I laugh and kiss her cheek before squeezing through the thick ocean of people. By the time I get back to V.I.P., I have a new understanding of claustrophobia. Which makes sitting next to Max with my toes brushing his thigh a huge step up.
“Are you having fun, Juliana?”
“I just might be,” I agree. “it would be more fun if you’d stop being a stick in the mud and dance.”
“Oh no. If looking will get me in trouble, touching will get me killed.”
“Then join me on the hitlist and live a little. Unless you’re more afraid of my dogs than my dad.”
He looks me over with those dark as sin eyes, licks over his top lip, and memorizes every inch of my body. I feel my core tremble in response. There’s something so intimate in the way he watches me, like a caress.
“Juliana, you like trouble don’t you?”
“Sometimes,” I admit. “But what I love is doing things becauseIwant to, not because someone tells me to. I’m sure Gio can tell you plenty of stories from our college days. The kinds of things Daddy would toss me in a bunker and never let me out for.”
“He’s not that bad, doll. He wants what’s best for you.” Max rubs his fingers between mine. “More important than your father is the fact that you don’t have a drink in your hand. What do you want?”
I watch Max intently. “I want you in my hand.”
We have a stare off and he sighs. “Then who will watch your pups?”
“One of the security people you have here unless you don’t actually trust them.”
He snaps his fingers and a muscular woman and lean man appear. He points at my purse. “The dogs stay in, everyone else’s fingers stay out.”
They don’t answer, but I have a feeling they’d chance being bit over being fired. Max takes my hand in the crowd and pulls me against his hard body. I feel a tremor spread all the way to my fingers by the time we’re on the packed dance floor.
Max wraps himself around me, grinding with me, moving more like a college boy with some dance experience than an old man. But his technique keeps us moving, keeps me close, and makes sure I feel every bit of his muscle rolling against me.
I put one hand back on his waist as his fingers glide across my front, tracing the line of my thong from hip to hip. I tremble and glance back at him. In the colored lights, but especially the red, he looks too gorgeous to be human. I’d make a bet that he’s some kind of seduction demon – like an incubus.
“Now who’s looking too long?” Max purrs in my ear.
“I’m allowed to look and touch all I want. I know the consequences,” I whisper.
“Even though someone else could be watching?”
“Let them see. I feel greedy.” I turn and wrap an arm around Max’s neck.
He makes me want to be bold, want to carve out the life I could have without sneaking around or settling for less. Max looks down at me as I rub myself against his obvious hard-on. I feel every panting breath across my lips, feel him daring me to make the first move.
But his eyes flick from mine just as my lips brush his chin and he twirls me away and into someone who was obviously waiting. Something loud, too loud, shatters the music. Someone screams and then I try to find Patricia. She needs to get out of here with me.
The stampede of people is too much. I nearly fall to the ground, but someone grabs me at the last second and hauls me up. It’s the stranger from the bar and he’s looking at me like I’m the best prize out of a claw machine. I narrow my eyes as he waves a gun.
Fuck this. Fuck letting other people do the saving. I twist his arm as I twirl and then pop it out of the socket before breaking it over my leg, just like I was taught in self-defense. One of dad’s security guys made sure I learned more than the basics.
I kick the gun out of his other hand, definitely breaking a few of those little bones. He tries to turn around to get me back in sight now that I’m behind him, but I kick out his knee, making sure he’ll need surgery to fix that.
“You ruined my night!” I yell at him, kicking the inside of his thigh. “Do you know how rarely I get to go out?”
“Cry me a river.” He hisses.
Fury boils over. “How about you cry instead.”
I kick his junk so hard I’m hoping that his balls don’t descend for another year. He sucks in a gasp and falls over, clutching his crotch as he curls into the fetal position. I flip him off, grab Patricia from where she’s hiding, collect my dogs, and head outside.
“What was that?!” She demands, gaping at me.