AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“God help us all.”
“Who said you could bring a boy?” Kellen pointed to Holden, who was still lurking around outside the booth.
“Holden’s making sure things stay fun.”
“Then make him dance for us.” Kellen got to her feet before I could stop her and grabbed Holden by his sleeve. “Are you going to dance for us, Holden?”
The vampire looked bewildered and amused. “I don’t get paid enough to dance.”
Kellen rifled through her glittery gold handbag and pulled out a roll of hundred dollar bills so thick I had to catch my breath. She peeled off at least ten and jammed them into his blazer’s front pocket, giving him an all-Benjamin pocket square. Once she’d put the roll of money back in her purse, she pointed to the stripper pole in our midst.
“Dance.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing at him, but my trapped giggles bubbled over, causing me to snort.
“Secret, it’s your party. Make him do it.” Kellen was using her semi-drunken state and playing up her cuteness. I was betting this particular move went a long way with human men.
“Sorry, Kel. I need Holden’s attention out there.” I gave an apologetic shrug. “As much as I’d like to see him shake his ass, he has work to do.”
At I’d like to see him shake his ass, Holden raised two dark brows at me, his beautiful face showing faint surprise and a lot of dirty promises. I flushed.
I got up and moved to the seat across from Eugenia, and Kellen bounded off to get me my first of many drinks. During a brief lull between songs, I smiled at my sister and reached out to touch her hand. “I’m glad you’re here. I wish it wasn’t…” I rolled my eyes and jerked my chin in the direction of the dance floor. “You know. I wish we could talk.”
“There will be time.”
Kellen returned empty-handed but with a six-foot-five muscle-bound guy trailing behind her, his massive hands loaded with bottles.
“Bottle service!” Kellen cooed, cheers-ing herself. “This is Antoine.”
“Andy,” the guy corrected.
Kellen shrugged. “Andy is going to dance for us.”
The poor guy, whose skin was the color of a ripe pumpkin and who smelled faintly musky, a mixture of sweat and cologne, paled slightly at her words.
“I don’t—”
Holden extracted the wad of hundreds from his pocket and didn’t bat a lash as he slipped them into Andy’s palm. “Give them what they want. Especially the fox in the boa.” He winked at me for good measure before melting into the crowd.
As it turned out, in spite of his protestations, Andy was a bit of a pro when it came to working the stripper pole. And—much to my mortification—was apparently no stranger to giving lap dances. No amount of Patrón could wipe away the memory of a shirtless beefcake wearing my former boa while grinding his very firm butt into my lap.
He was preparing himself for round two when I saw my moment to escape.
“Sorry, ladies, nature calls.”
Before anyone could offer to be my plus one to the bathroom, I darted from the booth and skirted the dancing twenty-somethings who were too busy grinding against each other to pay any attention to me. Beyoncé was singing “Countdown”, and in spite of the catchy beat and the booze pulsing through me, I found myself uninterested in making merry.
I was almost halfway across the room when a finger hooked through the woven straps of my dress and yanked me backwards into a small alcove that led to a door marked Staff.
Only the familiar scent and the coolness of the digit pressed to my spine kept me from punching him, but knowing who it was didn’t stop me from spinning out of his grip and slamming him against the wall, my hand wrapped around his throat.
“You should know better than to sneak up on women who are being hunted.”
Holden smiled and pried my hand off his neck one finger at a time. “Then shouldn’t you know better than to sneak off unprotected into a crowd?”
“Clearly someone had their eyes on me.”
His fingers landed on my shoulders, as if to push me away from him, but instead he ran them with painstaking slowness down my arms, making me shiver in a not-unpleasant way.
