Bound to the Fallen (Prophecy #2) (30 page)

A
slight shade of red rushed across his face. His jaw clenched as he stared at her, his arms held out stiffly in an effort to keep her from falling all over him.

Amy straightened
up. Her glare like daggers as she groaned, “I don’t know
why
you insist on playing hard to get.”

Gavin grabbed her by
the wrist. His voice deepened and he narrowed his eyes angrily at her. “Amy, I highly suggest you get the hell away from me before you embarrass yourself.”

A look of surprise wash
ed over Amy’s face. She cut her eyes over at me and then at Ashley. “Oh, I guess you just want to make yourself available for the evening?” She looked back at me and Ashley, rolling her eyes in her head.

Amy
turned to face Gavin and let out a frustrated sigh, “Whatever, Gavin Hunter. Any man would fall all over themselves to have me,” she paused, looking at me with disdain before her gaze shot back up at Gavin. “But if you’d rather entertain yourself with one of these,” she laughed snobbishly, “prepubescent girls — help yourself.”

I could see Ashley’s jaw tighten and her fi
ngers curl up into her palm to make a fist.

Gavin
lightly pushed Amy away. “That’s enough, Amy,” he growled, lowering his head and gritting his teeth. “Remember where we are… wouldn’t want to cause a scene, aye?”

Amy
’s stare bounced back and forth from me to Ashley. “So, which one is it, Gavin?” Pausing, her eyes locked onto Ashley. “This one looks utterly pissed.” She laughed and her gaze cut over to me. “And this one — well — she just looks like she’s hurt, helplessly in love.”

F
ixing her eyes on mine, she said, “Don’t let him fool you. No matter what he says to you, you’re nothing more than a hole for him to stick his huge dick in. Obviously….” Amy arched one eyebrow at him and flung her long blonde hair behind her shoulder. “Right, Gav? Just something to get your dick wet?”

Gavin’s face
grew crimson red and his nostrils flared. He closed his eyes, placing his arm around my waist. His fingers dug into the thin material of my dress as he pulled me close. “Amy, I suggest you leave,” he said. The building rage was evident in his voice.

My
pulsed skipped, partly because I knew that she was insinuating that she’d slept with Gavin, and partly because he had his arm placed possessively around my waist in front of people from the hospital. I searched the crowd in fear that someone from the office would see us.

Amy
glared at him. “You really could do a lot better, Gavin.” She spun around and tromped away.

Gavin tightened his g
rip on my side. I watched as Amy walked across the room and wedged herself into a group of men to the far side of the bar.

“Ugh!” Ashley turned to the bar and ran her hands through her hair. “What a fucking bitch! I can’t stand her
. What the hell is her deal?” She stopped and her eyes cut over to Gavin. “What the fuck is
your
deal?” she asked him.

“What was I supposed to do?” He
rubbed his hand across his forehead and leaned his head back. “Not like I could very well tell her to go to hell. She’s no idea Brooke and I are together and this isn’t exactly the place to announce that my research coordinator’s also my girlfriend.” Pulling his arm away from me, he took several steps to the edge of the bar. “Goddamn it!” He glanced in my direction and quickly marched back over to me, grabbing the back of my head and leaning his head against mine. “I’m sorry, love. Please, don’t let her worry you.”

I pulled away
when I saw Nicole glaring at us from across the room.

“Damn it.
” He ran his hands along the length of his tuxedo jacket. “I don’t really give a damn at this point,” he said. “The rules I’m breaking to be with you… mean nothing to me anymore.”

“Gavin
!” I was shocked at how angry he’d become.

“I d
on’t. This is ridiculous,” he let out a dejected sigh and leaned back against the bar.

The fact that he’d
just referred to me as his girlfriend hit me suddenly. Although I wanted to jump up and down and confirm that he’d meant what he’d just said, I controlled my urge to behave like a “prepubescent girl” and, instead, smiled graciously at him.

I looked over
at Ashley, who now had a stunned look on her face. I guess the encounter we’d just had with Amy was a little much for her.

“It’s okay,
” I said to Gavin.

Directing my gaze
across the floor, I saw Amy and Nicole standing in the center of the room talking. Their eyes would wander toward us every so often.

Ashley let out a displeased groan
. “Well, now skankarella is onto everything.” She pointed at Nicole and reached for another glass of cheap wine. “You know, you guys are going to cause me premature aging,” Ashley said as she took a large gulp. She swallowed and released a small giggle. “Gav…” She giggled again, this time spitting a small amount of wine back into her glass.

Gavin cut his eyes over to her. “You start referring to me as
‘Gav’ and I must insist that you address me as Dr. Hunter, regardless of whether I’m with your friend or not.”

“
Okay. Well, my boyfriend’s probably wondering where the hell I am.” Ashley walked back toward Constance and Colton. “Come on,” she demanded and looked back at me.

I
took several steps and Gavin grabbed onto my wrist, stopping me dead in my tracks. “One more hour, love, one more hour.”

His smile melted me to the core.
Glancing back at a very angry Dr. Moore, I said, “I don’t like her, Gavin.”

“That makes two of us. I’m sorry she was so rude to you. She’s only jealous,
” he said before tipping his glass back.

Dan
came meandering in our direction and I immediately turned to walk away.

Ashley
marched back across the room to drag me away from Gavin. “Come on, honey, that man’s obviously not goin’ anywhere — except with you,” Ashley said, looking reassuringly at me over her shoulder as she pulled me away.

We made our way back to Constance and Colton and promptly
filled them in on the encounter with Amy.

Constance
sneered at Amy from across the room. “What a bitch.” She shifted her eyes back to me. “You’re pissed, aren’t you?”

I let out a small huff
. “Uh — yeah. I’m livid! I’m pretty sure they’ve slept together,” I said. I could feel a look of disgust crawl across my face.

Colton sh
ook his head as he listened to me. “God, is this really what girls do? So what if he slept with her? I mean, how old is he? You expect that the man hasn’t slept with a number of girls? Hell, the way all of you go on and on about how he looks, he could probably get in any girl’s panties, so I’m guessing he’s been with a pretty large number of women.” Colton stopped his tirade and buried his face in his hands. He ran his hands down his cheeks, pulling the skin beneath his eyes down to reveal the red inside his lids.

Ashley pinched him. “Stop being an ass.”

Constance shot a death glare in his direction.

“Sorry
, Brooke.” He rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes shifted from the floor up toward me. “I just — ” He sighed heavily. “Why are girls so crazy? You’ve got to know he’s been with other people. It shouldn’t matter as long as he’s not with anyone while he’s with you, right?”

I
peeked over at Gavin, who was now talking with several other young men. I could hear his laugh over the murmur of the crowd. His eyes shifted over in my direction and his smile widened when he caught me staring at him.

I turned back to
Colton. “I know he’s been with other people, Colton. I’m not stupid. I just don’t want to
see
them, especially not trying to get him to take them home.” I skimmed the crowd again and saw Amy standing against the bar by herself, her leering gaze locked in Gavin’s direction. She looked so pissed.

I
spoke aloud, although I was saying it more so to myself, “Her comment, I just wonder what he said to her? How serious did she think they were?”

Colton shrugged.

“Well, like I said, he’s never had a girlfriend that I’ve known of, and I only heard Nicole mention a date once. I can almost guarantee you he didn’t refer to Amy as ‘love.’ ” Ashley batted her eyelashes at me and grinned. “Yeah,
love,
I caught that.”

The music cut off
. A man dressed in a tuxedo clutching a microphone walked out into the middle of the room. He pulled the microphone up to his mouth to speak. “Good evening. I hope you all are enjoying yourselves. The silent auction will begin in ten minutes in the room adjacent to this one. We have a lot of unique items that were graciously donated to benefit the research foundation. Please, if you haven’t taken a look at the items up for auction, do so now. Thank you all again for coming out in support of our research.” The man lowered the microphone and walked off.

Constance looked over
at me and Ashley. “I’m gonna go look at the things I can’t afford to buy and pretend like I could if I wanted. Want to come?”

“Sure
,” Ashley responded and grabbed Colton by the hand.

Colton rolled his eyes as Ashley drug him toward the other room.
“Don’t ever make me come to one of these things again, please,” I heard him plead as he followed her.

W
alking in the other direction, I called out, “I’m going to the restroom. I’ll be over there in a minute.”

U
sing the weight of my body, I pushed the heavy door to the women’s restroom open. I walked in front of the mirrors to check my makeup, pulling my lipstick from my clutch. I carefully glided the red gloss over my lips, making sure to accentuate the dramatic cupid’s bow in the middle of my upper lip. I’d noticed Gavin’s fascination with my mouth and tried to make it look as enticing as possible.

From the corner of my eye I saw the door swing open. I rubbed my lips together and used my forefinger to remove the stray mark of gloss from the
edge of my mouth.

“Want to look pretty for Gavin?”
a woman’s voice snidely asked.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw that
Amy was leaned against the corner of the wall next to the sinks. Her arms were crossed delicately in front of her breasts.

Adrenaline
pumped through my veins. I put the top back on my lipstick and stuck it into my clutch, twisting around to face her. She was winding the ends of her thick, blonde hair around her forefinger.

“
He’s a good fuck, huh?” Her eyes pierced into me as she took a step toward me. Her tone became condescending as she said, “Makes you feel like nothing else in the world exists — the way his voice sounds when he growls at you to fuck him. Pretty amazing, wouldn’t you agree?”

I said nothing to her. I just stared at her
as I tried to formulate some smart ass comeback, but failed miserably to do so.

Amy
dropped the strand of hair she had twisted around her finger. Her glare became intense and crazed by anger at my silence.

My
arms stiffened at my sides and I attempted to push past her to the exit. “I’m not discussing this with you,” I said.

Amy blocked my path. “I’m just tr
ying to help you out, hun. He’s no good. He’ll make you fall for him so quickly, make you feel like there’s something so special between the two of you, and then drop off the face of the earth.” She snapped her fingers. “Like that – done!” She paused and slowly looked me up and down. “He’s gonna get bored with you pretty fast. You’re too timid for that man. You probably blush when he tells you he wants to fuck you.” She imitated his accent and lowered her voice, “When he tells you that you feel so good wrapped around his cock.” Amy paused and a pleased grin pulled her lips up as she asked, “Don’t you?”

I swallowed hard. Her words
stung because I knew that Gavin must have talked to her the same way he talked to me. I’d felt like I was the only person he’d wanted like that, but now I knew it was all just how he screwed. I felt so naive, so stupid. My throat tightened and heat seared through my chest. I bit down hard on the inside of my lip to try to keep my eyes from watering.

Amy straightened up and her smile became deeper; s
he laughed and her eyes lit up with delight. “Oh. Did I hurt your feelings?” Laughing again, she let out a hard sigh as she raised her eyebrows and pouted her lips. “You thought you had something special with him, that only you could turn him on like that? Poor thing,” she hesitated. Her tone flamed with jealousy as she said, “If I can’t keep him, you
most certainly
won’t be able to.”

I stared at her and
the hurt I’d allowed to fall over me quickly transformed into anger. Taking three steps toward her, I put my face within inches of hers. I was shaking inside and surprised by how calm and collected my voice sounded as I said, “Obviously I must be a better fuck than you! I’m the one who’s with him now.” I narrowed my eyes. “He chose
me
over you. I’m not the one chasing him, am I? I let
him
chase
me.
” I paused and a smug look painted itself across my face. I slowly blinked before continuing, “And you are right, he is a
damn
good fuck. The way he twists his hand in my hair and pulls on it while he tells me that he’s
never
been fucked the way I fuck him is a complete turn-on. Almost as much of a turn-on as knowing that you’re going to be laying in your bed tonight with your fist up your vagina imagining it’s Gavin, while I’ll be the one with his face between my legs. I’ll be the one making him moan with pleasure, he’ll be telling me to fuck him harder, and my nails will be sunk into his muscular back — and you, well, you’ll be all alone.” I pulled away from her and tossed my hair behind my shoulders. “You’re pathetic,” I said dryly and walked toward the door.