Page 125 of Kings & Corruption

That had been the crux of my argument when I’d told them I was going out with Claire and the girls, that it would start to seem weird if I didn’t do normal things with my friends. I wouldn’t say it worked — the Kings didn’t give two fucks what anyone thought — but after a brief argument about how it would be hard to protect me in a dark club crowded with people etcetera, etcetera, they’d given in and agreed to come with me.

Oscar's hand slid higher on my thigh, lighting a match to the embers he’d been stoking on the ride to Ruby’s. He leaned over and murmured in my ear, his breath hot against my neck. "We could just forget this and go home and fuck.”

I was glad it was dark in the car and he couldn't see that my nipples were hard under the gold dress. The sexual tension between us was becoming impossible to ignore. If we didn't do something about it soon, we were going to spontaneously combust.

But Claire was waiting, and now that I was dressed, I was ready to party. It had been a long time since I’d cut loose with friends. The welcome ball didn't count. I'd known I was breaking into Dean Giordana's office, and even though I’d had fun dancing with Claire and her friends, it was my first night out at Aventine and I’d been nervous in a million different ways.

Now I felt like I belonged, and I surveyed the crowd lining up outside Ruby’s with excitement. “I hope we won't have to wait long.”

Rock turned around to grin at me from the passenger seat. "We won't have to wait at all.”

I didn't have a chance to ask questions. The car doors flew open and the Kings got out, Oscar taking my hand and pulling me out after him. I teetered a little in the sky-high black boots I’d paired with the dress, and he put a firm hand on my lower back to steady me.

Everyone in line turned to look at them, and I had to say, I didn't blame them a bit. The Kings were looking fine, and it was obvious I wasn't the only one who thought so.

The girls in line looked at them like hungry cats stalking a flock of birds, except the Kings weren't birds, they were falcons, and they would eat every one of those cats alive.

The cats just didn't know it yet.

I was feeling pretty good walking with the three of them to the door of Ruby’s. I was the envy of every girl in line and I knew it. I didn't have a lot of experience with the position. Emma had always gotten all the attention. She’d been beautiful and audacious, and every man from fourteen to ninety had fallen all over themselves to catch her eye.

I’d been the quiet one in the back reading a book, happy to be out of the spotlight.

I pushed down my sadness at the thought of Emma. I'd been sad so often in the past two years. My whole life had been obliterated, first by my dad's betrayal and then by Emma's disappearance. Maybe it was selfish to want something for myself, but right then, I just wanted one night where I didn't think about any of the shitty things that had happened to me.

The door to Ruby’s was open but roped off, music beating from inside the club, lights sweeping the room beyond the door. Neo approached the giant bouncer, a bearded guy with cut biceps under a tight T-shirt.

The bouncer nodded at Neo with recognition. “Sup?”

“How's it looking in there?" Neo asked.

Even now, I couldn't take my eyes off him. His thighs barely seemed to fit inside his gray dress pants, and I knew if I looked I’d see the bulge of his big dick, something I was spending more time thinking about than I wanted to admit.

He'd left the top three buttons of his midnight-blue shirt unbuttoned and I tried not to focus on the smooth triangle of skin there that begged for my tongue. He’d combed his hair back with some kind of product, a look that only accentuated his bone structure, so severe it was somehow beautiful.

“All good for now.” the bouncer said.

The bouncer unclasped the rope and Neo led the way. Oscar gestured for me to follow him and then fell in behind me, followed by Rock. It was a lot of swagger, a lot of testosterone, and I was loving every second of it.

The music was cranked inside the club, the beat traveling from the floor up through my legs and into my chest. It was a cavernous, industrial place, probably some kind of old factory right on the border of the cute part of Blackwell Falls and the other side of town where the Orpheum was, where Oscar had told me not to go when he’d brought me into town for makeup.

Was that only five weeks ago? It felt like a lifetime.

I needed to find Claire, Quinn, and Erin, but the music was too loud for me to say that to the guys, so I scanned the crowd for my girls instead.

It didn't take long to find Claire, shaking what her mama gave her on one of several pedestals that seemed intended for that purpose in front of the DJ booth. Her emerald-green dress rode so far up she was practically giving everyone a crotch shot, but it was obvious from the glee on her face that she was having too much fun to care.

Quinn occupied the pedestal next to her, moving her ass to some kind of grunge/rap mash-up. They were clearly way ahead of me in the drinks department, something I intended to correct immediately.

Lucky for me, Neo had the same idea. He led us to the bar that lined one entire wall of the massive industrial space. Three bartenders worked the crowd of people lined up for drinks, and Neo worked his way to the front with the single-minded purpose of a bulldozer clearing ground.

A clean-cut bartender with dark hair and eyes took an order I couldn’t hear, and a couple minutes later, four drinks appeared on the bar.

I was annoyed that Neo had ordered for us all — as if he knew me — but the music was too loud to fight it. I took the slightly green drink from Rock’s hand and sipped, satisfied to find that it was delicious.

Rock leaned down and murmured in my ear. “Just to get you started.”

The brush of his cheek against mine did all kinds of crazy things to my body, amping up the need that seemed to hum under the surface of my skin no matter how many times I went to town with my vibrator.

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