Page 41 of The Sun & Her Burn (Impossible Universe Trilogy #2)
Jace rolled his lips between his teeth, something Savannah was prone to do, and I realized that he was most definitely one of her playthings.
No wonder Seb didn’t like him.
To his credit, he nodded and turned on his heel without another word, disappearing through the crowd and then reappearing before he left the section altogether.
“Good riddance,” Linnea declared as we all stood still on the dance floor in a tight triangle. “I think he had a bit of a Napoleon Complex, don’t you?”
She held up her pointer finger and thumb to indicate something very small.
Both Seb and I stared at her for a moment and then shared an incredulous look before we burst out laughing.
As if the laughter broke the dam of stiltedness between us, Seb and I surged forward to pin Linnea between us, falling into a natural rhythm between all three bodies.
It was foolish to dance together, but I stubbornly refused to think about and took some solace from the fact that these people had been vetted by the Sinclairs and Seb who were notoriously private.
Seb smiled at me, that wide boyish grin I’d once fallen in love with on a face that had weathered into something even more gorgeous.
Linnea planted one hand in my chest, curling it into my opened shirt and hooked the other over her head around Seb’s neck, her back resting against his chest, her hips against mine.
I recognized some of the faces around me, enough to know gossip could and would spread based on my behavior.
But how could I resist?
Him and her.
Together.
And both within my reach.
As if sensing the change in mood, the DJ dropped a sultry mix that had everyone rushing the dance floor around us. People clung to each other, writhing and sweaty, hands in the air, hips thrown from side to side.
The tide of humanity carried us farther down the dark stream of temptation.
I bent my head to watch as Sebastian’s dusky hand moved from Linnea’s belly up, up to the lower swell of her breast, his thumb rubbing the curve. I could feel his hot gaze on me as I watched him touch her.
Never one to shy away from a sexual game, I picked up his thrown gauntlet and hitched her thigh up around mine, the split in the back of her dress giving me access to her bare skin.
Linnea’s eyes were almost slumberous as she undulated between us, a high flush on her cheeks, lips swollen as if they had already been kissed savagely.
I took the cue, rocking forward to claim that parted mouth with mine. She groaned against my tongue, hauling me closer with the hand in my shirt.
I groaned when I realized Sebastian was palming her throat, tipping her chin higher for my kiss with his thumb.
“That’s it,” he crooned, voice lower than the thrumming bass so that only we could hear the Italian-soaked words. “Let Adam take care of you with his talented mouth.”
Linnea sucked in a sharp breath and went languid against us, meltingly soft.
I wanted to lift her into my arms and slide into her right there on the dance floor. Fuck her back and forth on Sebastian’s cock and my own like a metronome set to this sexy beat.
“Fuck you taste like sunshine and sin,” I said after wrenching myself away from her mouth, trailing my lips down her neck to where Sebastian’s hand held her throat.
I nipped my teeth around his knuckles and watched his grip spasm.
Rearing back, I looked at them both, panting hard, eyes blown to black with arousal and thought for the first time in way too fucking long— fuck the consequences .
“Meet me in the bathroom in five minutes,” I demanded, my own voice filled with gravel.
Linnea roused herself enough to straighten and arch a brow in a mockery of me.
“Meet me in five minutes in Sinclair’s office down the hall to the right,” she amended. “Giselle told me I could borrow it earlier. Boys bathrooms are gross.”
And then she tossed her wavy mane over one shoulder and glided off the dance floor toward the exit.
Sebastian and I both watched, captivated, until she had disappeared from sight.
In her wake, we were left only with a crackling tension and a sense of imminent danger, as if we stood on the edge of high precipice in a lightning storm just waiting for a fork of electricity to land.
It was, it almost embarrassed me to admit, terrifying .
Because I was experiencing true, brain-melting, soul-crushing desire when I had not wanted for anything in years.
I had forgot how it impacted the body, setting every atom buzzing, every thought blinking in and out like static so I couldn’t bloody think straight.
“ Adamo ,” Sebastian said in husky Italian.
This was new, the Italian way of addressing me, and I found I had a weakness for it as I always had for the way he muttered both filthy and beautiful things in his native tongue.
Sebastian’s Adamo was a different man than I had been and even than I was now.
He was who I would desperately love to become.
“I have been drinking tonight,” I said, a little woodenly.
Because it was an excuse.
A shameful, idiotic excuse.
I watched as the words hit Seb like a blow. He absorbed it, rocking backward and forward slightly, putting his hands in the pockets of his trousers with his shoulders raised slightly in a tense, defensive line.
“ Bene ,” he said. “Okay.”
Absolving me. Always absolving me of guilt.
“Will you come?” he asked, not looking at me.
Look at me , I wanted to shout, everyone else be damned. Devour me whole so I have no choice but to be consumed.
“I will,” I said quietly, almost drowned out by the music.
Someone bumped into Sebastian as they danced and he nodded once without looking at me before following Linnea out of the room.
For a moment, just a single second, I felt the cold weight of pragmatism on my shoulders. It smelled like my father, it reminded me on the minutes after my mother died beside me and when I discovered George had taken his life.
If you do this , I thought, you are absolutely fucked .
I raised my hand to rub across my weary mouth and caught the scent of Linnea and Sebastian lingering on my fingers, the spice market and ocean brine of them so delicious blended together.
I was walking forward before I could process my own movement.
Sod it , I thought, it’s been too bloody long since I was properly fucked .