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She didn’t know I was the one putting my hands on her, or the one her luscious rear end was brushing up against as she moved. Did the woman truly not care who she was dancing with? Would she let any mongrel in this place put his hands on her?
9
NEVER
Unwind.That was what Lily told me I needed to do. Take a night, chill out, relax. But sitting in my apartment watching movies on my laptop was the last thing I wanted to do.
It wouldn’t relax me. All it would do was drive me up the goddamned wall and end with a heavy dose of guilt, because spending a Friday night watching movies and eating junk food was something Matty and I’d done a thousand times.
At the same time, she had a point. I needed to do something.
Every muscle in my body was wound as tight as a violin string, and after my disastrous encounter with Matty that afternoon, not to mention coming face-to-face with Lily’s gorgeous but terrifying tiger, a little downtime was in order.
Lily, bless her pushy little heart, stayed home. She was healing quickly from the wounds she’d sustained in the fight earlier in the day, but she was also spending a good amount of time sleeping.
So, I’d dragged Leo out with me. The mission was two-fold. The club was in a part of town known for its occult crowd, which meant we might run into Matty. Did I have any idea how the hell to handle another run-in with him? Nope. My brother wasn’t a badass on his own, but with the shadow driving the bus, he was a force. And not in a good way.
Four mojitos later, I had a pleasantly warm glow going. More than enough shine to take the edge off my mood and lower my inhibitions. I knew Leo was watching me dance, and I felt the moment he slid in behind me. He’d done this three times already, running off any guy who tried to snake into my space as I moved with the beat of the music, letting the thump of the bass wash everything away.
I danced, ignoring the way his hand crept under the hem of my top, barely brushing my hip above my jeans. It was a chaste move compared to the couples grinding around us, but that didn’t make it any less intimate. Luckily, I had just enough liquor in me to want that kind of intimacy.
His heat left, leaving my back open, and I breathed an unexpected sigh of relief. Craving closeness because I was tipsy and missing the guy I really wanted was not a great way to handle Leo’s attention.
I knew that.
Just like I knew I would have to talk to him in the morning, when my mind had better control over my body.
Then that dominating body heat returned, only it felt different. My blood warmed in response, and when his hand returned to my hip, to the same place it’d been before, his touch sent a current of lust rippling across my middle.
Holy hell.
Maybe it was the extra rum in my mojitos, or maybe it was the music, but I caught myself leaning back into that touch without even realizing it. Those strong fingers dug into my hips, not stopping me or guiding me. More like he was anchoring himself to my body.
An image of Hook filled my mind, and his scent washed over me in a cruel trick of my tipsy mind. It wasn’t the first time I’d smelled his trademark leather and saltwater bouquet. I smelled that man every night in my dreams, and his scent lingered in my senses for a precious few seconds after I woke each morning before reality snatched it away.
It was a pathetic kind of torture because I really did miss him. Fiercely. I wasn’t about to apologize for that. In just a few days, he’d gotten under my skin in a way no one else ever had.
When that scent wrapped around me on the dance floor—whether it was real or imagined—I caved. I let myself pretend, for a moment, that it was Hook standing behind me as I moved. That it was his hand gripping my hip so possessively.
And now I had a new thing I would have to talk to Leo about later.
I wasn’t oblivious to the way he looked at me, or to the way he’d danced with me earlier. Longing lingered in his eyes, but for as tempting as the man was, my body just wasn’t responding to him.
Well, until now.
He leaned in closer, the heat of his chest spreading against my back as one of his hands came up and brushed the hair away from my neck. It felt way too good to stop that sensual touch, but when his lips brushed my ear, I recoiled.
How could something that felt so right make my heart lurch so violently?
Guilt and betrayal slammed through me. I twisted out of his grip, ready to read him the riot act for crossing that invisible line, but when I turned, I wasn’t looking at Leo.
All rational thought fled. I blinked repeatedly, but he was still there. Hook. Looking as hot as sin. Not to mention furious as fuck.
He was different, though. There were dark shadows under his eyes, painfully clear even in the limited light of the club, and he had a beard that looked like it was months in the making.
What the hell did the bartender put in my mojitos?
I closed my eyes for a beat and opened them again. “This is a trick, right?” It had to be. A combination of alcohol and stress and music and pulsing lights.
