"Well, shit! You kind of are. I don't have the money for this kind of place… bottle service… high-class girls." He shot a grin at his girl, Harlow, who looked up from her conversation with her blonde friend—Laney, Lana, something like that—and stuck her tongue out at him.
"You will!" The liquor was making me feel expansive. Grandiose. "Just stick with me…" A ripple went through me and I caught myself before I added, "…please."
It's a sad fucking state of affairs that even now, after years of knowing each other and two years playing together, I still wasn't entirely comfortable around Casper, or Toad, or any of them. There was always that voice—that nagging voice in my head that sounded suspiciously like Annie's—that told me they were using me. Using my money. Using my mother's name. My name. That no one actually liked me for just… me.
I used to think that about everyone. Until I met Bit. For some reason, she seemed to bring out a side of me that was actually likable. Maybe not to everyone, but to her, at least. She never looked at me like she was only barely tolerating my presence.
At least, she never did before.
Now, though, well… it was clear she wanted to hate my guts. Her cute little temper tantrum in the bathroom was proof of that. But the way she’d looked at me at dinner made her a liar. At dinner, when I had rescued her from her dad's epic awkwardness, she had looked at me like she used to. With those eager, open eyes.
And it had been too fucking much for me to take. I had to get out of that restaurant before I said or did something that we both would regret.
"Jaxson, I'm serious here. Give it a rest." Casper's hand was on mine. I hadn't even noticed that mine was on the bottle.
I shook my head to clear it. "Fine. Let's take a break. I need to dance anyway. Clear my head."
Harlow and Laney-Lana jumped up immediately. "Finally!" Harlow whooped and draped herself across Casper's back. He grinned and carried her piggyback down the steps to the crowded dance floor.
Laney-Lana sashayed up to me, smoothing her hands down her hips, subtly pulling her already plunging neckline down even lower. "You ready?" she purred.
"Lead the way, sweetheart," I told her.
She took off ahead of me, wiggling her hips to the beat. I hung back and tried like hell to appreciate her luscious curves, but something was all wrong. She was built for show, all overflowing tits and overripe ass—which was usually something I appreciated in a woman—but tonight, it felt like too much. Too in my face. She was ripe to the point of rotten, and did absolutely nothing for me.
What the fuck?
I followed behind her and tried to screw my head back on straight. If nothing else, she was ready and willing. Probably a fan who couldn't believe that her friend was dating Jaxson Blue's guitarist. My name was all I needed to make this a sure thing.
And yet all I wanted to do was drink and forget who I was for a night.
The beat shifted as soon as I hit the floor, the unsteady rise of the two songs mixed together making me feel off kilter. Several whoops rose up from the crowd and the energy suddenly became frenetic. The pounding four-four beat took over my heart rate even as my heart plunged down into my stomach.
My own voice—distorted and remixed into nasal oblivion—but my voice just the same.
Not that song. Not tonight.
"Oh my God, I love this song!" Laney-Lana shrieked, grabbing me and yanking me into the fray. "I can't believe I'm dancing with Mr. Cocky himself!"
Her lips were right up against my ear, but I could barely hear her over the music. The DJ had remixed it completely, sampling only a fraction of the refrain. The worst fraction.
"I'm just a lil bit… lil bit… lil bit… cocky…
Lil Bit
Lil Bit
Lil Bit…"
Lana-Laney shimmed low, grinding her ass into my crotch. I stood there like a stone, letting her take over as I lost myself.
"Lil Bit
Lil Bit
Lil Bit
Cocky!"
She swirled around and flung her arms around my neck, undulating wildly.
"Lil Bit
Lil Bit…”
It echoed in my head. Her eyes. Her lips. The only thing I could think of. It could be her, but it's not, but it could be.
Lil Bit.
Her hands slid down my chest.
Lil Bit
(I am so drunk)
Lil Bit
Her hands went even lower.
Lil Bit
(I'm losing it here)
Her fingers closed around my cock.
It wasn't Lil Bit touching me
"Get the fuck off me!"
Laney-Lana's shocked face barely registered as I made for the door. My mind was blank of everything but the refrain in my head.
Lil Bit
Lil Bit
Lil Bit.
Chapter Thirteen
Liliana
"I think you'll see, Baron Chevreaux, that your apologies are quite useless to me."
"Is that so, my lady?" The baron's eyes darkened dangerously and suddenly Georgia's stays seemed laced too tight. She couldn't seem to catch her breath. "Then perhaps the time has come to dispense with words?"
The baron's hand moved, quick as a flash, clasping the back of her neck tightly, possessively. This was no idle tumble with the stable boy. Jasper's tentative, fumbling touch hadn't marked her skin the way the baron's was now. Each fingertip seared her with inescapable heat, burning away the weak protests that died before they formed on her lips. And all the while the baron watched her with a hunger in his eyes that was both frightening and delicious.
"Ah." His soft laughter thrilled through her, setting off an ache in her nethers. "My lady is more willing than her words would admit."
"You are an arrogant, cold-hearted bastard."
"You are correct."
My fingers raced across the keys. It was far too late and I was far too jetlagged to be wasting sleep like this, but as I seethed on the ride home from dinner, hating Jax with every ounce of my being, a knotty piece of dialogue finally unraveled itself. I had to race upstairs to my room to get it all down.
Goddamn Jax. He was inspiring, I had to give him that.
"I've desired you from the moment I saw you," the baron pressed his lips against the pulse in her neck, and Georgia fretted that he would find it racing like the beat of a hummingbird's wings. She placed her hand against his hard, warm chest, and found the throb of his heart beating nearly as rapidly. For a moment she reveled in her power. He wanted her just as much, and she had nothing to fear…
Until his lips devoured hers.
Her pride dissolved immediately, and Georgia found herself helpless against the onslaught of his mouth on hers. With a sharp stab of his tongue, he pried her lips open and began a slow, aching exploration of her mouth. Her breath quickened as she realized she was now forever marked. He was claiming her as his and she would never be the same.