Page 71

I grab another one of the spicy shots and down it when he’s not looking. It tastes better now and burns alongside the excitement pounding through me.

“Showtime, trouble,” he says. “There’s only one chair. Think you can sit in my lap?”

The pulsing beat of the music reverberates in my breastbone. Makes my heart speed up. “Yes.” I can sense the people watching us from the back. I’m blocking their view of West… and giving them a good shot of my backless dress. “I’ll play the part if you’re prepared to get kneed again during our next lesson.”

His lips curve. “By you? Any day.”

He sits, legs spread, and puts his hands on my hips.I’ll touch you in public,he told me. I sink onto his lap. It’s more of a perch than a sprawl, and it only takes a second for West to chuckle behind me. His hand finds the curve of my waist, and he pulls me back until I’m leaning against his chest. “Relax,” he murmurs.

People are still watching us.

His hand is warm, steady. I can feel the rise and fall of his breathing behind me.

I lean my head back, resting it against his shoulder. “There are two poker games?”

“Upstairs,” West says, “they play for money. Down here, they play for far more interesting things.”

“You’ve played here before,” I say.

It takes him a while to answer. “Yes. When I was younger and dumber.”

“You can lose a lot down here,” I guess. The tension at the table is thick. Some of the players are silent. Others are drinking heavily or chatting to someone sitting behind the poker table.

“You can lose everything,” West says.

I look from the table to the futon in the corner, where the couple is going from making out to… hands between legs. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

He notices my gaze and turns his mouth to my ear. “Have you ever watched people have sex before?”

That answer is an easy one. “No. Is that common at these parties?”

“No. Not unheard of, sure. But I think everything has been heightened tonight. Especially down here.”

My eyes land on the couple in the corner again. A man has a woman clutched against him, half reclining on the velvet chaise. Her skirt is rucked up, and his hand is between her legs. I can’t make out anything clearly in the hazy red lighting, except that his hand is covering the spot between her legs perfectly. And judging from the way her head is thrown back in bliss, he’s touching her well.

A hot flush creeps up my cheeks. They don’t seem to mind the other people in the room. If anything, they like it. Being watched.

West’s fingers curve over my waist, and I can feel his breath against my ear. “Your brother willkillme when he finds out I brought you here.”

CHAPTER21

NORA

“Does he have to know?” I ask.

“People will probably tell him. People who see us here.”

Oh. “Good thing no one can photograph us, at least.”

“Thank god,” he mutters.

But his words make me think. “Have you done…that? At other parties?” Then I stiffen. “Oh my god, has my brother? Wait, don’t tell me.”

He chuckles. “I told you, spectacles aren’t for me.”

“And yet here we are,” I say. There are several people at the poker table who have clearly taken notice that West is here. One of them is a man a few years older than us, sitting dead center and in our line of sight.

He looks up with wide eyes and then back down at his cards.