Page 59 of Dirty Like Seth
He’d touched me, sometimes, while we were dancing—to spin me around or dip me when we were goofing off, or lead me deeper into the crowd, or whatever. But that was it. He’d never eventriedto grope me backthen.
Just like he didn’ttonight.
But back then, it didn’t bother me that Seth didn’t try to grope me. The possibility of being groped by Seth just wasn’t on my radar. Maybe it was just me being a slightly naive nineteen-year-old, but I really didn’t think it had occurred to him to be interested in me thatway.
Or maybe it just hadn’t occurred to me that he mightbe.
Back then, it hadn’t occurred to me to try to grope him,either.
Whynot?
I had that question stuck in my mind as I danced with Seth now. As I watched his hooded, smoky eyes… the way they moved over me. The way he watched me dance, like he was kinda trying not to. Like he couldn’t resistwatching.
Then Iremembered.
Because he was ajunkie.
And even if he wasn’t… I had that pesky little rule about not getting involved with my bandmates. A rule that, admittedly, Zane had butted up against more than once when we were teenagers and didn’t yet know each other well. When he’d tried to hit that—and failed. But Zane had never been as respectful about such things asSeth.
And then, of course, there wasJesse.
I’d had a crush on Jesse Mayes since pretty much day one. But the same rule I applied to Zane, and Seth, and Dylan, had to apply to Jesse. Until it didn’t… and two years ago, I jumped off that cliff withhim.
Bottoming out on that, alone—after Jesse dumped me—hardly felt worth itnow.
Would it be worth it in the morning if I jumped Seth Brotherstonight?
My cocktail-buzzed mind had no answer tothat.
So we danced and we danced… and then, eventually, we went back to the house and I went tobed.
Alone.
Chapter Fourteen
Seth
Ihadno idea what to make ofit.
I flopped, naked, on my bed in the guest cottage. The lights were off, but there were lanterns hanging on the little patio outside, casting a glow. Everyone else had gone to bed a while ago, but I’d sat up, out there in the dark, just thinking. Unable tosleep.
Unable to decode the messages Elle wassending.
Officially, my discord with Dirty was no longer the main cause of myunease.
It wasElle.
Maybe I’d never really been able to read her. Maybe I’d never been all that great at understanding women at all… but I knew when a woman wantedme.
Elle, I could notunderstand.
Why she was being so cool tome.
Why she’d danced with me tonight, like… like she was attracted tome.
But maybe it was justdancing?
Maybe she was just having fun, and got a little carried away when her hands slid south of my hips and landed on myass.
