Page 12 of Slayin Villain
But I showed up anyway.Dressed for war.
Tight black dress.Thigh-high boots.Hair straightened and flat-ironed to hell.Lips painted in blood red.I looked nothing like the quiet fiddle player from Eve’s band.Not the girl who used to stand stage-left while Rome melted faces with his guitar solos and pretended I wasn’t his dirty little secret.
No.Tonight, I was the girl everyone would notice.
Especially him.
Rome sat near the bar, prospect patch crooked, arm around a girl whose name I didn’t bother to learn.He didn’t see me right away, too busy whispering into her ear and laughing like we hadn’t spent the better part of two years in bed or fighting on the back of his Harley.
Let him rot.
Villain found me before I had a chance to second-guess anything.He leaned against the pool table like he’d been carved from sin, blond, inked, and way too pretty for his own good.He looked like the kind of man who wouldn’t care if I was using him.The kind who liked being a weapon.
And I needed one.
“Damn, Ember,” he drawled, eyes dragging down my body like a slow lick.“You clean up too good.You might get me killed.”
I smirked.“Then die slow, baby.”
His brows lifted.“That a promise?”
“Only if you play along.”
He knew what I wanted.I'd laid it out clearly a couple of weeks before.No strings.No feelings.Just make Rome jealous, maybe get a rise out of the club, then walk away clean.Villain was on board.Said he was bored.Said it sounded fun.Let’s not talk about what happened afterwards.A mistake, I didn’t plan to make again.
He stepped in close, crowding my space until my back hit the edge of the pool table.“You sure you can handle what comes with being on my arm?”
“Are you?”
He grinned.“Let’s make 'em sweat.”
We walked to the bar together like something real.Like we belonged.His hand on my lower back, lips brushing my temple every time someone looked too long.It wasn’t hard.He smelled like leather and sin.Moved like sex.Talked like a man who’d made women beg just to be called his.
Rome noticed us by the time we crossed the room.
His expression cracked for half a second, jealousy, maybe?Then it was gone, buried beneath that cocky prospect smirk and a new girl on his lap.
Fine.Two could play that game.
Villain turned toward me, voice low.“He watching?”
I nodded, just once.
“Then kiss me.”
I hesitated.Just for a breath.
Then I grabbed the front of his cut, pulled him down, and kissed him like I meant it.
It was supposed to be for show.
It wasn’t.
His mouth was hot and hungry, and the way he gripped my waist like he owned it made me feel...wanted.Not used.Not ignored.Wanted.
I pulled back first, breathless.
Villain stared at me for a beat too long.“Shit, Ember.”
