With a happy hum I looked over my shoulder so I could nuzzle my face against his, before I lazily threw an arm back to hook it around his neck.
“Your brother thinks you drink my blood,” I murmured as I bent my knees a little so I could sway my hips to the music. Pressed up against him as I was, I could feel the fabric of his pants and the hardness of his flesh against my backside, and a hot thrill rushed through my veins. With a flick of my hair I arched my neck back, provokingly displaying my neck to him. “Have I been a bad friend by not offering?”
Warin went rigid behind me, his arm around my waist constricting even tighter. “Liv…”
I laughed, delighted by the slightly tortured note to his voice. "Told you I was a friendly drunk.”
“I remember.” It was a mix between a laugh and a growl against my ear, and it made my skin break out into goosebumps.
I twisted around in his arm that was still wound around my midsection so I could face him. "Hello you," I teased, noticing the darkness of his eyes and deciding to see if I could push him a little further. Because Drunk Liv is a apparently moron.
I gave him a saucy wink and tipped my head back, arching until my hips pressed into his as I slid my hands over his soft, gray, V-necked shirt, relishing in the feel of his hard muscles underneath it.
He shot the hand that wasn't holding my drunk form up out and grabbed me by the back of my neck, pulling me back up with a jerk. Growling low, he pressed my ear close to his mouth. "You are drunk." There was a clear, dark warning in his voice.
It should probably have scared me.
But it didn't.
And I leaned in and bit down on his shoulder. Hard.
A hiss erupted from him, and both the arm around my waist and the hand on my neck pulled me harder against him for a second, making my entire, drunken body shiver with delicious want. It wasn’t just his muscles that were hard now.
Purring like a cat in heat, I opened my mouth to nibble at the place where his neck met his shoulder, but he caught my neck before I could, pulling me back. "Stop that. Right now."
I pulled my head away, feeling entirely too pleased with the roughness in the vampire’s voice—until my eyes met his. They were pitch-black.
Oh. Maybe I’d gone a step too far? A small part of my intoxicated brain felt a flutter of fear just as he grabbed my arm and dragged me through the crowd, up to the bar.
“Settle my bill,” he snarled at the barman.
The man jumped a little, probably also freaked out by the predatory sound, and disappeared to fetch Warin’s card with swifter-than-average speed.
“Liv, are you all right?” A warm hand landed on my shoulder, and I turned toward its owner with a start. Dennis, my boss from Dark Dreams.
“Dennis!” I broke out in a grin at his unexpected appearance. “I had no idea you went to fancy nightclubs!”
Dennis didn’t return my smile, his face tight as he glared over my shoulder. At Warin, I realized. The absurdity of my very human boss glaring down a nightwalker finally made his question click. He thought I was in trouble.
“Yeah, yes, I’m fine. Good, really.” I beamed even brighter at him to ensure he knew I was being honest. And I was. The fact that Warin had remembered something so earthly as paying for my multitude of drinks meant he was in full control, despite his growling response to my teasing.
I gave his hand a small squeeze. “You remember Dennis, right Warin?”
Warin just stared him down, not bothering to respond. Dennis lifted his chin ever so slightly, a silent challenge.
Men.
I could have kissed the bartender when he pushed Warin’s card at him, interrupting the staring contest.
“Come.” Warin’s voice was still rough as he tugged on my hand, turning his back on Dennis without another look. “We need to get you home.”
I stumbled after him as he maneuvered us through the crowd faster than my drunk legs could manage with any form of grace. Only when we were out in the cold and so far down the street the music from Isla could no long be heard in the night did he slow down and release his grip on me.
“Jeez, that was so rude,” I scolded, even if I couldn’t hold back a giggle at the grouchy look on Warin’s face. It looked downright adorable, and I leaned in to pinch his cheek. I managed to trip over my own feet and halfway fall against him in the process. “You’re really cute when you’re sulking, Mr. Vampire, but you should be nicer to my friends. Dennis hasn’t done anything to you.”
Warin lifted me back onto my feet, keeping a grip on my elbow to help me stay balanced. “He wants to fuck you. The night I met you at the bar, he was planning to take advantage of you.”
I snorted at that absolutely ridiculous statement. “Dennis? Don’t be ridiculous! He’s completely harmless and so nice. It’s not everyone would hire a stray alley cat like me, and he did, no questions asked.”
Warin only breathed in deeply and began to walk toward where he’d parked his car without responding.
"So… we're done dancing, then?" I sighed as I stumbled along beside him, thankful for the support of his grip.
It wasn't meant to be a taunt, but it nevertheless earned me a dark glare. “Yes.”
"Bore," I said, blowing a raspberry in his general direction. “I love dancing. Oooh, I know what we should do! You should fly me up to the highest skyscraper in Chicago and dance with me! It’ll be like we are dancing among the stars!”
Cool fingers ghosted against my cheek in a light caress. “If there is anyone I could dance among the stars with, Liv, it’d be you.”
“Is that a yes?” My own voice came out as a hoarse whisper as a familiar, electric heat radiated through me from his cool touch.
But when I turned my head to look at him, there was only regret in his eyes, and not an ounce of the dark heat from before.
“No, little one. There’ll be no more dancing for you and me. Not tonight, nor any of the nights to come.” He gently touched his thumb to my lower lip before he removed his fingers from my face, leaving me feeling hollow. “Come. You need to sleep, and I need to speak with my brother.”
17
When I woke up the next afternoon, it was to the sensation of something having crawled down my throat to die, and a hangover that made me wish for death.
Groaning, I rolled over onto my side and grasped for the glass of water on my nightstand.
Warin had put it there after he halfway carried me in the door, I vaguely recalled, while I’d been fighting to get out of my dress and into my PJs in the bathroom, singing one of the songs from the club at the top of my lungs.
And that’s when the rest of the night came back to me, in way too crystal clear high-definition.
I choked on the water as an involuntary whimper made it past my lips at the recollection of rubbing myself all over Warin. When the memory of biting his shoulder caught up with me, I crawled back underneath the duvet, wishing a black hole would open up underneath me.
Why? Why, did I do that?
The answer was glaringly obvious, and did nothing to ease my flaming humiliation.