Chapter 6

RAE

I didn’t know why I still walked towards the VIP stairs when he looked so furious. My head was tingling like crazy and I was uneasy, but I couldn’t control myself. What if my dream had been more of a premonition? Somehow the universe had put this man in my path, one who melted my panties despite the hatred in his eyes. 

It had to be a vision of sorts. I had the stupid sixth sense that no one else seemed to have, so what if I could also do weird shit like that? 

How else could I explain seeing this man in my dream? Even the overwhelming attraction was the same. My body was on fire like I had to have him or I’d explode. 

The security at the bottom of the stairs let me through because Vickie was a regular up there. For those moments while I couldn’t see the angry stranger, my heart hammered and I became anxious. I didn’t want to acknowledge that I hoped he knew me from before. I'd hoped for the same thing many times over the past six years but disappointment always crushed my stupid heart. Hope was a dangerous thing.

But I held my breath until I was at the top of the stairs. I walked past the couples intertwined in dark corners against the walls. Past the couples or groups on the couches and the ones sneaking off to the back rooms. I held my breath until I could see him again.

The stranger was leaning against the balcony rail, his eyes on me as if he had been waiting for me, too. 

I couldn’t stop the smile forming on my lips. Finally. Finally, I felt alive again and this man was my saving grace. The anger was gone from his eyes but the fire remained. I could feel it across the room. He had to know me to look at me like that. Was he my husband? A boyfriend? A cousin? Dear God, anything but a cousin. The things I imagined in my head as I walked to him were not meant to be done to cousins. 

He straightened to his full height. He was just as tall as in the dream, and the shoulders just as broad. If I was to strip him naked, I bet he’d have the same tattoos. 

The thought of having him naked caused an inferno inside me. I was burning up. It wasn’t my imagination because I felt sweat dripping down my face. 

Great first impression, Rae. Get it together.

I wiped the sweat off before I stopped in front of him.

“Hi,” I whispered. 

My throat closed up. I cleared it and tried again because I didn’t want to look like an idiot in his eyes. I didn’t want him to brush me off as an insignificant mousy girl.

“Hi,” I called out.

Too loud. Fuck. Now I looked crazy.

I cleared my throat and looked away from his piercing gaze. Did his eyes have to be so perfect?

“Do you come here often?”

I cringed and didn’t dare look at him after that line. That had to be the cheesiest pick-up line in the history of pick-up lines. I might as well just give up and go home to hide under my covers. I had spoken three times, and the man had not said a word. If that didn’t mean ‘fuck off’, then I don’t know what did.

But I didn’t move because my body screamed to stay close and my head buzzed like I was on something. I couldn't tell if it was the tingles or if I was getting heady from being too close to him. 

He remained quiet for too long. That wasn't what someone interested in a person would do. I had read him wrong in the first place. That anger in his eyes was real but the butterflies were entirely one-sided. I forced myself to look back at him, pretend to be confident, and get my dignity back.   

“Sorry,” I said, smiling, and turned away from him. 

He was way out of my league, anyway. If Vickie saw him, she would have no problem conquering that mountain. She’d probably have him in one of the rooms in less than a minute. The thought left a sour taste in my mouth that almost made me turn back to him and demand he didn’t meet any other girl. But I forced my feet to start moving. Those were crazy thoughts to have for a stranger. If he’d known me, that would have been the first thing he’d have said.

I’d only taken a few steps when someone grabbed my arm. Lightning struck my core. There was no other way to explain the overwhelming sparks. My feet stopped working and I stumbled. I would have fallen flat on my face if a strong arm hadn’t gone around my chest to stop me. I knew who it was without looking. My body knew who it was. I was no longer overheating; the inferno had singed every part of me.

My breasts felt too sensitive against his arm, and I had already gone past the panty-melting stage. If he didn’t release me, I’d be a puddle at his feet. 

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

My eyes closed when his warm breath hit my skin. Even the voice was the same as in my dream, and I reacted the same way. I blamed the sexual frustration. Since waking up from the coma, I’d only almost done it once. It had been an experiment. I got a boyfriend only because I wanted to know if I was a virgin, but I got cold feet and got dumped the next day. So I went to a toy shop hidden away in town and found out by myself. 

I wasn’t a virgin, and my toys were still my only boyfriends to date.

Now it all came back to bite me in the ass because I had no idea what was happening. I moaned like a virgin and pushed back against him right in the middle of the VIP lounge. His arm tightened around me, and he lowered his head to the crook of my neck.

I almost came apart. What the hell was going on with me? I felt drunk and my only focus was this stranger’s body. He was so hard and muscular, and I wanted to lie on my back and spread my legs for him. He could do whatever he wanted with me. Even sniff me.

Sniff me? Was he—

I opened my eyes in case I had imagined it, but I hadn’t. I’d been sweating, and he was inhaling that shit like it didn't matter. The tip of his nose dragged up the side of my neck, and a low, throaty groan escaped his lips. My toes curled. That was the sexiest sound I had ever heard. 

We froze at the same time. And then, almost immediately, he moved his arms from my chest and stepped back. I turned around to face him because I had no idea why he had done that, but the hard look in his eyes stopped me from asking. 

He didn't explain himself. So why the hell had he stopped me from leaving in the first place? Just to sniff me?

I went to turn away again, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the back. I didn’t know whether to be excited or scared. I knew the things that happened in the back rooms. I’d never been there but Vickie never spared any of the details. Would it be my turn? Would I finally tell my friend about my own dirty one-night stand?

Thinking about it got me hot again. There was no fear about what I was about to do. How could there be when my mind had turned to mush the moment he had touched me?

The stranger pulled me down the hallway, and I half-jogged behind him. He shoved open the first door, and the occupants didn’t even stop what they were doing. My cheeks heated up. I was no prude but I drew the line at voyeurism. I think. Maybe in my past life, I’d got off on that shit.

The second door was the same. Vickie was the centre of attention in that room; she had found her harem after all. She didn’t even look at me. 

When he finally found an empty room, he pulled me into it and immediately pressed me against the door as he shut it. His nose returned to my neck as he pressed his thigh between my legs. I moaned at the sweet pressure that set off fireworks in my head. 

“You’re driving me fucking crazy,” he whispered against my skin.

My whole body shivered. Maybe that was a mini-orgasm; I couldn’t be sure anymore. I couldn’t think straight with the heat of his body against me. And he smelled so good, not sweaty like I was. 

He moved, and just like that, I felt how hard he was in those jeans. And nothing else mattered except that.

Maybe he read my mind because he brought his lips down and devoured my lips. I’d been kissed before—many times. But I had never had a kiss that made me fall apart like that. I rubbed against him to ease the ache between my legs but that wasn’t enough. Like he read my mind again, he picked me up off my feet and wrapped my legs around him.

I’d never thought I would ever meet a man who could pick me up like I was a lightweight. His hands pushed up my tight dress and gripped my ass as he ground into me. I was lost. I exploded, and the most obscene sound left my lips as I came hard. I might have had a mini heart attack because my heart acted crazy, beating so hard as if it was dying. 

“Is that what you wanted?”

That voice brought me back to earth with a hard bump. I looked into his eyes and saw the anger in them again. How the hell had they gone back to that after what they had just done?

“Huh?”

“Is this what you do? Dress like that and throw yourself at any man?”

What the hell?

I shoved at his chest until he set me down. My head was clear now; it was more than clear. Did this man just insinuate that I was a slut?

“I can dress however I want and throw myself at the whole fucking club if I want to,” I snapped as I pulled my dress down. 

It was always the handsome ones. Why the hell had he gone and opened his mouth? My body was still humming but I was pissed off. And I was embarrassed. I didn’t do shit like this, but now this would always be his first impression of me.

“Try it.”

It sounded like a threat. I looked up and my head tingled. It had tingled the whole time since I’d laid my eyes on him, but I had ignored it. This man was bad news- I should have run out of the club instead of going to the VIP balcony. 

I shoved at him until there was some space between us and turned to open the door. His hand shot past my head and slammed it back shut. My breath hitched.

“What game are you playing?” he asked. 

“No games. I don’t have time to waste on a man like you,” I snapped.

That was always my strategy when I was nervous. My mouth usually got me into more trouble. We were alone; nobody would hear me above the noise in the club if I screamed. 

But the man moved his hand as if I had burned him, and I didn’t waste another second in his company. 

Lesson learned. I would trust the tingles from now on. 

I left the club without looking back, with my body still calling out for the stranger and my panties soaking wet. I didn’t remember Vickie until I had showered and slipped into bed.