That’swhyyou picked her in the first place, stupido. Proximity.
Unfortunately, that proximity had turned out to be far more convenient for Simon than her.
“Fuck off, Si Si,” Zeta snarled.
Simon shot her a sneer. “I haven’t missed you at all, Zeta.”
Simon had always hated how vocal Elisa and Zeta were about their opinion of him. “Nice costume, Elisa,” he said, smirking at Elisa’s Very Hungry Caterpillar costume. “Going for your intellectual level, I see.”
Elisa flashed a wide, cold smile at him. “Stupido coglione imbroglione.”
He frowned. “What?”
Bria grit her teeth. For all her joking earlier about kneeing him in the balls if she saw him tonight, shewastrying to behave herself somewhat. Putting Simon and his wandering dick behind her had been a part of her recovery therapy after the accident, no thanks to her physiotherapist.
Besides, todaywasonly her sixth day not walking on crutches, and her ball-kneeing leg was the one attached to her recently healed shattered hip, and she’d never been the type for clichés.
Still…
“Who’s the dude?” Simon threw a contemptuous thumb at Owen, his attention returning to Bria. “If you’re trying to get my attention, Bri Bri, you could have just sent me a text. You didn’t need to drag some poor guy along just to make me jeal—”
“Ah, screw this,” she muttered. She clamped her gloved fingers around his shoulders and yanked him down hard toward her rapidly upward-striking knee. “Stop calling me Bri Bri.”
The collision was perfection.
Heoofed.
Beside Bria, Owen let out a soft hiss, no doubt feeling the pain for his fellow male. For a second, she accepted she’d probably lost any chance of getting to know him better after putting on such a display, but the humiliated grunt from her ex made it worth it.
Simon crumpled forward just as she released her grip on his shoulders and stepped back. “Fuck,” he groaned. “You bitc—”
“Hey,” Owen said, a steel to his voice that made Bria’s pulse quicken. “You don’t talk to a woman like that.”
She looked up at Owen, the disgust in his face as he watched Simon sink to his knees tightening her chest.
God, she liked him.
Simon groaned louder from the floor.
“Oh wow, Bria.” Elisa gasped. “I’ve been wanting you to do that for so long.”
“Me too.” Zeta laughed, flicking Simon a look. “But I didn’t think you’d do it quite so hard.”
“What can I say? My physiotherapist was very good at her job.” She shrugged and looked at Simon, who was currently cupping his groin, his face decidedly pale. “Or should that be ex-physiotherapist?”
Simon grunted, still doubled over, refusing to look at them.
Zeta chuckled. “I love the irony.”
Elisa laughed, grinning at Bria. “And I love the fluid leg movement. The hip really is doing well, sis.”
Bria laughed. “It is.”
Zeta hooked Elisa’s elbow with her own and grinned at Bria. “Well enough to dance, I say. What do you think? Coming?”
Without waiting for a response, she dragged Elisa into the throng of partygoers.
Bria watched them go, chest tightening again. She needed a few minutes to get her head around what had just happened, and maybe thrashing about on the rooftop’s makeshift dance floor would help her decide where exactly she wanted the rest of the night to go.