Page 17 of Corrupted By You

“What are you doing here?” He smirked. “Besides brooding with your choice of poison.”

I tipped my head towards the dance floor where my friends danced. “Bachelorette party.”

His brown eyes narrowed. “Are you getting married?”

“No, my best friend’s getting married.” His eyes fell to my bare left hand. “I’m just the maid of honour.”

“Good.”

“Areyoumarried?”

“I’m not the kind of bastard who would be flirting with you if I were married.”

“Good.” I cast him a teasing look. “And what areyoudoing here, Zeno?”

“It’s my birthday.” A dark, mischievous look entered his eyes and he leaned forward once more, elbow perched on the bar top. His forearm was thick, veined, tattooed, and lightly dusted with dark hair. Somehow the sight of it made me blush as much as his next words. “Want to give me a treat?”

I smiled and let out a short chuckle at his smooth confidence.

“Happy birthday,” I said instead, breath picking up when Zeno’s eyes roved over my body like a painter giving his artwork one final glance of appraisal. “How many years are we celebrating?”

“Thirty-four.” The expression on his face darkened. He stared at me like I was the next meal he wanted to devour.

As God is mywitness, I’m totally up for it.

“Tell me about yourself,” I blurted, trying to bring us to safer grounds when really, I just wanted to sayfuck itand kiss him silly.

Zeno wound himself under my skin, dulling the roar of loneliness and making me feel alive in a way I’d never experienced before. He was the sexiest man I’d ever seen and I was drawn to his sheer magnetism like a hopeless moth to a flame.

“What do you want to know?”

“Whatever you want to tell me.”

“I’m a man of many trades, sweetheart.” His knuckles ‘accidentally’ skimmed over my thigh. When I didn’t stop him, those fingers danced under the hem of my dress, making his intention known. Zeno didn’t go higher, but he did find the one little beauty mark mid-thigh that I loathed. He slid his finger over it, almost in reverence. “You?”

I couldn’t stand the other man’s touch, but Zeno?

His slow-burning sweep set me on fire, warming my insides until they pulsed with a low awakening that had me breathless and utterly on the precipice of anticipation.

“I work in education.” I cleared my throat and Zeno’s hand slipped down to my knee.

“You’re a teacher?” he assumed with a gentle tilt of his head.

The bar’s dim lights illuminated half of his face, leaving the other half in a wedge of shadow. Zeno looked like a fallen god put onto this earth for the pleasure of flesh andwomen.

“Mhm.” I wasn’t about to tell him my real job. Respected Principal Hill from St. Victoria walking into a club for her best friend’s bachelorette party and having sex with a totally hot stranger. Now that’s a headline.

Not that I was considering having sex with him…

“We didn’t have teachers like you in my time.” He cupped both my knees, spreading me open the way a man usually did right before he feasted. “Though, I would have probably misbehaved more.”

The air between us crackled with tension.

My breath hitched along with my heartbeat.

As light as a feather, my fingers trickled over to his neck, where I fingered the gold cross. “And why is that?”

Zeno may be smirking with dark amusement, but his body tightened at my mere touch. He couldn’t hide my effect on him. “I would have wanted all your attention to myself, Darla. I can be greedy like that.”