I clenched my jaw, my eyes closing so softly, and took a shaky breath.
His fingers trailed up the side of my body until they reached my lips. He brushed his thumb against my bottom lip, making it tingle. “… so soft, tender…”
Those words… Those were the same ones he had said in my dream.
He grasped my face gently and gazed down at me. Every sinful thing that I wanted him to do to me flashed into my mind. His lips on mine, his long slender fingers tormenting my body, everything.
Mom’s pendant shifted against my chest.
He chuckled. “Even with a boyfriend, you’re so responsive to my touch.”
Trevon. My eyes widened. I pulled myself out of the damn trance he seemed to put me in every single time I was close to him and glared up at him. “I am not.”
“Whatever you say.”
I pressed my lips together. “I’m not!”
He dropped his hands and turned away from me with that damn smirk on his stupid face. I crossed my arms over my chest. I couldn’t believe him. No—scratch that—I couldn’t believe myself.
All those days of Sunday school, all those late Saturday nights at church with Mom listening to a priest preach about a devil that I didn’t think existed, thinking about how weak those people who fell into temptation were.
The devil wasn’t real, but temptation sure was.
Eros gazed back at me and pushed his hand into his pocket. “Oh, and Dani… I found these this morning.” He pulled something out of his pocket. “They looked like yours. Thought I’d return them to you.”
He tossed me the panties I had worn last night and walked away.
CHAPTER 5
Dani
I gazed down at the underwear, then at Eros walking toward the table, then back. My fingers curled around the soft material. Where did he get these? When did he get these? How did he get these?
After stuffing the underwear into my pocket, I marched after him. Who did he think he was? Offering us to go to dinner with him, flirting with me, stealing my panties while I was sleeping?
“Don’t you just walk away from me! We need to talk—”
Eros slid into the booth and picked up his fork to eat. He gazed up at me with the most innocent eyes I had ever seen, a forkful of chicken breast and apple relish in his hand. “What do you want to talk about?” Innocent eyes, but a devilish smirk. That goddamn perfect, sexy, annoying smirk.
He trapped me. He knew I wouldn’t be able to confront him here. He knew how much I’d stumble over my words, trying to find an excuse as to why I needed to talk to him in front of Trevon. And I hated it.
I sat next to my loving boyfriend, fingers grazing against his. “Nothing,” I said. I dipped a piece of bread into my bean stew. “It’s nothing.”
Trevon gazed at me briefly, then continued his conversation with Javier.
Eros paused for a moment, twisting his ring around his index finger with his thumb, and leaned back against the white leather. “Oh, come on, Dani.”
Ignore him.
“Don’t be shy.”
He’s just trying to anger you.
“I bet you’re not this shy elsewhere.”
I snapped my eyes to him.
“You’re probably loud, aren’t you?”
I kicked my foot into his shin under the table. Did Trevon not hear this man?
When I looked over, Trevon was in a deep conversation with Javier and Zane about the best places to go in the city on the weekends. He didn’t even glance in our direction. Big smile, wide eyes. I sighed and gazed back at the man of mystery in front of me.
Once I got home, oh boy, I was going to march straight to his apartment and demand that he tell me how he got my panties. I was having no more of this. He couldn’t go around flirting with me and stealing my underwear for no good reason at all.
After enduring another forty minutes of dinner, watching Eros play with his ring and hoping that he wouldn’t talk to me ever again, I had decided that going to his apartment was probably the worst idea I ever had. I could barely keep it together when we were out in public. God only knew what would happen if I ended up at his place.
Trevon slapped a hand on my thigh and smiled at me. “You ready?”
I grabbed his hand, yanking him out of the booth. Oh, I was more than ready to get out of here. He pulled the phone out of his back pocket and grabbed my waist, slowing me down. “Babe, what’s the rush?”
“You can check your phone when we’re in the car. Hurry up,” I said.
We walked out of Crimson’s Nouveau, the cold breeze biting my exposed legs. The car was parked less than a block away across the street. There wasn’t even any traffic. I was so close to freedom. So damn close.
Trevon stopped. “Shit,” he said. The light from his phone illuminated his dark skin. “Something happened at work. I need to go. I’ll give you a ride back home, but we’ll have to make it quick.”
“I can take her back,” Eros said from beside him. Appearing from absolutely nowhere.
“No, that’s not happen—”
Trevon nodded. “That would be great, man. Thanks.”
My eyes widened. I snatched his arm, pulling him to the side. A bus rumbled down the street toward us. “Trevon, I’m not going with him!” I whispered.
“Come on, Dani. I really have to go.”
“No! I—”
His phone started to buzz again. He tapped the screen and lifted it to his ear. After pecking me on the lips, he told me he’d make it up to me.
I crossed my arms over my chest, watching him jog across the street to his car, nearly getting hit by the now-angry bus driver.
Eros walked up beside me, arm grazing against mine. “Looks like it’s just me and you.”
“So, what does Trevon do for work?” Eros asked, one hand on the steering wheel, the other dangerously close to my thigh. His car was strikingly clean, the sleek bronze and black leather seats had no scuffs, the silver accents were glimmering in the moonlight, and the small screen on the dashboard had no fingerprints on it.
I gazed at the city lights through the windshield, jaw clenched. I couldn’t believe I was here. “He owns a bar on Sixth.”
He tapped his ring against the wheel, turning onto a four-lane freeway. “You must get lonely.”
“Excuse me?”
“You spend your nights alone when he’s in the bar.” Eros slowed to a stop at a red light. The car screen lit up with Incoming Calclass="underline" Luci, and Eros hit the decline button.
I narrowed my eyes at the screen, then at him. “And that makes you think I’m lonely?”
The corner of his lip curled up. “No. I think that you’re lonely because of the way you act.”
“And how do I act?” I asked, voice rising with each word. Why does he have to get under my skin every time I talk to him? Why was I even here? I should be in Trevon’s car with him, not with Mr. I’m-So-Hot-And-I-Know-It.
“Needy… Wanting…” That infamous smirk stretched across his face. “Horny.”
My eyes widened. “What!” I dug my nails into the leather seat. “You’re the one who’s been acting like that. You’re the one who stole my underwear! Who does that?”