Colin opened the back door and gestured for me to get in.
“Barnes and Noble on Sixty Sixth and Broadway,” he told the driver. We were whisked into traffic at a speedy pulse along Park Avenue.
Casually, he glanced over. My hands gripped each other in my lap.
Surely he couldn’t see that this was all a fake.
We didn’t speak on the short drive. At the bookstore he hopped out, rounded the car and opened my door. Guilt pinched me. He was so gentlemanly. Conscientious. My plan to leave and come back after being at Ninety-Nine for only a half hour was going to ensure that neither he nor Mother and Daddy know about my spree into freedom.
Colin paid the cabby and we entered the bookstore. He stopped.
“So,” he said.
“So.” My voice warbled. Control, control. “I’ll be in the young adult section,” I said, then turned and headed up the escalator to the next floor. I didn’t dare look to see if he was following me. There was no rush. I’d sneak out soon enough.
Giddy chills tingled through my arms and legs. After fifteen long minutes of wandering around the store, I went back down the escalator, my scan of the first floor not finding Colin’s tall form anywhere.
I left the building. The bitter wind seared my cheeks. I hailed a cab, told the driver where to take me and we took off. I checked over my shoulder, amazed, thrilled and shocked I was on my way.
And Colin was still back at the bookstore.
Ninety-Nine vibrated from a block away. The stainless steel looking building gleamed against the city lights. Lines of partiers waited out front on a purple and red carpet that stretched down the block. Strings of giant bulb lights swayed slightly in the icy breeze, lighting the gaudy red carpet leading to the entrance.
“To the front of the line, please,” I told the cab driver, my stomach a bouquet of popping bubbles.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Shapes moved in shadows colored by streaming lights from the dance floor. I’d never been to a club, only seen them in films or read about them in my romance novels. Raucous music shook the dark, purple and red mirrored walls. Sweaty, thick air forced itself into my lungs, nearly causing my gag reflex to start. The combination of perfumes, smoke and bodies overwhelmed me. I had to remind myself why I wanted to do this.
Carlos told me to follow him, but I walked into a fog bank of cologne and sweat. A wall of gyrating bodies suddenly seemed to converge on me. I felt suffocated. Couldn’t move. Heads turned.
Some stares lingered. One guy came up and started rubbing himself against me. Panicked, I stepped away, only to smack into some girl dressed in see-through netting. She smiled and swung her hips my direction in a dance that caused my blood to shiver.
Carlos must have figured he’d lost me, for suddenly he was there, scowling. He jerked his head as if for me to hurry and follow.
He led me to a raised area, curtained by red and lavender sheers blowing in a soft breeze made by gold fans hanging overhead.
Fat purple and red velveteen couches sat in a circle on the raised, curtained-off area. Sprawled on the couches were dozens of skeletal chicks—some from school, others I didn’t recognize—with Danicka in the center. Smoke wafted up from burning cigarettes cluttering ashtrays made to look like East Indian treasure chests.
Carlos left me at the billowing opening of the enclosure. Danicka was in the middle of sharing a smoke with one of her anorexic friends when another girl elbowed her and nodded at me. Danicka craned her dazed look around me as if looking for someone else.
Then she stood, wobbling for a second on her glittering platforms.
Her tight sapphire mini dress skimmed her panty line. Glitter adorned her bare shoulders, bird-like arms, and neck. She stepped over her dazed friends and headed my direction.
My heart tripped. Danicka parted the purple veil and entered. I took one step onto the raised red platform and felt heat at my back.
“Where’s Colin?” Her breath stunk of sour mint. “Thought he was coming with?”
I’d never seen her or her friends so listless. Dead-eyed. Shocked, I fumbled for words. “He’ll be here,” I lied.
“Cool. Have some.” She gestured to the table laden with treasure boxes where cigarettes smoldered like incense. Lines of white powder striped the black glass table top.
My elbow was locked in a vice grip.
“Ashlyn.” Colin’s voice cut through the club muck like a trumpet.
No trace of humor lie anywhere in his face. His bottomless black eyes cut me open, reached into my soul and grabbed hold. He jerked his head in the opposite direction of Danicka’s party tent.
“There you are.” Danicka’s sour breath blew the side of my face.
She leaned into Colin for balance but he barely glanced at her. “I was hoping you’d come.” Her long arms wound around his neck and she lifted up to kiss his cheek.
In a swift jerk, he was free of her and leading me away from her and her minions. I didn’t appreciate being dragged. I yanked, but he swung around, faced me. Somebody bumped into him, pushing his body against mine. Before we both fell into the dancing crowd, he took hold of my arms and steadied us. To my right a sweaty bald guy started rotating his hips against mine.
Colin shoved him away. Bald guy glared, but gyrated against the next available body. Frustration drew Colin’s features tight. “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” he yelled over the music.
“I wanted to come alone.”
His eyes swept the crowd, his posture ready to pounce. “You’re supposed to stay with me. Do your parents know about this?”
I averted my gaze for a second. Colin’s chest lifted in an exasperated breath I couldn’t hear over the music. “Let’s get out of here.”
Colin took me by the arm, his fingers a steely grip.
“I’m not leaving,” I yelled over the grating beat.
“Ash, if your parents don’t know about this, then we’re not going to be here.” This time he took my hand. I couldn’t stop the fire that raced up my arm. He pushed through the packed crowd again, his fingers tightening around mine. More eyes, more curious stares—this time from women—watching him. Jealousy unhinged inside my heart.
He’s with me. A lie, but we looked like a couple—didn’t we?
I shot a glance over my shoulder at Danicka to see if she was watching. She and her friends stood beneath the parted veil, their now-alert interest fastened on us. She’d probably tell everyone at school about Colin dragging me out of the place. Tears of humiliation threatened to burn my eyes and I tugged on Colin’s hand, bringing his attention to me. Purple and gold lights flashed over his face.
“Colin—please—I can’t leave like this,” I said.
He dipped his head closer so he could hear me without me having to yell. His cologne mixed with the thick air in the place, the scent drifting into my head. He studied me a moment, then his gaze went over my shoulder—to Danicka? I wasn’t sure, but he gave me a nod.
He glanced at his watch, then his attention was on me. Again. A luscious feeling of ownership, though false, temporary, and brought on by fantasy, filled me.
“How did you know I was here?” I asked.
“Your friend, Danicka, told me about the party the other day at school.”
“She’s not my friend.” And she stood scowling at me from across the dance floor.
“I can see that.”
Was she that obvious? Or was it me? I cringed inwardly, wondering what he really thought of me.
“Can I get you two anything?” A wiggling blonde bartender dipped and shimmied next to us. The tray in her hand balanced perfectly with eight empty glasses even with her dancing.
Colin shook his head.
“I’ll take a scotch,” I said.
Colin’s eyes widened for a moment. “We’ll pass, thanks.” He took my elbow. I pulled free. He brought himself tight to my chest, his warm breath at my ear when he hissed, “No drinking.”
“Everyone does. They d
on’t check ID here.”
“Ash.” He thrust a hand through his hair. “What’s going on with you?”
“I just want to have fun.”
“Okay, I get it, but underage drinking shouldn’t be on your agenda. It’s against the law.”
“You never drank when you were underage?” I taunted. “Ever?”
He shifted. Looked at me then out—where? At the dancing couples? I didn’t know what he was thinking, but he was so beautiful in the carnival-colored lights. A buzz wound low inside of me.
“Yeah, I did,” he said finally. “I’m not proud of it. Look, this place is… it’s not the kind of place you should be in.”
“What does that mean? You think I belong at a playground or some pizza place with a jungle gym instead?”
“No, Ash, no. You’re too good for this place.” His hands appeared itchy hanging at his sides. Like he wasn’t sure what to do with them.
“Let’s go.”
“I told you, I like to dance.”
“With these idiots? No way in hell.”
“There are plenty of nice guys here.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Like baldy? Come on.” He reached for my elbow but I stepped back.
“I’m not leaving. I came to have fun and I’m going to dance.”
“These guys’ll eat you alive. You don’t know what they’re capable of.”
“I’m talking about one dance, not sex,” I protested. How naive did he think I was?
His hand threaded nervously through his hair, leaving it mussed.
His brown eyes blackened with challenge, sending heat through my bloodstream. He snatched my hand. In a half a dozen long strides we were in the center of the dance floor.
White, purple, and red lights flashed up at us from the glowing floor. I couldn’t believe I was going to dance with him. Colin. A violent tune sliced and chopped the air with insatiable teeth, cutting away the veneer of clothing, stripping bare. The song grabbed hold of my body and didn’t let go.
He danced less than a foot away, his protective gaze jumping around the surrounding bodies scouring faces of both women and men with suspicion. For the first time since I could remember, I was pleased to have a bodyguard.
The leering from older men sent a scratchy creepiness across my skin. And the glaring women—I felt like Colin and I were dancing in a lioness’ den rather than one of New York’s most posh clubs.
Danicka scowled from the tent.
The song ended, but another layered over it, this one sensual.
Slow. Like a heartbeat readying for bed.
Colin stopped. An uncontrollable urge to touch him surged through me, and I stepped close. Black flecks in his eyes deepened.
My arms trembled as I slid them up and around his neck.
“Ditching me was not cool, Ash.” The corner of his jaw knotted.
He didn’t move. One second passed. Three. Then his arms caged my waist. I saw a million questions in his eyes. Or at least I thought I did.
What does this mean? This one. Slow. Dance.
His piercing gaze narrowed—unyieldingly aimed at me as though he was not pleased.
Shamed that I would manipulate him for my own enjoyment, I couldn’t look at him anymore. His arms tightened, so fleeting—yet undeniable.
I felt his gaze on my face, and my cheeks heated. The moment was dark. Stormy. Slowly, we swayed. His thighs brushed mine. The buckle on his belt grazed my stomach. Heat from his neck, and his soft hair brushed my wrists locked at the back of his head.
I looked up.
His arms drew me closer. Conflicting sensations both taunting and frightening weaved through my body. Please don’t end, song.
Please.
I’d read about heroines in my romance novels letting their fingers play in the hair at the nape of the hero’s neck. I allowed my fingers to explore Colin’s thick hair. His eyes narrowed, and his tongue grazed his lips. At my waist, his fingers kneaded. He inched back.
Submerged by confusion, I broke free of his embrace, blinking back tears. His palms snapped around my upper arms. My heart skipped and nearly skidded to a stop. Heat rushed my cheeks. I tried to break free, but his hands held me firm. He didn’t say a word, just stared me down, causing a quiver of the unknown to drip through my center.
In a swift move, he had me by the wrist and he tore through the dancing couples on the floor, making our way to the front entrance.
I kept my head low, sure every attendee could see that I didn’t belong there. Carlos opened the door for us, and the icy air burned my hot skin when it made contact.
I tried to keep up with Colin’s long stride, but barely kept at his heels in a near jog. Disgrace started to boil in my gut. I yanked my arm, but he whipped around, pulled me to his chest. His eyes fired.
The line of waiting, chatting patrons went silent. Whispers and whistles filled the air. Colin’s steely frown shot to those in line. The daggers of warning in his eyes left them quiet.
My cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I couldn’t move. I barely dared to breathe. Colin finished staring at those waiting in line and, my wrist still captive in his hand, dragged me to the curb where a beefy bouncer waved a cab to the curb for us.
Colin yanked open the door and firmly urged me inside. The door slammed behind me. I was so angry, I opened my mouth to tell the driver to drive, but Colin’s door blew open and he got in, the door banging shut after him. His eyes sparkled like black fire.
“Twenty-Twenty Nine Park,” Colin told the driver without taking his gaze from mine.
Sticky moments choked by. His leg jittered like he was ready to bolt. Tear someone apart. I bit my lower lip, panic sending a chill over my skin. His eyes slit, and lowered to my mouth for a blink I might have missed if we hadn’t been in a glare-down.
“Are you going to tell him?” I demanded.
I could barely endure his puncturing stare. “You ran off. Again. I have no choice.”
My stomach plunged. I wanted to beg him not to. I didn’t want to face what I knew would come, if Daddy found out I’d broken the rules. The look in Colin’s eyes troubled me. He had no idea what telling Daddy really meant.
I couldn’t sleep. I waited in my bedroom for Mother and Daddy to come home so I could talk to them. I wasn’t looking forward to the fireworks that would inevitably follow, and as the hours wore on my courage started to waver. I hadn’t heard any sound overhead, and I wondered where Colin was.
I crept out into the hall and peered over the winding stairwell, about to take the steps down to search for him when I saw his long legs extending from a chair Mother kept next to the entryway table.
He was waiting for them?
My heart sunk. I’d behaved like a diva, and had probably lost any thread of respect that might have been woven between us up until this point. My behavior tonight was the excuse he’d been waiting for to be free of this job.
Finally, I heard voices echo off the marble floor.
“Colin, darling, you didn’t need to stay up. Whatever it is, I’m sure it can wait until morning.” Mother’s voice was amazingly chipper for the hour.
“Charles, we need to talk,” Colin said.
A short pause followed. Maybe Daddy was too tired. If they put off the discussion I could try to talk Colin out of telling them what happened.
“Of course. In my office.”
Mother bid them goodnight, and I closed my bedroom door and turned off the light so she’d think I was asleep. After I knew she was in her suite, I took the stairs down, crossed to Daddy’s closed office doors and stood as close as I could.
“Ashlyn and I went to a party tonight.” Colin’s voice started strong, but had a crumbling edge to it.
My stomach lurched in fear. Silence followed.
“What kind of party?”
“A club party. One of her friends was hosting it.”
“A club party? Where?”
“Ninety-Nine.”
“Ninety-Nine?” Da
ddy boomed. “Who invited her to such a trashy establishment?” His lion’s roar vibrated with the power of a volcano before eruption. “I can’t fathom Ashlyn in that filthy place.”
“I’m sor—”
“You say a friend of hers invited her? What friend? The only friend we allow her to associate with is Felicity. Was it her?”
“No. Another—”