Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
I give her another second. Enough room to choose. Enough room to pull away if that’s what she wants. She doesn’t. She just keeps looking at me with those green eyes, which have gone darker in the club lights, full of danger and invitation.
So, I kiss her.
No easing into it. No tentative brush of mouths that leaves room for either of us to pretend later it was accidental or harmless. I know better than to insult what’s been building between us by treading lightly. My hand tightens at her waist as I pull her against me and take her mouth the way I’ve been fantasizing about for weeks.
For one split second, she freezes.
Then she kisses me back. She gives in with a sound so soft I feel it more than hear it, and then her hand is in my hair and her body is flush against mine and every scrap of restraint I walked onto this floor with goes up in smoke. The kiss turns hot almost instantly, all open-mouthed, deep, and hungry in a way that makes the crowded dance floor disappear. I taste whatever she was drinking, something cold and citrus-sharp beneath the sweetness of her mouth.
I angle her slightly, putting my body between hers and the rest of the room on instinct. Her fingers curl harder at the back of my neck. Mine slide up the bare line of her back, feeling the heat of her skin and the tight little shiver that runs through her when I do.
She breaks the kiss first, but only enough to breathe. Her forehead nearly touches mine. I can feel the rush of her breath against my mouth. The room surges around us and all the blurred lights, music, and bodies disappear.
“Tell me to stop,” I say roughly.
Her eyes open. She looks wrecked already with her lips parted, face flushed, and all that sharp self-control shaken hard enough to show me the heat underneath. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
She shakes her head and it’s all the encouragement I need. I kiss her again, slower this time for all of half a second before she makes a small, desperate sound and I lose patience with slow altogether.
I force myself to keep one part of my mind clear even while everything else narrows to her mouth, her body, the way she moves against me. We can’t lose ourselves in the middle of the goddamn club. One paparazzi picture reaching Nico and this is over. Also, I’m dangerously close to getting arrested for public indecency.
Reluctantly, I pull back just enough to grab her hand and lead her off the dance floor. She doesn’t fight me and doesn’t hesitate. She follows until we’re at the edge of the crowd, where we can actually hear each other.
“Let’s go somewhere.” My voice comes out rougher than I intend. “Anywhere you want.”
“Okay,” she answers with a hint of mischief in her eyes. “Your place or mine?”
9
VALENTINA
Iagreed to go out tonight for one reason and one reason only, and it was not this.
It was not to end up pressed against Sebastian DeLuca in the middle of his nightclub with his hand firm on my waist and my body moving against his like I’ve lost every functioning thought I walked in with.
It was not to kiss him until I can barely remember my own name. It was definitely not to look up at him under flashing lights and think, with all the clarity of a woman making a terrible decision, that maybe I’ve been overcomplicating this from the start.
I came out tonight to get him out of my system. That was the whole point. Put on something hot, let Gia drag me somewhere loud, flirt a little, have a drink, remind myself that Los Angeles is full of attractive men who are not my brother’s best friend and do not make every bad instinct in my body sit up and beg.
Instead, the second Sebastian walked up to the bar and looked at me like that, every good intention I had dissolved.
Now I’m standing on the dance floor with my heart hammering against my ribs and my mouth still warm from the last kiss, and the worst part is I no longer remember why I thought this was such a catastrophically bad idea in the first place.
No, that’s not true. I remember. Nico. Common sense. The part of Sebastian’s business I don’t ask about and he doesn’t volunteer. He’s a walking red flag. He literally sets off sirens in my head.
But those thoughts are strangely far away while he’s standing this close. A thought strikes me so suddenly, so completely, that I nearly laugh. We can sleep together one time. That’s all it will take to get him out of my system. One time, and then this whole thing goes away. The gala is tomorrow, and after that I never have to see him again.