think. Be alone again. Be the kind of person who trusts herself enough to never let any person control her.
Smile stretching wider, I sway some more, taking a sloppy sip of my drink because I’ve already had too much and should probably dump the rest. But it’s too enjoyable, this moment, this freedom.
Ari was right about that as well. I’m truly free in moments when it’s just me and the music, the world fading off into a blur that carries no importance or meaning.
The lights of the city are a pulse against the window, flickering and flashing, the music pounding, my body moving in shadow where the lights don’t touch me.
When I spin as the chorus of the song repeats again, I open my eyes and stop in place, the rapid rate of my pulse beating like a drum in my throat.
Ari leans against the kitchen counter like a predator on the hunt. With his strong arms crossed over his chest, and one ankle crossed over the other, his grey eyes that see everything are locked on me with enough heat behind them to melt a glacier.
Dammit, I hate how he does that. Moves without me seeing him.
How long has he been standing there?
Dressed in his typical black on black, a t-shirt and jeans in a casual look I rarely see with him, Ari’s mouth is pulled into a smirk that promises pleasure and pain, his stare so focused on me that I can’t breathe.
The first thought in my head is to wonder how many times he’s stood just like that on nights when I had no idea who he was, watching me silently just like now.
A shiver runs down my body. Not because it scares me. But because of how much I like it.
So, I do what the old Adeline would have done...I dance to tease him, dance to seduce him, dance to lure him over like I used to do to guys in the clubs. I pretend I don’t see him, don’t want him, that I’m too good for him anyhow.
Setting my drink on a nearby table, I sway my hips and run my hands through my hair, my body moving in time with the fast tempo, my feet inching back until the cool surface of the window is against my back.
I shimmy against it, hips rolling, my ass pressed tight against the glass.
Ari doesn’t move from his spot in the shadow, he just keeps watching me with an unreadable expression on his face.
It’s insane how much this turns me on. I can feel his eyes everywhere, my body trapped by a focused grey stare that I can’t hide from.
Not that I want to.
Not anymore.
Not when I realize how this man loves the person I am and has fought to give her back to me.
The song ends and another begins. The Package by A Perfect Circle, another from an album that will always be my favorite. He must have the entire thing on this list, a part of me he’d stolen and kept safe until I was ready to take it back.
I stop dancing, the music and lyrics touching me deep inside, so perfect for the person staring at me now like the darkest of demons who’d protected me from all the others.
Ari truly is the devil.
In everything he does.
He moves suddenly, his powerful yet graceful stride eating the distance between us, his hands cupping my face as he leans down to claim my mouth with his, a violent, aggressive kiss that holds nothing back, a mess of teeth and lips and tongue.
I’m possessed by the hunger vibrating beneath his skin, Poor Little Adeline, a girl once lost until found by him.
A growl erupts in his chest just as my hands reach up to slide over the back of his neck.
He breaks the kiss, tugs my wrists to pull my arms down and spins me, my cheek and chest pressed to the glass as his lips run down the line of my neck, breath hot, hands forceful as he shoves my shorts and panties from my hips to let them slide down my legs.
Fingers skate up my stomach to palm my breast, and I kick the shorts off my feet as his mouth comes to my ear.
“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve watched you dance and wished I could fuck you right there in front of everybody? Just splay you open and force my body between your legs.”
I tremble at the deep tone of his