Page 10 of Seductive Sadist
Tyson must sense them close in because he inches closer to me.
“Listen very carefully, Malikov. Take your fucking ass out of here now before I call security. And stay the hell away from my fiancée.”
Cue the record scratch sound effect.
His fucking…fiancée?
Chapter3
Skyla
Igrab a flute of champagne from a passing tray and lift it to my lips with trembling fingers. A frenzy of bubbles fights a path down my throat as I guzzle the chilled liquid. My nose tingles with the urge to sneeze, and my fingers grip the crystal stem tight enough to snap the glass in half.
Champagne just isn’t going to cut it tonight. Where’s the fucking vodka?
I’ll need a whole bottle to process what just happened in the hallway.
My stomach roils. I clutch a hand over my midsection. Even after all this time has passed, Zak Malikov can still rattle me in ways that no other man ever could. He shattered my heart, manipulated me, played me like a fucking video game. I thought he might actually have cared about me… maybe even loved me.
He didn’t.
And still, he has the power to make my knees quiver and my insides melt under his devious blue-eyed glare.
I should have known he could never see me as anything more than his best friend’s geeky sister, no matter what bullshit he spewed while we were together. But I was just his dirty little secret.
Heat rushes into my cheeks while X-rated images of what happened that night flash in my mind like the most blinding lightbulbs.
I was stupid to believe what he told me, a complete idiot for thinking I’d finally gotten my wish.
Because Zak has a black heart with the most toxic kind of poison for blood. He used me. He betrayed me. And then he walked away like I was no better than dirt on the bottom of his Nikes.
But how pathetic am I to still feel that twinge of lust when he penetrated my soul only seconds ago with those piercing eyes?
It’s like the past four years didn’t even happen.
All is forgotten?
I wave over a waiter with a tray full of tall thin glasses of bubbly and grab two with an appreciative smile.
Nothing is forgotten.
Through the crowd, I can see Mom standing with the Van Dynes, talking and laughing politely. A twinge of sadness assaults my heart. She hasn’t been the same since Laney died. It’s like she’s become a shell of the person she used to be. Although she knows the importance of this whole wedding sham, and she definitely wouldn’t be happy to know that I’m huddling in a corner at my own rehearsal dinner, chugging champagne, but fuck it.
Nobody ever asked what I wanted, so at this moment, I don’t give a damn what anyone else wants. I drain one of the glasses and start in on the second one when a gentle hand grazes my arm from behind. I spin around, a gasp knotted in my throat.
“Dad, you startled me.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to check on you. I saw you here by yourself and thought you might need some company.” My father, Stuart St. James, smiles at me. But his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. He looks… sad. Helpless. Hopeless.
The last time I saw the same flicker of devastation in his gaze, it was when we buried Laney. The twinkling light in his eyes was permanently extinguished that day. It rained like we were in the middle of a Category 5 hurricane on the day of her funeral, completely atypical for Miami. I believe it was her trying to speak to us since she never got a chance to say the words while she was still alive.
A shiver ripples through me. Years later, I still can’t shake the feeling that the car accident was a warning… a threat of something ominous to come. She knew something was going to happen that night, and I was too wrapped up in Zak and my own angst to bother with hers. Her fingers digging into my arms at the club, her panicked expression, her fear-filled eyes… I tuned it all out because I had to nurse my broken and battered heart.
Now she’s gone. My beautiful, brilliant, sparkly sister, horrifically snatched from this world. Guilt gnaws at my heart because I selfishly left her alone to confront my own demon. Maybe if I’d have stayed with her, I could have protected her from whatever was chasing her.
Because that car accident? It was noaccident.
Hit and run with no witnesses at one of the hottest night clubs in South Beach?