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“A drink.”
“Yes. I could use a little unwinding.”
“That we can both agree on. Maybe someone to yank out that stick you’ve got shoved up your ass.”
I throw my head back and laugh at Fearghas’s attempt to piss me off. “Between the two of us, you think I’m the one with a stick up my ass? You’re so up Eira’s that no one can tell where you end and she begins.”
His lip raises in a snarl.
“You would do well to remember where you are, Bronywyn,” Eira warns. “And have a good night.” She turns away, hand gripping Fearghas’s arm. Before he takes his attention off of me, I wink, enjoying the way his cheeks flush with anger.
Then, I turn back and see that the bartender has replaced my drink with a fresh one.
Yeah, tonight is going to be fun.Magic sizzling along my skin, I down the next drink and head out onto the dance floor, more than ready to burn off some of the energy building inside of me. The beat is strong, steady, music I don’t recognize but feels perfectly in tune with the inner turmoil I’m currently facing.
I shift my hips, moving to the beat, feeling it in every single part of my soul as the rest of the world around me fades away. Hands go to my hips, digging in, and for a brief moment, I imagine they belong to Tarnley.
So, instead of pulling away, I lean back into the hard body behind me, savoring the contact and picturing only the vampire I can’t seem to get out of my head. Fingers stroke the side of my throat as my dance partner moves my hair to the side and drops his face into the crook of my neck.
Hot breath drifts against my skin, and all I can think about is Tarnley slamming my back into his wall while he devoured my mouth. Pain blossoms in my chest. He’d done it to manipulate me, to trick me into stepping into his web.
Much like the man behind me is tricking me with affection when we both know what he really wants from me: my life. I can sense his intentions clear as day, as though he’d voiced them to the entire room.
With a deep breath, I turn and face the bartender from earlier. He grins at me, hands still on my hips as he flashes bright white teeth. “I’ve been wanting to press against you since I first saw you walk in.”
Forcing my most innocent smile, I drop my eyes to the floor briefly, then lift my attention back to him. “You noticed me when I came in?”
“How could I not? You’re the most beautiful thing in the room.”
I grin and reach up on my tip toes to whisper into his ear. But before I can get the words out, he’s ripped away from me and thrown into the crowd, an incubus bowling ball knocking over supernatural pins.
I’m left glaring at a very,verypissed-off Tarnley. Crimson eyes blazing with power, he faces me with his fangs fully extended, his breathing ragged. Honestly, he looks more animal than man. Desire churns in my belly as heat pools between my legs.
I want him.
So fucking bad.
He makes a move toward me, stepping further into the dim light above, and giving me the first full look at him. I gasp, heat turning into a wildfire when I take in the black lines snaking up his cheeks and into his eyes—something that isnottypical for a vampire.
The bond, the voice in my head coos.Perhaps he wouldn’t be such a bad ally, after all.The magic urges me forward, pulsating down both arms and snaking from my fingertips as the music picks up around me.
Meanwhile, Tarnley and I might as well be alone in this sea of people.
It is good you saved him,the voice coos.We can use him.
It’s those words that sober me. The last thing I want is for Tarnley to be further wrapped in my own nightmare. “You’re going to want to take this whole bloodsucker thing down a notch or two,” I snap. “People are going to start thinking you’re here for blood.”
He rushes forward, stopping when he’s only an inch from me. “Who the hell says I’m not?” Voice deep, the gravelly tone sends shivers of desire up my spine. When his nostrils flare and his jaw tightens, I know he feels it, too. He moves so fast I can’t stop him, and before I know it, his hand fists my hair and he jerks my head back, dipping his own to the hollow of my throat.
Tarnley inhales, and my legs turn to jelly when he groans.
“You smell divine.”
“Let me go.”
“No.” He blurs forward, and the wall meets my back with a thud, knocking the air from my lungs. “You do this to me,” he groans, as his nose trails up my throat.
“Let. Me. Go.”
