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I realize I was so caught up in staring at her that I completely missed what she was saying when she glances around the busy restaurant before leaning in toward me. “This dinner was delicious, but I’m not sure it’s enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you know of any bars or nightclubs around here?”
“Ehh, yeah, wh—?”
“Okay, let’s go.” She’s pushing to her feet and setting her napkin on the table before I can wrap my head around what’s happening. Not sure of what else to do, I follow, thankful I’ve already paid the bill as I scurry out of the restaurant after her.
“I don’t understand,” I say as we climb into the car.
“We need to do something that will really get this asshole’s blood boiling. The couply stuff we’ve been doing all week, and tonight, is great, but it’s not enough. I was thinking about what you said earlier, that if you were him, you’d be pissed seeing me with another guy. And while watching me hold hands and getting walked around campus by some guy is probably irritating, I think I can do one better.”
As she smirks, I find that I quite enjoy this playful side to her, even if I still don’t get what she’s saying. She glances over at me, a mischievous smile on her face. “How good are your dancing skills?”
“Ehhh.” She bursts out laughing at what is no doubt a look of panic on my face. I navigate the streets until we reach Club Envy, one of the more popular nightclubs on this side of town.
Once we’ve queued up and paid the cover charge, we step through the doors and are instantly greeted by the deafening beat of hip-hop music. Placing my hand in the middle of Emilia’s back, we push our way through the crowd to the bar.
Leaning in so I can talk into her ear, I ask, “What do you want?” when we finally make it up to the counter.
“Gin and tonic.”
Nodding, I wave down the bartender when he passes, ordering a gin for her and a tonic water with a lime wedge for me. Half a bottle of wine is more than enough when I’m also keeping an eye out for this stalker of hers. The absolute last thing I want is for him to sneak up on us when I’m too busy focusing on Emilia instead of everyone else around us.
Our drinks arrive, and we move over to a small table for two at the side of the dance floor.
“Now what?” I shout over the music, after we’ve spent a while watching the crowd bump and grind around us. The couple at the next table are practically fucking each other against it, and it didn’t take me long to remember why clubbing was never my scene.
Setting her now empty drink on a table, she threads her fingers through mine and pulls me toward the dancefloor. “Now we dance.” She’s grinning as she says it, looking like she’s having the time of her life.
She drags me into the middle of the dance floor, the dense crowd barely moving aside to give the two of us enough room. She’s still smiling as she begins to sway her hips to the beat, lifting her arms above her head. “Dance,” she urges when I make no effort to move. With a roll of her eyes, she grabs my hands and places them on her hips before sliding her palms up my arms and winding them around my neck.
I can feel every point at which her body is pressed against mine. I react to it like her touch is a visceral thing I can feel all the way to my core, my fingers pressing into her skin and pulling her closer as my body instinctively curls around her.
She tilts her head up, scanning my face as if checking that I’m comfortable with our close proximity while we both sway to the music. “If it were me, this is what would annoy me the most.” I can feel her breath on my face as she talks, so close that she doesn’t even need to yell to be heard over the music. “If I were the stalker, seeing this would send me over the edge. The intimacy. The sensuality.” Her eyes dip to my lips, and holy shit, if it doesn’t go straight to my dick.
I cough to clear my throat, mentally picturing Hawk dressed up as a giant baby in order to calm the rush of blood that has started traveling due south. Yet, my hands slide further around her waist until my fingers trail over the curve of her ass.
Lowering my head until my lips are at her ear, I murmur, “You are truly an evil genius,” before trailing kisses down the column of her neck. For the next couple of hours, we touch and dance and grind on one another, and the entire time I keep one eye on the crowd around us and the other on the beautiful woman in my arms. I can’t remember the last time I permitted myself to let loose, and yet twice in the last week, I’ve done exactly that. There were even moments cooped up in the house, when it was just Em and me, where she chased away the demons usually clinging to my back. I’ve never felt peace like this, like I do when I’m with her.
We never once leave the dancefloor, and by the time we finally call it a night, Emilia’s hair is plastered to her face, and both of us are slick with sweat and panting heavily but still sporting mirrored grins. I realize, to anyone looking at us, they’d see a real couple out having a great time, who are now most likely going home to fuck. That simple thought is enough to have my dick surging with newfound life—not that he’d really died down all night.
As we stumble into the night, laughing and carrying on like two love-drunk—and very real drunk—idiots, Emilia fists the front of my shirt, pulling me toward her. “Kiss me.”
My eyes flick down to her plump pink lips. Lips I’ve been thinking about and denying myself all night. It’s the one thing we haven’t done—properly kissed. There have been chaste brushes of lips but nothing more. However, something in her tone has me closing the distance between us, powerless to do anything other than obey her. My lips move against hers, electricity crackling in the air between us, and I quickly pull back just enough to search her eyes for any change of mind.
Her grip instantly tightens on my shirt, preventing me from moving away, and my lips hover over hers. “Kiss me like tonight was real. Like we were on a real date.” Her hand that’s fisted in my shirt flattens over my heart. “Like you actually like me, and we had a great time tonight.”
At her whispered words and the pain she fails miserably at hiding behind them, my hand lifts up to cup the side of her face, my thumb running along the angle of her jaw. I stare deep into her bottomless green eyes, slightly dilated from alcohol and adrenaline but filled with more life than I’ve ever seen before. “Itwasreal.Allof it felt real to me. Every blissful moment.” I slam my lips down on hers, and she moans into my mouth, her hands digging into my shoulders as I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her closer, not giving a shit that we’re standing in the middle of a sidewalk outside a busy nightclub and drunken nobodies are wolf whistling at us right now.
All that matters is ensuring this magnificent woman in my arms knows tonight wasn’t just a job to me. Thatsheisn’t just a job. Somewhere between the talking over wine and silent sessions studying yearbooks, the hiking, and fake dating, she became more to me; to mean more than anyone has in a very long time.
Breaking off our kiss, I thread my fingers through hers and hurry us back to the car. I’d parked in what had been a busy enough parking lot when I’d arrived, but now that it’s the middle of the night, only a few other cars besides mine remain.
When we reach her side of the car, I push her back against it, my lips colliding with hers once again and already hungry for another taste. It’s like her lips are the forbidden apple, and one taste has sent me descending into madness as my hands swipe over her ribs and down her sides, until I hitch one leg over my hip.
“Oh god,” she gasps, tilting her head to the side in an invitation for me to lavish her neck with attention. Our hips collide in a matching, frenzied rhythm as our hands roam over one another, never settling in one place for long. “Kai.”
