Page 114 of A Dusk Of Stars

“I want to leave,” a bored female drawl snaps me out of it. I pull my hand back and break the kiss. He tries to catch my eye, but I ignore him, nestling back in his arms instead. My gaze is now on the wife, who’s standing right in front of me, impatiently waiting for the vampire as he scrambles to get ready to go.

“We should get going, too,” I hear Bane say, and still, I ignore him.

My heart is sinking at the thought of this little escape coming to an end and the two of us going back to our group.

The vampire finishes grabbing his stuff and comes to put his arm around his wife, but she just coldly backs off.

He lets out an awkward laugh and turns to the two of us. “Why don’t you two join us? We have a fully stocked bar back home. Maybe we could even talk about that investment thing.”

Hell yeah. “That sounds like so much fun,” I say, turning to beam at Bane.

To my surprise, the look on his face is a dead serious one. Maybe even a little pissed off. “It does,” he says as he gets up, “but we’re leaving.”

“But I want to keep drinking,” I reply as I look up at him.

He shakes his head and folds his arms, waiting for me without throwing another glance in the couple’s direction.

Way to ruin the whole thing.

I get up, throw the vampire and his wife sorry looks and come to whisper in his ear, “It’s not like I was actually planning on going through with it.”

He doesn’t say anything. He just walks around me and starts leading me through the crowd with a firm hand on the small of my back, making me frown when I realize he’s not going back to our group.

Just before we pass the bar, he stops, opens a door I only now notice and nudges me out into the warm night air, onto a cramped back space dominated by some kind of wooden crate.

Still frowning, I watch him lock the door and get in my face. “If I tell you we’re leaving,” he says through gritted teeth, “you start hauling your ass out.”

My frown grows deeper. “Excuse me?” I hiss.

“If I call you,” he keeps going in a voice growing more and more pissed, “you answer the fucking phone.”

Heat washes over me, when I realize exactly what’s happening. Even before he grabs my hand, puts it on his thigh and says, “And if you touch me like that in public, guess what happens?”

It’s a little breathlessly but with my lips tugging into a smile that I say, “I get punished.”

“Good girl,” he says.

He mercilessly spins me around, fills his hands with my breasts and takes a bite out of my shoulder. My spine arches with pleasure, my ass pressing into his crotch. He lets out a groan and starts dragging his hands down my body.

But we won’t be doing thingshis wayagain. I break free of his grip and I turn around, watching his eyebrows pull down even before I ask, “Oh that’s what you want, huh?”

I walk him backwards, shoving at his chest to make him sit on the crate with his legs spread wide. I’m enjoying the confusion on his facesomuch. “You want a good girl?” I whisper as I bend to get in his face.

I stand straight, lift my right leg and bring its heel down between his legs, the hem of my dress sliding down my thigh. “Don’t think you got me fooled for a second, big boy,” I whisper as I press the tip of the boot against his crotch, making his jaw clench and this feral look flash in his eyes.

He tries to grab my leg only to have it mercilessly slapped away. “Oh you think you’re allowed to touch?” I press the tip of my boot harder against him.

For a second, he just looks at me. As if in a trance, he shakes his head.

“You know when you’ll be allowed to touch?” I ask, leaning to breathe in his ear.

He seems to be speechless at the moment, so I don’t wait for his answer. “When andonlywhen I tell you you deserve it.”

Chapter 32

The next morning, I’m sitting at breakfast with Raven and Alaric, playing with my food as the words keep ringing in my head. “What’re you doing to me, Anna?” That's what I heard him say last night.

It’s like a mix of warmth and thrill exploding in me, every time I replay it in my head. And it's making me want to turn the sound bite into a blanket and cover myself with it, head to toe.

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