Chapter 23 Embarrassed
Elsie
Jacob’s hand was still clamped around my wrist when I saw Lena storm toward Zaza. Her face was white with rage, eyes glittering like glass about to break. I could hear their voices even from across the patio, sharp, slicing through the music that no one was really listening to anymore.
“I cannot believe him,” Lena hissed. “He just broke a senator’s son’s nose because of her! What’s so special about that girl?”
Zaza stood perfectly still, her expression unreadable, her champagne glass hanging loosely from her fingers. “She’s pretty,” she said simply.
“Pretty?” Lena spat the word like poison. “A maid? You’re not actually defending her, are you? He humiliated you for her!”
Zaza smiled, slow, confident, maddening. “Why would I be mad? I’m not threatened that he likes her.”
Her tone was calm, but something in it made my stomach twist. That wasn’t kindness. It was curiosity, the kind that burns ants with a magnifying glass.
I jerked against Jacob’s grip. “Let me go,” I snapped, yanking until my wrist ached.
He didn’t. His hold only tightened.
“Elsie, calm down.”
“Calm down?” I nearly laughed. “You just punched someone in front of everyone! For what? He was being nice!”
Jacob’s eyes were wild in the low light, dark and feral, a storm ready to snap. “He touched you.”
“So what?” I shot back. “You don’t own me. You don’t even like me half the time!”
His jaw locked. “I don’t need to own you to protect what’s mine.”
“Yours?” I laughed, sharp and bitter. “You’re unbelievable. Go back to your girlfriend, Jacob. She’s probably the only one crazy enough to put up with you.”
He tilted his head, that dangerous smirk curving at his mouth. “I like your rage when you’re jealous.”
My face went hot. “I’m not jealous. Stop saying that stupid shit. I don’t give a damn about you.”
“Oh, you do,” he said quietly, stepping closer. “You hate the way she touches me. You hate the way I let her.”
The air between us snapped tight. For one dizzying second, I couldn’t tell if I wanted to slap him or kiss him. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt.
I shoved him, hard. “Stay the hell away from me.”
He laughed, low and maddening. “Fierce,” he murmured. “I like that in a woman.”
I spun and pushed my way back into the crowd, my skin still burning where he’d touched me.
The party was still trying to pretend nothing had happened. Laughter floated weakly over the water, and the music had picked up again, but the energy had changed. People kept sneaking glances at me, whispers traveling like wind.
By the time I reached the pool, Lena was already on the podium, all smiles again, pretending to be the gracious hostess. Her poise was terrifying, not a hair out of place, not a single sign of the fury I’d seen moments ago.
“Let’s try that toast again,” she said sweetly, raising her glass. “A toast to the evening’s little lesson — that no matter how much you try to dress up something poor and dirty…” Her gaze locked onto me. “…the truth always shines through.”
The crowd laughed, brittle, awkward laughter that made my skin crawl.
“Do you really think showing that much cleavage will—”
“Stop it, Lena!”
The voice cut through the night like a blade. Aiden.
Every head turned.
He strode up to the podium, his face pale but serious. His voice was steady, but his eyes burned.
Lena blinked, her mask cracking for the first time. “Oh, really, Aiden? You too? What, are you sleeping with her?”
The crowd gasped. The music stopped. I felt every eye swing toward me. My face went hot, my throat tightening.
Before I could move, Lena’s smile twisted. She took one small, vicious step toward me, and shoved.
The world tipped.
Cold, white water swallowed me whole. The shock hit like electricity. The silk clung to me, heavy and useless. I kicked upward, but shame felt heavier than the water.
Then, two splashes.
Strong hands grabbed me under the arms, dragging me up into the light.
I coughed and gasped as air hit my lungs again. Aiden on one side, Jacob on the other. Both dripping, furious, their crisp white shirts ruined.
When I blinked the water out of my eyes, I saw Lena standing at the edge, her perfect party finally cracking around her. People were staring, at her, not me. She’d lost control of the show.
And in that instant, I realized something sharp and satisfying: she’d lost.
Zaza was the first to move. She pushed through the frozen crowd, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it tightly around me. “This way,” she said, her voice low.
She led me inside, down a quiet hallway that smelled like jasmine and chlorine. The noise of the party faded behind us.
“You’re freezing,” she murmured when we reached a small changing room.
I was shaking too hard to answer. My teeth chattered. Zaza crouched and began rubbing warmth back into my arms and legs with quick, sure motions.
Her eyes flicked up to mine. “You shouldn’t let people like her get to you.”
I swallowed hard. “She pushed me into a pool in front of that many people.”
“Exactly,” Zaza said. “So why let her see you drown twice?”
Before I could reply, the door burst open.
Jacob stood there, dripping, furious, alive. His hair hung in wet strands, his shirt plastered to his chest. He filled the doorway like a storm.
“Zaza,” he said, voice low and rough. “I’ve got her.”
Zaza didn’t move at first. She rose slowly, smoothing her jumpsuit as if this were all part of some silent performance. “Relax, baby,” she said softly. “I’m helping.” Then, turning to me, her tone changed, gentler, almost intimate. “Some people need saving more than they realize.”
Her eyes lingered on mine for a beat too long before she brushed past him, leaving a faint trail of perfume and power in her wake.
For a moment, Jacob and I just stared at each other. I could still hear the faint echo of the party outside, the music starting up again, forced laughter rising to cover the scandal.
Then he crossed the room in two strides and pulled me against him. His chest was solid and shaking with adrenaline. I could feel his heart hammering against mine.
I stopped fighting it. I just breathed, the smell of chlorine, the heat of him, the weight of everything that had just happened pressing down on us both.
When I finally found my voice, it came out small. “Why do you keep doing this?”
He didn’t answer right away. He just looked at me — really looked at me — like he was trying to figure out what I was made of.
“Because I can’t seem to stop,” he said finally. His thumb brushed my cheek, tracing a line that made me forget how cold I was.
We stood there in the quiet, our reflections in the mirror behind him, two people who shouldn’t have been standing that close, soaked to the bone, caught between fury and something that felt like need.
And in that still moment, the truth landed hard and heavy inside me.
Lena hadn’t invited me here to humiliate me. She’d wanted to break me.
But she hadn’t counted on this, on Jacob, on Aiden, on whatever strange, messy power I’d somehow stumbled into.
Because now, both Lancaster brothers had chosen to stand against her.
And somehow, that made me far more dangerous than I’d ever been.