Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“Just finding my way back to the dance floor. Looks like I need to backtrack.”
The man smiled. There were nuts in his teeth. Cashews, maybe. When he popped another handful into his mouth, I noted the snake tattoo curving down his arm. It flexed as the man turned to the office door and locked it.
Looked like I wouldn’t be scoping out the office that night.
I could have left the club then since Ruby’s tour was over and I’d poked around as much as I could. The plan was to compare notes the next morning, since she’d told me Eli would be away so there was no point stopping by his place. But the music was lively, the crowd was wild, and the sight of Ruby was magnetic. I was drawn to her and I couldn’t look away.
She danced near the small stage, her arms over her head, her hips swaying back and forth. The music shifted from pop to some sort of island tune, and with the floor-to-ceiling glass windows on this side of the club, she looked like she was in her element. Palm tree branches swayed beyond the glass, the ocean lapped the shore farther away, and Ruby seemed to embody the island beat, the lightness, the party of it all. Her blonde, wavy hair spilled down her back, and she danced like I imagined she might move underwater. Graceful, effortless, natural.
Huh. That was interesting.
Just last night when I bumped into her a few blocks away, she’d told me she couldn’t dance. Or was it that she didn’t dance? I wasn’t sure what she’d said exactly, only that it wasn’t true. She was hypnotic when she moved. It was impossible to look away, and I wasn’t the only one mesmerized.
I stood at the edge of the dance floor, eclipsed by the darkness of the purple lights overhead. I alternated between watching Ruby and keeping an eye on a trio of young guys, moving through the club in a predatory pack. They looked like college boys from the States. I didn’t like how they eyed the women on the dance floor, and I especially didn’t like the way they watched Ruby.
The blond one made his move, sauntering over to her and saying something way too close to her ear.
Oh, hell no.
I hadn’t planned to approach her in the club, but I found myself muscling through the packed dance floor to her and these visitors—Chad or Brad or whatever his name was. Because that shit was not going to fly.
When I reached her side, I not-so-casually dropped a hand onto her hip. She flinched at first and then seemed relieved when she saw it was me. Then she tensed again, probably wondering what had brought me to her side when we’d agreed to keep a distance—a distance that would be our cover. The less we were seen together, the better. But a few minutes by the darker edge of the stage, amid the huge crowd, was safe enough.
“Oh, hi,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the guy who’d been making a move before looking back to me. “I didn’t realize you were here.”
She sounded confused. Understandable. She searched my face for a sign something was amiss.
Something was definitely amiss. Dude-bro hadn’t gotten the message. I looked him in the eye and said distinctly, “Yep. Still here.”
The guy raised no-offense hands and wisely walked back to his friends. Mission accomplished.
Ruby turned to face me. “Is everything okay? Did you find something?” She raised her eyes to the second floor, as if I didn’t know where she meant.
“Tell you later.”
Her brow knitted then her confusion cleared and her lips parted in an O of understanding. “You mean, you came over here just because that guy was hitting on me?”
“I did. A woman like you doesn’t need a frat boy,” I said.
She arched an eyebrow. “And what does a woman like me need?”
I was mere millimeters from her, my head full of her coconut scent and the memory of how her skin had tasted and how wet she’d been when I’d touched her, how much she’d arched her back when she came, how she’d said my name into the night. This woman was scrambling my brain. She was knocking down my walls without even trying. Digging my thumb into her hip, I answered, “You need someone who knows how to savor you.”
That earned me a seductive smile. She raised her chin as the music pulsed from the stage. “Savoring is your specialty, I take it?”
I hadn’t cut across the floor to flirt, but being this close to her short-circuited my brain. “It’s my favorite hobby,” I said, letting go of her hip so my fingers could drift across the fabric of her dress. Her breath caught as I flicked her belly button right through the material. “I’d run my tongue across this ring, then properly kiss you all over. Every inch. That’s what you need. That’s what you deserve.”