Our drinks were delivered in the moment of silence that followed, and I quickly grabbed my sangria off the table to take a sip of the fruity concoction. Chloe followed suit, though she twirled her straw around more thoughtfully.
"Come dance with me beneath the moonlight," Rafe said, running his nose over my jawline as he taunted me with words so similar to the ones that had brought us together in the first place. I nodded, setting down my glass, and accepted the hand he extended to help me stand up as I tugged the tight white and silver dress further down my thighs. He guided me around the edge of the table and to the small space where couples danced near us, raising a hand over my head to spin me into his arms so that he could wrap himself around my back as I laughed.
His hands slid down to my hips, guiding them to move with his as I tried to find that place where I was comfortable moving in such a way with him again. It was easier the second time around, with him knowing my body so intimately that he understood how to make me move. Once I'd found our rhythm together, he grabbed my arms in his hands and lifted them over my head to rest on his shoulder. His huge palms trailed down over the sensitive skin of my arms, caressing over the sides of my breasts and then coasting over my stomach delicately until they settled on my hips once again and encouraged me to roll them in a circle against him.
I was too short compared to his height for it to be as indecent as it might have otherwise, but the motion still reminded me of the way he’d encouraged me to move when I was on top of him and he was inside me.
Hugo and Chloe stepped up beside us. Chloe sighed as she held hands with Hugo, moving to the beat despite the distance between them. Taking in my smiling face, she shook her head and smiled before losing herself to the beat of the music.
With her settled and entertained for the moment, I wound my body around until I faced Rafe and stared up at him as I touched my hands to his chest. He stared down at me as intensely as he had that first night we met, but a better awareness lurked within his gaze.
There wasn't a corner of my body he hadn't touched or explored, down to the number of freckles on my body. So, when I moved my hips in what I thought might be more seductive, I didn't pause to consider what he might think of me.
If I might look like an idiot. I'd never see any of the people at the club again, anyway.
Rafe smiled down at me indulgently, his body smooth and languid as he danced. He was often too serious, often caught in the trance of whatever darkness lurked inside him, but when he danced his body became soft and fluid. Taken by the music, he moved with me as if the end game was for me to be in his bed.
Even if that was already a given.
He glanced over my shoulder, his body going still so suddenly that I stumbled in my hurry to stop dancing and spin around. A man I'd never seen before held Rafael's eyes, his face so expressionless that it seemed unnatural. "Rafe?" I asked, turning back to stare at him as he took my hand in his grip and turned to Hugo.
"We have to go," he barked, pulling me away before I could even say goodbye to Hugo and Chloe. She looked around confused as Hugo tried to calm her down. We ducked through the club quickly, the sound of an engine revving outside as a car pulled up to the curb quickly as if it had been commanded.
I didn't recognize the person in the driver's seat as Rafe opened the passenger side back door and shoved me in. "Rafe!" I yelled when he made no move to get in with me.
"Take her back to the hotel," he ordered the other man, making me look between them in confusion. Rafe pressed his key card into my palm, closing the door quickly as I rolled down the window.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"This isn't chess," he said oddly. "In my world, the King always protects his Queen." I gaped up at him in shock, wincing when he tapped the roof of the car and the blacked-out window glided up between us. The driver hit the gas, peeling away from the curb quickly as I turned to watch out the back window as Rafe strode back into the club with his hands clenched into fists.
What in the actual fuck?
23
Rafael
Hugo and Chloe were gone by the time I shoved my way through the back doors of Lotus. I charged through the crowd as my eyes tracked around the room for the Russian bastard I'd seen in my club.
If Chloe had seen what was about to go down, I'd have to handle her. As it was, I made a mental note to tell Hugo to keep her from contacting Isa after tonight. I'd do my part to prevent them speaking to one another, and if Hugo did his, Isa would have no idea that she might have just seen her best friend for the last time.
At least if she didn't decide to stay, and thanks to fucking Pavel, everything was unraveling faster than I could control it. I'd kill him for that alone.
When my eyes landed on the Russian with the hand tattoos, shaved head, and conspicuously missing pinky, I snapped my attention to him fully and walked in his direction slowly. Giving him every opportunity to realize just how monumentally he'd fucked up by stepping foot in my club in the first place, after
