Page 48 of Thorns of Desire

She flashed me a big, beaming smile. “I heard someone was here.”

“Who?”

“I can’t tell you.”

I sighed. “I deserve to know since you dragged me to the club.”

“Well, I couldn’t drag Reina or Phoenix here. Not after all the shit that happened last time,” she said, echoing my thoughts.

We were instantly let into the club where we checked our coats and made our way through the mass of sweat-drenched bodies.

“Prime spot,” she yelled over the loud music, sliding into a booth beneath a blinding red, yellow, and purple LED sign.

It took no time for us to get inundated with drink offers. We refused them all, not wanting a repeat of what happened to Reina. For the next hour, we sipped fruity cocktails, we danced, we laughed, and we drank some more.

When it became difficult to string a whole sentence together, I stopped dancing and headed to the bar for a bottle of water. It was reckless for both of us to get so tipsy.

The bartender handed me a bottle and I took a sip, turning to see Raven dancing happily with a tall, six-foot-something hottie. His hands came to rest on her hips and I narrowed my eyes.

Aiden Callahan.

Now I knew exactly why Raven wanted to come.

I pushed off the bar table to tell her I was ready to go home. The last time that asshole broke her heart, she’d all but lost the will to live. It was the last thing any of us needed.

Halfway across the dance floor, my elbow was clasped in a tight grip and I whirled around, ready to teach some asshole a lesson. I blinked twice when Manuel pulled me close, his face expressionless.

We stared at each other, a thick, almost suffocating tension filling the air before he dragged me toward a quiet corner—not unlike the first time we’d met, come to think of it—and pressed my back against the wall. Somehow it felt like there wasn’t enough oxygen in this nightclub.

“How drunk are you?’ His jaw flexed. “I didn’t believe the guards I assigned to you when they sent me an update that you’d gone clubbing.”

Unease rose up but I ignored it. Instead, I batted my lashes stupidly at him and smiled.

“What are you doing here?”

He didn’t seem overly excited to see me. Maybe he had time to think over my connection to my mom and Atticus Popov and decided I wasn’t worth his time. After all, I hadn’t seen or heard from him since the night he spent in my bedroom when I admitted the Triads attacked my mom eleven years ago.

Although he was still protecting me, I wasn’t sure whether he stillwantedme. Maybe he only felt responsible to provide protection, not his attention.

I wasn’t usually insecure, always able to take or leave most men. I often feared my heart was made of ice and love would never find me.

Something was different with this one though, I just wasn’t able to put my finger on what. Maybe his incredible skills between the sheets. Or those incredible muscles.

Or maybe you got daddy issues, my mind mocked. I immediately shut it down. There wasn’t any room for mockery in my life.

“Maybe I came to find a new one-night stand,” I told him, choking on my fury.

“Don’t fuck with me,amorina, or you won’t like the ending,” he said softly and something dark moved through his eyes.

Apprehension rose up to choke me and I swallowed, trying to keep my voice steady. Manuel could be so easygoing one moment and so tense the next.

“Why are you mad? You haven’t contacted me in almost two weeks.” A sliver of irritation ran through me hearing the bitterness in my voice. “It’s not like we’re an item or anything,” I told him, anger scratching my throat.

Frustration chafed beneath my skin—mostly at myself. I guess not hearing from him for two weeks hurt more than I cared to admit.

His hands appeared above my head, his shoulders blocking the world around us, something about his presence heavy and palpable.

“I might have not contacted you, but I thought about you.” His rough words filled the air between us as he leaned in closer, his cologne intoxicating all my senses.