Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
“Shut it,” I told her.
She giggled, then she softened when she fully looked at me. “I think it’s wonderful, Raven. I saw what was in your eyes the first time I met you both, and I’m really glad the two of you have clearly made your way to each other.”
She let the innuendo wind into the last.
Everyone laughed.
“All of you, shut it.” I pointed around the group as a feeling of lightness swept through me.
So good.
So right.
And that only amplified tenfold when the DJ switched the song. The band had long since finished playing, and now the dark beat filled the murky club.
Charleigh knew it was my favorite, and she grabbed my hand. “All right, everyone on the dance floor. Time to shake all those hot booties.”
Sending her a big grin, I touched my chest. “I really am rubbing off on you.”
She winked, and all of us wound onto the dance floor. It took all of five seconds to completely let go.
Each of us getting swept up in the hypnotic beat. To the energy that curled and twisted through the throbbing crowd.
We were all laughing and having the best time together for a few songs before, one by one, the guys joined their partners.
I didn’t want to keep dancing right next to them by myself like some kind of weirdo when they were all caught up in each other, so I edged away from them, dipping into the fray, and I let my eyes drop closed as my hips moved in time with the beat.
Lights strobed and darkness reigned.
Then a tidal wave of energy crashed against me.
Something so fierce that it nearly brought me to my knees.
My eyes flashed open to find Otto weaving through the crowd with a bottle of whiskey dangling from his fingers.
One destination in mind.
So ferociously gorgeous the ground trembled beneath my feet. All power and stealth and cocky arrogance. So sexy my entire body tremored as he approached, shivers raking across my flesh.
I tried to play off my reaction and threw my arms in the air the way I always would have done, voice shouting over the deafening decibel of the music. “You want to dance with me, Burly Bear?”
His aura swamped me as he slowly angled around me, demeanor predatory, feral as he edged up to my back.
Heat seared through me when his arm wrapped around my front and he hauled me against his hard, rigid frame. His words were gluttonous as he leaned in and murmured in my ear, “I can’t fuckin’ stay away.”
FIFTY-FIVE
OTTO
The entrancing beat of the dance music thrummed through the space.
Alluring.
Spellbinding.
Though it was this woman who lured me like a trap, only I was a willing prisoner.
Captivated.
Enthralled.
Hers.
“Thought I told you I didn’t want you to leave my side,” I grumbled at her ear. Panic had seized me when I’d looked up to find the table she and the rest of the girls had been huddled around empty, though it hadn’t taken but a blip to find the lot of them out on the dance floor, having the best time.
I didn’t want to rob her of that, but I couldn’t evade the dread after what had happened yesterday and the weeks leading up.
Some faceless psychopath out for blood.
I’d spent most of the night trying to keep distance between us because I wasn’t sure I trusted myself to be close to her, but I hadn’t been able to stand it for a second longer when the rest of the guys had paired up with their women and Raven had gotten swallowed by the throng.
I had to seek her out.
“I knew you’d come to me,” Raven murmured over the din, glancing back at me as she leaned her weight against me.
“I’ll always come to you, Moonflower.”
Couldn’t stand spending one more day without every-fucking-person in this place knowing she was mine, and I made the decision right then that I’d go to River tomorrow and confess it all, consequences be damned because loving Raven Tayte was worth any repercussion.
She writhed to the rhythm.
Seductive.
Provocative.
Lust barreled through my being, and a needy groan rolled up my throat that I buried at the side of her neck.
It wasn’t like we weren’t known to dance together, but this was wholly different.
The way I couldn’t get her close enough. The way our bodies moved together. Way my hand was splayed across her belly as I ground my hard cock against her ass.
I guided her deeper into the fringes, tucking us away at the far edge of the dance floor, beyond the reach of the strobes that flashed over the toiling crush. We were hidden in it, buried in the frenzied swell of bodies that raved in the ecstasy that boiled in the club.
Heat curled and climbed, and I edged closer to the flames, getting lost in the feel of her against me.