All Chapters of DANGEROUS LOVE : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The club pulsed with a heartbeat of its own — bass thick enough to feel in the ribs, light bleeding blue and violet across a hundred restless faces. It was the kind of night the city swallowed whole, where secrets and sin sat at the same table and nobody asked questions.Lance Ivory hadn't meant to be the center of attention. He rarely did. But it happened anyway, the way it always did — a rose tucked behind his ear, dark hair falling into eyes that looked bored with the whole world, and a body draped carelessly over a velvet booth like he owned the room. Beside him, Van Hert laughed at something Lance had said, the two of them tangled up in that easy, reckless kind of fun that only came after the third drink.That was when the stranger approached."Hey, beauty~" the man crooned, sliding into the space beside their table like he'd been invited.Lance's expression didn't so much shift as *sag*, a flat, exhausted little grimace crossing his face before he could stop it. He didn't even b

"I will be back," Lance announced again, the words slurring softly at the edges, more promise to himself than to anyone listening."Let me co—" Van started, already half out of his seat."Stay here. I will be back," Lance said, waving him off with the loose, unbothered confidence of a man who had no idea how unsteady his own feet had become. He was gone before Van could argue, swallowed into the shifting crowd of the club.The lights blurred into long streaks of color the further he walked. The bass no longer felt like music so much as a second pulse layered over his own, and somewhere between one step and the next, Lance realized he had absolutely no idea where he was going."...uh... I'm lost," he murmured to himself, thoughts moving thick and slow, tangled up in gin and noise."Wher—" He never finished the word.His foot caught on nothing at all — the simple, humiliating betrayal of balance too many drinks had promised him and he pitched forward, already bracing for the impact of

The paper note sat crumpled in Lance's fist, the words on it still burning somewhere behind his composure. *Let's date, sweetheart.*"I did," Borden Frost said again, unbothered by the silence stretching across the lecture hall, his smirk widening as thirty pairs of eyes swung between him and the man at the front of the room. "So, what's your answer?"Lance didn't dignify it with hesitation. He tore the note cleanly in half, then in half again, and dropped the pieces into the small bin beside his desk with the same detached efficiency he might have used to correct a spelling error. "Focus on your studies, kid.""I'm not a kid," Borden said, leaning back in his seat with the lazy confidence of someone who had never once heard the word *no* and meant to keep it that way. "I'm old enough to date you. So — let's date, professor."A ripple of murmurs swept the room, students glancing between the two of them with the barely restrained delight of people watching a car crash unfold in slow mo

"So the terms are settled," Elison said, scanning the last of the documents spread across the car's center console. "Send the finalized draft." "Ok then," Azhael replied, already tapping through his phone. "I'll forward it to them." "Su—" Elison started, cut off mid-word as his phone began to ring against the leather seat. He answered without checking the screen. "Hello?" "Brother, where are you?" Quinn's voice came through bright and impatient, the particular tone she reserved exclusively for interrupting his workday. "On my way," he said, glancing out the tinted window at the passing streets. "Why?" "Can you please get me my favorite drink?" she asked, all sugar and expectation. "...Quinn, get it yourself," Elison said flatly, already predicting how this conversation would end regardless of his answer. "Please, brotherrrr," she wheedled, drawing the word out with practiced skill. "Just a latte. Nothing else." "Thank you, brother, I love you," she added before he could refus

*The wedding day.*Lance woke before his alarm, staring at the ceiling of his childhood bedroom for exactly three seconds before the reality of it crashed over him all at once."OH MY FUCKING GOD, TODAY IS THE DAY," he screamed, loud enough to rattle the windows."STOP SCREAMING," Van shouted back from somewhere down the hall, though the effort was clearly wasted."I'm scared," Lance admitted, voice dropping several octaves from panic to something smaller."Run away," Van suggested, unhelpfully cheerful."This idiot," Lance muttered, though he couldn't quite manage a laugh. "I'm scared because I'm going to see my husband today — for the first time."---"I'm also scared for the guy," Van said later, watching Lance pace a groove into the carpet. "Will he even be able to handle your dramatic ass?""....I'm not that dramatic," Lance said, wounded."Oh, yeah," Van said, grinning, entirely unconvinced."*Enters,*" Ruby announced, sweeping into the room with a garment bag draped over one ar