Page 642 of Flirting with Darkness

His lips part.

“What?” he breathes, the word whirling around me like it wants to draw me in closer to him.

“There’s been no other girls,” I say, and when he blinks, a laugh bursts out of my chest. I stop it with my hand over my mouth, clapping myself silent. “No guys, either,” I say slowly.

“Yeah, I got that. Same here, too.” He’s still looking at me with that expression of… is it wonder? Or something else? Surprise? I can’t put my finger on it. He steps toward me and then wraps me in his arms. “I wish I could say I was anything but bad news for you, but… well, unfortunately for you, I’m better than anything else waiting for you out there.”

I shiver and lean against his chest, abandoning my hot drink and instead soaking myself in his warmth.

I’ve never really been out in the world. I was locked in a cycle between school and home, my studies and my family. Not a lot of friends, or relatives, or extracurricular activities to meet other kids my own age. School, home, school, home, and then working full-time at the bar. And that was it. That was all I had ever expected from my life. But now I’m here, in this brand new world with expensive clothes and an exclusive club inches away from me, and —

“Hadrion.”

I say his name like it’s a prayer, and he breathes me in, his mouth closing in on my temple to leave a kiss as offering.

“I have some things to take care of today,” he says. “I gotta deal with Falc. He’s pissy, and when he’s pissy it’s a problem for everyone.” He pulls away and I feel the loss of his heat acutely. I want to follow him.

“Can’t I come with you?”

Those yellow eyes of his glitter.

“No way,” he says firmly, so hard that it feels like he’s physically repelled me. He clears his throat, and his expression softens. “You’re safer here. There’s buzz in the underground that your sister is looking for you, and if she is, it means that they’ve sent her out to bait you into the open… then they’ll take you in.”

My throat aches, and I shiver. I still can’t believe that my family would ever actually sell me out, but…

Maybe it’s not so hard to believe. Emily always wanted more, and always believed I was the one who’s held her back all these years. It makes more sense than I’m comfortable admitting, in a coat-of-many-colors sort of way.

“I don’t get it,” I mumble and look down at the ground. His fingers sneak under my chin and he tilts my head up with so little exertion it’s scary.

“I’ll keep you safe, remember. I promised you. As long as you’re in my care, especially as long as you stay inside this club, nobody can touch you.” He kisses me slowly, warming me down to my toes and I sigh when he pulls away. “One of my girls is out today sick, so maybe you can cover for her downstairs.” He grins. “Sorry to take you out of one bar and put you into another. But I guess that’s what I did hire ya for.”

“I’d prefer it,” I say slowly, each word barely a breath as my brain reboots and reconnects itself to my body, “if we call it was it is from now on, and use the’ term ‘headhunted’.”

Sure, the idea of trading one bar job for another, in retrospect, doesn’t sound all that grand. But this is an uptown bar, and also… an opportunity to be helpful? To the man who saved my life?

He grins in response.

“Good,” he says, “let’s go introduce you to Livvie.”

7

KATYDID

“So, you’re Hade’s new piece.”

Live pops her gum as she pours several drinks for a customer, not even needing to keep her eye on the bottle or the glasses. The alcohol stops right before the rim each time, blue and creamy-opaque. “Shots up!” she calls, and all along the bar people sit forward and push their dollars to the far side of the counter-top, signaling they want in on the action. Live smirks at me. “Well, you’d better learn the pace of this place real quick, kiddo. He doesn’t have a lot of patience.”

My face burns in response, and I’m glad for the red-tinted light in here to hide my cheeks. Because as far as I know, Hadrion does have patience. He must have at least some… After what he did to my body, taking his time to take me apart? Like he had no other concern in the world other than my pleasure?

Her words bite at me a little bit, though.

“What do you mean, ‘new piece’?”

“Oh, he always takes a favorite, honey, men like him do that.” Hadrion’s bar manager is on her way back to me, having doled out a plethora of indigo shots to waiting customers. The atmosphere in our corner of the club is light and cool and easy. Except for me, I feel like something is weighing me down. Her words, maybe.

I’m not just a favorite, I want to tell her. He’s promised me things. Big things, like the whole city if I want it. But a sinking feeling in my stomach makes me stay quiet about that, at least for now. I know how I’ll come off — the foolish little girl from lowtown, taken in by the player and his game. I don’t know how to explain how I know this is… different, somehow.

“He said he doesn’t really date,” I reply, quietly, because part of me doesn’t really want her to hear me. I don’t want her to know the whole truth of what Hadrion and I have been up to. Where we’ve been. How he’s touched me. What he’s told me. How he saved me, in more ways than one. It’s secret, and special, and she can’t destroy what she doesn’t know.

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