Liam danced like virtually any other guy in a dance club. He had rhythm, he could move, and he was a lot of fun. Wulf had grown up in a wealthy household and had attended the same private schools as Katya. He'd received the same etiquette lessons she had – which meant he also knew how to dance in a more classic sense. Something more fitting for the older half of the wedding party. So he was able to easily and effortlessly lead her across the dance floor, not even noticing that it took her a few seconds to catch up with him and remember the steps he was doing.
“How drunk are you?” he abruptly asked. She stopped staring at her feet and finally looked at him.
“I'm not drunk,” she responded, glaring at him. He picked up the pace, weaving them through more and more couples as the dance floor grew crowded again.
“Alright, how tipsy are you?” he amended his question. She snorted.
“Just enough to tolerate your bullshit,” she replied.
“Good.”
He surprised her then by leading them into a tight twirl. Before they'd barely come to a stop, he was then dipping her. In time to the music even, her brain belatedly realized. Then he snapped her upright, startling a shriek of laughter out of her.
“I didn't know you could dance like that!” she exclaimed, shocking herself by smiling at him.
“There's a lot you don't know about me, Tocci.”
She blinked up at him, lost in his stare. So lost, she didn't notice that he was leaning down to her. Didn't stop him from kissing her. Didn't care that the entire room had just witnessed her making out with another man literally one minute earlier.
Kissing Wulf was an entirely different sensation from Liam. Equally wonderful and awful in its own way. He was slow and torturous, always dragging out the sensations, to the point it drove her crazy. Left her begging for more. His hands cupped the back of her head, holding her in place. Not touching her anywhere else, yet strangely feeling more intimate than when she'd had her whole body pressed against Liam's.
She sighed into him and ran her hands down the front of his chest. Remembered a time when she'd felt all those muscles without any clothing on them. That thought along with the sweet-sharp pain of his teeth cutting into her bottom lip brought her to her senses. This was a scary game she was playing. Messing with Liam was dangerous enough, but Wulf was downright bad for her health.
Bad for my soul.
She yanked back with enough force that she stumbled completely out of his grip. She was breathing hard as she stared at him. He looked … almost a little sad. Then his lips quirked up into a little smirk and he reached out between them. Smoothed his thumb underneath her bottom lip, causing her to suck in a gasp of air.
“There. Back to perfection,” he said in a soft voice.
Katya was halfway across the ballroom when Tori caught up to her side.
“Are you okay?” she asked, linking arms with her.
“Yes,” Katya said, nodding her head. “Perfectly fine. You were right, you know. Doing whatever I want feels great.”
“Uh … you sure about that?”
“Yup.”
Before she could make it out of the room, though, they were waylaid. The bride all but leapt in between them and the exit. Katya stared as Lauren clapped her hands together.
“That was amazing! Admittedly, when I found out Wulfric Stone wanted an invitation, I was kinda hoping for another food fight, but honey, that little show was above and beyond my wildest dreams. I honestly didn't know you had it in you to be such a little vixen,” she said.
“I, uh … I'm sorry, Lauren. I'm not usually so ...” Katya struggled to find the right word. Childish? Slutty? Desperate? Weird?
“Amazing? Well, you should keep it up, then. I like seeing a woman handle her business – especially when it involves leaving two men like that with their jaws on the floor. Thanks for being a good sport.”
Katya's own jaw was on the floor, but Lauren ignored it and stepped up close to give her a hug. Then she hugged Tori goodbye and thanked both women for coming before disappearing back into the crowd.
“You know,” Tori said when they finally started walking again. “I always thought I was your weird friend. But that lady, I think she takes the cake. Literally and figuratively.”
Katya laughed all the way to the taxi stand.
9
Considering the amount of alcohol she'd slurped down in the small amount of time, Katya halfway expected to get home and go straight to bed. But she had so much adrenaline rushing through her body that it actually canceled out most of the alcohol. She changed into shorts and a tank top, then paced around the apartment while Tori ordered them pizza and broke out the white zinfandel.
“I've never done something like that before,” Katya babbled. “I mean, kinda sorta dating two men at the same time had been 'wild' enough for me. But kissing two men, within like two minutes of each other, in the same room, in full view of everybody!? What girls act like that?”
“Uh, lots of girls. This girl. Any that have attended a frat party. I mean, have you seen The Jersey Shore?” Tori asked, following her into the living room. Katya kept moving, circling the coffee table.
“I thought it would be weird. I mean, I obviously didn't think about it at all when it was happening, I just did it. But if I'd thought about it, I would've thought it was weird,” she said.
“And it wasn't weird?”
“No. It was kind of awesome. I mean, the look on Liam's face when we left. The look on Wulf's when I walked away. I didn't … I guess I didn't realize how much I affected them.”
“Clearly. I told you – you got the power, honey,” Tori told her, holding two glasses of wine in her hands while Katya kept pacing.
“I didn't know. I had no idea. I thought just letting it go would be the best. But this … I mean … it was actually kinda fun,” she continued. Tori nodded, sipping at one of the glasses.
“Totally fun.”
“God, that's so wrong. Isn't that wrong, though?”
“Uh, wrong is fucking you and then having secret slumber parties and talking about it, and then pretending not to know each other.”
Katya stared at Tori for a moment, then nodded and marched across the room. She grabbed the other glass of wine on her way, then moved to stand on the couch. Once she got her balance, she held up her glass, as if toasting the room. Tori stared up at her, only wearing her tube top and underwear, her skirt somewhere in the hallway.
“You're right. I've been spending this whole time trying to take the high road, be the good person, act right, whatever. And it hasn't been working. It never works. So if they can fuck with me, then goddammit, I can fuck with them!” she proclaimed. Both women nodded firmly at each other, then chugged down their glasses of wine. While tilting her head back, Katya lost her balance and fell on her ass onto the back of the couch.
Well, maybe not just riding high on adrenaline. Did I really chug scotch!?
10
Katya had two weeks left of her “sabbatical” before she had to go back to work full time.
Two weeks to do whatever she wanted. She figured she should make plans, build mental defenses, all that jazz. Instead, though, fate delivered a plan right into her lap.
Early Sunday morning, her phone buzzed on her nightstand. She felt around for it without opening her eyes, then pressed it to the side of her face.
“Hello?” she grumbled, staying snugly under her covers.
“Hungover?”
She groaned at the sound of Wulf's voice.