theo. “Oh she knows me, man. She knows me intimately. She knows how it feels to have this dick inside her pu**y.” He grabbed himself crudely before taking another step forward.

“She knows how it feels when I f**k her over a table and how it feels to have my tongue between her legs. So yes, she knows me. She’s known me in every position, all night long.”

Cole leaned down and ran his tongue along my cheek. “Mmm. I love me a mouthful of Vivian.”

That was it. I had had enough. I clocked Cole in the jaw, knocking him on his self-important ass. My hand throbbed and I hoped I hadn’t broken something.

“Don’t you ever talk about me like that ever again!” I screamed, standing over him, cradling my hand against my chest and glaring down at him. Cole rubbed his jaw and grinned up at me.

“You’ve got one hell of a right hook, baby. Now come here and let me kiss it and make it better,” he leered. I kicked him in the leg. Hard. With the spike end of my shoe.

“Ouch! Why’d you do that, Viv?” Cole yelled, trying to get to his feet. But he was so drunk he could only stumble to his knees before collapsing on the floor again.

I reared back to kick him again but Theo put a hand on my arm.

“What are you doing, Vivian?” he asked, looking appalled. I looked around and realized we had a circle of people surrounding us, watching with avid interest. Once again, Cole and I had become a sideshow.

I lowered my foot to the floor. “I’m sorry, Theo,” I said regretfully, hating how he had seen this very ugly side of my personality.

Theo looked absolutely repulsed by the entire situation. “Is this the guy you were talking about at dinner?” Theo deduced. Cole was still trying to get to his feet. Finally some biker dude took pity and helped him up. He swayed a bit but otherwise stayed upright.

I didn’t bother to answer Theo. I figured it was obvious by this point.

“I’m sorry, Vivian. I’m so, so sorry,” Cole appealed, scrubbing his hands down his face.

My anger dissipated marginally. I had never heard Cole apologize for anything. That alone was enough to make me wonder if we had entered the Twilight Zone.

When Cole pulled his hands away from his face, his eyes were wet and red. He looked as lost as I had ever seen him.

“Don’t hate me. Please,” he begged, reaching for my hand. I let him take it and he curled his fingers through mine, pressing our joined hands over his heart.