Page 41 of Dark, Forbidden, & Taboo

“Don’t touch me,” I hiss at Rock as the valet drives away with the car. He’s got an arm looped firmly through mine and enjoying the fact that I’m showing him my true feelings for him again.

Hatred and disgust.

“Get used to it, sweet cheeks,” he says, yanking me closer to him. “Because you’ve already agreed to a wild weekend.”

I square my jaw as we walk toward the entrance of the building, and right past security. I stop walking for a moment when I realize Kuruk is just now walking up to join the other two men.

It’s not like him to be late.

“Evening, Miss Emily,” he greets me in his low tone, with a nod.

“Everything okay, Kuruk?”

“All is well,” he confirms with a small smile curving his lips upward. It amazes me because he’s been with us for as long as I can remember, and I don’t ever recall seeing such a serious man smile before.

“Come on,” Rock says, giving me another tug toward him, “let’s get this show on the road.”

As we wander down the aptly lit hallway, I take in the low-hanging crystal chandeliers and full-length mirrors encased in genuine twenty-four carat gold frames.Boy, he sure didn’t spare any expense for this.

“What the hell is this, anyway?” Rock asks as we head toward a room full of people.

“What?” I ask him, curiously.

“What’s the party for?”

I smirk at him as I wrench my arm out of his grip, then take his hand firmly in mine. I want to feel his palms sweat when I lay it on him that he’s here to show support for the competition.

“Daddy threw thispartytonight to gain support. He plans to announce that he’s running for Secretary of the State tonight. Know anyone else that has that kind of ambition?”

Rock stops walking and I give him a smug, sidelong glance. I can see the color drain from his face, but we both know it’s too late for him to run.

He’s already been seen here.

It’ll get back to his father, and he’s going to have a pretty damn good explanation for why he was seen at Daddy’s support gala on the arm of his daughter.

“Anyway,” I say conversationally, the feeling of intense joy as his discomfort swelling inside of me, “let’s go say hi to Daddy before we mingle.”

“Man, you fuckingoweme for this shit, Emily,” he snarls as I pull him along toward my father.

“Yeah, yeah,” I reply with a smirk, “save it for the Bahamas.”

___

I muffle my yawn daintily with a hand as Daddy and his friends chat with Rock.

I know what my father is doing—he’s trying to milk him for any information on his father’s ideas for the race. And if he manages to wheedle anything out of Rock, he’ll find a way to do it a thousand times better and sooner.

He’ll definitely make one hell of a politician. Sneaky, dishonest, and skeletons in the closet,I think dryly.

Rock keeps shooting me withering glances in between breaks in conversation and I grin in return because now the worlddoesrevolve around him, only it’s not made up of fifty-something and up sad and lonely women, lining up to get the cobwebs dusted off their pussies for a night.

I swallow down a sigh as I glance around the ballroom. There are so many people here who I don’t know, some I don’t care to know, and some I’d rather forget.

The only blessing about tonight is that it shouldn’t go past one in the morning, then I’ll be able to go home and scrub my body with a Brillo pad, removing any trace of Rock.

“Excuse me,” I say to the men sweetly as I manage to find a way out of the gravitational pull of politics and head over to one of the refreshments tables.

As I take the glass of champagne from the young, male bartender, I glance over at the next table.Mm. Food,I think as my stomach rumbles quietly.

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