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Our eyes locked, and his seemed to flash almost violet before they returned to a deep, alluring blue. His features were gorgeous, his chin was strong with a cleft, and his cheeks were chiseled in an empirical face.
His hair was more surfer boy than private college, and his shoulders were a rival to Rome’s. He was familiar, and I could almost feel what his lips would be like crushing mine. I could practically taste cigarette smoke and whiskey clinging to his tongue.
He finally lifted an eyebrow as a slow, cocky smile crept across his face. His full lips puckered into an O, and he blew me a kiss.
I jumped in my seat as if an electric jolt hit the base of my spine, and I turned my head to focus on what Alexander was saying.
“So I told him you’d better give me the ten iron I asked for, or I’ll beat you to death with this chipper,” he droned to his table of captive listeners. Everybody burst into dutiful laughter as he finished his story, and I joined them. My tittering sounded brittle and phony in my ears, but it pleased Alexander. That’s all that mattered.
When I had a moment, I snuck another peek at the man in the back of the room and caught him still looking at me. His hooded gaze felt heavy and hot as if he carried every promise and intent in it. As if he promised me a night of unbridled passion if I would just give in.
But I felt like I had given in many times. I felt like I could trace the path along his body where my tongue had trailed, where my fingers and teased, and where I’d dragged him deep inside me.
“Is there something wrong with Luke?” Rome asked his voice deep and melodic in my ear. Alexander was deep in discussion with Victoria. It seemed pretty intimate, and they were distracted by their words.
“I don’t know who that is,” I said, bristling at his comment.
“The guy you’re eye fucking right in front of your fiancé,” Rome said with a deep growl. “You might want to rein it in, princess or Alexander will have you strung up over it.”
“Look at him with Victoria,” I said and shrugged. “It seems like fair play, is all.”
“You don’t want to playanygame with a Remington,” he warned. “You’ll always lose. The entire universe has been bought and paid for by them. So even when you think you’re winning, you will lose.”
“I think you’re being very dramatic,” I replied and sniffed with a haughty tone. “I think you don’t know what could happen when dealing with somebody like me.”
“And I think you’re being fucking naïve,” Rome said, clutching my arm in his massive grip. “You need to seriously fucking get a clue about your place here. I don’t know what the fuck the coma did, but if you keep this up, you’re going to wish you’d stayed in the dark.”
“How did you know about the dark?” I asked, and I jerked my arm away. “Who told you about that?”
“I took a guess,” he said. “You seem different, that’s all. I know I like it, but I worry about you.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m pretty sure I can handle myself now,” I replied.
I scanned the tables one more time and caught Harlow’s eye this time. She nodded at me, just a tilt of her chin in my direction, but it was a powerful pull.
She was my people, of that I was convinced. Over here with the Uppers, the only one I felt connected to was Rome. But he was a stranger and didn’t fit the image I had in my mind.
I resigned myself to finishing my dinner duties with Alexander, though, because no matter what I felt or who I preferred to be around, Rome was right about one thing.
Alexander Remington could make me disappear.
I could feel deep in my bones and at the heart of my being.
He was a powerful man with powerful connections, and my job was to make sure I didn’t piss him off.
But with the darkness came defiance that was most certainly going to get me into trouble.
I couldn’t help but fall.
CHAPTER6
I wentto bed hungry that night. I went to bed dreaming of quinoa salad and seitan in a vegan wrap. The thought of eating bloody meat sickened me, and I couldn’t fathom how that had been my favorite meal.
Perhaps the violence of my injuries had made me soft towards the violence of others, especially animals.
“Did I have a cat here?” I asked Victoria the next day. We were walking to breakfast together, our matching pastel outfits and strappy sandals easing her anxieties that I was a different person than the Willow she’d once known.
“No, there aren’t any animals,” she said. “Not even pests. They’re cautious. Some of the Uppers have allergies, and it’s not fair to them.”
