Page 46 of Serpentine

“Go,” I tell Brax, “I’ve got this.”

It’s only a few minutes into sitting with Miles when I realize I do not have this. He’s a brute when he’s drunk. When he’s two sheets to the wind, he’s a fucking menace.

Miles is shorter than Braxton, but he’s every bit as muscular. Usually, his dirty-blond hair swoops back with just the right amount of product in it. It’s falling in his face tonight, making him look more innocent than he should. His smile is crooked, and his speech slurs.

He insists he can walk alone each time the guys have to take him to the bathroom.

Kylo drops him back onto the couch, and Miles’s head lolls as he winds it towards me. “Hey, baby,” he slurs. His breath smells like it’s two hundred percent whiskey.

“Here, I got you this. You’ve earned it,” Kylo says, handing me a beer.

I don’t even look at the label or turn my nose up like usual. I down half of it.

Miles whistles. “Someone was thirsty,” he says.

The guys cut him off a while ago, but there’s enough liquor in his system to keep him going for a while longer, unfortunately for the rest of us.

I have to wonder what happened that made him drink to this point. Something’s going on with him. I’d bet on it.

“So, where were you?” Miles asks.

I wonder how drunk he truly is. If he will recall none of this tomorrow, there’s no point in hashing it all out only to do so again in the morning.

“I was at Summer Fest with Brax,” I tell him anyway. I don’t have to tell him everything that happened there. I’ll save that for tomorrow when he’s good and hungover.

He nods but then gives me a look of confusion. “Braxton went to Summer Fest? My brother? My vice-president?”

I side-eye him, downing the rest of my beer and motioning to Kylo to get me another. There’s a smile in his eyes and lips when he nods and heads toward the bar.

“Yes, your brother took me to Summer Fest, which was a blast,” I recount.

With Kylo gone, drunken Miles sees an opportunity to escape and moves to stand. I do the only thing I can think of now: straddle his lap to keep him down.

He huffs and sits back. But quickly, his face heats, hands finding my hips and caressing them. His goofy smirk is back as his eyes travel lazily over my body. A beer slides over my shoulder as Kylo says, “Found a way to keep him down, huh? Smart woman.”

I laugh as Miles grips my hips tighter, groaning at the feel of their fullness.

“Why are you so drunk?” I ask.

He laughs. “Well, when one has multiple drinks…”

I roll my eyes. “I know the process, Miles. Why have you been drinking so much? What’s going on?”

“You don’t know me, Aella. What if this is how I am usually?” he counters.

I take a deep breath and an even deeper pull from the long-neck beer before shoving it between two cushions on our right side. “I know I don’t know you, but I don’t think this is you. What’s going on?”

He opens his mouth as his eyes fill with drunken rage, but I reach my hand up and touch his face softly, and he closes his mouth and his eyes. It’s as if I’d known subconsciously what to do, known how to tame him.

“I couldn’t keep you safe,” he says, and it’s almost too low. I nearly miss it.

“Miles…” I start, but he cuts me off with the look that crosses his face.

“No. It’s plain and simple. Braxton was right, Aella. I couldn’t keep you safe. I dropped the ball. Who knows what mental and emotional scars you’ll have because of it? It’s because I broke the fucking rules!”

His voice gets loud, and a couple of men to the left of the couch look over, eyeing me as if I might turn into a problem they need to handle.

Why wouldn’t they? Their fearless leader sounds upset.