Page 19 of Intrepid

“Whiskey and Coke.”

A Lullaby remix by Niykee Heaton kept a seductive beat as, eyes on his, I leaned forward and sipped his drink. I watched his tongue glide along the edge of his teeth, until I released his straw.

“You trying to get me in trouble, Sera?” He set the drink down on the nearby pedestal table, along with mine, and seized my arms, wrapping them around his neck.

“I just wanted a taste.” I spoke in a small voice that didn’t feel like my own. Far more sultry than I’d ever been able to pull off, as if he’d somehow hypnotized me into being someone else.

Staring down at me, he allowed his hips to move to the rhythm of the music, and holy hell, he could dance. Like he’d stripped at some point in his life. In fact, I’d have been happy to take a seat and watch him for the next hour. “And do you like it?”

A loaded question, but one I had no problem entertaining. “Very much. I thought you couldn’t dance.”

The way he rolled his hips, beating against mine, told me sex with him would probably be unforgettable. Dirty and sweaty. The kind of sex that lasted all night, like those one-night stands women reminisced about when they got older and nothing seemed to measure up.

“I said I don’t dance. As a general rule. But just like that drink, I seem to break the rules when I’m around you.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I smiled, echoing his words from before.

“I can give you more than just a taste.” His words cast a shiver down my spine, the suggestion rendering me weak in the knees.

“I doubt that.”

Because surely the guy didn’t do relationships, and if he did, it would probably be with someone who matched him, someone who had way more experience in the club life. Not some nerdy Criminal Justice major, whose idea of a perfect weekend was sketching porn stills, binge reading romance novels, or watching all the Harry Potter movies.

If I had to guess, he probably got bored with the idea of the same girl every night.

He smirked, his hand gripping tight to the small of my back. “Just remember it’s on the table.”

I wanted to ask him why he was so forward with me, when Neveah claimed she’d had to coax him into making a move, but a part of me didn’t care. It was all for fun, nothing more. Just harmless flirting. And flirting never killed anyone.

His hand slid up my thigh, hiking it over his hip, positioning himself for deeper thrusts until the bulge in his jeans hit my pathetically neglected core. His other hand slid along my arm, pinning me to the wall, hips circling against mine, and the telling hardness left me wondering if it was possible to orgasm while dry humping, because goddamn, it’d been way too long since anything other than my vibrator had knocked on that locked door. My whole body came alive, pleading for his lips and his hands, craving touch in a way I never had before.

“This is how we’d be. You and me.” The deep timber of his voice was just loud enough that he didn’t have to shout over the music, or maybe I’d just picked up on the vibrations it’d left in my chest, like Morse code through my body.

I swallowed hard, trying not to think of the others around us, who might bear witness to my false climax. “What happened to the other girl?”

Without answering, he gripped my waist and spun me around, so I faced the wall. His hands slid over my mid-section possessively, and that hardness in his jeans pressed into me from behind. A cold tingle skipped down my spine at the strength and command of his body.

Warm breath scattered across the back of my neck. “What other girl?”

“The one you wanted before,” I teased, and probably could’ve failed a Breathalyzer as lust drunk as I felt.

“I’m dancing with her.” His fingers snaked into mine, as the song slowed to an end, and he tugged me back against him, his strong arms enveloping me, making me feel small and delicate beside him.

An odd sensation swept over me, one I’d never entirely put much faith in, with as many times as I’d been burned in my life. A complete stranger, whose intentions I couldn’t even begin to tease out, had me feeling the kind of security that took years to build. As if I’d known him my whole life.

So wrong, my head battled, warning me not to get too caught up in the illusion. I’d been there before and knew all too well how fragile the threads of trust could be, how easily they could snap and flit out of reach. And the dark days that followed.

A buzz against my ass jerked me forward, and I tugged my phone from my back pocket, staring down at the text popped up on my screen.

An unknown number.

I want you back. Please. Don’t make me beg. Give me one more chance.

Dane.

“Fuck!” I wanted to chuck the phone against the wall. “I knew it wasn’t about an apology.” Shoving the phone back into my pocket, I wriggled out of Ty’s arms, the tension sliding back into my muscles. “Wish I knew how the hell the asshole got my number again.”

“Any guy who’s determined to have a woman will do whatever it takes.”