Chapter 49 Grayce

I wasn’t going to turn back now, but crashing Tyler’s party was stupid on every level. I was three drinks in, and nobody kicked us out. Plus Shawn was sitting on the staircase with a girl in a mini-skirt who was so drunk she kept trying to slide her tongue down his throat, even though he kept resisting. I figured this was because Shawn had never had so much action at one time in his twenty-one years on earth, and he didn’t know how to react to it. If anything, at least I had something other than Jaxon to turn my attention to. Drinks and a show, what a treat.
My phone, without fail, had been going off all night, and each time it was Jaxon. I could only assume that he was drunk again and feeling insecure. I had finally succumbed to just turning it off so I wouldn’t wallow in it.
At a little bit after eleven, the buzz from the drinks was going to my head, and Tyler finally spotted me from his position in the middle of the room. As he headed my way, I braced myself for an argument, more insults maybe, but before I could even put the drink down and bail, he was in my face. His eyes were red and bloodshot, breath reeking of such wide varieties of liquor I couldn’t even decipher one from the other. Not that I had room to talk, the floor was tipping me right over—and I wasn’t even walking.
“Well, look who showed up to my shindig,” Tyler said. He was smiling the same creepy smile I’d seen before. It made the hair on my arms stand on edge.
“Yeah, I decided to crash,” I said. I didn’t care anymore what Tyler thought of me or anything else. I was too drunk to be intimidated by him, and that was probably neither a good thing nor a bad thing.
“Mi casa, su casa,” Tyler said with a wink. Resisting the urge to roll my eyes straight back into the depths of my skull, I forced a smile and nodded politely. Either he’d kick me out or offer me another drink. I wasn’t sure which.
“You look pretty decent tonight,” he said, leaning closer to me. I stood up against the wall, resting my back, and Tyler took it upon himself to raise one arm up over my head, palm against the wall as if trapping a wild animal. I winced, but either he didn’t care or was too drunk to notice.
“Charming as ever, Tyler.”
“You know, Grayce, I see in you what Jaxon doesn’t care to,” Tyler said. He raised his free hand and began caressing my cheek with it. He was still smiling slightly, but it didn’t put me at ease like I’m sure he intended. I looked down at the ground, remembering when I heard him talking to Jaxon about me—saying all those shitty things.
“You’re no better than he is,” I said. “In fact, it was you who made me sound so horrible.”
“You want to know why I said those things?” Tyler asked. His fingers trailed from my cheek to my neck, and I shivered involuntarily. He leaned in, his breath warm on my face. “Because I was jealous. I wanted you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I tried to duck around him, but there was no way out. He had me closed in. “You’re drunk.”
“Drunk and happy, baby,” Tyler said. He straightened up, winking again. “Have another drink.”
“Where’s your bathroom?” I asked, and he pointed up the stairs. I side-stepped him and walked around the couples lingering on the steps. Shawn, who now had his hand up the drunk girl’s shirt, didn’t even see me pass.
Once in the bathroom, I splashed some warm water on my face, taking a deep breath. I was ready to leave, but I was hesitant to bail and leave Shawn. Besides, I wanted badly to enjoy the night, drink a little bit more, forget about Jaxon and everything he was—or wasn’t—to me. If I were lucky, my little run-in with Tyler would be the first and last one of the night.
I stumbled out of the bathroom, cheeks burning from the alcohol, but before I could find my way back downstairs, Tyler was there suddenly, standing at the top of the stairs with a drink in his hand.
“Excuse me,” I said, but he didn’t move out of my way. I stopped where I was, staring him down, wondering what he was up to and at the same time not wanting to know.
“Let me show you something,” Tyler said. He took my hand, his touch surprisingly gentle, and led me to an open-door bedroom.
“I should get going,” I said. I knew whatever was about to happen next wasn’t on my agenda for the night.
“Sweetie, you need to relax a bit,” Tyler said. He set his drink down and led me to the bed, where he pointed for me to sit. It wasn’t looking good, not for how much my head whirled. I hesitated, wondering what my success rate would be if I bolted for the door.
“I know you’re hurt over Jaxon,” Tyler said. He sat next to me, and while I felt my body tense up, I couldn’t take myself away from him. He looked at me, forging an expression of pathetic sympathy.
“No one has hurt me,” I said. “Least of all, Jaxon Tate.”
“Well, let me make it up to you,” Tyler said. He leaned in a bit, his breath hot on my face. “There’s no better revenge than me, right?” he murmured. His fingers moved from my shoulder and down until his hand was caressing the inside of my thigh. The sensation was overwhelming, but not in a pleasant way, not the way Jaxon’s touch had once felt on my skin. No, this was different. Some furious desperation went with Tyler’s arousal. Like at any moment, he would take over and go for it, despite how I felt. His fingers were cold, skin chilling, and uncomfortable against my own. Revenge, petty as it was, sounded good. The alcohol was flooding my logic, urging this on, and for a moment, I didn’t care what would happen. I didn’t care about much of anything, not anymore.
“Are you ready?” Tyler murmured, and his calloused fingers slid down towards the part in my thighs. The drinks I’d consumed made my head fuzzy and my fingers weak and numb.
“No,” I breathed, hoping I sounded more secure than I felt. “I don’t want to do this with you. No.”
“It’s fine.” With one hand, Tyler started to rub my crotch over my jeans, and with his other hand, he unzipped his fly. I swallowed, turning my face away, and reached to push his hand away.
“I changed my mind. I don’t want to do this.”
“Chill out,” he said, slipping his pants down far enough to expose his throbbing hard-on. My eyes fluttered open, and my entire body tensed up.
“Tyler,” I said and made a clumsy attempt to sit up. “I said I can’t do this.”
I didn’t apologize, and I wasn’t about to. I blinked a few times to clear my head and then started to push him off, more forcefully this time. For a split second, it seemed like he was going to comply, but after that fleeting moment, I was suddenly caught off guard as Tyler appeared to have a change of heart. He pushed me back down on the bed, hands firm on my chest. I could barely gather my thoughts before I felt him reaching for the button on my jeans.
Sirens started to wail in my head, and adrenaline coursed through my body. I kicked at him, missing the first time but nailing him straight in the stomach the second time around. It hindered him, but only for a moment. As I clambered in a blind panic from the bed, Tyler grabbed me around the waist, picked me up off the floor, and turned to throw me down on the bed. I struggled as violently as a drunk girl could, but after a moment of frivolous effort, I realized I wouldn’t be able to defeat him alone. He seemed soberer than I was, and he was definitely stronger.
“Stop it!” I shrieked, and Tyler slapped a sweaty hand over my mouth, smothering my cries for help. As I struggled, tears streaming down my face, I tried to justify that maybe I deserved everything about to happen. No one had put a gun to my head and forced me to this party, let alone into the bedroom with him.
“Be quiet,” Tyler grunted. His hands were sweaty and smelled vile. An uncomfortable, tight feeling clawed at my chest, and just as I was about to consider giving up and letting him do it, the bedroom door swung open so hard it hit the wall behind it. Some framed photo fell from the wall and broke on the floor, and I barely had time to figure out what was happening before Tyler was pulled off me and hit square in the nose by Jaxon. There was a horrible cracking sound, and Tyler screamed profanities, holding his hand over his nose as blood pooled between his fingers. Jaxon knelt next to me, taking my face in his hands as he looked into my eyes.
“Are you okay?” He sounded so far away, his words competing with the loud buzzing in my head. He put one arm under me to help me stand, and with one of my free hands, I pulled my pants back on and buttoned them despite the quivering in my fingers. Sitting on the floor up against the wall with the bloody nose, Tyler was scowling at us as Jaxon shrugged off his jacket and laid it over my shoulders. I couldn’t bring myself to make eye contact with either one of them. I was hurt and ashamed and, most of all, terrified of what had just happened. As Jaxon led me towards the bedroom door to leave, he stopped in front of Tyler and gave him a skin-crawling glare.
“If you ever lay another finger on her again, I will kill you.”