4 DANCE WITH THE DEVIL
DANCE WITH THE DEVIL
S ATURDAY NIGHT, THE NIGHTCLUB WAS PACKED.
Since they’d first met her, Eva had gained a lot of popularity with her solo DJ set.
The club had offered her a twice-a-month gig, and she’d started getting a crowd coming out to see her , instead of just to get hammered and scream along to the same top-forty playlist on repeat at every other club on the block.
Eva looked badass on stage in a sparkly gold minidress, curls springing around her head, shredding her violin like a musical goddess. Ash hung out on the side like an overprotective bodyguard, shooting death glares at anyone that shouted in the silences or got too close.
Raum focused back on the random woman currently grinding her ass against him. Another girl was doing the same to him from behind, while a third danced with the girl in front of him.
So yeah, he was having a pretty good time.
But it wasn’t quite enough for him to dissociate.
The dark thoughts still lurked at the edges of his mind.
The hollowness still reverberated in his chest. He’d already stolen a few phones from obnoxious human men taking up too much space on the dance floor—pitching them straight in the trash just to be a dick—but the itch was still alive and well.
He was going to need a lot more stimulus to make it go away.
Mixed in the crowd a few feet away, Meph and Iris were dancing like they were trying to have sex through their clothes. Lily and Mist were somewhere farther back since the tightly packed dance floor gave Mist violent urges, and poor Bel hadn’t come out at all.
The lights flashed and the bass pounded in Raum’s chest, and he kept pushing and pushing, trying to let go of the last tether of his control that didn’t want to quit.
He closed his eyes, the lights still blaring through his lids, and he tried to pretend he was somewhere else, in another life, in a different body—
A sudden urge to open his eyes again struck him, so he did.
And then he saw her .
She was right there, dancing in front of the subwoofer like she hadn’t a care in the world. Like she didn’t have a clue that every time she popped into his life it drove him a little further off the deep end.
Instead of pink tonight, she wore a white sundress, contrasting against her light-brown skin.
The black lights made the fabric glow blue and gave her an otherworldly appearance.
She danced like she didn’t give a shit. Like there was nothing else in the world except her and the bass throbbing from the speaker beside her.
She reached up and lifted her hair into a bundle on top of her head, her hips moving with the rhythm. A few men around her tried to get her attention, but her eyes were closed. It was her dance, her moment, and no one else mattered.
But then she turned with the next drop, and her eyes opened.
And locked with his.
When she saw him, sandwiched between four women now, he expected her eyes to widen and that startled-rabbit look to come back into them. But that wasn’t what happened at all.
Instead, they went heavy lidded, and a sensual smile curved her lips. Like she’d known he was there. Like she’d been waiting all night for him to show up.
He got hard right then and there. Four women rubbing against him hadn’t done a thing, but one half smile from her and he was raring to go.
He stared at her, too transfixed to care about disguising the desire that was probably written all over his face. He’d done enough chasing after her though. He’d straight-up run the last time they saw each other. This time, she could come to him.
And he knew by her smile that she was going to.
He didn’t try to pretend he hadn’t been dancing with the other women. In fact, he let her see what he was doing with the girl in front of him so she would know what she was missing, inviting her with his eyes to come take that woman’s place.
He forgot about the fact that he’d met her in a park and seen her hiding behind a building outside his work. Nothing struck him as strange about it, and he felt no desire to ask who she was or how it was possible for her to have run into him three times in the span of a week.
Instead, his attention stayed laser focused on her as she began working her way through the crowd toward him, anticipation pulsing through his blood along with the bass and alcohol.
The closer she got, the more he saw of her, and the more he wanted her.
Beneath the hem of her short dress, wide hips joined curvy legs that went on forever. She was tall, just under six feet maybe. Her breasts were full, her cleavage on display in that strappy little dress.
The women Raum had been dancing with sensed he was distracted, and they faded into the crowd with their friends. He liked that about club chicks. They just wanted to have fun. If you weren’t fun, they were outta there.
And then it was just him and Mystery Girl.
She reached him just as Eva triggered the next beat drop, the high notes of her violin singing over top of the thumping bass.
Those overlarge dark eyes seemed to reflect every light in the club, and the prominence of her nose gave her a regal face. In that perfect white dress, she made him think of some desert princess from long ago.
The longer he stared, the more determined he grew to possess her.
She kept smiling at him, the two of them standing with only a small space between their bodies. He didn’t smile back.
“Hi,” she mouthed. It was too loud to hear her voice, but he watched her lips form the word and got even harder. Who was she?
He held out a hand. She looked from it to him and placed her palm in his. He curled his fingers around hers, a spark of electricity dancing up his arm from the contact.
He pulled her against him. The beat hammered into them, lowering their inhibitions. Or maybe they would have done this anyway. It felt like they’d been headed here from the second he’d seen her in the park.
She draped her arms over his shoulders, and his hands landed on her hips, his fingers tightening against soft flesh.
They started to dance, and he forgot the world.
He forgot Meph and Iris, and he forgot to care that he wasn’t with Meph like he’d always been when he partied. He forgot that Eva was on the stage. He forgot he’d been frustrated and restless and unsettled for the last four hundred fucking years since he’d lost his memories.
He forgot everything except her, her body moving like sin, her smile so wide it overtook her face. He swore it shone like the sun.
She piled her hair on her head again as she turned, moving an ass against him that was too perfect for words. He knew she could feel his hard-on through his jeans, but she was right there with him. She cast him a sultry look over her shoulder and ground against him more.
Bending her knees, she slid down his thighs and then slowly rose again. On her way up, her ass rubbed against his erection, and only the blaring music disguised the groan that poured out of him.
He gripped her hips and pulled her against him, aligning their bodies from front to back, wrapping one arm around her waist to cage her in. Using his height, he leaned over her, turning his face into her soft hair.
She tipped her head back, looking over her shoulder at him. Their gazes met, and he suddenly had to kiss her.
One hand on her hip, he spun her with a firm tug. Her eyes widened, and he saw rather than heard her gasp as she landed back in his arms, her front pressed to his.
Their eyes met again and he bent, hovering over her lips, hesitating before they touched so she would understand what he wanted. She wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes.
He pressed his lips to hers, and suddenly, they were making Meph and Iris look like preteens at a chaperoned school dance.
He tangled a hand in her thick hair—freed from its braid tonight—and she clutched his shoulders like she was holding on for dear life.
He shifted his thigh so it pressed between her legs, holding her against him with a tight grip on her ass, her core so hot he could feel it through his clothes.
She canted her hips, and he ground his thigh against her, suddenly dying to make her come right then and there on the dance floor.
Still grasping that gorgeous ass, he pressed her closer, moving their bodies in time with the beat. Her head fell back, exposing her throat and making her hair swing freely, giving him more to wrap in his fist.
She writhed with the music and with the pleasure he was giving her. Fuck, if he actually made her come, he could die right now without a single regret.
The bass pounded and the lights flashed. She was humping his leg now, grinding herself against the muscle of his thigh, and it was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. He was completely focused on her, and he didn’t know or care how much time passed. The rest of the world had ceased to exist.
Her hips worked faster as her body tensed, and he knew he was getting close to his goal. He hauled her even closer, not giving her a single inch of space. Her fingers tightened, nails digging into his skin through his clothes.
And then suddenly, her head snapped up, and she stared at him with wide eyes. The rest of her started to shake, and he knew her climax had hit.
She looked shocked, like she hadn’t expected it. He didn’t know what she’d thought would happen when she ground on him like that, but he wasn’t complaining. Watching her come apart was so hot, he nearly came himself.
Instead, he bent his head and ate at her mouth like he was trying to consume her. Kissing along her jaw, he spoke in her ear so she would hear him over the music.
“You’re so fucking beautiful when you come. I want more.”
He didn’t know how long they’d been on the dance floor like this, and he didn’t care. It could have been half an hour, it could have been five. Time had ceased to have meaning. All he knew was that if he didn’t have her soon, he was going to explode.
Her eyes were still wide when he pulled back to watch her reaction, her fingernails still digging into his shoulders, but she kept dancing against him like she couldn’t get enough.
He waited, half expecting her to get that deer-in-headlights look again and run away.
He didn’t know why she was so flighty, but the mystery of her only made him hungrier.
And then … she nodded.
One dip of her chin, and he knew she wanted what he did. Lust coursed through his blood. He bent and kissed her again, a promise of the pleasure he was going to reward her with as soon as they got out of here.
She stepped apart from him, and he swore she looked nervous or apprehensive. He wasn’t going to force her into anything, so he waited to see what she’d do.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the dance floor.
Okay, so maybe she wasn’t apprehensive.
He looked back and caught Meph’s eye through the crowd. His brother grinned and saluted him, and he felt himself smile back. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about texting to tell him where he’d gone.
Then he faced forward and watched the spectacular ass of the woman pulling him toward the door.
When they reached the exit, she kept going without stopping at the coat check.
It wasn’t summer yet and she had to be cold in that tiny dress, but then, club girls were hardcore.
He’d seen them lining up outside in heels and miniskirts in a blizzard in February.
She stopped on the street and turned around to face him.
There was determination and something else burning in her eyes.
Saturday-night chaos surrounded them. There was still a line-up outside the club, people were rolling by in fancy sports cars and climbing out of Ubers, and raucous laughter poured from the terrasse of the next-door pub.
“I live close,” she said.
Her voice was soft yet clear, soothing even. She’d barely said two words to him, but he already knew he’d happily listen to her talk for hours. He’d let her read the King James Bible to him as a bedtime story.
He was going to make her use that voice to scream his name.
“Works for me.” He knew better than to invite humans to his apartment while Bel was raging out in the kitchen.
Their bodies gravitated toward each other like powerful magnets. She leaned into him while he ran his hands up and down her curves.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Sun—Sunny.”
Cute. “I’m Raum.”
“H-hi.” She sounded breathless. Fuck, he’d never met a sexier woman.
She wasn’t some ignorant damsel—she knew exactly how hot she was and what she was doing to him.
But she’d looked surprised by her reaction to him, and that excited him the most. He couldn’t wait to blow her mind with all the shit he was going to do to her.
He hadn’t looked forward to anything so much in years.
“You wanna go?”
She nodded.
They stepped apart, and she led him down the street, holding his hand again. They turned down a back alley full of dumpsters and graffiti. “There’s a shortcut through here.”
He was too focused on her ass to respond.
Which was why he was pretty fucking surprised when she pulled a big syringe out of her bra and stabbed him in the neck with it.
She hit the plunger and his blood turned to fire.