I tug her closer to me and lean into her ear. “Do the Charleston with them, or their innuendos will only get worse. You know how family is.”
She cackles, tangling her arms around my neck while I lift her off the ground. “I can say with complete confidence that the sentence you just uttered and my idea of family wouldn’t have coexisted before this moment.”
“I think a lot about your idea of family is going to change, baby.” I still for a beat, letting the swing music and pattering footfalls of dance steps my brothers and I grew up doing with my mom all take center stage, while Tessa’s lips part in awe. Then I thrust her into the mix, lowering her without warning. “But it starts with a dip.”
She’s a bit stiff, but she goes with it, allowing me to guide her and twirl her around, while Mercy, Jax, and Cash show off. Ryker even hops in and gives his wife a spin.
It’s an odd practice and not one we partake in often outside of balls or parties. But it always transports us back to leisurely days with my mother, when she would let go of her sadness and tell us to get lost in the music. Those are my favorite childhood memories. I think that’s true for all of us, so from time to time, when life feels too heavy, we dance.
After a couple of songs, I plop onto the couch with Tessa in my lap. Axel is standing back, observing. It’s the only cause of my hesitation to go do what I need to, but I also know that once he fully embraces Tessa being mine, he’ll do anything for her. So, I don’t stress about his need to process and examine every angle. That’s what he does.
“I have to go take care of something. Will you be okay?”
She sinks her teeth into her lip as she peers around at my family, those turquoise beauties landing on me with a hint of vulnerability and an inner battle she’s not sharing. “I’m good.”
“Don’t let my brothers fuck with you,” I warn.
“Fuck with me? Oh great. Sounds fun.” She plasters on a fake smile that could frighten Christopher Walken. “How long will you be?”
“Not that long, baby girl. Funny how, less than a month ago, you were wondering how to shake me, and now you can’t bear to have me leave the room.”
She shrugs and flutters her eyelashes, as though she isn’t gluing herself to me. “Maybe I asked because I wanted to celebrate my freedom.”
“No freedom here, Nightmare. I know you claim to hate that, but I promise I’ll make being chained to me the ride of your life.”
TESSA
I’m immersed in a world of grandeur and duplicity. Swing dancing and dueling pianists, sultry tales of Magie Noire and chandeliers that sparkle with the reflection of both history and hope.
Ink at midnight. Piercings before parties.
La Lune Noire has been a sort of home to me for most of my adult life. I’ve grown accustomed to the protection lurking in the shadows, the secrets whispered from the clandestine tunnels, the ugly underbelly of the crime world turned inside out to drip champagne, diamonds, and lace with an untroubled live-in-the-moment air.
Like most of the employees, I’ve been as guilty as the members of being drunk on its nectar. It oozes life and opulence, freedom from the constraints of the rigid expectations beyond these walls. One taste, and not drinking in every aspect becomes an impossible feat.
Much like the haughty warning Maddox bestowed before I dropped to my knees in his office.
“We both know I’m the taste you crave, Tess. Wrap those pouty lips around my cock, and I won’t need to hold you captive anymore. You’ll be clinging to me, insatiable, desperate for more.”
He wasn’t wrong. I am insatiable for him, for what could be, for this resort that is so much more than a job to me. But still, even within these addictive walls, I know my place. And the penthouse isn’t it. No matter how much I may want it to be now.
Maddox has been swept up in the high of us, so he’s not thinking clearly about all it would mean. For either of us.
I’m willing to bet that’s what this summons is about.
“Have a seat, Tessa.” Ryker gestures to a chair he pulled out before lifting a crystal tumbler. “Drink?”
Axel sits at the far end of the conference room table, three fingers of what looks to be whiskey in his glass and a file before him while he plays roulette on his watch. I already sense the breakdown of the flimsy foundation Maddox and I dared to construct, but I don’t show any of that. Meekness always loses.
Making myself comfortable, I peer at the bar. It would appear my options are plentiful, but I stick with something simple. “Rum and ginger ale, if you have it.”
“Kraken okay?” he asks with a friendliness that haunts me. The calm before a storm. “We keep that on hand for Ty.”
Ty is Rena’s husband. I met him and his family at their wedding. That feels like another lifetime. Still postI’m a murderer. But Rena is a lively spirit, and she felt so removed from her owner role at the time. She taught me guitar. I pierced her. It was simpler. For the most part.
Here? Now? The intensity in this room is palpable. I almost got their brother killed. I’m sleeping with him, and I’m an employee. And I think I killed another guy today, so there’s that.
“Kraken sounds great.” I smile. It’s forced, but they probably know that. I could flip them off to keep things natural, but I go with a simple, “Thank you.”
