The Insiders (The Insiders Trilogy #1) - Tijan Page 0,48
inside, but the booth was huge.
Chester had moved in beside me, but four people could’ve sat between us. Five minutes after the first girl came over, three more showed up. They didn’t sit on anyone’s lap. They stood at the end of the table, talking and flirting with the two guys. To their credit, neither Chester nor Tony seemed to be doing much flirting. They were aloof, but still conversing. The girls were the ones trying to flirt, drawing them in.
And me—no one said a word to me.
Not my brother. Certainly not the girl he was making out with. Not his friends. And the only thing I got were cold snubs from the other three.
So it was me and my drink. An hour passed that way.
“Francis.”
One of the friends gestured past the walkway. He spoke in a slight break between the beats, so Matt heard, his head lifting from the girl’s neck.
Three more girls were walking up to where we sat. The girl in the lead had rich, dark auburn hair that fell past her shoulders, grazing the tops of her arms and chest. Doe-like almond eyes. This girl was stunning. Tall. Slender. She had the height and frame to be a model.
One of the other two was shorter, around five four, with dark hair that had a small bounce to it. She had a heart-shaped face but a little more filled out. Her eyes, though … they stood out the most. They were hazel, a green tint to them. The third girl was blond. She was the same height as the first but wasn’t as slender. She had a few more pounds, enough to actually have curves, and I knew, by glancing at the guys, that she was the one they liked the most.
They stopped, paused, and waited for their presence to be announced. These girls weren’t acting like the other girls. These three were different.
They expected attention.
And they got it, as Matt sat farther back from the girl on his lap, a name escaping him like a frustrated sigh. “Victoria.”
Victoria?
As in the Victoria who hung over Kash, who was mentoring Seraphina? That Victoria?
She swung those eyes to me and raised her nose up a fraction of an inch. “This is the houseguest Ser was talking about the other day?”
Fuck. It was her.
Double fuck.
She wasn’t stunning anymore. She was gorgeous on another level. There was no way anyone could compete against her.
I mean, not that I was. But anyone else, no way. Anyone who was trying.
Matt skimmed me with a look, a coldness in there that I was surprised to see. “Back off on this one, Vic.” He guided the girl off his lap, and as she stood next to him, a pout on her face, he leaned forward to rest his arms on the table. His gaze was solely locked on Victoria now, and he lifted his top lip in a half sneer. “No fucking with her.” He raised one eyebrow. “You got me?”
No one spoke.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Her friends’ mouths opened an inch. Their own eyebrows rose at a slower pace, but they waited until Victoria’s mouth mashed together and a glare was directed toward me. If she’d had superpowers, I would’ve been incinerated right then and there, but she turned as a strangled growl left her. She stalked right back down the walkway before turning toward another booth of guys. Seeing them, Chester nodded. “Mattson and Atchins are over there.” He scanned them. “Don’t know the rest.”
Tony grunted. “Do we care? Mattson can suck my dick.”
Just like that, the matter was settled. What the matter had been, I had no clue, but it was decided. The guys went back to the girls in front of them. Tony stood, his hands finding one of the girls’ hips. He raised his chin up toward Matt. “We’re going to move more private.” His eyes flicked to me, back to my brother. “You want to come?” They landed on the girl Matt had been making out with, still standing next to the booth. Matt’s arm had wound around her waist, pulling her against his side.
Chester scooted to the edge of the booth, but he didn’t stand.
Victoria’s two friends were still standing at our table. It was clear they were waiting to be addressed by the guys.
Matt glanced to me, his eyebrows up in a question.
I didn’t know what “private” meant, so I just shrugged and reached for the drink Matt had had a waitress refill ten minutes before.