A smile crept over her lips.
I don’t dance. It’s a hard and fast rule, so I just stood beside her, watching heat rise in her cheeks and the way she tucked her hair behind her ear.
“I need a drink,” Caroline declared. “You okay here?” She directed her question at Elena with no subtlety whatsoever.
Elena nodded and shooed Caroline away. I watched her leave before moving around to face Elena properly.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her tone stern, but her smile betraying her pleasure.
“Dancing with you.”
“You aren’t dancing,” she pointed out. That was a fair point.
I took half a step towards her and leaned close to her ear. “You look good enough to eat.” I ran a hand over her hip.
“Someone might see,” she hissed.
“I could be ordering you to stop writing about me for all anyone knows.”
She glared up at me, her cheeks flushed, her lips pressed together.
“No one will suspect that I’m telling you how much I want to take you upstairs and fuck you in one of those VIP pods.” I closed the gap, towering over her. It might’ve looked from a distance like I was trying to intimidate her, but I was drinking in the scent of her perfume and feeling her swaying body brush against mine.
“That sounds good. Too good. I don’t think we’d get away with it.” She spun away from me and moved through the crowd. I followed her close enough to keep a hand on the small of her back.
Near the edge of the dance floor, she whipped around and planted a hand on my chest.
“This is for show. I’m telling you to back off and leave me alone.”
Her eyes were alight with want. I took a step back and dropped my head.
“Got it. I’ll be waiting up there. If you come up, you’d be rescuing me from a fate worse than death.”
“Jax spilling his guts about his latest conquests?”
I flashed her a grin. “Something like that.”
“Tempting. The risk is exciting, I have to admit.”
“That’s what it’s all about, that heart-pounding danger.” It was what I felt every time I got into the car. And I felt it now, just as strong.
I left her standing there, uncertain whether she was going to follow me or not. At the foot of the roped-off stairs, I leaned close to the bouncer, slipped him a generous tip and said in a low voice “The Latina woman in the gold dress is with me. Let her up.”
He gave me a stoic nod and pocketed the money.
I took the stairs two at a time and scanned the pods for a vacant one. I was in luck, the very last one in the row was empty. I slipped inside and closed the door. Inside was a low, round table surrounded by a deep, plush, curved sofa. I took a seat and waited.
Elena Archer
I watched Aleks slip into the last pod, my pulse racing. I’d lost sight of Caroline but was desperate for a drink. I made my way through the packed club, and squeezed myself into a narrow gap at the bar. I rested my forearms on the sticky surface and waited for a bartender.
The man to my left peeled away with his drink and the space was instantly filled by a petite woman with long, blonde hair hanging in a silvery sheet over her shoulder. Her arm pressed lightly against mine and I glanced sideways at her. My heart stuttered and I did a double take. It was the FIA woman who’d been following me around the paddock. She was stalking me out in public now. I fixed my gaze ahead and tried to keep my breathing normal.
“Archer,” she said, her voice barely audible over the throbbing music.
I chanced another glance her way but she was looking resolutely forward.
“What do you need?” she asked.
