“You know, maybe we should go somewhere else? What if he isn’t here.” I tried backing out of the line but Nina held my arm tight. The girls flanked me on all sides. There was no way I was going to get out of this.
“Stop being a baby. You showed me the text. If he isn’t here, fuck him. We’ll go inside and have a good time dancing.” Nina dragged me past the bouncer who checked our ID and then closed the velvet rope off behind us.
“This is so cool. I heard kinky shit happens at this place.” Kandice squealed.
“And the owner guy is some art dealer. I think he’s wanted by Interpol or something.” Simone said grabbing a drink off a server tray like she couldn’t wait to get hammered. I decided right then, I was not carrying her ass home. Ruth was like me, quiet and taking it all in.
“I don’t think we should make assumptions about anything.” I murmured as we stepped inside an elevator that was taking us to the top floor of the club. There were several floors but Dorian told me he would be up at the top waiting for me in the VIP section.
“I hope your date doesn’t flake out.” Kandice eyed me up and down as we stepped out of the elevator. I knew I never liked her. Super judgmental.
The club was decorated in black and gold. Red lights illuminated and smoke machines gave the place an eerie vibe that had nothing to do with Halloween. I’d. walked past several club goers in leather outfits, a few were making out against the walls pretended to dance to the heavy club beat grinding against each other. Something about the crazy sexual energy set my warning bells off and my chest took on that heavy pain that made each step more difficult.
A hand snaked out of the crowd and pulled me to the side. I shrieked until a hand clamped over my mouth and Dorian Knight’s dark eyes swallowed me whole.
“My little lamb came, dressed as a shepherd girl, no less.” He flicked my loose hair over my shoulders and I looked down at my cheap costume feeling my cheeks heat.
“Angel actually, but whatever.” I guessed that if I took the wings off I’d be exactly what he called me.
“Dance with me.” Dorian said leading me toward the back of the room away from the bar area and limited lights. I coughed as we walked through the sweet-smelling smoke and found myself up against a wall with Dorian caging me in.
I gulped back my nerves and squinted to see my friends.
“They’re in good company, lamb.” Dorian said in a husky whisper against my neck. I nodded and wanted to ask him to bring me back to them. This club, it wasn’t my scene, I shouldn’t be here and I swore to myself that if I got home safe tonight, I’d never come back. In fact, if my Greek Art History class wasn’t a requirement, I’d drop that too and avoid Dorian the rest of the semester.
“Master Dorian.” A masked man approached us and I stepped back as far as I could.
Dorian slowly turned his head to address the man. “What is it?” He growled and I swore something happened to his eyes in the low light. Maybe they glowed? Narrowed? I wasn’t sure what I was seeing in the distorted fog.
“You’re needed in the uh…dungeon level.” The man backed away once the message had been delivered.
“Be right there.” He said in the coldest voice, I thought I might have been touched by frost. He looked at me and the smile on his lips barely reached the rest of his face. “Don’t move.”
I felt frozen for all of a second and when I blinked my eyes, he was gone. He disappeared into the red mist and I was all alone.
A moment passed and I collected my breath. The damn pain in my chest returned.
“You shouldn’t be here, Jane.”
I turned to look at the new face in front of me. A dark angel compared to mine. He wore a black suit and rubbed his chest in the same way I did. I wanted to ask him if he was hurt, did he feel the same ache I did from time to time but found myself unable to form the words.
Instead, I said, “Do I know you?”
I swore he snorted in the dark but didn’t answer my question. Instead his hand reached for mine and he pulled me away from the wall and down another hall toward a second elevator.
“Where are we going?”
He spun me around as the doors opened, his hands rested on my shoulders.
“Why do you look so familiar to me?” His eyes bugged like he’d seen a ghost but he didn’t answer my question. I watched his face harden, his lips pursed and I wondered what they might taste like. A strange thought to have with a stranger. I didn’t have those thoughts with Dorian.
“Go home Jane. Finish your studies and then go home. Never come back here again.” He walked me back inside the elevator.
“But my friends!” I practically jumped up, but he blocked me in and as the doors closed, he spoke.
“Waiting for you in the car.” He stood there and the light flashed. As those doors slammed shut on his imposing body and beautiful face, I felt like I’d been in the presence of the only man who could give Dorian a run for his money in the
