Page 64 of Forced Vows

"Of course I knew, but I hadn't agreed to it yet."

"So, neither of us did anything wrong."

"You were a virgin."

"And you weren't. Your point?"

"My point is that if you had succeeded in fucking a stranger, I would have tracked him down and killed him."

"That's such a big double-standard, I'm surprised it fits in the club." I gulp down my drink, but it doesn't cool my anger even a little.

This guy makes other made men look like the evolved species.

Rather than reply, Miceli guides me onto the dance floor. Because this is the way my luck is running these days, it's a slow song.

He hands his now empty glass to a passing server and does the same to mine.

"I wasn't done with that."

"You can get another one. Slow dancing requires two hands." He flips me around and suddenly I'm in the same position I was in Portland.

Vulnerable with my back to his front, the music a soft, seductive thrum inside my body.

Everything in me rebels and I jerk around to face him, putting my hands on his shoulders to keep some distance between us.

It doesn't work. Miceli wraps me up securely, his hands pressed to the center and the small of my back. I'm not going anywhere.

He starts swaying to the music.

"Stop it," I hiss.

"Stop what? I'm dancing with my girlfriend."

"I'm not your girlfriend," I practically growl.

"That's not what all these people think."

"It's a business arrangement."

"It's a marriage."

"Not yet, it's not." I force myself not to squirm in his hold and draw the attention of our guests.

"It will be. You signed your life away, just like I did."

It shouldn't sting that he puts it that way. "Anyway, this boyfriend thing is already sold from you hosting my birthday party. Standing next to me to greet everyone shoved it in every face that might have been oblivious."

Can you say overkill?

"Do you like to dance?" he asks in a non sequitur.

"You know I do." Every minute of memory from that night galls me now, but I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen.

"From this point on, I am your only dance partner."

"I will, yeah." Translated for those without an Irish gran: I definitely will not. "If I want to dance with someone else, then I will."

Miceli shrugs. "Don't dance with anyone you don't want to see hurt. Or dead."

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