Page 93 of Run From Me

He sucked on his bottom lip before responding. “Yeah. It was real. But it was manufactured to get us all arrested. Imagine inviting all the top fighters from the major gangs in the city and then calling the cops. I can’t put my finger on it, but who has enough money and balls to back that endeavor and not get caught?”

Xander kept me close, his hand tightening around my waist, and he leaned in so only I could hear him.

“You see, Calliope, we’re one of the few who can afford to back those kinds of fights. It keeps the riffraff down and lets the gangs fight it out. It’s also our way of reminding them who not to mess with.”

Behind the masks, everyone here seemed rich and unassuming. What exactly would someone dangerous look like?

Would they look like these guys with hourglasses peeking over collared shirts? Would they look like the people who hide behind masks of discrimination and hatred even here with another mask over the top?

Xander’s hands wandered as he held me closely. We stayed in the corner as Zeiden walked away.

“Xander, you have a job.”

His finger bit into the skin of my stomach.

“Do I? Then why did you wear a dress that makes me want to kill every man in this room for looking at you?”

The pressure of his hands kept me from turning around to see even his eyes. Instead, I raised an arm behind me and placed it around his neck as I pressed my ass against his cock.

“Your anger issues are not my fault. You hired the designer,” I said under my breath.

I could feel the rise and fall of his chest behind my head, but he didn’t say anything as we stood there. I kept watching the anonymous faces as they hopped from one sculpture to another.

I noticed a man with a strange blue mask. I couldn’t exactly place why it caught my attention, but something about it did.

“Why do you fight me, Calliope?” he said, pulling me back to our corner.

With one quick twist, his grip shifted and I was facing him, pulled tightly into his warmth as he leaned down and claimed my lips.

I closed my eyes, memorizing the way his mouth moved against mine and the way he tasted. When he pulled away, adjusting his mask, I smiled, only seeing his eyes and little else around the anonymity.

“What are you thinking, Calliope?”

I shivered at the way my name rolled off his tongue, like it was different from any other time. It wasn’t, but my bodyseemed to need whatever magic his beautiful lips had when they said my name.

“I keep wondering when this little bubble will pop.”

We stood there for far too long. Just watching the other when no words seemed to fit. The only thing breaking our magic was when Zeiden’s shadow caught my attention as he leaned into Xander and whispered something I couldn’t hear.

The exchange was quick and short, but it was there, and the way Xander’s posture changed, all playfulness gone, I knew the night had shifted.

“Cali, stay with Rylee. The boys will be watching you and her. We will be back shortly.”

I nodded and reached for his hand, kissing his knuckles.

“Love you, Crash.”

He shifted around me, pulling me to Rylee, and just as I thought he was going to release me and walk away, he leaned in one last time.

“Love you, Sparky. Stay put.”

“I never go far, my liege,” I said under my breath.

With that, he was gone with the other two imposing figures. When they left, the room almost seemed empty. Or maybe it was my imagination.

Xander was my calm, but maybe it was for the best. I could breathe air that wasn’t filled with him. Who was I kidding? I missed him already.

All those nights dreaming of him. Then the reality of seducing him and getting what I thought I’d wanted? None of it could have prepared me for what it was to be his. Not only that, but to belong. Here tonight, it felt like I’d just come full circle.

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