Kiss the Stars (Falling Stars #1)(4)

My brother was head-over-heels for her. Steel turned to putty that she held in the palms of her hands.

I’d never thought he’d love again until the day he’d shown up at our parents’ humble house with her in tow.

It was clear he’d been long gone before he’d even known it himself.

But sometimes love took us hostage before we even realized we’d been captured.

Lyrik looked back at me, mouth quirking at the side. “My wife is always sexy. She’s just a little . . . extra tonight.”

“Extra is always good.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be giving her plenty extra,” he drew out.

With the back of my hand, I smacked him on the chest. Apparently, I’d given him the green light to take it too far. With Lyrik, all roads were always wide open. “Eww. I can do without the innuendo, thank you very much. It’s bad enough I have to watch you slobbering all over her every day.”

He rumbled a chuckle, way too pleased with himself. “Hey, just tellin’ it like it is.”

Laughing under my breath, I gestured in the direction of the raving crowd. Softness infiltrated my words. “Would you get out of here and stop worrying about me? I will be just fine.”

He hesitated. “You’re sure?”

“One-hundred percent.”

Okay, like . . . two percent.

“Besides, you have more security here than Fort Knox.”

Still facing me, he took a couple steps backward. “That’s because what I’m guarding is more important.”

He swiveled on his heel and started for the mass of people crushed in his house. Right before he got to the end of the hall, he turned back to face me.

Something severe had etched itself into his expression. “Every single person here is my guest, Mia.”

My head shook slightly, unsure, not understanding the flip that had just been made.

His expression darkened. “But that doesn’t mean they’re good. That they can be trusted. You get what I’m telling you?”

There was no mirth in the warning.

No tease.

Just the truth of what he said.

I swallowed around the lump that had made itself home at the base of my throat for the last three weeks, gave him a tight nod. “I know that.”

Like I hadn’t stumbled on my fair share of scumbags.

He dipped a nod. “Good. Then be careful.”

“I will. I promise.”

I wondered if I’d already known it was a lie when I said it.





Two





Mia





Lyrik was right.

Not all of his guests could be trusted.

My pulse raced wild.

A frantic boom, boom, boom that I could feel thundering in the middle of my chest.

Panic raced, my throat closing off and my sight going blurry.

I tried to free myself from the hold of the man who was breathing his vileness all over me. Before I could even make sense that he’d been waiting for me when I’d left the restroom, he’d backed me into a wall at the base of the curved staircase.

His stench stung my nostrils. Sweat drenched in depravation.

His breath a toxic blend of alcohol and sex and corruption.

He edged me farther against the wall, as if his admission to this party had purchased him any evil.

“I said to get out of my way,” I forced out under my breath, teeth gritting in the hope that it might keep the terror that was streaking through my veins from seeping out of my pores.

The last thing I wanted was this asshole to sense my fear.

A monster scenting its prey.

“Come now. Don’t be like that,” he slurred, pressing his nose to my throat. “I just wanted to say hi. Introduce myself. You look awful pretty wandering around here all by yourself.”

I cringed. “I’m not alone. Now let me go.”

He tsked like my statement was absurd. “I should have known Lyrik West would invite the prettiest girls to his party. He always has the best entertainment.”

I would have laughed if vomit hadn’t already risen to my throat, vocal cords chained in alarm and dread.

This jerk had no idea my brother would gladly snap his neck. Gut him and leave him floating face-down in a river.

But right that second, my brother was nowhere to be found and neither was any of the security.

We were hidden by the curve of the stairs, tucked in the shadows and concealed by the din of music.

Voices and laughter echoed from the main room.

Nothing but taunts and jeers that pounded my ears.

Lyrik’s warning screamed, and fear pressed down as the bastard covered me with his sweaty, meaty body.

There was a halo of it.

A dark, dense fog.

I struggled for a breath, sickened by the same man who had almost sent me to my knees two hours earlier.

Turns out, I should have trusted my instincts, after all.

“Your heart is beating so fast. Excited, love?”

Love?

This guy was seriously confused. Confused and deranged and disgusting, and I had the overwhelming compulsion to spit in his face.

I did.

Shouting a profanity, he gripped me by the jaw.

Hard.

“You fuckin’ bitch,” he gritted in his English accent, cinching down tighter. “You’ll learn better than to cross me.”