Page 27 of Seductive Hearts

How had I missed her? How was everyone in that packed club not staring at her when she glowed the way she did? She flipped her blonde hair back, laughing, and I’d never wanted anything more than to be the man who made her laugh.

What would I have to do to make her laugh like that for me?

As it turned out, it wasn’t a man who made her laugh. “Oh, fuck,” I muttered when I recognized my little sister, Sienna, at Rose’s side. Not that I didn’t want to see her. I didn’t feel like getting cock blocked was all. She had a way of fucking with my game like an annoying little sister. What a shame we were too old for that kind of shit.

“Hey, Sienna!” Evan raised an arm overhead because he knew what a pain in the ass it was to run into my sister while I was out with the guys.

Still, I stood, offering her a quick hug when she tottered over on her mile-high heels, arms outstretched. “Don’t worry,” Sienna told me, almost screaming in my ear to be heard. “I won’t make it look like we’re together, so you miss out on prime pussy.”

“Fuck you,” I growled out, making her laugh.

I had inherited Dad’s looks, but she was practically Mom’s twin. Looking over her shoulder, I caught a pair of dickheads staring at her ass. When they caught me glaring at them, they got real busy looking anywhere else but at my sister.

She looked around the group, holding up her martini glass. “Don’t worry, boys. We won’t bother you for long. Just trying to be polite.”

Lucian arched an eyebrow. “Is that something you PR reps specialize in? Pretending like you’re happy to see the people you’re air-kissing?”

“One, I’m a PR specialist, cousin…” she thrust a hand on her bony hip, “… two, I don’t bother with air-kissing.” She made it a point to kiss his cheek hard enough to leave lipstick behind.

“What about me?” Evan pointed to his jaw. “We’re not related, but doesn’t a longtime friend count?” Laughing, she slung an arm around his neck and pressed a smacking kiss against his cheek. I narrowed my eyes at him, but he brushed it off.

“I don’t need a kiss,” Noah insisted when she looked his way.

Sienna narrowed her eyes. “I wouldn’t put my lips anywhere near anything you have, thanks. I’ve heard too many stories.” She pretended to gag while the rest of us laughed. Rather, everyone but Noah, who scowled, his nostrils flaring.

It was always this way. Get us together, and we turned into kids, no matter where we were. All we needed were the twins, Valentina and Aria, and it would be Christmas break all over again, busting balls and pranking.

Only we weren’t kids anymore. Now we did things like go down on each other in our place of work.

Their joking faded into the background when my eyes brushed over Rose standing off to the side and laughing at her brother after a much quieter greeting than the one my sister offered.

She had to feel me staring at her. She couldn’t resist the brief shifting of her gaze, hitting me before darting away again. She was pissy. She might even have hated me for turning cold. It was for the best. It was Landon she wanted—a relationship and a family. We would only waste each other’s time in the end.

But I would be damned if I could keep my eyes off her once she and Sienna peeled off and did their own thing. All my focus, my entire existence, narrowed down until there was nothing but her. Rose’s golden head moved through the crowd, bobbing up and down as she walked until they reached the bar at the far end of the long room.

“We good here?” I asked, gesturing toward our drinks. “I was gonna grab the waitress for another round.”

“Just don’t grab her so hard you forget what you got up for,” Noah advised. I left them laughing, determined to… what? I didn’t know for sure. I only knew I couldn’t sit still while she was there, practically begging to be fucked in a short, black dress that hugged every inch of her luscious curves.

My sister waved at a group of girls then hurried over to them, leaving Rose on her own for the moment.

When a tall, frat-boy-looking douchebag sidled up to her at the bar the second she was alone, I knew I made the right decision by following her. Everything around me went red as my awareness expanded to include this soon-to-be corpse, along with the woman he’d made the mistake of approaching. No way was I going to let him claim what I had already tasted.

I tapped him on the shoulder until he turned away from her. “You’re too late. Move on.”

“Wait a second!” It didn’t matter what Rose said. He huffed but got the message and fucked off without another look her way.

“I wasn’t lying,” I told her when she slammed her wine glass on the bar before almost snarling at me. “He was too late. You’re already in love with Landon, right?”

“After two days, this is how you… no, you know what?” She threw her hands into the air. “Never mind. You ruined my night, thank you very much. I can’t even talk to somebody without you being an asshole.”

Before she could get past me, my hand closed around her arm. I held her in place, leaning down until my lips brushed her ear. “What if I said he was too late because I already know what that pussy tastes like?”

There was a moment, the length of a blink, when she leaned into me. It was almost like her legs threatened to go out when she remembered the way I made them shake. But just like that, it ended, and she yanked her arm free, then marched through the crowd to the exit. My self-restraint lasted all of five seconds before I was going after her, cutting through the crowd, my eye always trained on her.

I had already gone too far down this road, revisiting that night, remembering the way she tasted and sounded, and how easy it was to make her shake, moan, and scream.

I burst out into the night in time to watch her disappear into the back of a cab. She couldn’t be bothered to wait for an Uber. Neither could I, for that matter. It was my plan to get good and wasted after a long week, so I hadn’t bothered driving, and now I followed her like some obsessed psycho in the next cab that came along. Rather than do something dramatic like demand he followed her, I rattled off her building address then texted the guys in our group chat, saying I scored for the night to get them off the scent.

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