pass a couple at the bottom, shoving their tongues down one another’s throats and get this moment of white-hot envy that I’m not expecting.
At the top, I wander over to the railing where I have an excellent view of the dance floor below. I watch Vandy and Caroline awkwardly shimmying with one another. Buck leans against a beam, eyes scanning the room, like he’s looking for someone. Suddenly his expression changes and he straightens. I follow his gaze to a girl across the room. Josie. Target acquired.
I go to take a sip from my drink, but it’s suddenly snatched away.
“Trying to get me arrested again?”
A chill runs down my spine, but I refuse to turn at and look at him. I don’t need to. I know Heston’s voice better than I’d ever admit.
“What are you talking about?” I wonder, sounding bored.
I feel him move closer, his body sliding up right behind me. “Me, giving liquor to a person underage.”
My heart hammers at the feel of him so close. “Then it’s a good thing the bartender gave it to me, not you.”
I can hear him taking a sip of the drink, forearm brushing my shoulder as he sets his down on the nearby table. “The owner is the one who’ll get the citation, though.”
“And?” It takes me a long moment to really understand. When I finally do, a sour laugh escapes me. “Of course. Of course you own Underworld. How stupid of me to think I could go anywhere in this town without you lording yourself over it.”
He ignores that, peering over my shoulder. “Brought your girls, huh? It looks like they’re having fun.” His fingers push my hair aside and graze my neck, making me shiver. “I wonder what they would think if they knew what we’ve been doing?”
I try to ignore the way my pulse is fluttering. The way my legs feel like jelly at the feel of his breath against my skin. The way a lightning bolt of want shoots down my spine, right to my center. “You mean, the fact that you’ve been blackmailing me and using your position of authority to force me into doing things?” I glance back and fuck, he’s so good-looking it hurts. “I doubt they’d be surprised.”
“I’m talking about how much you like it.” The pads of his fingers trail down my back. His voice is a rough rumble in my ear. “How wet you probably already are.”
“I told you no,” I say, fighting the tremor running through my body. “It’s not what I want. You’re not what I want.”
“No?” He pulls at the hem of my skirt and I feel the press of his hard erection against me. Down below, the song changes to something fast paced. I see a wide smile split Vandy’s sweet face. God, she’d be so disappointed in me—in this.
“I don’t get you, Little Red.” He ducks his head to my bare shoulder, soft lips dragging against the skin in a light kiss. “You want it so fucking bad. I can feel it. Why are you fighting this so hard? Is it the Devil? The one who gave you that mark?” He makes a low, disapproving sound that shoots straight to my pussy. “He’s all wrong for you. He let you come here like this, so desperate for dick that you’re shaking. Christ, look at you, trembling for me.”
“Because I hate you. I hate everything about you.”
“Not everything,” he responds, lips finding a particularly sensitive patch of skin below my ear. “Not the way I make you feel.”
Breathing low and shallow, I say, “I especially hate that.” But he can’t hear me. It’s barely a whisper, already carried away by the beat of the music, lost to the ether.
“All I need is a yes.” His hand comes down on my thigh, knuckles grazing the skin beneath my dress. “Just say yes and you can have it. Who knows? Maybe you’ll fuck yourself out of wanting this so much. Don’t you want to find out?” His voice is wicked, far too full of the awareness that I’m weak here.
And I am. Weak. Turning his words over in my head, even though I don’t want to. Thinking about how he’s right—that Heston is evil, but somehow, he knows me. He knows I need it. He knows the exact way I’d talk myself into it. A means to an end.
He knows his lips against the shell of my ear will make my breath hitch.
“Say I did,” I rasp out, lights