I step back, allowing him to have the attention of his friends and look at our surroundings. I count six rooms on this level that overlook the dance floor and it seems as if Colton has rented them all out for the night. I step toward the railing and watch the mass of people below gyrate and move with the pulse of the music.

“You doing okay?”

I look over at Haddie, relieved to have her here, and smile. “Yes. It’s just all a bit more than I’m used to.”

“I guess he’s a little over the top, huh?”

“Just a tad.” I laugh. “So, Beckett?” I ask, arching my eyebrows.

“He is hella cute...” she shrugs “...but you know how that goes.” She laughs in her typical carefree Haddie way. If she wants, she’ll have him eating out of her hand by the night’s end. That’s just Haddie. “You wanna dance?”

I look for Colton to tell him that we’re going down to the floor, but he’s in the middle of a wildly animated conversation. He’ll figure it out. Within moments we’ve made our way downstairs, and have worked ourselves into the crowd moving on the floor. It feels so good to let go and move with the beat, to get lost for a moment and forget the anniversary that started the minute the clock passed midnight.

After a couple of songs, I look up toward the balcony above us to see Colton standing at the railing. He searches the crowd and it takes a few moments before he finds me. I have a déjà vu moment when our eyes lock—a different club this time but the same intense heat between us. His face falls into shadow momentarily, and I can’t help but remember wondering on our first date if he was an angel fighting through the darkness or a devil breaking into the light. Right now, looking up and completely consumed by him, he is most definitely my struggling angel. And yet I know the devil in him is always just beneath the surface.

I continue moving despite our irrefutable connection—the one that stops my breath and kick starts my heart every time he looks at me. I smile and motion for him to come down. He just shakes his head in a measured acceptance of whatever it is that he’s thinking and smiles before disappearing from sight.

The song changes and I hear the opening notes to Usher’s Scream. I throw my arms up and swivel my hips to the beat, letting the music wash over me. I sing my favorite line. “Got no drink in my hand but I’m wasted, getting drunk on the thought of you naked.” I snap my eyes open on the last word when I feel hands slide around my waist from behind and pull me backwards. Haddie’s smile tells me that it’s Colton, and I relax against him as I see Beckett and a few more of his friends from upstairs join us.

The soft curves of my body fit against the hard edges of his, and I close my eyes as we start to move together. Every movement against each other has my skin prickling and my insides igniting. Each nerve in my body is attuned to the feel of him against me. His strong hands map the lines of my torso: urging, grabbing, enticing. His hips move with mine, the ridge of his erection tempting me with each movement. We mimic each other in unfulfilled need, in mounting desire.

He turns me around to face him, the demand of his hands forcing me to do what he wants arouses me further. It evokes images of his skillful fingers running the length of my sex before parting me and slipping into me. I groan at the thought and somehow he hears me despite the music because the sexy smirk on his face and darkening eyes tell me he feels the same. I know he wants more than just this frustrating but sensual as hell petting with our clothes on.



We dance a few more songs. Each brush against him adds to the mounting need within me. A seductive game, that’s tantalizing, sensuous, and felt by both of us despite the lack of words. The opening notes of Ginuine’s Pony filters through the speakers, and the suggestive tone of the song is too much for Colton to handle. He grabs my hand and pulls me with obvious purpose through the crowd on the dance floor. Impatience, need, and determination radiates off of him and vibrates into me as he stops at the foot of the stairs. Every part of my body is on high alert when he puts his hand on my back to urge me up the steps. I’m on the first riser when he spins me around and captures my mouth in a blistering kiss filled with urgency.

He attacks my mouth with a definite purpose, thoroughly obliterating all hopes of self-discipline when it comes to him. But before I can give in to the temptation at my fingertips and react wholeheartedly, he ends the kiss just as abruptly as he began it, leaving me wanting for more and on the cusp of begging.

Colton starts up the stairs, my hand in his as I follow. When we reach the top where Sammy stands, Colton leans over and says something in his ear that the music drowns out. Sammy nods his head and turns on his heel, Colton and I right behind him.

We reach the sixth and last VIP room on the balcony, and I follow Colton’s lead, stopping and looking out over the club below. I glance over my shoulder to see Sammy ushering his friends out of the last room before I look back to Colton. His eyes are focused on the crowd below, his jaw clenched, and I wonder if I’ve done something wrong to piss him off.

I’m a little taken aback. What in the hell did I do? He’s going to choose right now to be pissed? I guess I should be used to his confusing, back and forth moods, but I’m not. We remain silent waiting for whatever Sammy is doing, and I resign myself that there is most likely a fight on the horizon for us. Can’t we just have one night without it?

Sammy leans into Colton’s ear and tells him something, and then we are on the move again. Colton leads me by my hand into the sixth and now vacant VIP area. The minute we clear the wall and are away from anyone’s view, Colton’s body crashes into mine instantaneously, forcibly pinning me against the wall.

I only have time for one coherent thought before the taste of Colton pulls me under. He’s not pissed at me. Not hardly. He’s consumed with desire.

All of the heat and urgency in the kiss on the stairs is intensified and then some. Our teeth clash and bodies mesh as his tongue pushes through my lips and licks into my mouth. His hands are everywhere on my body at once, each touch flaring my need and shooting desire like a mainline to my core.

I need him in me, filling me, moving inside of me, right now like I need my next breath.

His tongue continues its tormenting assault on my mouth, his hands seeking my bare flesh as the words of the song fuel the desire raging between us. He reaches down and pulls my leg up to his hip, his hands sliding up and under my hem. Desperate fingers dig into my willing flesh. His hand is so close yet so far away from where I need it to be that all I can do is groan out in a mixture of frustration and need. He nips my bottom lip, followed by the soothing lick of his tongue, prompting me to tighten my grip on his hair. I tug on it, my silent way of saying I need him too. Want him just as desperately.

Right here. Right now.

He drags himself away from me, his chest rising and falling with his labored breaths and his eyes bore into mine despite the fog of lust in them. “I don’t like all of those guys dancing around you,” he says, his strained voice is playful despite the violent desire I see raging in his eyes.

“It got your attention, didn’t it?” I tease in a pant of breath, surprised by his jealousy.

“Sweetheart, if you want my attention...” he smirks, his hands cupping my ass and yanking me into him, the ridge of his erection pressing deliciously into my softness “…all you have to do is ask.”

“And pull you away from your adulating throng of friends?” I tease, arching my eyebrows at him, my sarcasm apparent.