Zodiac Academy: The Awakening(85)
“Let’s find some nice men to buy our drinks,” Darcy said with a grin as she began to eye up the possibilities and we fell into our familiar night out routine. We’d never had spare money for our own drinks but it was usually just a matter of time before one or both of us could catch someone’s eye. Of course with our new-found wealth I guessed we didn’t need to do that anymore but why break the habit of a lifetime?
It didn’t take Darcy long to spot a couple of guys looking her way and she took the lead as we moved to stand beside them at the bar. They looked a few years older than us and I was pleased she’d found guys who didn’t go to school with us and wouldn’t have any opinion on the whole Heir situation to taint our interaction with them.
The blonde guy led the way over as we super casually pretended not to notice them coming and I offered him a ‘surprised’ smile as he moved into our space.
“Hi,” he said all smiles with his red haired friend seconding the grin from his left. “I’m Peter, this is-”
“No,” Max said loudly as he elbowed his way between our new friends and us.
“Not happening,” Caleb agreed forcefully, giving blondie a glare that made him back up.
I sighed dramatically. “Really?”
“Now you’re going to put a stop to our free drinks?” Darcy asked with an air of resignation.
“Why are you drinking at the bar when we have the VIP section to ourselves over there?” Caleb asked, pointing at a roped off area beside the dance floor.
“I think you just answered your own question there, Caleb,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.
Max chuckled at his friend’s expense and I raised an eyebrow at him in surprise. “You’re going to have to work a lot harder to get into this one’s pants, mate,” he teased.
“Never going to happen,” I said before Caleb could reply.
“Come on, Tor,” Darcy said, ignoring the Heirs entirely. “If we aren’t drinking then we should be dancing.”
She caught my hand and turned her back on Max and Caleb with a flick of her blue-tipped hair. I turned from them too, a little thrill running through me with the knowledge that they hated that as Darcy led me up to dance.
The music was familiar and I wondered why they listened to human tunes. Maybe Fae had no songwriting skills? Or perhaps Miley Cyrus was part Fae too? Whatever the reason, I was more than happy to lose myself to something familiar for a change. Dancing on a Friday night seemed to transcend the mortal/Fae divide and that was just fine by me.
I closed my eyes and lost myself to the music as I danced with my sister and we pointedly ignored the feeling of the Heirs watching us from their fancy table beyond the rope. Who wanted to go out drinking and then hide themselves away behind a barrier anyway? Wasn’t the whole point of this exercise to cut loose and socialise a bit? If being an Heir meant spending my life segregated from everyone else then I was doubly sure I had no interest in it.
A set of hands landed on my hips and my eyes flicked open as I found Darius holding me, his fingertips brushing the line of skin between my waistband and the hem of my shirt.
My heart stuttered with surprise for a moment and I had to work hard to keep the emotion from my face. Instead I offered him the faintest half of a smile which I hoped translated into ‘truce’ as I let him pull me closer. And as much as I would have liked to deny it, being held against Darius Acrux’s broad chest really wasn’t the worst place a girl could find herself.
I turned in his arms as we kept moving to the music and spotted Darcy receiving the same treatment from Seth. He’d wrapped his arms around her from behind and was pushing his face into her hair in his wolfy way which in that particular moment didn’t seem to be a problem for her at all.
I smirked at her as she gave me a ‘when in Rome’ kinda look and I shrugged in acceptance as I moved my body with Darius’s. If I closed my eyes I could even pretend he wasn’t such an asshole but then I couldn’t look at his face or his mouth, or the way his muscles were trying really hard to fight against the confines of his shirt... damn I was definitely going to be in trouble with him if I didn’t watch out.
Darius turned me to face him again and I looped my arms around his neck as my chest brushed against his.
He caught me in his gaze for a moment that stretched a little too long and I bit my lip as I tried not to let my imagination get carried away. His eyes dropped to my mouth in response and the heat in his gaze sent an ache of longing right through me. I couldn’t forget who he was or what he’d done but there were certainly a few parts of me that wished I could.
He leaned an inch closer to me and the space between us burned hot with raw energy for a moment and I suddenly felt like I was caught in a hunter’s snare. The worst thing of all was that I didn’t even want to break free. He had me and in that second we both knew it.
His grip on my waist tightened and my body was pulled against his in a way that demanded a hell of a lot less clothes be present. My breath caught in my throat and one of his hands slid up my back, a line of fire following it.
“Drink!” Caleb demanded from beside us and I pushed away from Darius to accept the shot he was holding out for me.
Darius kept his gaze locked on me as he consumed his own shot but I took another step back. I wasn’t going to fall into his trap again. This was the guy who’d burned my clothes off and circulated naked pictures of me. He was rude and arrogant and full of himself. There was no way in hell I’d be ending up in his bed tonight. I was at least sixty-seven percent certain of that.