Page 30

It annoyed me how much I fell for that smile. Any time this brute looked at me like I was all he saw, I couldn’t help but fall in love with him again. But I’d give away the entire game if I said so.

“Bit of a stretch, isn’t it?”

He grabbed my face hard enough to make me listen, but his touch was as gentle as always. Bending his head close, he snickered. “Cheeky.”

The kiss was brief but powerful. His breath painted my wet lips as the music changed and the humans around us hollered and shouted their excitement. The song drew a bigger crowd. Humans poured onto the dance floor to move along with the melody and sing the lyrics.

A little cerulean snake of magic around Silas’s finger danced between us, elevating his voice over the screaming crowd.

I wouldn’t have heard him otherwise. “You asked what the lad had on me.” Silas pressed close, his body merging with mine.

My little black dress started to ride up my thighs, but he tugged it down before one of his large hands took the shape of my ass. “It’s simple, love. You .”

“Me?” I asked, a little breathless. We might be surrounded by a human crowd gone wild, but all I saw, all I heard, all I felt was him.

Silas’s mouth moved from my ear to the pulse point on my throat.

My breath caught, the feeling of his teeth scraping over my skin a surprise when it shouldn’t be.

“Oh, aye. That cute wanker knows you in ways I don’t.

I don’t like it, but it’s the truth, and I’d be a daft bastard to deny it.

” His hand locked around my jaw again and lifted my gaze to his.

“When he says something about you, I listen. And he said you needed this, love.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he tutted me with a little grin. Then he kissed me again. His tongue teased across mine, swirling and stroking, while his other hand grappled my ass harder.

“He’s right,” Silas murmured against my mouth between kisses.

The music’s tempo quickened, and the floor under our feet thumped from the humans around us enjoying the new song playing.

“You deserve a night out where you’re just…

Nika, yeah?” He drew back enough for me to catch another devilish gleam in his golden eyes. “My gorgeous girlfriend.”

Laughing, I nodded. “Okay, I get it.” He tried to kiss me again, but I evaded him. “Even the great Shimmering Assassin has fallen for Lev’s charms,” I teased with an eyebrow waggle.

“Oi,” he grumbled, but I was already swaying in time with the beat, singing the words I heard more than once.

Lev had gone through all the trouble to make this night happen. He’d even wrangled two men who couldn’t stand the sight of each other into coming along. The least I could do was try to enjoy myself. Who knew when the next enemy would come looking?

Fighting and dancing weren’t terribly different. Learning to move your body to destroy an opponent, strike back and evade their advances, became something of a dance. I’d argue Silas was an incredible dancer himself. I’d seen it enough times to know we’d have no trouble syncing.

And tonight he was my opponent.

Embracing my mischievous self, I swayed from side to side and dragged my hands down his chest. With a careful step, I stole the spot behind him and pressed a daring kiss on his back.

He tried to turn, but I evaded him again, twisting around his body and keeping just out of reach.

I swayed back and forth, moving my arms and hips in a sensual display, the way I knew would get to the insatiable beast.

He wanted to see me dance? Then I’d give him a show.

His eyes tracked every movement I made. I came close and escaped whenever he tried to touch me.

My caresses were brief, my touches meant only to tease.

I rubbed my body against his before spiriting away.

Frustration twisted his face after several minutes.

He’d never met anyone he couldn’t catch.

I was fast even without the use of my magic.

Biting my lip, I winked at him and ran my hands along my curves within view but irritatingly out of reach. His jaw clamped shut and his golden eyes became silver. With a growl, he snatched me before I could get away again and held my body impossibly close.

“You’re a bloody tease,” he accused on a husky whisper.

Grinning, I reached up and traced his lower lip with my thumb. “Never said I wasn’t.”

We moved together, swaying and pressing.

The vicious beat and strobe of lights kept the dancing fast and a little bit wild.

We never stopped touching each other. It’d been a while since I’d sweated doing anything but training or fucking.

After only ten minutes, perspiration slid down my neck and chest. He chase several drops with his tongue.

“I’ll be honest, love,” Silas’s voice rumbled next to my ear, his hands in my hair. “This is bloody fucking torture. Why did I ever agree to watching you dance in this dress anywhere I couldn’t tear it to pieces and fuck the moans out of that pretty little mouth?”

Reaching for his head, I cradled his face in my hands. “You’ll just have to settle for kissing me, I guess.”

He groaned like I’d told him to strip me down right there in front of everyone. Yanking my head back, he bent down to capture my mouth in a feral kiss. It was unhinged, hot, and absolutely perfect with every curve of him fusing with every curve of mine.

I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, dancing, kissing, locked in a passionate heat of our own making. It might’ve been minutes, hours, maybe even days, but I never wanted it to end.

It was tough to admit how much fun I was already having. I was free to do whatever I wanted. Here, my only agenda was to have a good time.

Maybe Lev was right. Living a little was exactly what I needed.

It’d felt like since fleeing the Dark Fae Society, my life had become a death march to the final battle with a demon.

I’d spent every day focused on what it’d take to be ready.

I wanted to make the right decision. The world depended on it.

That responsibility was heavy, and I carried it every day.

Out here at a human club where no one knew us, no one wanted us dead, no one cared what we did, the weight I carried eased a little. My worries faded. It was just me and the boys, nothing more, nothing less.

Sweat poured down my body. “I think I need a drink,” I finally told the mercenary presently kissing a trail down my neck.

Silas nodded and led me off the floor. Salvator and Lev were already waiting with my two phantoms, though they didn’t know it. Ryker beamed at me before his gaze slid down my body. I noticed Salvator’s do the same.

“You look like you’re having fun,” Lev teased, proud of himself.

I sighed with a little smirk. “Okay, okay. You were right. I needed this.”

Lev fist-pumped, nearly spilling the drink he held. He stopped before the liquid could slosh over the side, then offered it to me. “You thirsty?”

“How’d you know?”

Silas rumbled a laugh, but his eyes were fixed on Salvator. “Love, I hate to tell you this, but you’re a shade of red you weren’t before we went out there.”

Glaring at him, I drank the cocktail Lev gave me. It wasn’t anything I’d had before, but it felt familiar. I tested the taste of it on my tongue, and as if he’d been waiting for it, Lev beamed a smile at me.

“It’s very similar to the one Bane used to make,” he told me, grinning. “I can’t get the flavors perfect since he used magic and ingredients humans don’t grow, but this is as close as I could get to it.”

The glass was already empty when I stared down at it, nostalgia hitting like a damn gut-punch.

I’d been too scared to think about my father and mother since I sent them to their awaiting afterlife.

It was too hard. He’d been my everything for so long.

With my mother out of the picture from early on, my father had been my haven in a world of pain and agony.

He wasn’t perfect, no one was, but he’d loved me the way every father should.

Biting my lower lip, I let loose a heart-weary sigh. “Thank you,” I whispered. “It’s delicious.”

I was worried he hadn’t heard me, but Lev winked and slung an arm around my shoulders. “I think it’s my turn to twirl you about the dance floor. It’s been a hot minute since you and I tore up a party.”

“In the isolation of my room, you mean,” I teased.

Lev laughed with his head thrown back, tugging me close with a secretive smile. “Bet I can talk the DJ into a few songs…”

“Don’t you dare.” I scowled.

“Now I have to.”

“Oi, lad. Hands off,” Silas growled.

Before the two could fight, Ryker was in front of me, hand out. “Pretty girl?”

Salvator took a step in the wolf’s direction, but then we all stopped. An ominous sensation erupted across the space. The lights cut out, and the entire building was blanketed in darkness.