by Selena Scott
“You’re not bad at this!” Diana shouted to him as she turned in the circle of his arms and linked her hands behind his neck. “Have you been dancing before? I thought you said you’d never been to a club before!”
“I haven’t. But I’ve been on a dance floor before. At bars and joints like that.”
Something lit in her eyes as she put the pieces together. “That’s how you used to meet women, wasn’t it? Back when you only came to town every once in a while?”
To get laid.
Neither of them needed her to complete that sentence.
He hesitated, remembering their conversation from before. The one where they’d landed on the fact that it wasn’t a good idea to hear about one another’s past lovers. “Uh.”
That was the best he could come up with on such short notice.
“Oh, come on, you can tell me! I’m curious now.”
He scrutinized her expression and saw that she was open and playful and definitely not about to knife him for talking about his exes.
He leaned down to her ear so that he wouldn’t have to shout. “If I talked to women too much, they always figured out there was something different about me. You know, I was a mountain man. A secret shifter. I had no interest in getting caught. So, I figured out a way to meet women without having to talk too much.”
“You’d dance with them?”
He pulled back from her ear and nodded.
“You had a lot of success with that?” she asked, one eyebrow raised.
He shrugged. “Not always.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re being modest. I can tell.” Her head cocked to one side. “What would happen after you danced with them? What was your move?”
He leaned down to ear but she shook her head. “No. Don’t tell me. Show me.”
This time when he scrutinized her expression, he saw a very healthy dose of lust in her eyes. She wanted to see how he used to pick up women? She wanted to experience it?
Yeah. Orion could do that for her.
He took her hand and led her further onto the dance floor, away from the eyes of his brother and sister. They didn’t need to see this. Neither did her two employees who happened to be there with them.
They were instantly lost on the dance floor, bodies closing ranks around them. The music was loud and mindless and sexy. Orion turned Diana so that her back was to his front. In her high heels her softness and his hardness were perfectly aligned. He used his hands on her hips to press her close and move her exactly how he wanted. He drew her hand up to his hair and opened his mouth against her neck. The beat intensified as the song faded into the next and his thumb dipped below her shirt, tracing a circle against her hipbone. He thought he might have heard her gasp, but it was impossible to tell over the music.
What was easy for him to decipher was the scent of her arousal on the air as he moved against her. He turned her so that they were facing one another, his hands roaming her back, dropping briefly to her ass and then back up to her hair. He didn’t think she realized it but he was dancing her little by little to the far edge of the dance floor. By the time he got to his chosen destination her eyes were hazy, her lips parted, and there was a trusty wall exactly where he needed it to be.
He pressed her back to the wall and kissed a line up her neck, one of his hands dropping to her knee and pressing her leg up against his hip.
Her fingernails dug into his shoulder and now they were really getting somewhere. He lifted his head just enough to scan their surroundings. He spotted a darkened hallway and tugging Diana along behind him, he headed straight for it.
At the mouth of the hallway, he almost ran straight into the bouncer they’d met at the front of the club. Judging from the faint scent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that trailed behind him, Orion figured he’d been taking his break. The bouncer looked back and forth between Orion and Diana, apparently -accurately- clocking their lusty expressions, the way they leaned against one another, Orion’s slack mouth, Diana’s lower lip pinched between her teeth. He raised an eyebrow at the two of them, blocking their way to the dark hallway. Then, after a second, his expression softened and he rolled his eyes, stepping to one side and letting them pass.
“Polar bear,” Orion said, tipping an imaginary hat to the man who hadn’t put the kibosh on their public sexcapades.
“Not my business,” the polar bear shifter said, raising his hands in the air and disappearing into the belly of the club.
Orion tugged Diana down the hallway, the two of them laughing and stumbling and pawing at one another. He tried two locked doors before he got to an unlocked supply closet and tugged her in after him.
The lightbulb swung from the ceiling after he pulled the chain and it lit Diana in an intoxicating splash of color. She was staring at him up through her lashes, her lip still caught between her teeth, her back to the door he’d just slammed closed.
She was glistening with exertion from dancing, her shampoo a fresh zip of a scent between them. She was excited and turned on and looked just… free.
He fell to his knees in front of her, dragging her panties down her legs, working his belt and zipper loose so that by the time he was back on his feet, lifting her against the wall, her wetness was already sliding against him. She was pressed, hot and gasping, the most gorgeous thing he’d ever laid eyes on.
He braced her against him and against the wall and bucked his hips upward, testing her readiness with a blunt push of his cock. He pressed forehead against hers and glanced down her body. Her dress bunched at her hips as he pressed upward, half an inch into her. He was given a crazy-making view of heaven. The image of their bodies merging threatened to burn itself into his brain permanently. He wanted it to. He wanted to be branded with her. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders and he wanted that too. He wanted her to leave a permanent mark on him, something that would reflect the mark she’d left on him inside.
He pushed in another inch.
“Yessssss,” she hissed and let her head knock backward onto the door he had her pressed against, her eyes squeezed shut.
He held his breath, braced her, faced ecstasy head on and plunged to the hilt inside her. Her eyes opened all at once, point blank and blazingly bright. He knew that look. It was the look of someone who saw everything and nothing all at once. He was positive that her world was both incredibly blurry and blindingly clear all at once. She was zeroing in on him, he just knew it.
“Orion,” she whispered.
And that was all it took. How many times had she said his name before? Easily a thousand. But there was something about this moment that transcended them all. Because they’d stumbled into this closet to just screw each other quickly and lustily in the back of a club. Hell, they’d been pretending they were strangers who’d just met on the dance floor. But even now they couldn’t detach. They couldn’t disengage. She wasn’t a stranger and could never be again. She was his Diana.
He, buried all the way inside her, panting into her mouth, swallowing her air, had a sudden flash of the first time he’d ever seen her. She’d been immaculately buttoned up. Her hair a gorgeously neat slick back from her face. Tasteful jewelry, a modest neckline. But there’d been no downplaying that face. Striking eyes that had reflected his entire new world, the human world right back at Orion. Even then, she hadn’t seemed a stranger to him. Even then, he’d known what he’d found, who he’d just met.
That image laid itself over Diana now, her mouth dropped open, her eyes dozy and dilated, his name pouring out her like honey onto silk as her heels dug into his back.
They were two opposite versions of the same complicated woman.
“I’m never letting you go,” he told her as he started up a rhythm with his hips. The door rattled on its hinges behind her.
“Never,” she agreed easily, her eyes heavy lidded as she sucked in air and let out a low helpless sound.
She was too caught up in the sex to truly understand what he was telling her. He adjusted
his grip on her ass and spread her even wider for him. She didn’t realize that his words weren’t in the least empty. This wasn’t a fake promise made in the throes of passion. No. He was simply telling her what was, at that very moment, viciously flooding his heart.
That was all right, as he saw it, he had plenty of time to prove it to her. Right now, he had other things on his hands. Namely, her perfect ass.
Suddenly, Diana was clawing at him, pulling away, sliding down his body. She shot him a look over her shoulder as she turned so that her palms went flat against the door. She hiked her skirt up all the way and presented him with said perfect ass.
His mouth went dry. Her skyscraper heels lined them up pretty well and all he had to do was grip her hips with one hand and line himself up with the other. This time, when he pushed in, all thoughts of the future and the past blurred together and slid sideways out of his head. There was no linear train of thought. There was no english language. There was nothing but sensation. The slick slide of her inescapable heat. Her breasts heavy in his hands as he traced up her body. The velvety skin at the back of her neck as he clamped his teeth there. One of her hands disappeared from the door and he felt the rhythmic circle of her fingers against herself. She started tightening against his shaft, her legs going taut.
Already he thought he might not be able to make it much longer and then she started pushing herself back against him. He watched her hand claw into the door, her head tipped back. He lunged forward, laced one hand through her hair and gripped her around the waist. He twisted her head, took her mouth with his, his tongue plunging into her in the same rhythm as his cock.
He felt her tighten again and this time, she moaned helplessly into his mouth, her legs trembling, wobbling on her heels. He gripped her even harder, rode out her orgasm as best as he could before his hand dropped to her throat, gripping her firmly, gently, inexorably. He spoke into her wet skin, telling her that he was hers, she was his, he was never leaving her. It was the truth not a promise. He’d met perfection when he’d met her.
The end raced up to meet him, destroy him, zip him up and open him wide all at once. He exploded into her, through to the other side of this moment, flying, catapulting, rocketing.
“Diana,” he whispered, wrecked. “Diana, Diana, Diana.”
Her legs weren’t the only ones trembling. He pulled out of her and grabbed a handy roll of paper towel off the shelf next to them, cleaning them both up.
When their clothes were righted, she turned a stumbling circle and fell into his arms. Their mouths found each other, loose and joyful and slurring with satisfaction.
“Wowmygod,” she said and he tasted her words. “That’s how you used to show girls a good time? I’m too blissed out to be jealous I think.”
“No,” he corrected her immediately. He couldn’t bear for her to think that he’d ever felt this way with anyone else. “I’ve never ever done anything like that before. That was the most special sex of all time.”
She laughed in surprise. “Supply closet sex was the most special sex of your life?”
“Yes,” he answered, hoping his honesty showed through in his face. “Because it was supposed to be dirty but instead it gave me… you know.”
“All the feels?” she asked with a little smile on her lips, a little pink on her cheeks.
“Exactly.”
She bit her lip and looked down. She was just looking back up at him through her eyelashes, about to say something momentous, he just knew it, when a heavy fist on the other side of the door had them both jumping.
“All right, lovebirds. Wrap it up before you get me fired.”
It was the bouncer. Apparently their time was up.
Diana adjusted her clothes one more time and laughed nervously. “Well, at least he gave us fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll make sure to send him a Christmas card.”
Diana laughed again. “Christmas cards? You’re definitely human now.”
Orion moved to the door and checked to make sure the coast was clear. They both stopped off at the bathroom before they met back up and stepped back into the damp, dark cave of the club. It was disorienting to Orion that the dancing was still going on. People were still grinding and two-stepping and waving their hands to the beat of the music, the flashing lights painting their faces a hundred different colors. Everywhere he looked shots were being tossed to the backs of throats and soon-to-be couples were eyefucking one another.
A familiar laugh sounded from his left. Wren appeared in front of them with a shot of some clear liquid in each hand. She shoved it into Orion’s hand and Diana’s hand.
“Here, kiddies, drink this. I don’t know what you did in that back hallway, but you two look like you could use a cigarette and a candle lit bath.”
They blinked at her.
She laughed at the expressions on their faces. “Come on! You promised me a party tonight! I refuse to let you two canoodle in da club and then flake out on me. It’s time to dance!”
Wren did an exaggerated disco move, pointing her fingers all over the club and shaking her hips. Somehow, she made it look cool.
“You’re a good dancer!” Orion shouted to her over the bass.
“And this surprises you why?” she asked archly. “Because of the hair and the tattoos? You expected me to hold up the wall just because they’re playing pop music? Nah. I like to party.” She started dancing backward, booty shaking, and ran directly into a man who didn’t look sorry about the development one bit.
Wren turned, surveyed him, apparently dubbed him worth a dance, and flung her arms around his neck.
“I guess we’re supposed to keep dancing,” Orion shouted down to Diana.
“Shhhh!” she shouted, tossing a hand over Orion’s mouth and squinting across the club.
He laughed, considering that screaming at someone to stop making noise was a fairly nonsensical thing to do. He squinted in the direction that she was squinting and immediately saw what the big deal was.
Ida was teaching Dawn a few dance moves and a small group of men had started to gather round to watch the show. For some reason, Phoenix was nowhere to be found, but Quill sure was. He lingered close by, scowling at the proceedings and looking like he was about half a dance step away from jumping in and knocking some douchebag skulls together.
“Let’s go see what happens next!” Diana shouted, grabbing Orion’s hand and taking off across the dance floor.
***
Was there a word for when you felt incredibly awkward and incredibly powerful at the same time? If there was, that was what Dawn figured that it would perfectly describe exactly what she was currently feeling.
Because… dancing? Yeah, not exactly her thing. But every time she glanced over at the small group of men who were watching her, an intoxicating jolt of power zipped up her spine.
It was a jolt that she’d needed, considering the embarrassment of an evening that had led her to here. She had no idea why Orion had suddenly become so gung ho about a night out on the town but it had translated to her having to weather a lot of time with Quill over dinner and drinks. It was the first time she’d seen him since their humiliating encounter in his kitchen.
Completely embarrassed by the fact that he probably sensed every single stupid-tender feeling she’d started having about him, she’d kept a polite little wall up between him, barely even looking at him.
She’d tried very hard to take his rejection on the chin. It was a part of a healthy human experience, if the books she’d read were any indication. But she’d had to admit that it had deflated her over the last few days.
Now, stepping to the side and moving her hips the way Ida was showing her how to, watching these men watch her out of the corner of her eye, Dawn’s pride began to re-inflate. So what that Quill rejected her? It didn’t need to matter so much. What was that human phrase again?
The one about fish and the sea?
It didn’t matter. There were tons of men in the world, men who wan
ted her. And besides, being rejected by your very first crush was apparently a rite of passage in human culture. She could live with that.
Feeling better than she had all week, Dawn lifted her arms above her head and spun away from Ida, a little further into the crowd. She let the music beat through her body like thunder. She could smell the exhilaration of all the other dancers on the floor. Sweat and sex surrounded her and to be honest, she liked it.
She spun again and this time she found herself nose to sternum with a very hard chest. Two hands landed on her shoulders and she tipped her head back to look up into Quill’s frowning face. He reached down and frustratedly removed a piece of her hair that had gotten stuck to her lip gloss when she’d spun.
“What are you doing?” he growled.
“Dancing?” She was confused by his question almost as much as she was confused by the look on his face. It was almost like he was angry at her for shaking her booty with Ida.
His eyebrows came down even further and his eyes danced back and forth between hers. “That’s it? All you’re doing is dancing?”
Now she was even more confused. Apparently she’d missed something. “I thought so?”
“Fine.” He turned back to look over his shoulder and from where she was standing it looked a lot like he was glaring at the group of men who’d been watching her dance. “Then do it over here.”
His hands came back to her shoulders as he steered her away from the patch of dance floor she’d previously been claiming. Bodies filled in their wake and Dawn glanced back over her shoulder toward the group of men, shrinking in the distance. A bossy hand gripped her chin and turned her face forward again.
“You want to dance?” Quill demanded. “Then dance.”