He straightens and pulls me up. “Marriage counseling. You’re welcome, by the way.” Stepping back, he hands me over to Darian, who glares at him like he’s two seconds away from ripping his head off. “Thank you for letting me take her for a spin.”
He’s gone before Darian has a chance to open his mouth, though I doubt he could if he wanted to. His jaw is screwed shut, a muscle ticking madly in his cheek.
Without a word, he aggressively pulls me to him and begins to dance, causing a surprised squeak to tumble from my lips as I crash into his hard chest.
“You seem awfully interested in my friend. Do I need to remind you whose wife you are?”
“Like you’re one to speak,” I snap. “You looked very cozy with that woman.”
“Mrs. Auclair?”
Just her name on his lips makes me see red.
Don’t march over to her table and claw her eyes out.
Darian twirls me once, then twice. “You’re ready to run at the first sight of a woman flirting with me? I’m disappointed. Ithought you had more backbone than that. What happened to the beautiful, fiery woman who crashed the Reckoning party, ready to die for a taste of revenge?”
I refuse to reply. He can take his smug face and kindly fuck off to Mars. Or better yet, the farthest distant planet in the galaxy. Scrap that, make it the goddamn universe.
Darian flicks my nose. “You flare your nostrils when you’re angry.”
“And you clench your jaw when you’re mad. I think we’ve established that we have equally good observational skills.”
“Your smart mouth makes me hard,” he states, like we’re discussing the latest affairs in Congress. How he can remain calm when he’s vibrating with repressed anger and testosterone is impressive. Meanwhile, I’m barely keeping the snarl off my face.
“Your smart mouth doesn’t make me wet.”
He spins me so fast that I swear I’m on a Graviton ride. Nausea clenches my stomach when he finally pulls me against his chest. “Don’t mistake me for a gentleman, Mrs. Delacroix. We both know you’re soaking your panties, and I won’t hesitate to finger your tight pussy in front of everyone to prove my point.” Quick as a flash, his hand finds the slit in my dress, and he hikes it up my thigh with a possessive look in his cobalt eyes, ready to devour me.
I grab his wrist to stop him, aware of the dancing couples around us. We must look weird, standing in the middle of the dance floor. “Please, don’t do this here.”
He has the decency not to flaunt his triumph as we resume dancing. Darian drinks me in, and I know for certain, no man has ever looked at me with such hunger.
It’s impossible not to flush beneath the weight of his full attention.
“I must admit,” he says, “I wanted to flay him alive when I saw you two dancing.”
“He’s a good dancer. Smells nice, too.”
Why am I antagonizing him? Not only is it cruel, but it’s also immature. I’m better than that. Better than my petty jealousy. Even so, I can’t get the image of Mrs. Auclair all over him out of my mind, which is messing with my head.
In a swift move, Darian flips me around so that his chest is against my back. Goosebumps litter my arms as he curls his fingers around my throat and brushes his warm lips over the shell of my ear. “You’re begging for a hard spanking,wife.”
“Give me your worst,” I spit, sounding braver than I am while quivering on the inside.
His chuckle dances over the curve of my neck, low and husky—a nefarious, delicious threat.
He takes my hand and drags me off the dance floor, past a smirking Sinclair, who raises his glass and winks, but I don’t have time to flip him off before we stumble into the hallway.
Two Pawns guard the grand staircase, their faces hidden behind animal masks, but they part like a curtain upon seeing us.
“You two, upstairs now,” Darian demands, then pulls me along, giving me no choice but to follow.
His grip on my hand is so tight that I wouldn’t be surprised if he cuts off my blood supply.
The Pawns exchange glances, but they don’t object, and I get it. No one says no to Darian Delacroix.
We reach the landing. Gold-framed paintings larger than me line the walls, and a glass dome overhead overlooks the foyer downstairs and the second-floor balcony.
