Page 77 of Lie With Me

“Who’s got a guard dog?” a deep, smooth tenor questions behind us.

Carmela tenses slightly, and I look over my shoulder to see Senator Mick Charles standing there. He’s a silent partner in the club, and he and Carmela have a sordid past that started fourteen years ago and ended with him procuring the club for her as an apology.

“A clean slate,”he’d called it.

But he’s been dirtying up the slate ever since.

Raising the hand that holds my drink, I turn my attention back to the dance floor. “That would be me.”

“We’re not going to lose you now, are we? I thought the bit about you being engaged to Jackson’s friend was all for show?” he asks in that jovial manner rich guys have when they lace their words with a warning, but make you think you still have a choice in the matter.

I side-eye Carmela, and she winces, knowing that particular piece of information should have stayed between us. But I get it. Mick is a tall, handsome, powerful man with a voice that slides over your skin like butter and a way of making you think all your dreams can come true if you do as he tells you.

And with his looks, you’d be glad to get on your knees and doexactlywhat he told you to do.

“Actually, there’s something we should probablydiscuss.” I turn around, eyes darting between them both.

Before I can say another word, we’re interrupted by a petite blonde joining us. She’s frigid in human form, with icy blonde hair, sky-blue eyes, and pale, delicate skin.

I’ve never met her, but I know who she is right away—the reason Mick and Carmela aren’t together: Mick’s wife, Kate.

“Good to see you again, Carmela,” she says coldly before turning her icicle orbs to me, running her gaze down the length of my body and up again. “And who might you be? I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Kate Charles.”

Smiling, I stick out my hand to shake hers. “Valentina. I’m engaged to Tripp Kennedy.”

In two sentences, I let her know I’m taken and not a threat to her marriage, like she seems to automatically think I am.

It’s why I’m good at my job. I know how to charm menandwomen.

Carmela instantly looks like she needs a way out of this conversation, so I grab her hand and tell the couple, “If you’ll excuse us.”

“Thank you,” Carmela whispers as I drag her away. She’s the most badass boss woman I know, and I’ve never, in all my years of knowing her, seen her try to make herself look so small.

“No problem. You would have done the same for me.”

Suddenly, warm arms encircle my waist frombehind, and a face nuzzles my neck. “Sorry, I got caught up with business talk.”

“Gross,” Carmela mutters with a smile before disappearing into the crowd.

Tripp turns me around, pulling me flush against him as he kisses me lightly. “I’ve been watching you from across the room, and I really want to taste youright now.”

My cheeks grow warm at his husky tone and the look of sheer desperation in his eyes. The space between my legs clenches with want as my insides flutter like there’s a hummingbird trapped in my stomach. “I’ll bet no one will miss us if we slip away for a little while.”

A feline grin stretches across his face. He squeezes my waist before grabbing my hand, pulling me toward the hall that leads to the bridal suite. As soon as the door shuts behind us, he backs me into it, kissing me hard before moving to get on his knees. “Will this dress even go that high? Or do I need to take you out of it completely?”

Grasping his shoulder, I tell him breathlessly, “I want you inside me, Tripp.”

“We don’t have a condom.” His hands slide beneath the dress and up my calves, testing how much stretch the material has. There is none. This dress is as tight as flesh.

“I don’t care.” I sound needy, even to my own ears, but I hope he realizes that my asking him to take me bare means something to me.

Rising, he pins me to the door with his body andscrapes his teeth along my neck. “Let me get you out of this dress, and you won’t be saying no to my tongue then. You’ll be begging for more.”

Confusion darts through me as he roughly flips me around to undo my zipper. Before he can get it halfway, I push off the door and spin to face him. “I’m begging for your cock now. Since when do you turn down sex?”

His fingers squeeze my thighs, and he pins my hips with his own, his erection evident through our clothing. Tripp tried to fuck me bare the first night we met, but we haven’t done it in the two months we’ve been intimate. I thought it meant something. That he’d know how I trust him enough to offer myself up in that way.

Only, it seems like it’s backfiring.

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