Page 11 of Pretty Dark Vows

“You got a name, princess?” Dante asks as I lead him into the storage room at the opposite end of the building.

He sits down on a stack of crates in the small room, watching as I pull out the bottle of booze I keep stashed behind another crate. There are no glasses to go with it, so I take a drink from the bottle, humming as the whiskey burns down my throat.

“It’s Riley,” I say as I pass the bottle over. I should probably just give him my stripper name, but for some reason, I really want to hear him say my real name in that deep voice of his.

“Riley,” Dante repeats. He rolls the word over his tongue like he’s tasting it, and I was right—it sounds incredible. “I like it. It suits you.”

“Thanks,” I say as he takes a swig and then passes the bottle back. I drink again, letting it burn its way down my throat and pool in my belly to mix with the heat already brewing there. Then I cock my head at him, giving him an assessing look. “I’ve never seen you here before. I’m guessing you didn’t come for the entertainment tonight.”

“Nah. Business meeting,” Dante says, just like I thought. He reaches out and pulls me closer by the hips, spreading his legs so that I’m standing right between his thighs. “Is that what you brought me back here to talk about? Whether I came for the entertainment or not?”

I shake my head. “No. I just wanted to thank you.”

We’re close enough that his chest brushes against me as he stands and takes the bottle back, keeping one hand wrapped around my hip in a surprisingly possessive gesture.

He takes another drink, then sets the bottle aside and grips my chin, tipping my head up.

“You already did that, princess.” His thumb moves across my lips, teasing them open. “Got any other ideas?”

He doesn’t wait for my answer, and when he leans in and replaces his thumb with his mouth, he tastes just like I expected him to.

Like good whiskey, bad decisions, and exactly what I fucking need right now.

4

RILEY

Dante’s handcircles my throat as he plunges his tongue into my mouth like he owns it, tipping my head back and holding me exactly where he wants me.

Fucking hell, he’s good at this.

I run my hands up the hard planes of his chest and lock them around his neck, and he makes a low sound, almost like a purr, as our kiss deepens. I suck on his tongue, tunnelling my hands up through the back of his short hair to keep him close, then gasp softly when he bites my lower lip like he’s reminding me who’s in charge.

His hand splays across my ass, yanking me into his crotch, and I make a hungry sound as I feel his cock growing against me like a bar of heated steel.

A thick bar. The man is fuckinghuge.

I hook my leg around his to pull our hips even tighter together because I want to feel more of it.He chuckles against my lips when the friction starts to feel good enough to make me moan, then breaks away from my mouth, stroking my throat as he stares down at me.

“Need something, princess?” he asks, using the hand he’s got on my ass to encourage what I’m already doing and grind us together even harder.

“You know I do. Isn’t that why you’re here?” I shoot back, staring him down as my breath starts to come faster.

His eyes blaze with heat, the green almost eclipsed by black, and his answering smile isn’t playful or charming this time. It’s fucking filthy.

Then his lips crash down on mine again. He almost bows me backward with the force of his kiss, like he’s trying to consume me. Inhale me. Imprint himself on me in some permanent, atomic-level way.

The music from the club beats through the walls like a pulse, pounding with the same rhythm as my clit. The same rhythm as the throbbing ache in my abused breast from the fucker Dante took down a few minutes ago. The same rhythm as the way I’m rocking against his body.

It all blends together as he takes control and takes me out of my head.

“Shit, I love how fucking wild you are,” he groans, forcing my head back to bite at my jaw before moving lower. Staking his claim with teeth, lips, and tongue as he sucks on my neck in a way that has me gasping out his name.

He slides his hands under my tank top, pushing me back a little so he can shove it up and out of the way. His eyes rake over me with approval when he sees that the tank was all I was wearing.

“Gorgeous.”

He thumbs my pebbled nipples, shooting hot sparks down to my pussy, then pulls my tank the rest of the way off and tosses it aside.

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