Chapter 36 Chapter 36
Zane
I was furious, so furious I could barely hear myself think. If Kaius had been anywhere near me, I might have punched him first and dealt with the consequences later. Because why and how had he become a point of comparison to me?
Just hearing his name twisted something violent in my chest.
But even worse than that… were the things Tiana kept saying.
“What about the lounge?” I asked, my voice deceptively calm.
She giggled. “Lounge… it’s a secret.” She paused dramatically, as though she expected applause.
“Tiana.”
“You always get so serious.” Her fingers moved on my chest again, tracing something that looked like it wanted to be a circle but ended up a half-hearted zigzag. “Like this. Serious face.”
She tried to mimic me, but her features didn’t match what she thought she was doing.
“What happened at the lounge?”
“Movie.” She nodded too hard. “We watched… what was it again?” Her brow wrinkled. “Something with… people. They were… talking? Kissing? No… or yes…” She squinted, losing the thought completely. “I don’t know.” She groaned dramatically. “Everything’s fuzzy.”
My jaw clenched.
“What else? What happened with you and Kaius?”
“Mmm…” She tilted her head like she was trying to listen to something only she could hear. “Popcorn? No. No popcorn. Just…” Her hand made a wavy gesture. “Sitting. He sat there. I sat there. Far apart. Very far.”
A second later she frowned. “Or maybe… close? I don’t know. My head is doing… thhhhp.” She blew a raspberry by accident, then giggled at the sound.
She was fully drunk. No questioning.
“How far apart?”
“So far.” She spread her arms wide, then almost toppled sideways before grabbing my shoulder for balance. “Oops.”
I steadied her.
Then she squinted suspiciously at her own arms, like she didn’t trust them.
I internally cursed. I had to stop.
“Did he touch you?”
“Touch?” She blinked at me. Slowly. “Like… holding my hands?”
“Yes.”
“No. Maybe?” She frowned hard enough that her whole face scrunched. “My bracelet got stuck. Or was that you? Was that tonight?”
She gasped softly. “Tonight. Yes. You got angry.” She made another attempt to mimic my expression, but ended up looking confused instead.
I exhaled sharply. She was making zero sense.
“I’m hot,” she said suddenly. Then tugged her dress, as if it offended her. “Why is it so hot?”
“It’s not hot.”
“It is.” She reached for my shirt, her clumsy fingers tugging wildly. “Take this off. You’re hot. Too hot.”
I caught her wrists gently. “Tiana. Stop.”
“No.” She shook her head, hair falling into her face. “We.” Her finger pointed from her chest to mine. “Both of us.”
She managed, by pure luck, to undo one button from my shirt. More like her thumb slipped and dragged it open.
Her hand slid inside my shirt—messy, slow, and warm.
“You have muscles,” she murmured. “So many. Why so many?”
“Stop talking.”
“No.”
Her fingers trailed lower, missing their mark twice before actually landing on my skin.
She tried to push the shirt off my shoulder but her coordination betrayed her; one side slipped, the other didn’t, leaving me half undressed in a ridiculous, dangerous way.
I grabbed her wrists again, firmer this time.
“Enough.”
“No.” Her voice cracked, turning petulant. “You… you always say no.”
She struggled. Weakly. Clumsily. Like she wanted to fight but couldn’t remember how.
“Leave me alone. I want… I want it. It’s mine.”
I scoffed under my breath. “Yours?”
“You never…” she started, then stopped mid-sentence as her eyes went unfocused.
Then she swayed abruptly.
I caught her before she could fall.
“It’s dizzy,” she whispered. “Everything’s spinning.”
“I know.”
“Make it stop spinning.”
“I am trying.” My teeth were clenched. “Stay still.”
She looked up at me, slowly, like her neck didn’t want to cooperate.
“Why won’t you touch me?”
My chest tightened.
How had we gotten here?
“I am touching you.”
“Not like that.” Her free hand slid to my chest again. Or tried to. She poked me first, missed, then landed properly. “Like you mean it.”
“Tiana… you’re drunk.”
“I’m not.” She blinked hard, then gave up halfway. “And even if I am, so what?”
She leaned in to kiss me, completely missing my mouth and landing on the edge of my jaw.
“Please,” she whispered. “Just this time.”
Her teeth grazed my throat and my control snapped for half a heartbeat.
“Bathroom,” I growled. “Now.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to.” She clung harder, almost slipping again.
I hesitated.
Just a second.
Just enough for the wrong part of me to consider giving in.
Then I forced myself to move.
I carried her to the bed, tried to set her down, but she locked her legs around me, clinging like a vine.
“Tiana…”
Her hips shifted accidentally, brushing against me. I sucked in a breath.
If not for the overwhelming scent of alcohol, I could have believed she knew exactly what she was doing.
“Tiana, get down. You need to sleep. You don’t want to do something you’ll regret.”
“What is regret?” she asked seriously. “Spell it.”
I didn’t even bother answering.
I managed to get her sitting, but the moment I tried to step back, her hands shot out again, grabbing the open edges of my shirt.
“Stay,” she whispered.
“Tiana—”
Her fingers drifted upward, toward my nipples.
I caught her wrist.
“Tiana. Stop.”
“I don’t want to.”
She leaned forward again to kiss me, and missing my lips, kissed the corner of my collarbone instead.
I stepped back, dragging her gently with me so she wouldn’t fall face-first onto the floor.
“You’re drunk. You don’t know what you are doing.”
She tried to pull her hand free, failing at it.
“I know what I’m doing,” she murmured.
“You’re not.”
“I’m trying to kiss you.”
Her eyes locked on my lips in a way that nearly destroyed the last bit of restraint I had left.
I forced myself upright and pulled her up with me.
“What are you doing?” she asked, confused.
“We,” I growled, “are going to the bathroom. Now.”
“No!” she yelled.
“I don’t care.”
Without another word, I lifted her again.
Because my first mistake had been thinking I could reason with a drunk wolf.
My second was listening when she said she didn’t want the bathroom.
And what did a drunk person know?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.