This is where the Vipers team comes to party, according to Dahlia, and I can’t miss the chance to see it for myself.
Stir things up a little.
Find out if I can provoke Preston somehow.
With her arm around mine, we walk into the club that’s vibrating with bass.
Their expensive perfumes clog my nostrils as red and yellow-green lights cut through the air like lasers.
It smells of drugs and mindlessness. Corruption and shallowness, like this entire town.
Everything here reeks of cruelty beyond imagination. Every single one of these people, like Dad, would’ve authorized Patient X just to protect their stature and empires.
And yet here I am, right in their midst.
I stare down at Dahlia, who’s pressed to my side, wearing a tight green dress that’s meant to be noticed. She’s pretty, with tanned olive-toned skin and curves in all the right places.
And she comes from Stantonville, so she’s part of my world instead of this pretentious shithole. And yet…she stirs nothing in me sexually.
None of them do now.
I seem to have grown an addiction to a certain emotionally stunted prince with golden hair.
Releasing a breath, I lean down to whisper in her ear, “Is it just me, or do you now make more of an effort to look so fucking hot?”
“Should’ve kept me when you had me instead of trying to share me with your friends.”
I laugh as we head to the bar that’s lit by a purple neon glow and crowded with people shouting their orders.
And that’s when I see him.
Across from us in the VIP lounge above, almost the entire Vipers team is there. Some are dancing, but many of them are gathered by the glass barrier, scowling at me.
But they don’t matter.
The one who does is Preston. He’s also standing there, but his expression is unreadable as he takes a sip of his drink.
He looks like a fucking trophy that’s begging to be unwrapped in that Vipers jacket and prim-and-proper slacks.
Every fiber of my being tells me to jump up in there and kidnap him. Keep him to myself somewhere no one can fucking see.
Touch him so deeply, he’ll never be able to reject me.
But he seems bored. Almost as if he didn’t notice me.Almost, because his shoulders tighten upon meeting my gaze.
Let’s see who breaks first, my prince.
My hand lands on my companion’s waist. “You’re still mad about that, Dahlia? I told you I don’t do relationships. They’re a fucking drag, and I let you go, didn’t I? But maybe I’ll try to seduce you again tonight.”
“That train has left the station.”
“I can see that. Davenport is such a boring choice, though. You could’ve gone for someone more interesting.”
“What’s your idea of interesting?”
“The prince.” I grin and raise my glass toward Preston. “On second thought,anyonebut the prince.”
Dahlia follows the motion, then starts a glaring competition with Kane. The rest of the team is trying to kill me with their eyes, but all I can look at is Preston.
