He kisses the tip of my nose, and even that sweet gesture stirs a growing heat inside me.
“I do like how you think, Mr. Rush, and I intend to take you up on that very enticing offer. But first, I want you to take me dancing.” I look at him from under my lashes. “As I recall, there’s a hot new nightclub not far from here.”
He frowns. “Muse?” He shakes his head. “There are plenty of other places I’d rather bring you. Muse is for a different crowd, not you.”
Grinning at his sudden uncomfortableness, I give him an arch look. “Are you afraid I’ll ask you to take me into one of your VIP rooms?”
He stills. “Is that what you want?” His voice is gravel, dark interest flaring in his serious gaze.
“I want you, Jared.” I trace my finger along his beard-shadowed jawline. “I want all of you tonight, even your wildest side.”
His answering growl is pure animal. I love it. I also love the heat I see in his gaze, so blistering it practically melts my panties off my body.
“I’ll give you anything you need, Melanie. All you ever have to do is ask.” He kisses me again, his mouth carnal and possessive. It’s a wonder my knees don’t crumble beneath me. His big hand palms a handful of my ass. “You want to go dancing? Get in the car, baby.”
He speeds us to the packed club, parking in a reserved space near the door. Music throbs from inside, strobe lights flashing behind the top-floor windows of the multi-story building.
Jared links his fingers through mine as he smoothly leads me past the beefy bouncers checking IDs at the entrance. The men greet their boss with friendly deference, giving me respectful nods of acknowledgment as we pass.
Once we’re inside, Jared pulls one of his staff aside and tells the muscular man in the dark suit to prepare the owner’s suite for us. I probably should feel embarrassed by the request, but all I feel is excited. And so in love with Jared Rush it makes my heart feel as though it wants to leap out of my chest.
“Come with me,” he says, bringing me out to the crowded dance floor.
The song pouring out of the sound system is a slow, sexy one. Jared pulls me against him and cages me there with his arm around my back. The feel of his hard body pressed to my curves ignites every nerve ending, all of that hot energy pulsing in time with the music.
“This was a great idea,” he murmurs, his mouth brushing the shell of my ear. “You feel so good in my arms, and you’re fucking scorching in that dress. I’m the envy of every man in here.”
“You say the most charming things, Mr. Rush. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were just trying to get under my skirt.”
He chuckles, the dark, rich sound of it vibrating deliciously everywhere we touch. “Oh, I have every intention of doing that. But I’m serious, too. I’ve been wanting to feel you dancing against me since the night I saw you on this dance floor.”
Confusion scrapes through my rising desire. “I was only here one time, a few weeks ago with my friends.” Although he continues to hold me, his body still swaying against mine, I sense an edge of tension in the muscles that surround me. I draw back. “Were you here that night, too?”
He’s silent for a moment. Something in his eyes makes my pulse race. He shrugs, but the movement seems anything but nonchalant. “Muse had only been open for a week. I was here every night making sure operations went smoothly.”
“Jared,” I say, expelling a confused laugh. “Why didn’t you ever mention to me that you saw me?”
I’ve never seen this utterly confident man look uncertain until now. “I’m sorry.” He smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I guess it just never came up.”
And just like that, I am jolted back to a different moment, with a different man.
Daniel said something similar when I questioned him about his gambling, the secret he’d been keeping from me for the entirety of our months-long relationship.
A sense of déjà vu grips me, both alarming and disturbing. But Jared’s not Daniel, my heart hurries to remind me. Forgetting to mention he’d seen me in a nightclub is a far cry from withholding the truth about a habit that would eventually embroil me in its problems, too.
Isn’t it?
Jared stares at my conflicted expression, his own face taut with an emotion I can’t name. Or maybe I’m afraid to, because what I see in his eyes looks remarkably like guilt.
He lets go of a low, vivid curse as he stares at me with bleak resignation. “There’s a lot I should’ve told you before now, Melanie.”
Despite the driving rhythm of the music and the noisy crowd packed into the club, I can hear every word quiet Jared’s saying. All my senses are locked on him, searching for some truth that’s either going to allay my mounting dread or crack me wide open where I stand.
“We should leave,” he says, his face so grave and filled with anguish I can hardly draw my breath. “There are things you need to know, but not here.”
“No.” My voice shakes, but I don’t care. “Whatever you want to say, Jared, I think I need to hear it right now. What’s wrong? You’re scaring me. Tell me what’s going on.”
He swears again, frowning as he rakes a hand over his head in a violent motion. The noise around us seems to expand, punctuated by a sudden, sharp ruckus taking place near the club’s entrance.
A drunken male voice raised in fury reaches my dazed consciousness. The voice is familiar, if totally unexpected. “Where is he? Goddamn it, let go of me! I saw him bring her in here!”
Daniel.
Jared recognizes the angry shouts, too. Gone is the torment I saw in
