But the joke was on him. I was already taken.
My thoughts, my breaths, every beat of my damn heart belonged to someone else. And all of it jumped to life as his unmistakable heat and power greeted my back.
“You’re ravishing, Miss Constantine.” His purr caressed my ear, making me shiver. In the next breath, he appeared beside me, still as stone and his gaze directed across the dance floor as his chiseled lips mouthed, Drop-dead gorgeous.
An intense feeling of affection, warm and wrapped in possessiveness, settled into my midsection. Then he gave me his eyes, the caress of his hungry stare, searing my skin and deeper, strangling my air like a closed fist.
Heat swept through me, surging between my legs. In mute fascination, I watched his gaze discover my nipples beneath the thin organza and travel lower, tracing the lines of my body and devouring every swath of exposed skin.
Then he lifted my hand with professional grace, bowed his head, and rested his hot mouth upon my fingers. The feel of his lips sent my heart into the decorated rafters. But it was the wicked glint in his eyes that stole my soul.
The man he’d pretended to be for the past nine years was a lie.
He was danger. Sin encaged in muscle and bone. A demon wearing the face of a god, the collar of a priest, and the belt of Adonis.
“May I cut in?” Tucker stood beside Magnus, reaching for my hand still held in Magnus’s grip.
Magnus took his time releasing me and straightening to his full height.
On the dance floor, Daisy swayed in the arms of another St. John’s boy—Kevin, the guitarist in the church band—with a contented grin on her face. Good for her.
I smiled and turned to Tucker. “Yes. I’ll dance with you.”
He’d earned it after all.
Displeasure radiated off Magnus. “Keep your hands above her waist, Kensington.”
“I know the rules.” Tucker led me away from the glaring priest.
His hands slid around my back. His body heat pressed in, and I felt uncomfortably trapped.
I pushed the sensation aside and pretended I couldn’t feel Magnus’s gaze. “I hope you’ll continue to be nice to Daisy.”
“She’s all right.” Tucker pulled me closer, bringing his mouth to my temple. “I much prefer you.”
“Why?” My hands lay inert on his muscled shoulders, the scent of his cologne all wrong in my nose. “Why did you tell all the guys at St. John’s to stay away from me?”
“Because you’re mine, Tinsley.”
“What?” I pushed against him.
He was stronger, his arms around my back holding me against him. “You need to hear what I have to say.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Nevada sidled up to Magnus, whispering in his ear and rubbing her huge boobs against his arm. My blood pressure spiked.
“I’ve had a lot of confusing, conflicting feelings about this.” Tucker led me through the slow dance, scrutinizing me too closely. “I wasn’t happy about this arrangement at first. I was with Alice before. I mean, she and I…our relationship was hush-hush, because my parents didn’t approve of her family. But I really liked her. I might’ve even loved her.”
“Why are you telling me this? What arrangement?”
“Do you know why your mother enrolled you at Sion Academy? Why she chose that boarding school for you?”
My stomach hardened, and my feet stopped moving as realization crept up my spine.
“She wanted to put you closer to me.” He gave my waist an assertive nudge. “Keep moving. I earned this dance.”
He was a Kensington. Of course, my mother had targeted him.
It was all too real, happening too fast. My stomach cramped, and dizziness invaded.
“You’re being forced into a relationship with me,” I said numbly.
“I was. At first, I was outraged. Like I said, Alice and I had to end things because of this.”
“When? How long have you known?”
“It was dropped on me the night before the first day of school.”
“The night I arrived here. Then Alice left dead opossums on my bed. Did you know about that?”
“Yeah.” He lifted a shoulder, not a trace of compassion in his eyes. “She’s heartbroken.”
“You don’t look heartbroken. Do our parents even know one another?”
“Our mothers have been brunching together for years. They’ve negotiated an agreement, Tinsley. A Kensington-Constantine merger.”
“No.” I pulled my arms away, causing him to only hug me tighter. “I’m not marrying you.”
“Neither of us have a choice. They already modified our trust funds. We don’t get a dime unless we tie the knot.”
I didn’t even feel the cold grip of shock at this point. I’d known my whole life this was coming. I’d been mouthy and disrespectful and free with my blow jobs because I’d been trying to fucking escape this fate.
If I cut ties and walked away from my family, my inheritance, where would that leave Tucker? Would he lose his trust fund? Did I care?