I didn't answer at first. He was right, but I hated the feeling that I wasn't a part of it. I didn't want to be separate from the crowd or hide for once. I wanted to feel the energy they all had and lose concern for everything else.
Maybe it was taking a leap with Jax or maybe it was the idea that my mother never took a leap away from my father, but I wanted to push my limits. I wanted to lose my control a little.
I turned to Bastian, wanting an escape. “Why are we up here?”
He squinted a little at me. “You mean why aren’t we down there?”
I glanced back at my friends who were all enjoying themselves. “Sure,” I shrugged. “Shouldn't we get lost in the crowd like everyone else?”
His lips lifted slowly, like warmed molasses, as a smile formed across his face, and just like that molasses, my body warmed to him. “Finally, someone who's speaking my language.”
He turned to yell to Jay, “I’m taking this girl down to the real party.”
Caden groaned from the seat he was sharing with some blonde. “Do you always have to do the opposite of what our security asks?”
Bastian chuckled and told me to ignore him.
Jay walked over. “Bastian, my man, I told you she was my girl. He trying to steal you, Brey?”
“More like saving me. I want to go.”
He eyed me curiously. “You sure?”
I held his gaze. “Sure.”
He nodded at Bastian and we moved around him. Bastian whispered into my ear as we walked toward the steps, “That was easier than I thought.”
Reading Jay was my specialty though. I looked up at Bastian, held up my fingers, and whispered back, “Three, two, one.”
On cue, Jay appeared in front of us again. “I know all your secrets, Bastian. Remember that when you’re with her. And, Vick!” he yelled, searching our tables. She popped up from Caden’s other side, smiling wide. “Go with Brey to dance for a while.”
She glared for a second, and I protested by saying I already was going with Bastian, she rolled her eyes like she knew this dance by heart. “Got it,” she singsonged and wove her way toward us.
Bastian was laughing at this point, so I decided not to make more of a scene by rolling my eyes.
When Vick met us at the stairs, he swung both his arms around both of our shoulders and proclaimed, “I’m not going to complain in the least about having you both here with me.”
Adopting his carefree attitude worked for both of us as we laughed at his blatant flirtation.
Security eyed Bastian more than once as we passed, like they weren’t sure they wanted him to move into the crowd with us. As the beat hit, the lights strobed faster, fast enough that making out each other’s faces got more and more difficult.
We moved with the wave of people and Vick grabbed each of our hands to throw them up in the air. She whipped her hair and immediately a guy was next to her while Bastian moved to wrap an arm around my waist.
The next beat hit, and we smiled, jumping into the frenzy that it was.
He spun me. He dipped me. He lifted me. He danced and danced with me.
Vick leaned in to say, “Jay would tell me to save you and rip you away from him, but no one wants to be saved from that. He’s to die for.”
On one slower song, Bastian leaned in, “Okay, I concede. You could dance forever, and I need a break. Come to the bar with me.”
He pulled me through the crowd and people’s eyes shifted as they moved toward him. It registered then that he probably wanted off the dance floor for a very different reason. When someone yelled his name, I saw it register on his face.
He was well-known in some circle I wasn’t aware of. His fame caught up with us, and I hadn’t realized we weren’t as protected as we should have been. When he made a sharp turn into the crowd again, I followed quickly at his side. We got lost in the anonymity of the masses long enough to get to the bar where he placed me right on a stool. He wedged himself between me and a man who didn’t seem at all interested in him.
The bartender appeared in front of him immediately. “Bastian, you braving the masses already?”
He waved off the bartender’s comment and ordered a beer while I looked at him. His forehead had just the slightest sheen, his dark curly hair was disheveled but his eyes danced like he’d been ready to play in the crowd all day. “What’ll it be, little dancer?”