AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My eyes widen frantically behind the blindfold, and my gut sends microscopic jolts to my brain like warning bells.
This is what I’ve been waiting for. The reason I agreed to come toT’slastato begin with.
Only now, it feels wrong. Ernesto and Marcus have history, and regardless of how badly I need his secrets, I don’t want to hear them here and now. Especially from someone Marcus doesn’t trust.
Shoving away from him, I dust my sweating hands over my jeans. “I appreciate you trying to look out for me, but I can take care of myself.”
“That man is not who you think he is, Heather,” he warns thickly, but then cool air fills the space in front of me as another set of hands spirits me away.
“Hi, there,” a man with a lyrically sweet voice greets me.
Time blurs as I’m spun to another. “What’s your name?”
“Dance with me, beautiful.”
More hands grab me, spinning me like a top between them.
“Where are you from?”
“Chiquita, if you choose me, I’ll show you the time of your life.”
My stomach lurches as my old friend panic rises from the recesses of my mind. I gasp for air with each set of hands that touch me.
“Help,” I whisper. That niggling sensation that’s trailing from neck to gut blooms until my ears fill with static. “I can’t breathe.”
Nausea makes my mouth water while I fight to keep the alcohol in my stomach.
Seconds from yanking off the blindfold, warm, calloused hands brace my shoulders, and I hear an unfaltering, “I’ve got you.”
“Marcus,” I exhale, hooking my fingers around his forearms.
Instantaneous relief becomes a balm for my frayed nerves.
The melodic voices of men singing drunkenly mingles with the music as he protectively cups a hand over the back of my neck and guides me into him. His chin brushes my temple, teasing my skin with the subtle roughness of beard stubble. “Say the word, and we’ll get out of here.”
Like a glutton, I inhale the cinnamon and clove scent I’ve come to associate with him until I’m finally able to speak.
“N-no, I want to stay.” Still sightless, I turn my cheek into the soft material of his shirt while listening to the pounding cadence of his heart. “With you.”
He swipes his thumb down my spine in long, soothing strokes, eliciting waves of desire that peak my nipples against my thin undershirt. “Careful. You say things like that and I might start to think you like me.”
I’ve unintentionally become addicted to these simple pleasures. The temptation of his sensuous mouth, the way he smirks when I take a stab at him, and the tips of those long fingers always testing the limits of my boundaries.
He reaches up to untie the blindfold and when I blink the world back into view, those eyes, dark blue in the night, hold promise after promise of what’s to come.
If only I take the leap.
“Tolerate,” I say as he stuffs the material into his pocket. “The word you were looking for istolerate.”
God, he’s beautiful when he laughs like that, his shoulders relaxed and teeth flashing.
“Why don’t youtolerateone more dance with me, then?”
I flick a wary glance at the men and women still twirling and shifting in the center of the circle.
“Not here.” Marcus pinches the tip of my chin between his thumb and forefinger, returning my attention to him. “There’s something I’d like to show you.”
I pause only a moment to look back at Momma G, who wears a knowing smile. The woman raises her cup to me, exactly as I had to Penelope, and then the world blurs as we move.
