Warm hands slid beneath my jacket to hold me steady as Valentine regarded me with a steady gaze. “I don’t drink.”
“Trust me?”
His head cocked to one side, he opened his mouth. I smiled as I traced his bottom lip with my fingertip, then on impulse touched the tip of his tongue.
Warmth enveloped my finger as he sucked gently on the tip and suddenly my wardrobe choices were very obvious and really fucking bad.
Really bad.
“Jesus,” I whispered, not pulling my finger back as he cleaned the tip and released me.
I dropped my hand between us, watching his eyes. His pupils were blown wide with arousal and I knew mine would be the same.
“Cora,” he murmured my name.
Not that I heard him, but I read my name on his lips.
Lips I wanted on mine. On my body. Licking me.
I’m so gone for this man.
I gripped the zip on my jacket, suddenly glad Coach had left for the night, and pulled it down, wiggling my arms free. Valentine never moved his hands from my waist as I stripped my outer layer off, handing it to the bartender, leaving me in the dress I’d chosen, thinking it was cute and sexy.
The way he drank in the beaded, strapless dress with its plummeting v to my navel held up with some tape and my boobs, told me it was a mistake and that he was seconds away from mauling me at the bar.
I wiggled my butt. “I’m going to dance,” I said without yelling. My voice strained as I moved my mouth clearly for him to read my lips. “Are you coming with me, or are you going to watch?”
He waited a minute, so long I thought he might not answer me. That I’d scared him, or that he would reject me.
Valentine leaned in, his lips brushing my ear. “Both, Cora. Dance for me.”
I shivered as he squeezed my hand and let me lead him away from the bar. People who would have jostled me didn't. I followed in the wake that opened behind him, tucked away in the calm that he created. A shiver passed over me as the amount of puretrustthat I put into this man slammed me.
Then he spun me into his chest, warmth pervading my front. I stared up at him, and everything, including the ability to breathe or think, was forgotten.
Valentine’s broad, strong hands skated over my hips, his touch so light as to not disturb the swinging beads on my dress. “Move for me,” his lips said as I read them through the pulsing beat even though I couldn't hear his words.
My body moved as commanded. For a moment, the visibility of being in front of a crowd with him, the eyes of everyone around us seemingly locked on him and possibly me too for being with a Chimera, left me almost stationary in place. Then, as his eyes darkened with heat, and his heat dipped to crowd me on the fast filling dance floor, my hips began to sway in his hold. I tipped my shoulders back, my eyes drifting shut.
And in the space he made for us, the club with its darkened spaces and caffeine eating into my veins, I danced, as promised.
Just for him.
Valentine never grabbed me or crushed me against him, his hands grazing over my dress with the utmost respect in his touch. My nipples ached and pebbled as tight as the beads on my dress when he stroked the undersides of my breasts that grew heavy when he did nothing more. His breath brushed my lips, and I opened my mouth, willing him to kiss me as my body curled and undulated, moving in a rhythm designed, I swore, just for him.
“Cora,” he rasped, close enough,low enough, for me to hear.
My eyes cracked open to find him arched over me, hands closed so freaking lightly around my waist. Hands that could crush me, bruise me, if he so chose.
But he didn’t.
Heath Valentine was all about control over violence, and his touch, or lack of it, was?—
Electric.
The tip of his tongue stroked my bottom lip, wet and hot. I moaned, my mouth open and begging for more of his touch. Hell, I’d come for him in Coach’s office with my legs wide open, touched myself and come for him on video that he’d watched live and he hadn't even kissed me properly yet.
The thought left me hotter than ever. Heat gushed between my thighs, slicking me even though he barely touched me now. His tongue stroked my lip in a parody of what else I needed from him, but when I rose up desperately on my toes he just laughed at me and drew back the same amount, making me chase him.
