Page 28 of The Demons We Hide

“We’re your new guests, Princess,” I tell her. “So, go ahead …workfor us. I want to see what was so damn important about hosting that asshole earlier.”

“For starters,” she sneers. “He wasn’t you.”

Her taunt draws a laugh from me, and I grin widely, moving over until she’s closed in on the couch between Lex and me. I don’t grab her leg or touch her. She’s already proven she won’t respond well to that route. Instead, I let my side warm her. My leg brushing her outer thigh as I reach for the bottle of liquor and pour another glassful.

“You’re underage too,” she points out.

I arch an eyebrow as I lift the same glass she’d used to my mouth. I lick the rim, right where she’d put her lips, before I down a mouthful in a fiery gulp. The burn is light, the kind that comes with quality alcohol.

“Play a game with me, Princess,” I press, keeping her eyes pinned with mine. I’m aware of Gio and Lex’s anxious presence, lingering right there despite the fact that it feels as if the whole club is falling away. The music is muted. The conversation of the other hosts and their guests disappears. It’s just her and me here.

“A game…” Is it just me or does she sound breathless?

“Yes.” My lips curve into a grin as a wicked sensation crawls up my chest. “I hear you and Gio have played before too. It’s my turn, don’t you think?”

She blinks and the spell fractures. Turning her head, her blue eyes cut a dark glare at Gio, as if she’s annoyed that he told us about his night with her. As if their game of Truth or Dare was meant to be a private intimacy between them. I’ll allow her that, but she should know by now that we don’t keep secrets from each other.

With a sigh, Juliet leans back and shakes her head. “No, I don’t want to play with you, Nolan. I think I’ve had enough Scorpion King interference in my life.”

“Jules.” Gio practically jumps forward, leaning over Lex to get her attention, and I have to hand it to him, one look at the bruises still healing on his face seems to ease the tension and anger radiating off her in waves. “Can we just talk? Please? I haven’t seen you, not really, since I got out of the hospital, and I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about what happened with your dad—about not taking you.”

Gio, for all of his fuckery and loose cannon persona, is good at this part. Good enough that I know when to tag out. “Lex.” I bark Lex’s name and jerk my chin up. “Let’s go get a drink.”

Juliet holds up a hand, stopping us from making our retreat to let the two of them talk—to hopefully let Gio get under her skin and leave an opening for the rest of us. She frowns at me as if she senses the directions of my thoughts. “Oh no,” she snaps. “You’re not doing this. Not here.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”Lie. I watch her carefully, though, to see if she knows it.

Her eyes narrow and she stands up from the cushioned lounge. She bends to grab the bottle and glass, and my gaze immediately goes to the rounded curve of her ass, accentuated by the tight material of the dress she’s wearing.Fuck.That was a bad idea. My cock practically throbs in my pants, remembering what it was like to have her underneath me, in my arms, in my fucking bed.

Instead of saying anything in response to me, though, Juliet merely shoves against my chest when I stand, pushing me back and out of her way as she storms past. Several heads turn, male gazes seeking out the sway of her hips, and a low growl erupts from my chest before I can bring it back. Their gazes fall away, and I motion for Gio and Lex to follow—not that they need the prompting.

“Juliet.” I call after her as I trail her out of the main portion of the host club and to one of the bars running along the sides. The bartender, a thin blonde, eyes us as we approach, her nervous gaze jumping from the three of us to Juliet and back again.

“Sorry, Denise,” Juliet murmurs, dropping off the nearly full bottle of alcohol along with the glass. “My client didn’t stay to finish this, can you still use it?”

“Um…” She shakes her head, but takes the bottle anyway. “D-did he still pay?”

“Ignoring us?” I ask. “Really, Juliet? What are we? Twelve?”

“Maybeyouare,” Juliet snaps back, her spine rigid as she refuses to look back at me. “Iam trying to do my job, and you’re not my client, so you can leave.”

Denise’s eyes widen and she takes a healthy step back, and I know without glancing in his direction that Lex’s expression has turned thunderous. A moment later, he steps past me, sidling up to Juliet’s back until he has her front pressed into the bar with no room between them. Juliet is pissed at us, she’s distrusting, and I have to remember that it says more about her right now than it does about who we are.

“Lex.” I reach out and put a hand on his shoulder before he can say something that’s bound to anger her further.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t heed my warning and instead shakes me off as he plants his palms on either side of her hips, gripping her tightly as he bends his head towards hers.

I don’t know what he says—the words are so low that even as close as I’m standing I can’t make them out. Whatever they are, though, they have the exact effect that I expected because in the next instant, she rears back and slams her elbow into his abdomen. Lex doesn’t react. He doesn’t even grunt. Merely nuzzles the side of her face before slowly releasing her.

Both Gio and I eye him as she slowly turns to face him, her expression a mixture of outrage and … arousal?

Shocked, I snap my gaze to Lex, whose mouth is tipped up in a sign of smugness. Surely, I can’t be right, though? I look back at her and upon my second perusal, I see that it’s true. Her cheeks are flushed beneath the makeup. Her lips part as she swipes a tongue over the lower one and I remember what I promised her during our night together.

Tit for tat. An oath I never pressed her for, but one I want to call in now. The sight of her plump, pink mouth and the light blush that has nothing to do with the overuse of powder makes me picture her with those lips of hers wrapped around the root of my cock, taking me deep. Licking up the underside of my shaft and swirling around the head as I offer her all I have.

“If you think that I would ever let you?—”

“We both know what you'd let me do, baby,” Lex says, cutting her off as she heaves breath after breath, glaring daggers at his face.

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