Page 21 of Ballad of Nightmares

He pushed off the wall then, and she was grateful she’d remembered to wear her heels, so he didn’t tower over her as badly. She may have only been a few inches shorter than six feet, but Sam… Sam’s dominating shoulders and aura were a force that made her feel like his shadow could swallow her whole.

Which she truly hoped it did by the end of the night.

Sam squashed the lit end of his smoke and put what was left inside a case in his jacket. “Come on,” he said, extending his hand. “Let’s see how nice I can be.”

“I hope not too nice,” she said as she wrapped her hand into his, that familiar warmth settling in the pit of her stomach. “I only said you’d get toseewhat’s beneath this if you’re nice… I didn’t say what I’d let you do if you weren’t.”

Sam took one slow step in her direction, shoulders rounding over her. “A nice man would take you into this bar and buy you a drink…” He slowly caressed a knuckle over the bob of her throat, sending her hair standing on end… The way he stared at her neck made her feel like he meant to own it, perhaps snap it in half.

And for a moment, she considered begging him to step on it.

“A bad man would push you against this wall and fuck your dirty little mouth until you couldn’t feel your throat.” His fingers wrapped around her trachea, that thumb and forefinger pressing exactly where she liked it beneath her jaw. Ana nearly smiled at the feeling of it. Fuck, she’d missed flirting. And Sam was the most delicious treat she’d ever laid eyes on.

Her mouth sagged, chills rising on her skin. “If you mean to scare me, you’ll find your hand on my throat does quite the opposite,” she purred.

Sam laughed deeply, and the sin of it sent her entire body into flames. The way that laugh sounded as though it had been caged in darkness for centuries. She tried to stifle the way she needed to shift her feet and squeeze her thighs, but she swore by the way he smiled at her then that he knew precisely what that laugh had done to her.

Demon, she remembered Jay had called him…

“Wicked girl… I’m counting on it.”

Amber lights hitting the brick walls and iron accents were an atmosphere she craved, and this speak-easy didn’t fail to impress. Sam walked them to the bar once they were inside, and he pulled out a stool for her, though he didn’t sit himself.

He waved a hand to the bartender as his eyes traveled over her again. “It was a vodka, wasn’t it?” he asked.

“It was,” she said as the bartender came around.

She watched him coolly order their drinks, observed the bartender smile knowingly at him. Ana glanced at her phone once, then turned it over on the counter before looking at Sam’s relaxed figure.

“Why do I get the feeling everyone knows you?” Ana asked.

Sam shrugged. “Most do,” he said. “Especially in old town. My friends and I frequent places like this—thank you, Lynne.” The bartender presented their drinks with a nod, and Sam handed Ana hers. He paused as she wrapped her hands around the glass, watching her intently.

“To—“

“Ana!”

Jay’s booming voice sounded over the music, and Ana turned her attention in time to find Jay walking up with a few friends that Ana recognized from the gallery coming in behind him.

Ana cursed her employer to the end and back. The first chance she’d taken to be alone and get to work, and of course, Jay had shown up. She knew Jay had no interest in her himself, but she wondered if his interest was in Sam, and that was why he’d shown up just minutes after she’d told Jay they would be there.

Sam exchanged a look with Ana, and she speculated if he thought she’d asked him to be there.

Jay came straight up to them, giving Ana a kiss on her cheek.

“Love, I didn’t know you’d look this delicious,” he teased her before turning to Sam. “Sam…”

Sam shook Jay’s hand in a casual way. “How is it, Jay?” Sam asked. “I didn’t realize you were back from your travels.”

“Got back a couple weeks ago,” Jay replied. “Thought it might be a slow season, but I’m better now that I’ve got this beauty in my employ,” he said with a wink at Ana. “Should have seen the deal she made today for Sutton’s estate pieces. They’re just now getting around to divvying up his things. It’s been a shit show. Danbri apparently had more worth than his family knew.”

Something dark washed over Sam’s eyes then as he took a long sip of his whiskey. “Shame,” Sam muttered.

Two more women joined them then, one with an electric blue mohawk of curls and the other with long straight pink hair and bangs, and both women leered at Sam when they kissed his cheek and hugged him.

Ana stifled away the pang of jealousy in her stomach.

“We have a table,” Jay said. “Come on. Verity is celebrating her promotion uptown at her bank.”