Starr Fated (16 page)

“As I keep
telling you, all I'm doing is looking out for my little brother,” I
insisted.

The truth was,
I seemed to be caught between a rock and a hard place. I didn’t
seriously think Seraphina was gay, I thought she was more likely
just confused and muddled about her sexuality. Bringing her here
tonight was intended to be a form of shock therapy, forcing her to
confront her issues rather than just hide behind them. But if she
wasn’t gay, that would mean that she and Jamie could happily go off
and spend the night together, and that didn’t sit well with me at
all. Not because I didn’t think Seraphina was good enough for my
brother, but because I was fast coming to the conclusion that maybe
he wasn’t right for her.

But since we
were now here at the club, I decided we just had to see what
happened, how the dice fell.

“Look, we can
stand here and argue all night if you want, but I suggest it makes
more sense to go and get a drink at the bar, and see what this club
is like,” I suggested in what I hoped was a conciliatory tone.

“I suppose we
might as well, now that we’re here,” she begrudgingly agreed, as I
offered to take her coat for her. When I'd picked Seraphina up,
she’d been ready and waiting for me, so I'd not seen what she was
wearing underneath the long and extremely ugly coat that she was
wearing, although I had noticed she was wearing heels. The shoes
were an unusual design because they seemed to be a cross between a
shoe and an open strappy boot.

“You look
different tonight,” Seraphina remarked, as she stared at the black
jeans and casual shirt I was wearing.

“Different?
I’m just dressed appropriately for the occasion. I wear office
attire to the office. I wear casual clothes to a club. I don’t see
why you should find that so surprising.”

Admittedly my
jeans were my usual reasonably smart brand and certainly weren’t
the low slung type that Jamie wore, which advertised to the world
what brand of designer boxers he was wearing underneath.

Seraphina
slipped the hideous coat off, and I caught my first glimpse of what
she was wearing. It wasn’t very much, in all honesty, just a very
short electric blue dress, which was fitted at the waist and had
some sort of underskirt that made it flare out.

It looked as
sexy as hell on her.

As I removed
her coat and she held her long hair out of the way, I realised the
dress was backless, so I got to see the soft, exposed skin of her
back before she let her hair tumble down again. How she could even
think of having her beautiful hair cut off was beyond me; it would
be a crime.
If she were mine, I'd forbid it.
I shook my
head. I reminded myself that this was Jamie’s girlfriend – that’s
why we were here after all.

She nervously
fiddled with the hem of her dress when she saw me looking at
her.

“Abbey lent me
this dress because she said it would be perfect when I asked what I
should wear tonight,” Seraphina said self consciously.

“Well, you
should certainly catch everyone’s attention with what you’re almost
wearing,” I stated .
If she were mine I'd want her covered up.
That delicious body would be for my eyes only.

“I thought you
wanted me to wear something like this,” she reminded me. “I'd have
come in my jeans, but Abbey insisted I should wear a dress.”

“Who exactly
is this Abbey again?”

“My friend,
the one who recommended I come to one of these events. She said
she’s coming along tonight as well, so you should get to meet
her.”

“Oh, isn’t she
the bisexual one?”

“I don’t think
it’s necessary to label her in that way, but yes, she is.”

I suppose the
name of the place should have given me a clue, but I hadn't really
expected everything at The Pink Club to be decorated in a sickly
shade of pink. I don’t do pink. Some guys wear pink shirts or ties,
but I never have and I never will.

“Wow. How
cool. Pantone 219. Very on trend,” Seraphina murmured as she looked
around. Of course she mixed with arty types who loved all that kind
of crap.

“What can I
get you to drink, Seraphina?”

“Just an
orange juice, please. I don’t really drink,” she replied, as she
nervously toyed with the silver necklace she was wearing, which
seemed to be some sort of Celtic knot design.

“I suggest you
have a couple of alcoholic drinks, just to help you relax,
especially as you seem rather on edge,” I suggested. “Just one or
two will be fine, as long as you don’t mix your drinks - keep to
either wine or spirits.

“I don’t know.
I think I ought to keep a clear head, I’m a bit of a lightweight
when it comes to alcohol,” she confessed.

“I’m here and
I won’t be drinking at all because I'm driving. So I’ll be watching
out for you the whole time, but you really need to relax and let
go. There’s no point in coming here and then sitting in the corner
like a shy wallflower, is there?”

“I suppose
you’re right,” she sighed, appearing to regret having come along at
all, as she nervously looked around at all the other people.

~*~

What a
difference two large mojito cocktails made. I sat at the bar and
watched in fascination, as Seraphina suddenly leapt up and headed
for the dance floor to join the other people already dancing.

“I really love
this track” she yelled over her shoulder as David Guetta’s ‘Little
Bad Girl’ came on. Then she started dancing, smiling as she mouthed
the lyrics about being a ‘bad boy’ at me.

Her dancing
was really raunchy, sexy, and uninhibited. She moved her hips and
threw her head back, as she ran her hands all over her body. She
was spellbinding, especially in her tiny dress that was only just
this side of decent.

Naturally she
was stirring up a lot of interest, and it wasn’t long before a
couple of girls moved in on her. They started dancing up to her,
and at first Seraphina laughed with them and joined in, but when
one girl held her face to kiss her, while the other ground into her
from behind, I suddenly saw Seraphina start to freak and panic. She
looked over at me with a look of sheer horror in her eyes.

I didn’t
hesitate for a second. Her eyes were clearly begging for my help,
so I headed straight over to the dance floor.

“This lady is
with me.” I grabbed Seraphina round the waist and pulled her
forcefully towards me.

“Liam! Thank
God,” she whispered. She looked up into my eyes as she came to rest
against me.

We froze as we
made contact. Time stood still, as I gazed into those amazing,
beautiful green eyes of hers. The DJ changed the mood by putting on
a much slower track, and I found myself taking her hand in mine, as
I held her close and slowly started dancing with her. It was as if
our bodies melted together, hers so much smaller than mine as she
fitted easily into my arms, nestled up against my chest. And it
just felt so right and natural holding her, as if this was where
she belonged, where she was meant to be. It felt as if she was
mine, mine to look after and cherish.

I’d never
experienced feeling this way before about a woman.

I wrapped my
arm even more tightly around her waist, as I leant down to put my
cheek against hers. Her skin was gorgeously soft, and I closed my
eyes to drink in her presence as we continued to dance together. It
was incredibly erotic as I felt her soft, warm curves moulding
perfectly against me, and I started gently nuzzling her neck. She
smelled wonderful, a unique mixture of sexy feminine musk and
roses.

Somehow, my
lips ended up on hers, a soft, gentle kiss at first, but as she put
her arms around my neck and ran her fingers through the hair on the
back of my neck, it quickly escalated into a scorching,
passionately deep kiss, as our tongues danced and entwined with
each other. She moaned softly as I found myself clutching her hips
against my hardness while we continued to dance together.

Just as we
broke off the kiss to stare breathlessly into each other’s eyes, a
voice suddenly broke through the powerful spell between us.

“Well, Sera,
it seems you’re not a baby dyke after all. You’ve only just got
here, and despite the wide choice on hand, you’re already getting
it on with a guy.”

“What? Oh,
Abbey…well…that is…” Sera stuttered, as we quickly broke apart.

“Aren’t you
going to introduce us?” this girl with artificially bright red hair
asked, as she stood there with an amused smile plastered across her
face.

“Abbey, this
is Liam Starr, Jamie’s older brother. Liam, my friend Abbey King.”
Sera said, as we both caught our breath and collected our scattered
wits.

What the fuck
had I been thinking, getting carried away like that?

“It was just
an experiment. I thought I'd check out Seraphina’s responses after
she’d rejected a couple of advances from some of the girls. Nothing
more than that,” I stated firmly, ignoring the puzzled and hurt
look Seraphina immediately shot in my direction.

I had to face
facts. She’d had too much to drink, she wasn’t thinking straight,
and I'd taken advantage of her inexperience and inebriated state, I
told myself, trying desperately to ignore the incredible chemistry
I'd felt between us.

But I want
her, really want her.

“I see,” Abbey
said as she looked closely at Sera and then me. “Looked pretty full
on between you guys to me.”

“I'm always
very thorough,” I stated coldly. It was for the best, and Sera
would thank me in the morning. “But since we’ve established
Seraphina actively responds to males, I think our mission has been
accomplished, so I suggest we head off now?”

“I’ll just get
my things,” Sera mumbled, as she slunk off in the direction of the
cloakroom. Abbey continued to stare at me.

“Hmm. I know
what I saw, and I've never seen Sera act that way with a guy before
– ever. And trust me, there’ve been plenty who’ve tried their
hardest with her. I would never have put you down as her type, but
perhaps that’s been the whole issue. Perhaps she didn’t know what
she really wanted. Until now maybe.”

“That is utter
rubbish. Seraphina has just had too much to drink, which is
entirely my fault. Most women can easily handle two cocktails, but
I had no idea she had such a low tolerance to alcohol. So I take
full responsibility and will of course ensure she gets home
safely.”

“Whatever you
say. So I take it you are now perfectly happy to let Sera go off
and spend the night with Jamie after the Spring Ball tomorrow?”

“Of course.
We’ve just confirmed she isn’t gay. That was the whole point of the
exercise, wasn’t it?” I lied through gritted teeth.

The truth was
it was going to kill me to let her go, but what could I do? So I
felt a strong physical attraction to her, big deal. For fuck’s
sake, she was my brother’s very young, virginal girlfriend,
remember? I had no right to think of her in any other way. All I’d
done was prove a point with her. Job done. Now it was time to step
back and let her go back to him.

After an
extremely awkward drive back, where Seraphina didn’t speak a single
word to me, I felt I had to say something as I saw her to the
door.

“Well, at
least I think we’ve established you’re not gay, so now you can go
to the ball with Jamie safe in that knowledge.”

“Thank you so
much for that, Mr. Starr. I am deeply indebted to your vast
experience and exceptional prowess for enlightening me so
efficiently. I’m sure it must have been highly amusing for you to
have had such an easy conquest,” she replied sarcastically. “Oh,
and by Monday, all my work for your company rebranding will be at a
stage where I can hand it over to your team, so I’ll drop it into
the office for them to take over.”

And then she
slammed the door in my face.

Sera
seemed in
a rather odd
mood at the Spring Ball, but I wasn’t really complaining. She
started drinking as soon as we arrived, asking for a large mojito,
knocking it back quickly before immediately asking for another.

“Steady on,” I
warned her. “You need to pace yourself, especially as you don’t
usually drink very much at all.”

As I was far
more used to drinking, I was already on my fourth large drink while
she was still on her second. As we were staying the night, it
wasn’t as if we had to worry about getting home.

“I’m just
trying to relax and get in the mood,” she insisted. “I thought
that’s what you wanted.”

“Of course it
is, but I don’t want you passing out on me. Come and get something
to eat to soak up the alcohol,” I told her. We headed over to the
buffet before all the decent food went, and I made sure she ate
something. I was so excited about this night that we were finally
about to spend together, and I didn’t want to risk anything
spoiling our plans.

Seraphina
looked amazing, of course. She had her hair partly up and partly
loose. She was wearing a scarlet coloured evening dress, the main
part of which seemed to consist of lots of ribbons and different
pieces of fabric hanging down, with tantalising slits in the
underskirt that revealed her legs as she walked and danced. The top
part was cut very low, with just tiny narrow ribbons holding it up,
giving the impression they could give way at any moment, which
could have proved interesting. She explained that it was one of her
friend Abbey’s designs, and I told her I thought her friend was
very talented. It was a very sexy dress, no question.

“I'm glad you
like it,” she replied. “Come on, let’s dance.”

And then she
headed straight for the dance floor, practically dragging me with
her. I don’t know what had happened to the quiet, shy, restrained
girl from before, but Sera was acting like a wild and provocative
creature tonight. I guessed that was just the effect of the
alcohol, loosening her up to shed some of her inhibitions.