Page 55 of Death Deals

His lips pressed into a tight line.

“What?” I asked.

“Now that I know your reasoning for what you did, it makes more sense.”

The compassion and unbiased love he’d talked about before. The one he talked about almost forgetting existed.

My heart ached for him. I couldn’t help it. He’d lived over a hundred years and every decision he’d ever made had been with selfish intentions. To not truly trust anyone or care at all… It sounded like an empty life. A long, sad, empty life. Lonely.

The short afterlife I had was full of people I cared about. I couldn’t imagine not having them there. It’d been so long since I’d seen Kay, Marla, Wyatt, or any of the others, and it was affecting me. I could feel it.

As the music changed again, this time to a more upbeat, modern song, the center of the theater began to clear to allow guests space to dance. In the mix of bodies, I found Imani across the floor talking to Hector and the other tight-knit Perezes. Even though Hector’s muscles were so tight, he could snap in half with a sudden movement, the conversation seemed to be going well enough. No one had tried to behead the other, so that was a plus.

“Did the queen rub you the wrong way before or was it just me?” I asked Andre, my voice low. “The way she was staring at us?”

He glanced Imani’s way, too. “I suspect she knows about us.”

“That I’m not really your claim?”

“That or the sexual tension between us.”

I scoffed, but I knew denying it would be pointless. It was more than true.

“Either way, we have to pray your display of power yesterday was enough to prevent any future problems.”

Yeah, let’s hope.I was really ready to put this behind me and worry about the threat soon coming—Monnie’s deal. I only had hours before the hunt began, and the panic was sinking in.

This New Year’s party was the last place I wanted to be right now. I should have been preparing for a fight. Hiding. Something. Not trotting around with barely any clothes on and drinking from a champagne flute. It was bizarre to me.

“I was going to ask you if you wanted to dance, but those two lines are back between your brows.”

I rolled my eyes his way, unamused.

He shifted closer and held his hand out to me.

“I told you. I don’t dance,” I bit out.

“If I recall correctly, youusedto.”

I gaped. This guy had some real balls.

He opened and closed his hand to emphasize his offer. “Come on, Blackwell. Why don’t you show me what you got? Prove me wrong again.”

I eyed him for a few minutes, wondering how long he was willing to fight me on this. When he showed no signs of giving up, I sighed heavily, tossed my fur shawl aside, and gave him my hand. As he’d said before, he had forever. I didn’t.

He grinned, obviously pleased with himself, and tugged me further into the throng of dancing couples. As the music switched to a slow, more seductive melody, Andre’s hands gripped my hips and pulled me close.

I froze, my mind jumping to our latest rendezvous in the elevator and how close we’d gotten to taking that next step. The heated look in his eyes told me he was thinking about it, too.

He leaned forward, his lips brushing my cheek. “I want to feel you move,” he whispered. “Dance for me.”

He applied pressure on my hips one side at a time, so that they shifted on his command, at his pace. Instead of fighting it, I moved with him, my pelvis grinding against his as the rhythm of the music sank in, fueling the desire reigniting between us.

I fisted the lapels of his jacket and pushed my chest against him. Despite the layers of fabric separating us, I could feel his cock jerk in response. Looked like he liked a little roughness himself.

Fine then. If he wanted to see me dance, then I’d show him.

Spinning around, I pressed my backside into his crotch, took both his hands, and placed them on my waist. His body grew rigid, except his fingers which gripped me hard, urging me on. As I swayed, I steered his palms over my stomach, and when I bent my knees, I let his thumbs brush the underside of my breasts. He sucked in a sharp breath.

---