Chapter 5 #2
E nodded, thinking she might get away from him on the dance floor, and took another huge swallow of her drink, making ice clink her glass. Jesus, had she actually drunk almost that whole thing in three big chugs? She hadn’t done something like that since she was a college freshman.
She let the glass drift down to the table before she shook away the maudlin thoughts starting to creep in.
At the shake, the fact she’d been tipsy once already that night crashed into her.
She’d sobered when Plutus appeared in her apartment, but the wine drunk was now mixing with a too-quick vodka buzz.
It likely meant bad things for her. But, god, she needed it after all that’d happened that day and night.
Plutus scooted out of the opposite side of the booth, bending deep to offer his hand.
She took it without hesitation, although she’d known him for less than three hours at this point.
Didn’t matter, in her hazy mind. Her gut, which she trusted, said he wouldn’t hurt her.
Physically, at least. She couldn’t trust he’d keep her intact in other important ways, even if her gut also told her he just might be a good dude.
She couldn’t trust others with her emotions, with her future, but she could trust them physically.
Sexually even, which her drunk mind automatically went to when his large, veiny hand gripped hers and he tugged her forward with just the right amount of force.
Her thoughts made her body clench and Plutus’s eyes widened as his nostrils flared.
Oh, hell. He’d somehow sensed how her body reacted to him.
Did it matter he knew? She wanted him, and she could have him. In this way. She was no prude. She’d had a string of sexual partners, some she even dated briefly. Her latest dry spell had lasted eight months, and Plutus could help her end it.
“Come.” He gripped her waist when she tottered slightly as she stood, before leading her to a different set of stairs leading down into a roped-off section of the dance floor, one less populated but still filled with moving bodies.
The word on his lips made her want to pant, and she was thankful there was so much sensory input in this place he might miss it if she did.
Unlikely, as he seemed constantly trained on her, but he might.
Once they hit a dark corner of the VIP dance section, he spun around, pulling her close to his body by her waist. They fit well despite the height difference. She still had to crane her neck far back to look up in his face as she started to move to the music.
Her arms went up on their own accord, wrapping around his neck so her hands hung limp from her wrists behind his head.
One of his hands shot up, tracing an invisible line from the underside of her forearm, past her elbow, over her shoulder, and down the back side of the thin strap of her glittering dress.
Her body bucked at the feel of his light touch, causing her hips to push against his.
She thought she heard a hiss slither out of his mouth, but all her attention stayed on the way their hips ground against each other to the thump, thump, thump of the music in perfect time to make her melt if there weren’t all these pesky clothes between them.
She ground down harder and pushed her chest closer to his, brushing her hardening nipples against the lush fabric of her dress and his suit, sending a zip of awareness down her spine.
‘Damnit, E.” Plutus turned them and walked her back until she hit wall.
A darkened wall, where Plutus’s body covered her own.
He dipped his head down and ran his nose from the tip of her chin up her jaw before he nestled his mouth right at her ear once again.
“You glow in this light. Look good enough to eat right here and now.”
She managed to say, “Yes, please.” Or so she thought. It came out garbled.
Plutus pulled back slightly and bit out a curse that didn’t sound fun. “Look at me, E.”
It took her a moment, and she couldn’t focus completely.
He said, “We’re leaving,” tugging on her hand.
She dug her lovely new shoes in and stopped him, but only because he apparently didn’t want to drag her out of the club when he very clearly could.
“I want to dance with you, Plutus.” She trailed a finger up from his shining belt buckle to the knot of his tie, pulling on it until he leaned hard into her.
“We will dance more, E. I swear it. Just not tonight. It’s time to go home.”
At the idea of home, which meant bed, and maybe meant Plutus in the bed, she nodded.
A touch too vigorously, because it made her sway on her feet.
At that, Plutus curved one strong arm around her waist, helping her stay steady.
He texted something on his phone as they moved slowly up the stairs.
He stopped Kim on the way and thanked her, signing her tablet before they moved back down the secret, rich-person passage, and out of the club.
He even nodded at the vampire who now looked more amused than anything else.
The car idled at the curb once again and she didn’t need to be told to climb into it. Plutus cussed again, moving quickly to cover what might have been a crotch shot for anyone in the crowd if he wasn’t so damn fast. “Home,” he ground out as the driver closed the door on them.
“Home,” E repeated as she snuggled into the soft leather of the seat. “Turn the AC up, will you?”
Plutus sighed but did as she asked. The cool air caused goosebumps to jump all over but she only snuggled deeper into the seat.
“I should have been more conscious of what you’ve had to drink,” Plutus muttered as if he talked to himself. As if he admonished himself for not taking proper care of her.
“How were you supposed to know I drank almost a whole bottle of wine before you even showed at my place?”
A sliver of menace traced his words when he said, “If these were different circumstances, you’d receive swift punishment when we got back to your apartment.”
“What, you going to spank me, daddy?”
“Yes.” The single word was solid. Definitive. Held no quarter.
“Delicious,” E whispered, but the cool air, soft leather seat, alcohol, and Plutus’s deep voice all dragged her down into drowsiness. “Talk to me,” she commanded.
“What do you want me to say?”
“Anything. I just like your voice.”
There was a long pause, then Plutus started reading off signs he saw out the window.
Ray’s Dry Cleaning. Fix-A-Phone. First Light Bagels and Coffee.
The names blurred together as E’s lids grew heavier and heavier, and Plutus’s voice followed her into sleep, where she might have even heard it in her dreams.
If she could remember them.