Page 124 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Her senses prickled as she moved. A shiver of interest that had her looking up, gaze roaming through the crowd for the source.
A man was watching her from where he sipped at a whiskey from a high-top table with a couple other guys.
He was twenty-four or twenty-five, she guessed.
His light brown eyes roved over her, and she didn’t look away as she swiveled her hips, her stomach tightening in attraction as she took him in.
He appeared cool and casual where he sat rocked back in the stool.
Powerful, maybe.
Wearing a black button-down with the sleeves rolled up. Tattoos covered the exposed skin of his arms.
He was hewn in the type of danger that she knew she shouldn’t be attracted to.
She’d always been, though.
She almost rolled her eyes at herself.
She’d only been with one guy. Her high school boyfriend who was both boring and sweet.
But she always liked to look.
Every fantasy she had was of a guy like this. One who was rough and demanding.
Too bad she’d always been the good girl who was never brave enough to dip her toe into that type of hazard.
Because that’s what he was written in.
Hazard and peril.
Eva danced out in front of her, and she turned around and got in the line of her sight. She barely mouthed over the din, “Oh my God, that guy is so eye-fucking you. He is wicked hot.”
Eva peeked back at him while Piper had yet to be able to look away.
Eva turned back. A bit of worry creased the sides of her black-rimmed eyes. “But he looks like a load of trouble.”
Nerves tumbled in Piper’s belly. A warning that she should turn around.
Leave.
Maybe run.
She didn’t know what came over her because she swallowed it down, and the words were tumbling off her lips at the same moment the guy stood from his chair and started in her direction.
“Maybe a little trouble is exactly what I need this summer.”
TWENTY-THREE
THEO
My eyes flewopen to the lapping night.
Darkness all around and Piper in my arms.
Her soft breaths were panted against my chest as she remained lost to sleep.
With my mind spinning, I tried to orient myself, and I squinted as I shifted enough so I could see the clock that glowed from the nightstand.
