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and then she stood awkwardly by as Michelle watched her. Michelle didn’t have a clue why Bailey was agreeing to go anywhere with him. She wasn’t sure she quite understood either. He’d asked. That was her rationale. He’d asked, and she wanted to see what would happen. If she didn’t go, she’d wonder. And truth be told, she knew she was safe with him—at least physically. He might torment her emotionally, and he was likely implying he would, or at least that he could, but he’d be hard-pressed to keep up with her own self-torture. She was the queen bee at emotionally putting herself through the ringer. Hell, going with him might just be another brand of self-destructive torture. Only time would tell.

 

Chapter Six
    Six Years Before
    The music was loud, and the crowd was too. The bar was on Seawall Boulevard, or to be more accurate, it was on the beach. You could literally step right out of the bar onto a patio and down the patio steps to the sand. Couldn’t possibly be smart to put drunk people so close to the water, but hey, it was Galveston, and people liked to get their drunk on at the beach. Bailey was no exception to that equation—not on spring break when she’d been talked into going out by the illustrious Jess.
    It wasn’t that Bailey didn’t enjoy a night out on occasion; it just usually involved going to the movies or out to dinner. Bars really weren’t her scene—at least not hopping tiki-style bars with entirely too many drunk people spilling their drinks on one another. It really was best just to get a few drinks in you. Made the drunks far more tolerable when you could just join ’em rather than trying in vain to stay out of their way. So, she was being a joiner tonight. One Mai Tai and two shots of rum later, and she was well on her way. The Mai Tai was weak, the rum was watered down, so while it might’ve been a good start, she was really quite lucid.
    She was plenty lucid to see Darren watching her as she stumbled her way around the dance floor with Jess. She was also plenty lucid to be embarrassed when she managed to dance right into a guy, spilling her drink on his thong-clad feet. Shit, she was one of the drink spillers now too. She was also more than lucid enough to catch Darren laughing at her when she cringed as she peered up to the guy standing in front of her. Did she miss the way Darren’s face fell when said strange man pulled her into his arms and started moving her around the dance floor? Of course not. She was lucid after all. Painfully and obnoxiously lucid.
    She also still had her Silo cup full of something. What was she drinking? She didn’t much care. It was tropical, and though weak, she was certain it had at least a marginal amount of alcohol in it. Might as well keep drinking.
    The guy was handsome. He was also quite drunk. He’d said his name; she was certain of it, but she’d managed to forget already, and when his body closed in on hers, she could feel his arousal against her stomach. He was clutching her lower back, pulling and pinning her body to his. His other hand held hers as he spun her and moved her across the floor. Bailey was just barely managing to keep her drink from spilling as she held it in her free hand. Jess was already dancing with someone else, and so Bailey’s attention returned to the handsome man and his arousal held tight to her body.
    Bailey wasn’t the one-night stand sorta gal, but it was seeming like a fine idea at the moment. For whatever reason, she needed this. She needed to beat Darren at his own game. He made her feel inept and juvenile, and she needed to be something other than that. Were she a bit more sober, she’d easily realize her behavior was proving just how juvenile she really was, but her lucid self was perhaps not quite as lucid as she thought.
    “Take a walk with me.” The strange man spoke against her ear, and her breath left in a rush as she looked toward the bar.
    Trinity was sitting next to Darren, stroking