Each of the booths was also decorated with colorful strings of lights and faced the center of the room, which showcased a large dance floor. Several couples danced together, undulating to the overloud, upbeat tune from an unseen music source pumping out of hidden speakers.
“Valerie,” a familiar voice called over the din. Daisy waved from a booth in the center of the right-hand side. Valerie immediately changed course to head in her direction.
Hauser dropped his arm around her shoulders and walked alongside her, as if he needed to protect her. The other four men in her gorgeous entourage drifted to the booth they’d been assigned a few places down from where Daisy waved.
“I can find my way to the booth,” Valerie said, lifting eyes to Hauser’s salt-water blue gaze. She wanted to chat with Daisy alone, girl to girl.
“I have no doubt, but I don’t trust any of the other men here beyond the ones we entered this room with, so your choice is either me hovering over you, or Dominick.”
“You,” Valerie said far too quickly to hide her unfounded apprehension. Hauser’s eyes widened. She flashed a quick grin to dissipate any questions. A few charged moments later, he smiled politely and nodded. Tightening his grip around her shoulders, he scanned the immediate area, ostensibly for threats.
“Glad you finally made it,” Daisy called over the clamor of chattering voices and music filling the room.
Valerie rolled her eyes. “I’m just fashionably late.”
The room was full of activity and a crush of people. The lights were low, adding a certain intimacy to the room even with what had to be a thousand people in attendance.
“Did a buzzer go off telling you to get your ass to the party?”
Valerie pursed her lips. “No,” she said evasively.
“Then what?”
Sighing loudly, Valerie crossed her arms and muttered, “The emergency red light around every door in our house went off and blinked in rapid-fire flashes. It was very annoying. I’m sure an offensive sound would have followed if we hadn’t exited.”
“Why don’t you like parties?”
She shrugged. “I don’t understand the point of them.”
Daisy shook her head as if Valerie was daft. “To dance and drink and have fun.”
Valerie’s annoying lack of concrete memories from her life on Earth didn’t specify details of why parties made her edgy, but she knew on some primal level that she hated them. She didn’t consider herself a particularly nimble dancer and a feeling of panic engulfed her at the thought of so many people watching her flail around in a public forum.
Drinks arrived via a cart propelled by unseen means and dispensed beverages to everyone in the booth. Valerie took a sip of her cranberry juice and vodka cocktail, calming herself by mulling over the number nine hundred and thirteen, which repeated over and over in her head.
The name of the ship which had sucked them up and now forced her to attend this stupid party was Chippen and given that the multicolored male population wielded muscles any bodybuilder would be jealous of, she and Daisy had nicknamed the ship Chippendales Pleasure Cruise.
Nine hundred and thirteen was the number of days that were left here on the Chippendales Pleasure Cruise. To keep her sanity, she mentally chanted the day’s number when she was uncomfortable. Like right now.
“I can read your mind, you know.” Daisy winked at her, sucked down a double shot of straight tequila, bit into a salted lime slice and promptly whooped in delight.
“No you can’t. You’re just overconfident.” Eyeing the empty shot glass, Valerie added with a friendly smile, “Or already drunk.”
Daisy snapped her fingers indicating she wanted seconds and asked, “So tell me, what’s the number bouncing around in your head?”
Valerie’s mouth fell open and Daisy laughed as another drink was placed in front of her.
“Nine hundred and thirteen.”
“Good. That’s plenty of time to do lots of wicked things with the men in my life.” She glanced at Brandon, turned back to Valerie with a hearty laugh and motioned her to drink up.
“Let’s go dance,” Daisy yelled the moment she’d downed her second drink and smacked the shot glass on the table. She grabbed Brandon’s shirt by the sleeve as she exited her booth, already rocking and dancing to the beat of the new song playing.
Hauser and Brandon exchanged looks of amused annoyance at first, but soon got into the spirit of the event. Valerie downed the remainder of her drink in one swallow for courage and allowed Daisy’s exuberant attitude to envelope her unease. The four of them migrated to the center of the dance floor and gyrated against each other to the beat of the music pounding a rhythm through her chest. No one seemed to be paying attention to her, so Valerie allowed her nervousness to ratchet down a notch and focused on Hauser.
Out of nowhere, a thin woman with a tousled cap of silvery blond hair bumped hard into Valerie and sent her stumbling toward Daisy and Brandon locked together in a dirty dancing move. Hauser grabbed for her and missed as Valerie fell against Daisy’s mate Brandon on her way to the floor. Luckily, Brandon caught her beneath the arms and kept her on her feet, but not before she saw the predatory gleam of jealousy in Hauser’s eyes.
The look was as frightening as one of Dominick’s thunderous expressions, but Hauser shook it off quickly, retrieved her from Brandon’s grasp and hugged her to his frame. Valerie hadn’t realized the extent of his possessive nature. The fast music ended all of a sudden and several jazzy notes of a melodic song started playing in its place. The mood around them changed from frenzied to serene in a matter of seconds. The couples on the large dance floor clutched their partners close for a slow dance.
“Hi, Hauser,” the blonde who’d knocked her into Brandon said with salacious grin. She moved in close enough that Valerie was assaulted by her strong perfume before she was an arm’s-length away. Given the smug expression on the blonde’s face, Valerie suspected she’d crashed into her on purpose. A rapacious gleam of jealousy streaked down her spine in response.
Daisy had warned her about the rumors surrounding these ‘mandatory social events’ and the women with ulterior motives who often used any excuse to get close to and shamelessly flirt with forbidden men they weren’t attached to. Men couldn’t rape other women they weren’t mated with, or have sex with them. However, just about any other sexual touching or kissing could be accomplished if the man could be persuaded.
“So have you missed me?” The blonde reached out and ran her forefinger down Hauser’s arm from shoulder to elbow. Valerie resisted the urge to break the offending finger off at the second knuckle and hand it to her for the personal space violation audacity.
“No.”
Her attention quickly turned to Valerie, “I’m Gina, by the way.” She extended her hand, pressing Valerie’s obligation to take it. Her fingers drifted forward, but Hauser threaded his fingers through Valerie’s and pulled her fingers back before they touched Gina’s.
Gina sent a scandalous gaze Hauser’s way. “Are you sorry you failed to secure me for your group?”
“No. You shouldn’t be here, Gina. Go spend time with your own partners.”
“That’s just it, I don’t want to. Once upon a time I wanted you, Hauser. I want to know why I got blackballed from your group.”
A sudden chill washed down Valerie’s body. The blonde had gotten blackballed from ‘her’ group of men?
Valerie shifted her focus from the self-satisfied mug of the blonde to Hauser’s face, now wreathed in apology. She felt heat rise in her cheeks and hoped the darkness of the room covered her reaction.
Hauser’s gaze hardened and he sent a chill glance to Gina. “You know why. You’re just being a bitch.”
“I was only joking back then. I would have fucked the big monster in your group. At least enough to keep him from dying.”
Turning her attention to Valerie, Gina winked and asked, “So does Dominick’s cock split you in half when he fucks you?” She glanced down at V
alerie’s generous hips and smirked. “Or are you also big enough on the inside handle his atrocious girth.”
Daisy saved her from responding. She and Brandon purposely danced past and knocked Gina out of the way before Valerie could slap that superior look off her face. “Leave my friend alone or you can deal with me,” Daisy said.
Gina sneered, but kept her insufficient distance. Pinning a gaze on Valerie, she said tauntingly, “You should enjoy Hauser’s mouth as often as you can. He’s got the best lips here. It still makes me wet just remembering his tongue swirling around in my mouth.” She clucked her tongue, leered at Hauser and licked her lips.
Valerie turned to Hauser. “You kissed her?” She didn’t mean to sound so shocked or pathetically hurt by the unexpected knowledge.
Daisy passed between them, pushing Gina further away and whispered, “Don’t give her a reason to gloat. Brush it off and dance, Valerie.”
Hauser took her in his arms and spun her away from the volatile, upsetting situation. Valerie reeled from the repeated mental picture of Hauser kissing the other woman, his tongue swirling around in her mouth, making the silvery blonde super model-sized woman wet with desire. She shook her head to dissolve the vision.
“I wasn’t your first. How foolish of me to think that I was. Of course I wasn’t.” Valerie whispered more to herself than to Hauser.
“I met her at our first gauntlet arena,” he said. “She selected me.”
She pinned him with a glare. “You don’t have to explain.”
“Obviously, I do.”
Valerie barely registered his face in her view. Her perverse imagination shot vivid pictures of Gina with Johnny, Frasier, and Mark into her brain like repeated flashes from a lightning storm and a well of tortured despair rose in her throat. The punch to her stomach when she visualized Dominick in bed with Gina made her stop dancing. Her legs went weak.
“I need to sit down.”
Hauser slid an arm around her shoulders for support and led her toward the booth where the others in her party waited.
“I’m sorry, Valerie.” His utterly tormented tone conveyed his regret.
She stopped at the edge of the dance floor. “Did everyone in the group kiss her?”
“No. Only me. Because I was the scout.” Hauser sighed deeply and added, “She chose me and I kissed her, but when I took her to meet the others she took one look at Dominick and refused to have anything to do with him.”
“So she was blackballed.”
Nodding, he continued, “Mark thought she was a bitch, Johnny said she’d suck the creative life out of us within a month. So before she met the others in private we collectively declined to pursue her as a mate.”
“How many others were between Gina and me?”
“None. I was careful thereafter. We only got two free selections before someone was assigned. That’s why I made the deal with you in the hall.”
“Why her?” But Valerie knew why. Gina was beautiful, blond and most of all very skinny, which generated a load of insecurities in Valerie’s brain regarding her body.
“She was the first blonde I saw.” Hauser shrugged. “She was very persuasive that she wanted to help me with my needs until she met the group. We’d all maintained a one-for-all-and-all-for-one mentality regarding our stay here. She laughingly refused Dominick as a monster freak of nature, so we blackballed her. She obviously didn’t measure up.”
“So I was the second blonde you saw?”
“No. You were the first curvy one and besides, we met before the gauntlet arena. I had a chance to talk to you. I liked you. Still do.” Hauser gently ran his hand down her spine and slipped it around her waist.
Valerie nodded without smiling and walked the rest of the short distance to their booth.
“Do you forgive me?” he called.
She turned and pegged him with an indifferent stare. “There’s nothing to forgive. You met her first. You never lied to me. Other women never came up in any conversation. I was simply taken off guard. Especially her parting remark about your kisses.”
“I only care about what my kisses do to you.” His eyebrows rose in question.
“They do the same thing.” Valerie paused. “They make me wet.”
“Good to know.”
From inside their booth, Dominick stood when he saw them approach and drifted onto the dance floor. “What’s up?”
“Gina introduced herself and made Valerie mad.” Hauser strolled into the booth and plopped down in a seat.
Dominick tipped her chin up with a finger. “She’s not worth your anger. Dance with me. I’ll make you forget she was ever in the room.”
“I don’t care about her. Not really.” Valerie was ashamed to admit that what Gina had said was her initial fear regarding Dominick. His size was intimidating. After spending the past several months with him, she knew he was not monstrous by any definition. Valerie spent a lot of time thinking about Dominick, even when she shouldn’t have been.
“I’m fine. We don’t have to dance.”
“Dance with me anyway.” He gave her a bone-melting half smile and pulled her into his arms. Once secured against his warm frame, a flash of memory from the last time they were in bed together singed her mind. Dominick exuded a powerful aura and it was difficult for Valerie not to get swept up in it.
“Why?”
“I’d like to have you slither across my body to the beat of sultry music. Come on. Indulge me.”
“All right. Fine. Let’s dance.”
Valerie followed him to the dance floor amidst the crowd of couples swaying to the thrumming beat of a slow, seductive song. He slid his hand to her ass and pulled her against his groin, separating her legs with one rock hard thigh. Her insides clenched with arousal at the sudden tactile sensation of being so close and intimate in front of other people.
As he grasped her fingers and spun them around the dance floor, she remembered that Dominick’s name was listed as her first contact for next week’s schedule. By midnight a week from right now, she’d likely be in his bed sucked up this close, only they’d be horizontal instead of vertical and they’d be naked. Perhaps this was the beginning of a lengthy act of foreplay.
Valerie slid around the dance floor in the arms of a man strong enough to break her in half, but with the apparent restraint to hold any hostility in check.
After six months, she’d mostly dismissed her unreasonable apprehension of going to Dominick’s room. Ever tolerant of her inexplicable and unwarranted fears, Dominick never initiated anything sexual toward her until she made the first move.
Gina, with her silvery blond hair and skinny body, waltzed past with a smirk on her face and eyed Dominick with distaste. Valerie stiffened in his arms and stuttered in her next dance step.
“Relax,” he leaned in and whispered. Dominick planted a kiss on her neck that sizzled straight to her soul. Her focus shifted from the couples around them to his lips blazing a path along her jaw. Seconds later, he riveted his mouth to her lips and kissed her with driven passion, enough to make her forget where she was.
“Can’t wait until I see you again, babe,” he murmured against her hair after breaking the sultry kiss. Their bodies were pressed tightly together from shoulders to knees. Valerie was surprised when a tingle of anticipation curled to life low in her belly. She was additionally ashamed to admit that she’d thought of him while with each of the other men in her group over the past couple of months.
A forbidden concept she wouldn’t even share with Daisy.
“Can’t wait to see you, too,” she admitted in a breathy whisper and tightened her grip around his waist.
His rumble of laughter caught her off guard. “I find that hard to believe.” He ran his hand from the middle of her back to cup her head, threading his fingers in the locks of her hair. It came across as a very possessive gesture and a secret thrill ran down her spine at his forcefulness.
Tilting her head back, she gazed deeply into his eyes. “I promise you,
I look forward to our next night together.”
Dominick licked his lips in a wolf-like gesture and returned the stare. The world fell away and Valerie was assaulted with image after image of remembered times with this man. Dominick filled her waking thoughts as none of the others did. Dancing so close to him was overwhelming to her already overloaded senses. He intrigued her and her body responded to him in ways she couldn’t control.
Pressed so close and sliding up and down and across his torso, her nipples poked into his chest and stoked her arousal. The action had a profound impact on her libido, which purred for more.
“Hold me tighter,” he murmured in her ear. The flat of one large hand slid down a fraction to cup one cheek, pulling her tighter against his groin. He squeezed his fingers lightly and his large palm sizzled her butt in a most delicious way.
“If I get any closer, I’ll be inside of you.”
The rumble of his laughter sent a friction of electric sensation down her spine. “My favorite place.”
“Are people watching us slither over each other?”
“Yes. Every man in this room is jealous.”
Valerie snorted. “No, they aren’t.”
His laughter caressed her. Hugging her close, he put his lips to her ear and whispered, “Oh, yes they are. Each of the men watch us on the dance floor, molded seductively to one another, and speculate if we’ll be horizontal sans clothing later on. I suspect a few of the women do, too.”
Valerie laughed. “So is this something that ‘gets you off’?”
“Not yet. Not tonight. Next time I see you, though, I’ll think back to this moment and ‘get off’ on the memory.” He paused, gave her an odd look and added, “You should do the same thing for Hauser.”
Startled at having Dominick mention one of the other men, she asked, “Do what for Hauser?”
He cleared his throat as if what he had to say was uncomfortable for him to say. “You should come out here and slither around on the dance floor with Hauser. Then every person here will wonder which of us will have you tonight. The speculation will give them something else to gossip about and rob Gina of her perpetual sneer.”
Lara Santiago - Menagerie Page 12