Poison - Jade West Page 0,69

fucking hurt.”

She kissed me, and it was soft, but it said more than a thousand words. The way she took breaths, and the way her body pressed so tight to mine, and the way she ran her hand down my tie with a grin once she pulled away.

“You look great,” she told me. “I love it.”

“You look incredible,” I told her back. “I love you.”

We didn’t head into the nightlife straight away, just walked closer to the fountain and hovered there. Her eyes were fixed on the statue at the top, and they were glittering.

“Gonna make a wish?” I asked, but she shook her head.

“Just did before you arrived.”

I turned her face to mine. “And what did you wish for?”

“The impossible,” she told me. “And how about you? Going to make a wish this time? I’ve got a coin.”

I shook my head, holding on to my mantra.

“The universe isn’t responsible for my road ahead, Anna. I am.”

“Then let’s try to make it a good one,” she whispered.

We took it slowly as we walked hand in hand through to Oscars, pointing out the constellations overhead, just like we had a thousand times before.

Orion, and Sirius, and where’s the Big Dipper?

Is that Venus? Yeah, that’s Venus.

I hadn’t expected Anna to make even the slightest social event out of our evening out in public. It hadn’t occurred to me for a second that anyone on this whole planet would want to join us. But I was wrong.

There was a small crowd waiting at the bar that she walked right up to. She held me tight to her side as she made the introductions, and there was a bloom of pride in her smile that took me aback.

I hadn’t seen anyone proud of me in years.

“Lucas, this is Lucia, and Stacey and Melissa from my office.”

I said hello to all three and they shook my hand, and behind them were Peter and Jamie from finance.

I said hi to them too.

Then we hit the social. I bought a round of drinks, but went steady on my beer. Still, one turned into two, and two turned to four, and the stilted introductory conversations morphed into laughter and office jokes and embarrassing stories between co-workers.

I soaked in every single one, grateful beyond belief just to have a single taste of normality with Anna on my arm.

She’d finished two proseccos by the time the girls wanted to move on to the dance floor, and nobody had said a word about her alcohol consumption. She was grinning up at me as they dived into the beats, wrapping me up in her arms all over again.

“Dance with me,” I told her, and she laughed.

“This isn’t your kitchen, Lucas. This isn’t bopping around with nobody watching. I haven’t danced out in public in years.”

“No,” I said. “It’s much better than bopping around with nobody watching. Live in the moment.”

She answered with a grin and I took her hand.

It was a stupid tunes night, retro pop and disco tracks blaring out loud. I led her on up and then spun her around, and she ground up against me through her giggles like we were the only ones in the room.

Fuck, it was classic. Songs that had us exploding with laughter as we grabbed each other and hit the beat.

Better the Devil You Know and Let’s Go Round Again and Love is a God Damn fucking Battlefield.

It felt like we danced for hours.

I don’t know when the fun and laughter turned into the sizzle of pure fucking lust burning deep. I don’t know when she started looking at me like she wanted to eat me alive, and I was growling back at her over the music with the promise that I was going to eat her up first.

I do know that we were at the side of the dance floor with my mouth hot and wet on hers while her friends were still partying, and I do know that I hitched her back against the wall between a few of the seating booths with quite a slam to pin her tight.

Oh, how she fucking laughed. She laughed so hard she clutched at her ribs and struggled to catch her breath.

She was staring me in the eyes, lipstick smeared across her lips from my kisses, when she told me just what the hell she was laughing about.

“It was here!” she said. “Oh my God, Lucas! This was what started this whole entire shit storm in the first place!”

I must have looked puzzled to hell,