The voice slices the night in half. We freeze. Her eyes fly open, wide with panic, and her breath hitches, like she’s been caught in a lie. “Milo,” she whispers, and just that name—just that one syllable—is a bullet to the chest.
Her brother.
Fuck. I really wanted to get my dick wet…
She tears away from me before I can speak, before I can even think. Just a flash of red silk and perfume and the click of heels vanishing behind the pillar. Back through the curtain. Back into the spotlight. Back to safety.
A beat later, Milo Black comes into view.
His eyes lock on me immediately. I rake a hand through my hair, scrambling to wipe whatever the hell just happened off my face, but it’s too late. My lips are red. My suit’s wrinkled. I probably look like I just crawled off the floor of a backroom blowjob.
Which, in a way, I kind of did.
“Mara?” Milo barks. Not seeing her, his gaze cuts to me. “What the hell are you doing out here, Reed?”
I push off the pillar, wipe the back of my hand over my mouth and taste her lipstick.
Fucking hell.
“Enjoying the night air,” I say, leaning against the railing like I’ve got nothing to hide.
It’s a lie so thin I could spit through it. Milo’s jaw clenches and he takes a step closer. His whole stance shifts—squared shoulders, fists balled. Big Brother Mode:activated.
“Where is she?” he demands.
I tip my chin toward the ballroom. “Inside,” I say lazily. “Safe from the big bad wolf.”
“Stay the hell away from her,” Milo growls.
“And if she doesn’t want me to?”
“She doesn’t know what she wants.”
Oh, I want to say it. I want to say,She knew what she wanted when her tongue was in my mouth and her hips were grinding against my thigh.
But something makes me hold my tongue.
We stare each other down like wolves fighting over the same scrap of meat.
He breathes hard through his nose, nostrils flaring, jaw twitching like he’s two seconds from throwing a punch. I wish he would. I’d welcome it—give me something to bleed so I don’t have to sit here with this madness humming under my skin.
Then he turns and storms back inside.
I drag my hand down my face and laugh. What the hell just happened?
One kiss, one girl, and I feel like I’ve been rewired. I pace, restless and manic, the image of her burned behind my eyes like a fever dream. Her parted lips. Her breathy moan. That fucking look in her eyes when she pulled me down to her.
I get it now.
Why is Dredyn so territorial? Why does Jasper watch her like a starving man in a locked room?
It’s not just because she’s beautiful.
It’s because she’s intoxicating. Untouched. And I just got the first hit.
She tasted freedom.
And I tasted her.
