Silas (4 page)

Her voice lowered. “You know
what, Gary? I think I can do that for you. But do me a
favor?”

“
Anything for you,
Megan.”

She laughed again. “Don’t go
spreading it around that I gave you the info?”

“
You got it,” I said.
“Thanks so much. You really are aces.”

* * *

Leigh sat down at a table
with Sloane and me.
“Oh my god, you guys,
this wedding is going to kill me.”

We were in a restaurant
downtown. The back room had been reserved for Griffin and Leigh’s
wedding party. This wasn’t the official rehearsal dinner. It was
just so that everyone in the wedding could meet each
other.

“
You’re fine,” said Sloane,
reaching out to pat Leigh’s hand. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be
fine.”

“
No,” said Leigh. “You don’t
understand. Everything’s a mess. I called this morning to check on
the flower arrangement and get this. They lost our
order.”

“
You’re kidding,” said
Sloane, her jaw dropping open.

“
Sure as hell wish I was,
but I’m not,” said Leigh. “So, I was like asking them if they would
be able to make bouquets for us in time, and they were like saying
they didn’t know. And I was like, ‘You guys have our money, and you
need to do something, because we had a deal.’ And they were all
apologizing or whatever, but…”

Leigh kept talking, but I stopped
listening.

Because Christa had walked
into the restaurant. She looked just as hot as she had the night
before. She was wearing a low cut green top, and I could see the
swell of her cleavage. I remembered the way her boobs had looked
when she’d been naked in my bedroom.

God. I couldn’t stop myself
from thinking about how much I would like it if she was sitting in
my lap right now, and I was pulling that shirt over her head. I’d
cup her tits, rub her nipples until they were stiff, and then I’d
put my mouth—

“
Silas?”

I looked at Sloane, who’d
spoken. “What?”

“
The flower people are
unreasonable, don’t you think?” said Sloane.

“
Oh,” I said.
“Yeah.”

“
Of course they are,” said
Leigh.

Sloane glared at me. She was
annoyed with me because I’d slept with Griffin’s sister.

Hell, I was annoyed with me
for sleeping with Griffin’s sister. But I’d had no idea that was
who she was when I did it. If I had, I might not have.

Might
not.

She was really fucking hot.

I turned to look at her
again. She was standing with an older woman, who was probably her
mother. Christa’s gaze darted around the room. She saw
me.

Her eyes widened.

Sloane slapped my arm. “What
the hell are you looking at?”

“
Ouch,” I said, turning to
her. “You know, you hit me all the time. And it’s not very
nice.”

“
You’re the size of the
Incredible Hulk,” she said. “Like it hurts you.”

“
It hurts,” I said. “I feel
pain, you know.”

She rolled her eyes. “Stop
staring. I mean it.”

Leigh turned around.
“Staring at what?”

“
Nothing,” said
Sloane.

“
Oh, Christa’s here.” Leigh
waved at her.

Christa waved back. She was still
looking at me.

“
Christa, Griffin’s sister?”
I said. “You know, maybe I should go introduce myself.” Why
couldn’t I remember fucking her? I couldn’t believe I would forget
that body.

“
No way,” said Sloane,
grabbing me. “You’re staying right here.”

Leigh laughed. She winked at
me. “You think she’s hot, don’t you?”

“
Uh…”

“
Well, no Silas charm on
her.” Leigh pointed at me. “Griffin would kill you.”

I sank back in my chair. Right. I bet
he would.

“
She’s only nineteen,
anyway,” said Leigh. “She’s practically a child.”

“
No, she’s not,” I said.
“You know, Sloane and I are only twenty-two. You and Griffin are
just… ancient.”

“
Not that Silas
would
dream
of
messing around with Griffin’s sister,” said Sloane pointedly.
“Right?”

“
Right,” I muttered. Fuck
that, though. I was going to have sex with her again. I was going
to find a way. I couldn’t stand the thought that I hadn’t performed
up to snuff when I was blacked out and that she thought of me as a
so-so lay.

* * *

“
You’re Griffin’s best man.”
Christa was standing outside the women’s restroom in the
restaurant. “How could you not tell me that?”

I’d followed her back here
after she’d made not-so-subtle head motions at me when she was
walking away.

“
I didn’t know who you
were,” I said.

“
You knew I was from Texas.
You knew I had a brother. You knew I was here for a wedding. How
hard is it to put all that together?” She was livid.

“
I didn’t know the thing
about the wedding until the morning,” I said. “Besides, I don’t see
why it’s such a big deal.”

She rubbed her hand over her
face. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”

“
Well, then this is a very
pleasant surprise for you.”

“
Oh, no,” she said. “Don’t
act like that.” She let out a huff of breath. “Well, I guess you
can’t really help it.”

“
Help what?”

“
You’re an arrogant douche
bag,” she said.

“
I’m not a douche bag,” I
said.

She sighed. “I can’t believe
this. Look, don’t talk to me, okay? We’ll get through this wedding
without even associating with each other, and then I’ll go home,
and you’ll disappear from my life.”

“
Hold on,” I said. “You’re
being a little harsh.”

“
Harsh? How do you
figure?”

“
Well, I admit that things
are a little more complicated than they might have first appeared
last night or even this morning,” I said. “But I’m not upset about
the fact that I’m going to see more of you. I’m actually kind of
glad of that, in fact. I still think that you owe me a
rematch.”

“
What?” She made a
disbelieving face. “I don’t owe you anything. We had sweaty,
sloppy, drunk sex—”

“
Sloppy? I am
not
sloppy.”

“
You were sloppy,” she said.
“I mean, you’re nice to look at and everything, but you cancel all
that out with your lack of finesse.”

“
See, now you’re just being
insulting.” I reached for her. “So maybe I had too much to drink
last night. But I’m not usually sloppy.”

She slapped my hand away.
“Okay, I’m sorry that I’m making you feel insecure about your
manhood or whatever—”

“
I’m not insecure.” She
couldn’t say something like that about me.

She sighed. “Whatever. Just
stay away from me.” She pushed past me.

I caught her arm. “Hold it.
What if I don’t want to stay away from you?”

“
Too bad.” She tried to pull
her arm away.

I wouldn’t let go of her. I
tugged her closer to me. I could smell her perfume—something
understated and flowery. “Last night, you were into it. You were
into me. And now, you hate me all of the sudden? There’s no way the
sex was
that
bad.
Even drunk, I have skills.”

“
Let go of me,” she
said.

“
No,” I said. “Explain this
to me. Because I can’t stop thinking about you,
Christa.”

“
Oh, that’s original. You
say that to all the girls?”

“
It’s not a line. It’s
true.”

She rolled her eyes. “Let.
Go. Of. Me.”

“
Say you’ll see me
again.”

“
No,” she said.

“
Why not?”

“
I don’t see guys more than
once. It’s the way I do things. Now let go.”

“
Make an
exception.”

“
I’m going to
scream.”

“
So scream,” I
said.

She threw her head back and
let out the loudest shriek I’d ever heard.

I let go of her.
“Jesus.”

Within two seconds, Griffin
skidded into view. His face was panicked. “Christa? What’s
wrong?”

I backed into the wall.
Great.

* * *

“
No, Griffin, it’s not that
big a deal,” said Christa.

“
What’d you do to her?”
Griffin was in my face.

I was backed into the wall
next to the restroom. “Griffin, look, I didn’t know who she
was.”

“
What do you mean?” he said,
his nostrils flaring.

“
Hey,” said a loud
voice.

Griffin turned.

“
Whatever you’re doing, you
take it outside,” called the voice.

Griffin grabbed the front of
my shirt and yanked me away from the wall. “Okay, let’s talk about
this outside.”

I grimaced. “Griffin,
just—”

He pushed me, and I stumbled backwards.
The words died in my throat. What was I going to say
anyway?

There was a door to the outdoors
further past the bathrooms.

Griffin shoved me again.
“Outside.”

I held up my hands, palms
up. “Okay, okay. Just calm down.”

Once outside in the parking
lot behind the restaurant, Griffin slammed me up into the brick
building. “What did you do to my sister?”

“
Griffin, stop it.” Christa
had followed us out. She was standing there with both of her hands
thrust into her hair. “Don’t hit him or anything.”

He turned to her. “You
screamed.”

“
I wanted him to let go of
me,” she said.

He thrust his elbow against
my neck. “Why’d you have your hands on her?”

“
Uh…” How should I explain
that?

“
It’s none of your business,
okay?” said Christa. “I don’t need you to do this.”

“
Look, man, I’m really
sorry. I swear to God, if I had any idea who she was last
night—”

“
Last night?”

I flinched. Oh, maybe I
shouldn’t have told him that, should I? Fuck. “I didn’t know she
was your sister.”

Griffin let go of me,
shaking his head. “No, Silas. No.”

I looked down at my feet.

He looked at Christa. “What
happened last night?”

“
None of your
business.”

He clenched his teeth.
“Silas, tell me you did not sleep with my baby sister.”

I swallowed. I didn’t say
anything.

Griffin rubbed the top of
his head. “You motherfucker.”

“
I’m sorry,” I said. “I
didn’t know who she was. Besides, she’s fine.”

“
Fine?” He slammed me into
the wall again.

I grunted. “You think you
could stop doing that?”

He let up. “You treat girls
worse than toilet paper, and you’re telling me that she’s
fine
? How dare
you?”

“
She
is
,” I said. “Ask her.
I’m not even a blip on her radar.”

He clenched his fists.
“She’s only nineteen.”

“
I’m only twenty-two,” I
said. “What’s that, like three years? How is that a big
deal?”

Griffin punched me.

His fist crunched into my cheekbone,
and it was like my face exploded in pain.

I moved forward, raising my fist to
punch back.

It was instinctual. I knew
how to fight. Griffin did too. If the two of us got into it for
real, we could fuck each other up bad.

I stopped myself, forcing my
fist down. It took all my self-control. I glared at him. “Okay. You
hit me? You feel better?”

He drove his fist into my
stomach.

I doubled over at the force of
it.

He hit my face again with his other
hand.

I gritted my teeth, starting for him
again.

Somehow, I managed to keep
it back. Griffin was my friend. I didn’t want to hurt him. And I
got it. I knew why he was doing it. If I thought someone had hurt
Sloane, I’d be pissed. I’d killed for my sister before, and I’d do
it again if I had to. So, I took it, and I didn’t fight
back.

He put his finger in my
face. “You stay the fuck away from her, you hear me?”

I shut my eyes.

Griffin stalked back inside.

Christa was wincing. “Oh, my
god, he hit you. A lot.”

I spit. There was blood in
my mouth. “I heal fast,” I muttered.