A knock sounded on the door just as I was putting the finishing touches on my make-up. I smiled at my own reflection, knowing who was waiting for me in the hall.
He always brought a smile to my face.
I swung the door open, and before I knew what was happening, my feet were off the ground and I was being flung over a wide male shoulder. A broad hand came down sharply on my ass, and I yelped before retaliating with a bite to the meatiest part of his arm.
"Ouch, Bell, that hurt!"
"Put me down, Seth, or I'll play really dirty," I threatened. When he just bounced me on his shoulder, knocking the breath out of me, I reached down the back of his low-slung jeans and grabbed the waist of his underwear and tugged, just enough to make him feel it.
"What the fuck! Ok, ok, let go of my Hanes and I'll let you down."
A wave of dizziness hit me as my feet touched the floor and I straightened, but Seth kept me steady in his arms. I looked up into the brown eyes that mirrored my own and my lips lifted into a small smile I just couldn't repress.
"Jerk."
Seth just gave me the lazy smile that made panties drop in a mile-wide radius anytime he unleashed it on a woman who wasn't his blood relative. Since I was his sister, it just made me roll my eyes.
He trailed after me as I went back to the closet to grab my shoes, a magical pair of heels that somehow managed to be comfortable even through a night of dancing. Then again, I'd spent enough time in toe-shoes over the years to have seriously screwed up ideas concerning the comfort of shoes. If my feet weren't bleeding by the end of the night, I considered it a success. As I was strapping them on, I caught sight of myself in a mirror and shot my brother a dirty look.
"Thanks for making my hair look like I've been in a wind storm." I reached up with fingers to try to tease some order back into the waves. This was my last night out with my friends, probably the last time I would see many of them in person, and I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. Of course, looking good was part of that. Once I got home, no one would dare get caught checking me out so I had to enjoy the attention in the few hours I had left before Edward's arrival.
Seth waved me off. "Don't worry about it. It's very 'freshly fucked'. The guys will be swarming."
"Like it'll do me any good," I muttered. I was under no illusions that any men other than Seth and Erica's boyfriend, Michael, would make it within two feet of me. No matter how much I complained, McCarty took his "body-guarding" duties very seriously. We might have become friends, but ultimately, he was here for one reason only and that was to make sure I returned to Edward and the Pack untouched, in all ways. Even if he wanted to let me have my way, he was under Alpha-order on this point. And no one, not even me, could break an Alpha-order without serious consequences.
I could still vividly remember the first time a cute boy had approached me at a party to ask me to dance. He had a solo cup in his hand and an adorable smile on his face and I'd been just drunk enough to think it might be a good idea to smile back at him. I was heartbroken and homesick and so, so lonely. I just wanted to let go, lose myself a little, try to have a good time and forget about what I'd run so far away from for just a little while. So when he stood beside me, entirely too close, and leaned in even closer so I could hear him over the music, I let him. I smiled and I flirted, and I completely ignored my surroundings until the boy grabbed my hand to lead me to the dance floor.
That's the moment I found out McCarty had been sent across the country to tail me.
My hand got dropped like a hot potato the moment McCarty approached us with a snarl on his face aimed directly at the boy touching me.
"Bella has a townie boyfriend, and man, don't mess with her because he's the biggest fucker I've ever laid my eyes on," was the refrain I overheard, over and over during my four years at college.
It was probably for the best. It wasn't like I wanted some innocent guy to get hurt because of me, even though I bristled at the unfairness of it all. While Edward fucked his way through Washington, I was a 22-year-old virgin who'd never even been kissed.
I looked at my brother, who would most likely be spending his last night in town with yet another new conquest and shook my head.
It didn't really matter what my hair looked like tonight. I was 100% certain I'd be going to bed alone.
