Or maybe something horrible.
But Lyrik didn’t need to be concerned with that.
“Go be with your wife. She is looking awful sexy tonight.”
There.
Temptation.
One I knew he couldn’t resist.
No dog could resist a bone. And Tamar West had this bad boy collared.
Lyrik cut an eager glance to the side where she was in a small circle. She was cracking up where she chatted with her best friends, Shea Stone and Willow Evans, both wives of Sunder members.
My sister-in-law, who I adored and loved like she was my own blood, was wearing this black clingy dress that hugged every inch of her abundant curves, the dress super long and hitting the floor with slits riding up the front of the skirt and diving down her cleavage.
Ink covered most of her skin, too.
She wore five-inch heels and a gleam in her blue eyes.
My brother was head-over-heels for her. Steel turned to putty that she held in the palms of her hands.
I’d never thought he’d love again until the day he’d shown up at our parents’ humble house with her in tow.
It was clear he’d been long gone before he’d even known it himself.
But sometimes love took us hostage before we even realized we’d been captured.
Lyrik looked back at me, mouth quirking at the side. “My wife is always sexy. She’s just a little . . . extra tonight.”
“Extra is always good.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be giving her plenty extra,” he drew out.
With the back of my hand, I smacked him on the chest. Apparently, I’d given him the green light to take it too far. With Lyrik, all roads were always wide open. “Eww. I can do without the innuendo, thank you very much. It’s bad enough I have to watch you slobbering all over her every day.”
He rumbled a chuckle, way too pleased with himself. “Hey, just tellin’ it like it is.”
Laughing under my breath, I gestured in the direction of the raving crowd. Softness infiltrated my words. “Would you get out of here and stop worrying about me? I will be just fine.”
He hesitated. “You’re sure?”
“One-hundred percent.”
Okay, like . . . two percent.
“Besides, you have more security here than Fort Knox.”
Still facing me, he took a couple steps backward. “That’s because what I’m guarding is more important.”
He swiveled on his heel and started for the mass of people crushed in his house. Right before he got to the end of the hall, he turned back to face me.
Something severe had etched itself into his expression. “Every single person here is my guest, Mia.”
My head shook slightly, unsure, not understanding the flip that had just been made.
His expression darkened. “But that doesn’t mean they’re good. That they can be trusted. You get what I’m telling you?”
There was no mirth in the warning.
No tease.
Just the truth of what he said.
I swallowed around the lump that had made itself home at the base of my throat for the last three weeks, gave him a tight nod. “I know that.”
Like I hadn’t stumbled on my fair share of scumbags.
He dipped a nod. “Good. Then be careful.”
“I will. I promise.”
I wondered if I’d already known it was a lie when I said it.TwoMiaLyrik was right.
Not all of his guests could be trusted.
My pulse raced wild.
A frantic boom, boom, boom that I could feel thundering in the middle of my chest.
Panic raced, my throat closing off and my sight going blurry.
I tried to free myself from the hold of the man who was breathing his vileness all over me. Before I could even make sense that he’d been waiting for me when I’d left the restroom, he’d backed me into a wall at the base of the curved staircase.
His stench stung my nostrils. Sweat drenched in depravation.
His breath a toxic blend of alcohol and sex and corruption.
He edged me farther against the wall, as if his admission to this party had purchased him any evil.
“I said to get out of my way,” I forced out under my breath, teeth gritting in the hope that it might keep the terror that was streaking through my veins from seeping out of my pores.
The last thing I wanted was this asshole to sense my fear.
A monster scenting its prey.
“Come now. Don’t be like that,” he slurred, pressing his nose to my throat. “I just wanted to say hi. Introduce myself. You look awful pretty wandering around here all by yourself.”
I cringed. “I’m not alone. Now let me go.”
He tsked like my statement was absurd. “I should have known Lyrik West would invite the prettiest girls to his party. He always has the best entertainment.”
I would have laughed if vomit hadn’t already risen to my throat, vocal cords chained in alarm and dread.
This jerk had no idea my brother would gladly snap his neck. Gut him and leave him floating face-down in a river.