Page 97 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Hightail it out of there before I did something I couldn’t take back.
But I was draining my drink and sliding out, greed a violent throb in my veins as I stole through the dim, muted light.
Heading in the only direction I could go.
EIGHTEEN
PIPER
Heat flamedacross my body as I moved to the reckless rhythm of the song.
It’d been so long since I’d been this free, yet still, I felt tied.
Bound to this place as if there was a reason I’d been called here all along.
I knew exactly what held me trapped.
Those inky eyes that were kissed by the moonlight.
And they were honed on me.
I let go beneath them. Beneath the sense of being seen.
Reckless and stupid and foolish, but right then, I couldn’t find it in myself to care.
I wanted to experience it.
Experience life in a way that I hadn’t done in years.
The rest of the couples had gotten swallowed by the crowd, and I gave myself over to the wave, dancing by myself like I was only dancing for Theo.
Which meant I was totally unprepared when some guy came up behind me. A complete stranger who rubbed himself against my backside.
Anxiety blazed, and I flinched and tried to dodge him, but he just pushed himself closer.
“What the hell is the most gorgeous girl in the club doing dancing by herself?” the guy mumbled at my ear, his words slurred and clearly inebriated.
Bile lifted. That fight or flight that I was always subjected to surging.
I attempted to control it. Not to freak out and run as I tried to sidestep the man’s advances.
Violence suddenly cracked through the air. A wild possession that lifted the hairs at the nape of my neck.
A shivery concoction of fear and anticipation and unquestionable want ripped through me as I felt the atmosphere shift.
My belly fluttered when in my periphery I saw Theo rise from the booth.
A dark demon who began to cut through the throng.
Menace was carved in his features.
All brutal, serrated edges.
The man written in peril, that shredded strength vibrating through the space with each foreboding step he took in my direction.
I already knew he was coming, and still, a gasp raked up my throat when he was suddenly standing in front of me.
One arm slipped around my waist to tug me against him at the same second he sent what I could only imagine was a death threat to the man behind me.
