AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It means exactly what I said. Okay. No more, no less.”
I had come to understand and accept—for the most part—River’s brusque nature, but tonight wasn’t the night for it. Maybe it was the buzz of the vodka as it hit my system making it worse, but her response irritated the shit out of me. If I didn’t get some space, I was going to say something I’d regret.
“Fine.” Her brows rose, but she didn’t try to stop me when I walked away. She knew it wasn’t fine. When was anything ever “fine” when someone said it was?
Frustrated at the turn the night had taken—once again thanks to Varon, the Asshole—I drained my drink far too quickly. Seeing the bar was free of said asshole, I made a quick pit stop to refresh my drink.
I was even freer with the vodka this time, but I needed liquid fortification to keep my mood from plummeting. I’d toss this one back and then go find Rocky and Jesse. Last I’d seen them, they were holding up a wall and watching our fellow students let go of their inhibitions. I intended to do the same and encourage them to join me.
When my second drink was gone, I ensured my cup made it into the garbage before heading into the crowd. Bumped from all sides, it was tricky to keep my balance despite my lack of heels. I scanned the edges of the crowd but couldn’t spot the faces I was looking for.
The pleasant buzz of the vodka warmed my veins, and some of the frustration that had been riding me all evening began to melt away. All I wanted was to find my friends and dance the rest of the night away, to enjoy this single night of freedom from my new life.
The life I’d neither wanted nor asked for.
Deep, thumping bass surged through me in time with my heartbeat, vibrating through my bones and out through limbs with every step. Lightness filled my brain, heavy worries floating freely instead of dragging me down with constant worry.
Even the stench of alcohol in the air, seeping from pores and slicking the floor from spilled drinks, couldn’t bring me back down.
My equilibrium abruptly disappeared, and I had to rethink that. Maybe the alcohol could bring me down, in a very literal sense.
It took a second to register through my fuzzy thoughts that a pair of hands had landed on my hips and tugged me backward. I toppled into a body, my curls falling forward into my face and blocking my peripheral vision. An arm banded around my waist, keeping me snug against the body behind me.
I stiffened for a beat before tension leaked out of my muscles. The hold was a little too tight, but I wanted to dance, and now I had a partner. Against my initial instinct to wriggle free, I started to roll my hips in time with the rhythmic bass.
Hands lifted over my head, I swayed to the beat, letting the music wash over me and enhance my buzz. The taste of freedom after months of restriction was as intoxicating as the alcohol, and my eyes fell closed as I savored it.
No pressure to learn to control my power. No lying boyfriends or fear of letting them into my heart so they could betray me.
Just me, the music, and the pleasant tingle of a couple drinks loosening the knot of stress that lived in my gut. Not to mention the warm body moving with mine.
The grip around my waist was still a little too intense, and when I tried to turn to face my captor, it tightened even more. A whoosh of breath escaped my lungs.
Wrong. It felt completely wrong, the constricting hold and the unfamiliar scent. I wriggled harder to get away, but that only served to grind my hips against my now unwanted dance partner. My head rushed when he spun me in his arms and I was met with a face that made me sicker than the swirling liquor in my stomach.
“Hey, pretty girl.”
Heath Connor leered down at me with a repugnant facsimile of a smile. His boldness at daring to come near me, much less touch me after I’d unintentionally killed him the night I met him, stunned me into inaction.
“Have you missed me?” The stench of whiskey on his breath nauseated me, and I swallowed back my revulsion along with a surge of bile.
“Get your fucking hands off of me,” I grated, not wanting to make a scene. Plus, the more under control I kept my temper, the less likely I’d wither his ass again, this time in full view of at least a hundred mortals.
No chance of Varon miraculously getting me out of it this time.
“You didn’t seem to have a problem with it when you were grinding that juicy ass against me. C’mon, let’s see what you can do.”
Enough.
I planted my hands against his chest and shoved, but he was stronger than he looked. I should have remembered that. He budged the slightest bit, but I didn’t break his hold. The arm around my waist remained viselike while his free hand took a similar hold on my wrist.
I yelped in pain, pulling back my own free hand in preparation to plow it into his jaw, but suddenly I was free and wrapped in a different set of arms. These were familiar and comforting. Darrio’s scent filled my nostrils, and I sagged into his hold.
Varon had the blond son of a bitch in a one-handed grip, dragging him out of the loft so fast the other man’s heels scrabbled uselessly against the wood floor.
“Are you alright, Red?” Darrio ran his hands over my body, checking for injury. His gentle touch was the antithesis of Heath’s rough handling of me, and every swipe of his skin against mine sent a new frisson of pleasure through me.
It’s the alcohol, I told myself. It had nothing to do with how badly I wanted him.
