Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 84289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Tequila is helping, too.
I put a hand to his chest, just below my lips. He’s in a cream-colored collared shirt, and the material is fine and soft.
“Your heart’s beating fast,” I murmur near his ear.
I feel his chest move as he takes a deep breath. “Sometimes alcohol does that to me.”
“Is that your same excuse for this?”
I reach down and quickly brush my palm over his cock through his pants. It’s hard as a fucking rock for me, as expected.
He grips my wrist and shoves my palm away. “Christ, Niko, we’re in the middle of the room.”
I pretend to be a gentleman and take my hand away before anyone in the crowd around us sees.
Part of me can barely believe I’m doing any of this.
I need to be here.
At this party.
And somehow, my rage was stoked even further when I saw some stranger’s lips on my boyfriend’s skin. My not-boyfriend. Whether this is fake or not, I don’t give a fuck. I’m not letting the whole world see that I’d let something or someone I care about be taken like that.
Or maybe I’m just as crazy as Ollie always thought I was.
A shadow, like smoke.
Overtaking everything until I can barely breathe.
I move up further, sucking on his earlobe then giving that a bite, too.
“I’m not yours, and we both know it,” he protests, but I feel him leaning into my body anyway. “What’s with you?”
“Had a bad fucking evening. Need something to claim. You’re here.”
He exhales as I kiss the spot just below his ear. “What made your night bad?”
“Don’t want to talk about it.”
“Tough shit. I want to hear about it, and you’re up in my fucking business right now.”
“Ollie, if you want people to think something’s happening between us, we have to do things in public. And ideally, you should stay off your knees for other men at parties. Understand?”
“It was just a stupid drinking game.”
I slide my hand up his throat, holding it there for a moment.
Like a collar.
He looks so good like that.
“You’d like how this looks,” I murmur at him. “My tattoos look good around your neck. Want a picture of it?”
My cock throbs.
Oliver’s eyes scan my face, looking me over like he’s studying me, deciding how he should react to my hand being on his neck.
I don’t bother trying to hide how much I’m enjoying it. I give it a little squeeze before sliding my hand away, moving my fingertips down to his palm. I swirl my fingertips over his open hand for a moment, and he watches the tattoo on the back of my hand as I move.
I don’t understand how Oliver can be so innocent sometimes.
Innocent, but fucking filthy underneath.
Really would warm my heart if it wasn’t already so cold.
I look around the party for a moment, and already it seems like a repeat of the first night I arrived at Onyx House: more and more people filtering into the room, the lights getting lower, the music getting louder.
I’m sure many people have already seen us getting cozy together on the couch.
But he’s still looking at me, blinking with those long lashes, halfway drunk and probably still waiting for some sort of answer out of me.
Fine.
Just a little bit of mercy for you.
“The reason I was late is because my cousin needed help with an issue.”
He frowns at me.
His face really is pretty, and it’s even more obvious when I’m this close to him.
Pretty toy.
Nice that I get to play with you ‘til we’re done with each other.
“Is Sevan okay?” he asks.
I frown and look away, watching a girl grind up against a guy in the corner of the room. “He’s okay for now. My ex dropped him off a stupid fucking psychotic gift, though, just like he did to us with the skeleton shit a couple of weeks ago.”
“The fuck? What did Sevan find?”
“A dagger.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“It was plastic. A theater prop, painted silver. But knowing my ex… he’s trying to drop some kind of symbol. And I hate whatever that fucking symbol is. Probably thinks he’s being clever, since Sevan is in Double Daggers.”
“Are you sure Sevan is going to be safe tonight?”
“He’s safe. I did something I didn’t want to do, and I called Callum’s neighbor. She’s a heinous woman, but she assured me that Callum’s out in his hot tub, nowhere near here anymore. We’re okay. For now.”
“I want to help,” he tells me. “We can get Roman and his cousins to help, too.”
I pull in a long breath. “I need to forget. I’m going to need you to please talk about anything else, do anything else rather than think about that piece of shit.”
“Fine. But I want you to tell me next time something like that happens.”
I stand up, pulling my hands away from him, and run my hands through my hair. When I glance back down at him on the sofa, I almost pounce on him again on sight alone.