Chapter 15 #3
He guided me to the circular booth tucked into an alcove in the wall.
I waited there, fanning myself while he grabbed us a drink.
Fire continued to rage in my bloodstream with the fuel of our dance.
My body had been ignited in sweet flames, which burned away all of my insecurities, leaving strength in its wake.
The way he touched me, looked at me, and folded his body along mine …
it was exhilarating, like the plummet from the top of a rollercoaster.
Dante reappeared with two glasses in hand. He slid into the booth beside me and set my drink—another club special—in front of me.
“Thank you,” I grinned.
I sipped on the sweet drink while Dante threw his back.
I tried to not watch his throat as he swallowed or focus on how his tongue ran across his lip to gather a drop of the bourbon.
Dancing had awakened something needy inside of me, and I feared that if I didn’t distract myself soon, the confidence he was trying to instill in me would have me crossing the “friends” line.
My phone buzzed on the table, startling me from my salacious thoughts.
When I saw Bradley’s name lighting up the device, my stomach dropped.
Worry gnawed at my insides as I wondered if Courtney and John had told him I was here—or worse, that I’d vanished upstairs with the lead guitarist of Sinners Do It Better.
Dante noticed the incoming call, too, and the easygoing calm on his face tightened in annoyance.
I quickly reached for the phone as the call ended, and I realized I had a dozen messages from him asking where I was, apologizing for earlier, begging me to talk to him, and vowing that he loved me. Guilt squeezed my chest in a vice-like grip, and my hold tightened around my phone.
“Ignore him,” Dante said. While his tone was casual, his hard jaw and tightened brow were enough to tell me he was anything but calm. He continued to stare at my phone.
I worried the inside of my lip and fidgeted in my seat. “Sh—Should I?”
“Yeah, you should,” Dante answered as he finally met my gaze. “He’s just trying to get in your head again.”
A new call lit up my phone. What if I was hurting his feelings by avoiding his calls and messages? My resolve to ignore Bradley for the betterment of myself waned slightly. Dante must’ve picked up on that, because he quickly snatched my phone. He smirked as he denied the call.
“Dante!” I gasped, trying to reach for my phone.
He held it high and out to his other side, far out of my reach. His smile never faltered. “Yes, Star?”
I narrowed my eyes and tried reaching past him. “Don’t play coy. Give it back.”
He held it farther out of reach behind him. Chuckling, he said, “I suppose asking you to block him is too much too soon. Ahh, well. I’ll give it back if you agree to at least ignore the worthless prick.”
I blew out a huff and got on my knees so that I was taller.
I braced my hand on the top of the booth cushion to reach past him.
Dante grabbed my hip to try to hold me back while extending my phone farther away.
With a growl, I let go of the booth and tried to use both hands to reach past him, but I lost my balance.
I gasped and fell into Dante, and with his body already angling back, he fell, too.
My heart tripped over itself as I found myself straddling him while he laid back on the booth seat.
My hands were braced on either side of his head, and his now gripped both of my hips.
Our faces were lined up and separated by mere inches.
I held my breath and stared down at him as my long silver curls created a curtain around our close faces.
His eyes widened before going soft with lust. His gaze dipped to my mouth, which hovered above his.
“D-Dante—”
He lifted his head off the cushion and pressed his mouth to mine. Fireworks exploded in my gut, and I let out a soft gasp as Dante gripped the back of my head and deepened the kiss. I moved my hands to his perfect chest and fisted his shirt while my toes curled in my shoes.
This kiss was unreal. The way he held me on top of him, the way his tongue coaxed mine into tangling with his, the way he controlled the slow and sensual search of my lips.
I’d never kissed with so much hunger yet control.
I’d never felt so many warm pricks of delight dance along my spine and through my veins over the feel of someone’s lips and tongue.
The kiss, which had been mostly tame, became rougher as his hand tightened on my hip and the other trailed down the back of my head to my cheek, over my jaw, and settled on my throat.
He gripped me by the neck and dove into my mouth harder while his hips lifted to grind the thick mass in his pants between my legs.
The bulge rubbing against my center had a burst of pleasure rippling through me and a low moan mingling in the space between us.
My dress had hiked up because of the way I straddled him, so I felt every little flicker of sensation against my heated core.
My body was suddenly like a live grenade that had been wound up tight and was ready to erupt with an oncoming explosion. My pussy throbbed, and I was fairly certain my panties were soaked through. I wanted more of Dante so badly that my legs actually shook where they framed his hips.
And all of those things had reality crashing back into me.
I was making out with and straddling Dante.
My eyes snapped open, and I quickly sat up, pressing my fingers to my lips, which tingled with the sudden loss of the man beneath me. Dante watched me with those same lust-clouded eyes as I scrambled to get off of him. Embarrassment filled my chest where fire and desire had just been.
“I-I’m so sorry,” I stammered, sitting back in my seat and running a hand through my messy curls. I couldn’t meet Dante’s gaze. “I-I didn’t mean to do that.”
“I did.”
I dared a glance at him and found him sitting up with his elbow on the tabletop and his scruffy cheek resting on his fist. He watched me with a shameless grin.
I shook my head. “If you keep teasing me, I’ll—”
I gasped as he grabbed my hand and pressed it to the hard, bulging outline of his dick. He leaned close to me, and my heart tripped over itself as I stared at the place he held my hand.
“Do you,” he started in a rough whisper, “still think I’m just teasing you?”
I bit my lip as a shiver went through my body. Almost as if acting on its own, my hand lightly squeezed and rubbed his cock through his jeans. He groaned, the sound deep and masculine. It made that throbbing start back up between my legs, and I had to clench my thighs to fight it.
He pressed his forehead to mine and stared into my eyes. “Do you really think I don’t want you, Star?”
Every rebuttal I had died on my tongue. The insults I’d heard all those years from Bradley, his friends, and my family about my weight, my tattoos, and my level of attractiveness became momentarily forgotten.
Because right now? Dante wanted me. Dante saw all the things I’d been belittled for and wanted them. I’d never felt more beautiful.
“What’s happening here?”
At the sudden sound of Xander’s chipper voice, I squealed under my breath and quickly pulled away from Dante. My heart went into overdrive while my skin heated to dangerous levels. I really, really hoped he hadn’t seen Dante and I leaning closer or my hand groping his dick.
“Asshole,” Dante grumbled under his breath as Xander slid into the booth beside him. “Why aren’t you out there dancing?”
“Why aren’t you?” Xander fired back with a knowing smirk fixed on Dante.
I cleared my throat and excused myself. I clutched my drink like it was my lifeline and went to the balcony overlooking the dance floor below.
While I was extremely embarrassed to have been caught in such a promiscuous position with Dante, another part of me was silently glad the bass guitarist had shown up when he had.
I’d been ready to lean back in and kiss Dante harder, ready to explore more of him.
And that draw to the man scared me.
I was scared to be with someone other than Bradley, so fresh out of that relationship.
I was scared to open myself up to an intimate relationship with someone I considered a friend.
I was scared of getting hurt again.
While I’d been the one to break things off with Bradley, I knew doing so hurt me far more than it hurt him.
As he and my family liked to say, I’d always been sensitive.
I gave my heart a little too freely, and people were quick to toss it around like it was nothing, never giving me theirs in return.
I didn’t want Dante to do the same.
I didn’t want to lose my friend, and part of me feared that crossing that line between friends and more than would do exactly that.