Someone called out to Kale, and he lifted his free hand, waving at them, and we moved in their direction. I didn’t see them, because I was in flats tonight rather than heels and couldn’t see anything over the shoulders of the hundreds of people around us.
“Santana!” someone squealed my name loud enough to be heard over the music and the slight roar of the crowd. Next thing I knew, two sets of arms wrapped around me, pulling me away from Kale.
I saw a flash of red hair, followed by blonde, and grinned, realizing it was Kin and Kassa. I had gotten a text from them both earlier, asking if I was coming with Kale. I liked that they had accepted me so easily, that I had made new friends who cared about me. Sage was so lost in her Wade bubble that nothing else seemed to matter.
“You look hot, babe,” Kin said as she took a step back to run her blue eyes over me appreciatively.
“Smoking hot,” Kassa seconded. “Ugh. I wish I had hair as pretty as yours. I’m so jealous of you, hoochie.”
“You two are beautiful,” I told them. “I’d kill for your legs, Kin. Being short has some serious drawbacks. And Kassa, you are stunning. I want to be you.”
The blonde made a face at me. “No, you don’t. Trust me; you wouldn’t want to have to deal with my brother and Gray twenty-four seven. It’s exhausting.”
“True story,” Kin agreed, then took my hand and pulled me through the last little bit of the crowd.
As we cut through a small group of guys, all of them stopped what they were doing to watch us. I barely looked at them, but Kale was suddenly right behind me, his heat like a wall as he pushed me ahead of him. I noticed he shot the guys a hard look that had a few of them backing up a step as he put his hands on my hips and held on tight.
Laughing at how possessive he was, I shook my head at him. “Relax,” I mouthed at him.
“You relax,” he grumbled right beside my ear. “These fuckers need to keep their eyes to themselves.”
I could only laugh harder at him. It was adorable the way he was acting. I liked it, but I didn’t want him to think I would ever encourage any other guy to look at me. I didn’t need the attention, and I didn’t like that kind of attention. All I wanted was him.
Once we met up with the others, I was introduced to a few other people. Nate, who was one of the bartenders and the assistant manager, was hanging out with us tonight, as well as Kin’s other stepsister, Carolina. Sin and Cash had also shown up.
I got a chin lift from Sin who was drinking a beer, but Cash talked to me for a few minutes before Kale pulled me away so I could hug Lucy and Angie, who had just arrived.
I wanted to talk to Jenna about the offer she had so generously offered me the night before, but I didn’t want to do it in front of everyone else. I was seriously tempted to take her up on it. However, I wasn’t going to do it without paying rent if I did decide to do it. I had always paid my way, and I wasn’t about to stop now.
My phone vibrated again in my hand, and I rolled my eyes when I saw that it was Sage calling again. She wasn’t going to give up tonight until she got to bitch.
; Sending the call to voicemail, I turned my attention to the new friends I was making and started having a good time.
Without warning, the lights suddenly dimmed and everyone in the club went oddly quiet. I didn’t see the girls walk out on stage. Nor did I hear them move around to take their places, even though you could have heard a pin drop right then. Then there was a steady ba-dump-dump-dump, and I could actually picture a woman walking to the beat, her hips swaying in a seductive way that would pull every eye to her.
The drum beat stopped and a spot light came on above the stage, highlighting a single blonde in fishnet leggings, a pair of black shorts that barely covered her ass, and a shirt that read FIRST BASS across her breasts. She was the most beautiful female I had ever set eyes on. The way her long, blonde hair flowed around her shoulders, her elfin face, with those stark blue eyes that seemed to drill into every person, even though we were all still in the dark. Then she smiled, and the spotlight was put to shame with how bright it was.
“Are you ready?” she asked into the microphone she held in her hand like it was an extension of herself. Her voice was husky, seductive, and I heard at least a dozen men groan around me in response to both the sound of her voice and her words.
“That’s Roanna,” Kale murmured with his lips against my ear. “She can cast a spell over an entire audience and make them do her bidding. Sin calls her a witch.” He chuckled. “And he’s all torn up because she won’t give him the time of day. Not that he would ever admit that.”
“Here we go!”
I had to agree with Sin. Roanna was a witch. She took control of everyone’s attention in the building, and I was far from immune. The way she moved around stage, drawing everyone’s eyes as she sang one song after another, made it almost impossible to remember the other three blondes in the band. And her voice … it was like some sultry angel was singing for us. When she hit those high notes, I got chill bumps. This chick could have given Lzzy Hale a run for her money; that was for frigging sure.
My phone started vibrating again, and I sent it to voicemail without even looking at the screen. Kale stood behind me, his arms linked around my front as we swayed to the music. When the hard tones of the last song faded into the softer tones of the next one, I pressed my ass into his groin, feeling more than hearing his groan, and was rewarded when his dick flexed against my hip.
“Be good,” he said with a growl at my ear.
I didn’t want to be good. I wanted to be bad, and do very wicked things to him.
He flattened his hands against my stomach, his fingertips teasing along the top of my panties through my dress. I squirmed against him more.
I wasn’t the only one who wanted to do bad things. He was teasing me, and all I could think about was finding a dark corner and taking the edge off the throbbing ache he was building between my legs.
“You guys all know that Tainted Knights was here before us,” Roanna was saying now as she pushed her sweat dampened hair back from her face.