by Jillian Neal
The Sirens made their entrance at that moment. Four of them had dates that Dan, Garrett, and Rainer immediately recognized. Apparently, Wretchkinsides had dispensed members of the Interfeci to escort his daughter and her teammates to the banquet. That was enough to cure Dan of any desire to act like he’d ever even met Fionna before.
He pretended to search the table for his name. She’d been quite smart in her rearrangement of the cards. He was sitting between Rainer and Chloe, and diagonally from her.
Governor Sapman, who governed over all of the American Summation teams, took the podium and welcomed the teams and owners along with their dates. He was given courteous applause as the first course was served.
Rainer kept Dan engaged in conversation, and Dan never even looked Fionna’s way, though the task nearly killed him. Throughout the meal, he considered leaving numerous times and simply waiting for her in their combined suites. The one time he allowed himself to glance her way, she looked morose from the dark energy that had entered the room, in the form of four members of the Interfeci.
Rainer held Emily’s hand throughout dinner and flinched occasionally as she drew from him. Their energy had her weak and uncertain, as well.
The night wore on with one laborious course after another, until Governor Sapman returned to the stage to thank everyone for coming and to tell them to please enjoy the bar and dance floor after dessert.
To Dan’s relief, Shane Zacharian and his date left the party soon after they’d consumed their dessert.
“That leaves three,” Garrett huffed with his teeth clenched. Dan felt sick. “I’m gonna go take care of our girl; just relax,” Garrett slid from the table and asked Fionna to dance.
Bile left Dan’s mouth ashen. He scowled. He’d never wanted to be Garrett Haydenshire as much as he did in that moment. Fionna fell into his arms weakly, and Garrett supplied her with energy through her hand. He cradled her in his arms and forced his soothing protective energy through her exposed back, while he swayed her gently. Clenching his jaw tightly and ordering himself not to march over and jerk her out of Garrett’s arms, he watched as she buried her face in his neck. No one but Dan seemed to notice how Garrett was able to make her feel safe and healthy once again. He kept her cradled in his arms for the next song, as well. Fury threatened to overtake Dan when Garrett kissed her cheek.
They were laughing by the time the song ended, and Dan made his way to the bar. The bartender raised his eyebrows. “Scotch; strong, expensive, and don’t fuck with it.”
The bartender looked mildly offended. “S’posed to be a party, man,” he slid the drink to Dan. “Go ask one of those Angels to dance with you. They say they are heav-en-ly,” he goaded.
Only one of them, Dan thought. To further Dan’s ire, Marco Ferratus, a cousin of Conrad, who Dan had taken out in Paris several months before, sidled up to the bar and seated himself beside Dan. He’d been moved up the Interfeci chain, when Dan and Fitz had landed Conrad in Coriolis with a life sentence.
“What’s the matter Vin-di-co?” he drawled hatefully. “You missing your girl back home?”
Dan glared hatefully at Ferratus. “Go to hell.”
Although he was certain that it was a shot in the dark, Dan was delighted that no one in the Interfeci believed that he had a girl and that she was there in Vegas with him. His resolve strengthened as Ferratus chuckled and ordered a Cosmo. Dan laughed at him outright, making him scowl.
“What’s the matter Ferratus? Uncle Nic not teach you how to drink like a big boy?”
“It’s for my date, Vindico.” He was clearly attempting to rub it in Dan’s face that he didn’t have a date.
“Right,” he sneered. “Go ahead and add an umbrella and an orange slice for him,” Dan instructed the bartender.
The bartender didn’t seem to like Ferratus any more than Dan. He popped a toothpick umbrella and an orange slice into the hot pink drink and gave a hearty chuckle.
Ferratus flipped Dan off and slithered back to the Sirens’ table. As he scanned the room again, Dan spotted Fionna standing with Emily, Rainer, Sasha, and Katie. She met his gaze for a split second but then glanced away.
Dan drew a long sip of the Scotch. He enjoyed feeling it burn all the way down. The scorching pain somehow felt better than the empty numbness. The absence of any feeling at all, when he was without Fionna, threatened to pull him under.
The lights lowered more, and the DJ began playing the music a little louder. To Dan’s horror, Chloe moved to the DJ and made a request. She instructed all of the Angels to take to the dance floor.
The rap song that encouraged the ladies to shake what they had, the one that Dan had been enthralled by when he’d seen it performed at Anglington’s a little over a month before, began blaring. Dan watched the routine the ladies had come up with as they performed it to raucous cheers and applause.
Fionna looked slightly embarrassed but played her part well. She shook her cleavage and then her luscious ass as the song instructed. Before the song even ended, Trevor was all over Fionna. Dan’s stomach clenched and churned violently.
Rainer stepped in and asked Fionna to dance, but Rainer wasn’t as comfortable with her as Garrett. They danced awkwardly with enough space between them for Dan to have stood. Good God, Lawson, this isn’t middle school, he thought scornfully. He didn’t care that Rainer was trying to do him a favor. He wanted to be angry, and Lawson’s pre-pubescent moves certainly weren’t enough to fend off Trevor.
Dan did another careful scan of the ballroom. Ferratus and his date had taken to the dance floor. The girl he was with appeared to have her entire tongue down Ferratus’s throat. He was feeling her up in clear view of everyone.
Emily appeared beside Dan and ordered a glass of wine.
“I was thinking,” she raised the wine glass she’d been supplied to her lips, and made certain no one else could hear her. “If you’d like to dance, maybe you and Rainer could switch at some point.”
Taking back his vengeful thoughts on Rainer’s dancing and deciding that Lawson had outdone himself, when he’d picked Emily Haydenshire as his one and only at the age of four, Dan nodded.
“Care to dance, Miss Haydenshire?” he drawled loudly enough for Marlisa to hear him.
“Oh, sure,” Emily feigned surprise. She set her wine glass on the bar and then let Dan lead her to the dance floor.
As Marlisa despised Emily Haydenshire above all others, she narrowed her eyes hatefully, and demanded that her date dance with her as well.
Dan wrapped his arms around Emily. She was quite short. Dan grinned down at her. Rainer was several inches shorter than Dan, so he supposed it worked well for him.
He let his eyes glance towards Marlisa. Her date, Quentin Vitrio, a mid-level thug in the Interfeci, seemed about as interested in her as he was in watching grass grow. Fionna and Rainer had relaxed some. He’d pulled her closer, and they were chatting as they danced.
Marlisa buried her face in her date’s neck and attempted to force him to cuddle her closely. Emily rolled her eyes and shook her head. Dan chuckled, “Did you have a nice Christmas, Emily?” He swayed her back and forth, unable to think of a topic to discuss with her that didn’t involve Fionna, or Adeline and the upcoming trial.
She smiled. “It was great. Rainer got me this,” she lifted her wrist and showed Dan the delicate tennis bracelet dripping with diamonds. It must’ve cost Lawson a fortune. “My uncle ordered it for him, but the press found out about it. They published pictures of it two days before Christmas. I love it, but he was really disappointed that he didn’t get to surprise me.”
“I’m sure.” The press really had gotten woefully out of hand when it came to Rainer and Emily.
“Every time he’s gone in a store for the last month, the press has hounded them to tell them what he bought. They tried to pay some clerk five hundred dollars for a copy of his receipt from that lingerie shop near the Pentagon, but thankfully the store refused.” She rolled her eyes, but then glanced wistfu
lly towards Rainer and Fionna.
Dan wondered what could be done about the press’s interference. They technically hadn’t broken any laws.
“I’m sorry,” he offered sincerely.
“It’s okay; he’s worth it.”
Chuckling, Dan could feel the depth of her adoration for her fiancé swell in her energy.
Marlisa stepped hard on Vitrio’s foot. He jerked away from her, scowling, but was clearly afraid to piss off his boss’s daughter.
The song reached the last few notes of the chorus. Rainer gave Dan a quick, discreet glance and then thanked Fionna for the dance. He cut in on Dan and Emily with a very sleek move.
Dan nodded to Emily, and then glanced around as Fionna feigned disappointment but didn’t leave the dance floor. Trevor moved back in, but he was a step behind Dan.
“Care to dance, Miss Styler?” Dan asked politely. He pretended that they were no more than professional acquaintances.
“Sure,” Fionna shrugged, feigning mild disinterest.
Very, very carefully, Dan wrapped Fionna up in his arms and tried to make it appear that it wasn’t the place that she belonged. He attempted to hide his love and all-encompassing desire for the woman, who fit in his hands like she was made for him alone, but she melted into him. Relief soothed her fraying rhythms. She drew a deep breath, inhaling his cologne and his musk. Discreetly, she touched his wrist and pulled his energy into her own. Dan fought not to groan from the heavenly sensation. He embraced her and let his energy work through the bare skin there. “I’ve got you.” The words disappeared in the blaring music. Only she had heard them.
Marlisa seemed to pay no attention to Dan, now that he was no longer dancing with Emily.
Rainer, however, had leaned in and was sweeping his tongue through Emily’s mouth. She was responding heatedly to his advances. Marlisa glared at them angrily, and then attempted to make Vitrio kiss her.
Xavier Metrione, one of Wretchkinsides’ underbosses, was Jessica Salamond’s date. She was one of the only Sirens with any real talent. He had her in his lap at the table, with his hands all over her, which she didn’t seem to mind. A moment later, Metrione stood and pulled Jessica out of the ballroom. He guided her to the elevators.
“I love you,” Dan whispered in a tone barely audible to even Fionna as he swayed her, and made certain to keep his space.
“Me too,” she quoted his line for her for all of the past weeks. She then laughed politely, like Dan had made a funny comment, and she’d felt she had to respond. She was quite a good actress.
Trevor had been skulking about the dance floor, like a jackal stalking his prey. “I’m cutting in,” he demanded.
Dan felt fury burn through his veins as he turned to glare at Trevor. “Try it, Sanders.”
“You know this guy or something, Fionna? You need me to get rid of him, baby?” Trevor offered in an epically stupid move.
Panic flashed in Garrett’s eyes as he danced Chloe near Dan and Fionna. Dan felt his entire body tense violently. Utter revulsion and rage throbbed in his shield.
With a huff, Fionna rolled her eyes. “This is Officer Dan Vindico. He’s the Chief of Elite Iodex, Trevor, and he’s one of the new Angels owners. We went to school together; not that it’s any of your business.”
“Well, the next dance is mine.”
Dan tried to quell his hate. “We were dancing, Sanders. Why don’t you go find someone else to annoy the hell out of?”
“You know, I think I’ll just hang here,” Trevor looked delighted with the challenge at hand, and Dan could do nothing at all to stop him. He felt the fear, the hate, and the hopeless apathy permeate Fionna. It made him sick.
“If I dance with you, Trevor, will you go away?”
Trevor laughed at her as if she only had two brain cells that were both confused. “You don’t want me to go away, honey. Not without your keycard,” He waggled his eyebrows and gave Fionna his customary cocky grin.
Acid burned every organ in Dan’s body.
“You are not getting one of my keycards, but if it’ll get you to leave me the hell alone, then fine,” Fionna jerked away from Dan angrily, and turned to Trevor.
He gave her a pompous grin. “Come on, baby. You know you need another round. I’m sure just one night of me is never enough.”
From the corner of his eye, Dan noted Marlisa growing furious with Vitrio’s lack of interest. She shot another hate-filled glare at Dan.
He backed away from Fionna, though he was certain that the few steps he took were the hardest he’d ever made.
She was scowling at Trevor, who continued to sway with her and try to talk her into coming to his suite. Dan fell into the chair where he’d eaten dinner.
Garrett quickly moved to him, carrying two beers. He handed one to Dan and seated himself beside him. “Don’t get stupid. She can’t stand that prick.”
He didn’t respond as he watched Trevor’s hands slide lower and lower down Fionna’s back. He was caressing the skin he felt there. With every inch he gained, venom-filled rage seared like consuming fire through Dan’s body. His muscles began to vibrate of their own accord as he narrowed his eyes. The thought of Fionna being in his arms, of his hands being on her, made Dan want to vomit. Trevor pulled her closer, but Fionna jerked backwards. Her eyes flashed in a menacing dare for him to try anything.
The entire room was distracted momentarily by Vitrio, who was abandoning Marlisa on the dance floor. “I’m leaving. Your dad’s not paying me enough to make out with you,” he announced with a disgusted glower.
Marlisa was furious, and Dan shuddered as he heard, “I’m telling Daddy,” fly from her mouth just before she raced out of the ballroom.
“He’ll be dead by tomorrow.” Garrett looked extremely concerned. Dan nodded his agreement, but he wasn’t certain he cared.
He turned his attention back to Fionna and Trevor. The look in Trevor’s eyes made Dan want to sink his fists forcefully into his smug face. He traced his hands back up Fionna’s back and then caressed her face.
Dan stood, but Garrett used every ounce of power to pull him back into the chair. “Marlisa’s gone, but there are too many people here for you to go letting everyone know who she belongs to!”
Fionna bristled and turned her face away from his roving hands. Dan couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t watch it. He couldn’t watch some other guy who had held her, who had seen all of her, have her back in his arms even only for a dance. She was his, his baby, his life, the only person who meant anything to him.
The way her sweet smile formed on her face, those deep sienna eyes that grew dark and hungry from his touch, her adorable nose, her beautiful lips, swollen and ripe when she wanted his kiss. The thin skin of her delicate neck that always held her heady scent.
The graceful curvature of her spine, the way her breasts swelled from her desire, the way her nipples darkened and puckered just for him. The way her hands felt when she clung to him. Her voice soft and raspy as she begged to be taken. The silky perfection of her satin skin. The perfect indentation of her stomach and the beautiful swelling curve of her backside. The dimples that she hated, and he adored, where her back met her luscious ass.
The way she smelled like vanilla and coconut and heady musk. Her lush lower lips, the way they swelled and glistened for him. The sweet, intoxicating flavors of her. He would eat his way through fire just to taste that tight, wet space between her legs that formed around him, like it was made for him alone.
The way she moaned when he filled her. That perfect gasp on his first ragged thrust when he staked his claim. The way she screamed out his name as he brought her to climax. The way her long hair flowed around him when she pulled him deeply into her mouth.
Her long shapely legs and her adorable feet that she thought were unattractive, but Dan thought completed her perfection. It was all his and his alone, along with her heart, her tenderness, her vulnerability, her fears, and her dreams. Her very soul, all his. And some pompous asshole was try
ing to make a claim. Dan couldn’t sit there and watch him offer her his keycard, yet again, as the song ended.
She is mine. The thought pulsed with every beat of his heart. It reverberated in his soul and solidified his muscles for a fight.
He stood and moved to her before Garrett could halt him again.
“Since our last dance was interrupted, would you care to try again?” Dan gave Trevor a look that said, if given half a chance, he would kill him with his bare hands without ever breaking a sweat.
But it seemed Fionna wanted nothing else to do with dancing. She glared hatefully at Trevor. “I’m so sorry, Officer Vindico, but I’m a little tired. I have to challenge tomorrow. I’m going to turn in.”
Garrett had rushed towards them when Dan had begun his march toward Fionna.
Trevor looked hopeful, but was disappointed quickly when Fionna turned her pleading eyes on Garrett. “Will you walk me up, please?”
“Of course,” he looked both confused and concerned.
Dan’s heart ached from not knowing exactly how Fionna was feeling, and if she was mad at him for the entire situation.
Before she was even off the dance floor, Trevor had located another woman and was trying to sweet-talk her into his room.
With a spiteful gleam in her eye, Fionna stopped Garrett and moved to Trevor and the woman, who played for the Los Angeles Links. She leaned in, and Dan watched closely. He saw her head snap in defiance as she held up her hand, with her thumb and her index finger approximately an inch apart. She then gestured to Trevor’s crotch before whirling around and marching out on Garrett’s arm.
Strung too tightly to laugh, Dan did feel a rush of air return to his lungs. Yep, that’s my girl.
As soon as Garrett returned, Dan thanked him and made certain that no one was paying him any attention before he disappeared to the elevators.
Requisition
His heart was thrumming, sending heat and impatient greed surging through his body. He was hot-wired and aching for the sweet pulse of her release around him. Savage claims of ownership filled his mind.