Total pages in book: 200
Estimated words: 189898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
We passed through the graffiti-covered door after having the lens on our phone cameras taped over and entered the industrial building that reminded me of a middle-aged cathedral but concealed one of the most secretive and exclusive clubs in the world.
Above the cavernous ground floor bathed in darkness and dancers, loomed ceilings sixty feet high and supported by concrete pillars. The club had loaned us four of their bouncers since they hadn’t been generous enough to allow us ours. They cleared a path through the stomping, air-punching crowd of fifteen hundred people dressed in little and some in nothing at all. I even spotted what looked like people openly fucking while others danced around them. As the bouncers pushed aside the revelers, the crowd began to push back when they recognized who had passed them.
I was starting to question whether we should be there until Braxton and her friends started dancing. They didn’t stop the entire way up to the DJ’s booth on the platform above the dance floor.
As we continued to the far edge of the balcony and the empty corner cloaked in shadows, Loren broke off from our group to embrace and talk to one of the guys standing at the mixer. He was wearing headphones, so I assumed he was the DJ.
“Let’s go to the bar!” Maeko shouted to her friends. She and Griffin started to go, but as soon as Braxton moved to go with them, Houston pulled her front into his chest and kept her there with his arms around her waist and his gaze fixed on her friends. “Let our friend go, please.”
Houston stared at Maeko before shaking his head at her over Braxton’s shoulder. The bouncers had already left, which meant the four of us were stuck here until we were ready to go. Griffin and Maeko could go anywhere they liked.
With a crowd that size and in that state, it was a risk for anyone just being in the building. For Bound, that danger was tenfold. Braxton was staying right here.
“Let me go, Houston,” she tried to assert anyway.
I laughed quietly, even though the music drowned me out, as I leaned against the wall next to them. Loren was still standing with the DJ and his entourage, talking with everyone like the social butterfly he was. I didn’t miss the furtive glances Houston and Braxton drew our way with their embrace either.
I was sure everyone had heard the rumors by now, and we didn’t care to disprove them. Especially considering that, for once, they were true, and we had no intention of hiding Braxton.
“Promise not to make me cause a scene?”
Braxton glared up at him, and taking that as her answer, Houston held her tighter.
No one remarked on the fact that she didn’t fight him.
Sighing, she turned her head toward her friends while Houston kissed on the side of her neck she exposed as she told them what drink to bring her. The moment Griffin and Maeko were gone, Braxton shoved away from Houston, and he let her with a smile.
“I think it’s time we get shit understood,” she started before she was interrupted by Loren, who’d snuck up behind her. Turning her around, he immediately began tonguing her down.
“Tell us, baby,” he said between hungry kisses. “Put us in our fucking place so we can put you back in yours.”
She pulled away to gawk up at him. “My place?”
As “Spastik” by Plastikman began to play, Loren walked her backward until she was sandwiched with her back against Houston’s chest, and Loren pressed against her front. He cut his gaze toward me when I hesitated for the brief moment it took me to wonder if I should tread carefully with her.
He still didn’t trust me not to bolt.
My divorce had been finalized, and he was still afraid of losing me.
Why the hell did that make me feel guilty?
I thought I was in love with Emily when I married her, and I still believed it when Loren took it upon himself to rip my marriage apart to prove a point. Anger simmered at his audacity. I hadn’t been the only one to hurt my friends, yet he liked to pretend.
I felt the recklessness rise and the need to fuck some shit up.
My gaze fell on Braxton as I moved in to block her only escape.
Perhaps what I truly felt was the desire to take what I wanted and damn the consequences. Forget having patience and waiting for Braxton to forgive me. I could figure it out along the way.
“Any more questions?” Loren inquired once the circle was complete, and we all stared down at her, trapped between us.
Braxton was smaller and shorter, but her brass painted a different picture. She portrayed a woman destined to make men sit up straight whenever she entered a room.