Page 87 of Saving the Rain
Goddamn, does he have a nice ass.
I clear my throat, feeling like a skittish foal when I set my glass onto the bartop, slipping in just close enough that we brush shoulders. At that point of contact, it’s like my blood starts damn well singing beneath my skin. Everything goes tingly and bright upon catching a glimpse of his scent.
“Demon?”
“Archdemon, actually.” Raine tilts his head my way, voice low and gritty. “Here to collect your soul.”
My dick is already starting to stir as that masculine hit of how good he smells weaves through my senses. Curling a wisp of a finger beneath my chin and placing an invisible hold around my neck. He’s gotta damn well know that he has me in a chokehold already, turning up here, looking likethat.
“Ah, well.Vampire.” I touch my tongue against my incisor, before gesturing up and down my body. “So, you’re out of luck... I don’t have one.”
His lips twitch as his gaze rakes over me, and damn him, that leaves my pulse jittering. I could never have pictured Raine at a Halloween party, but goddamn, I can’t get over how unbelievably sexy he looks.
“This is...” With one hand, I swirl around my eyes, imitating the face paint he’s got on.
“All Tessa’s doing.” He makes a groaning noise. “Apparently, I’m here so she can live vicariously through me while being at home pregnant... or some shit like that.”
Before I can reply, just as I’m opening my mouth, our little bubble is unceremoniously burst.
“Hiiiiii.” A loud, tipsy voice slides between us. We’re overrun by a group of girls sporting crooked halos and fluffy wings, all in various stages of undress—or maybe that’s the entire point of their translucent-white costumes—and long eyelashes framed by a thick caking of glitter bat my way. The majority of her friends crowd the bar, giggling while I hear one trying to get the attention of alittle piggie I’d like to fuckas she presses her tits together.On the other side of the girl swaying in front of me is a matching outfit of minuscule proportions belonging to a girl who is her clone.
Both blond. Both sporting heavy fake tans. Both one shot of vodka away from a nipple-slip.
Raine turns, leaning his elbows back on the edge of the bar, and lifts an eyebrow my way. There’s absolutely nothing I can discern in his gaze. Does he want this? What would he normally do on a night like tonight when there’s a girl confidently rocking up to him with lust in her eyes?
Obviously my expression, or lack of ability to form words, must give him a signal that I don’t think I intended to give. But also, leaves me stranded in a place where I can’t do anything right here right now. This is a disaster, and once again, I’ve fucked everything up because he turns that handsomeness to focus on the girl wearing little more than a bikini.
She’s overtly hitting on Raine. Reaching out to touch his arm while nibbling her lip. And I don’t know how to handle any of it, because we’re nottogether.
Fuck this. Jealousy slithers up my spine. A wild unspoken protest swirls hot and demanding inside my chest. Bitterness lines my throat as her fingers slide higher to play over his bicep. I’m not giving an ounce of attention to the girl in front of me who is still yelling over the music, far too many drinks in, to notice that my eyes are fixed elsewhere.
Raine must surely feel me watching?
He can’t possibly go back to being the aloof, cold-hearted asshole who ignores me?
Not now. Not after everything we’ve shared.
However, my collision of thoughts and inability to know what to do at this moment are sideswiped. A soft hand slips into mine, tugging to lead me into the crowd. The drunk angel skips ahead, dragging me to follow as she shouts over her shoulder at me.
“C’mon, sexy. Dance with me, and then maybe I’ll let you bite me later.”
Chapter 35
I’m notinterested, and Kayce should know better.
Those eyes he’s giving me. Blue pools muddled with confusion and bitterness at the prospect I might be giving my attention to some girl who is too busy hiccupping to hold a real conversation.
Only, that’s where his whole problem starts and ends.
Kayce doesn’t know how to get from the place where he’s stuck right now, hiding from the truth about so many things, to feeling safe enough to take the plunge into the unknown.
It’s almost poetic really, that he’s found himself being dragged into the middle of a crowd by a girl—the likes of which most dudes in here tonight would be drooling after. The type of head-turner, stepped straight off the pages of their fantasies. When all of two seconds ago, he had that curiosity and eagerness fixed on me... us. For a fraction of a moment it seemed he might take another step forward, to finally move toward his true ambitions in life.
Which is why I have to grip my soda and let the girl hanging off my side blabber on. It’ll serve him right to get a little wake-up call in the form of a trashy buckle bunny, the exact type he should know not to get accosted by. A girl dressed in... fuck knows what you’d call it, but it looks like she lost the majority of her dress on the way to this party,but there’s a crooked halo involved, so I suppose it counts as a Halloween costume.
Not that I’m judging any of them for what they wear. They can do as they like, just take it somewhere that doesn’t involve brushing against me under the misguided notion that it’llstimulatemy interest in this conversation.
Over the top of my drink, I see the blond swing around his neck. Trying to tug him down to her, and Kayce is still pretending to be the cowboy who does shit like this. The guy who dances withgirlsand dates women. All those invisible strings are pulling on his limbs, puppeteering him along into this charade of grinding together on a dance floor, and as she turns around to start rubbing her ass all over him, guiding his hands to settle over her bare stomach... yeah, that’s enough.