Page 134 of Toxic Love

“Holy shit,” I breathe.

“Ken OD’ed on fentanyl-laced cocaine. A concerned neighbor called the cops, and they found arsenic, rubber gloves and chemistry equipment, plus copied keys to Gabriel’s back basement door in his apartment. Apparently, your brother lost his keys a few weeks ago for half a day before his dry cleaner found them in one of his trouser pockets.”

My head spins. “Wait, so…it’s over?”

He grins as he leans down to kiss me. “Yeah, little hurricane,” he murmurs. “It’s over. So we’re going out. Whatever you want to do, we’ll?—”

“Dancing,” I blurt. “I want to go dancing.”

That awful night ruined clubs for me. But then Dante happened. The man broke down my walls and pulled me out of my own head, showing me things I’d forgotten that I used to enjoy.

Like dancing at clubs.

Dante arches a brow. “I was thinking dinner at a Michelin spot, or?—”

“You said anything,” I grin. “I pick dancing. I mean, unless you’re scared of sucking at it and?—”

I giggle as he kisses me hard. “Get your dancing shoes on.”

If you don’t know,the Hamptons are a total capital-SScene. Manhattan trust fund brats, finance bros, celebrities, heirs to Fortune 500 companies, and the usual socialite crowd. Which is pretty much everything I hate, but it does mean the sleepy little towns that dot the coast of Long Island that together make “The Hamptons” are littered with five-star places for dinner and drinks, and some fantastic dance clubs.

Dante and I—him in gunmetal gray pants and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, me in a short black dress that flares out at the hips—end up at the Beachsider. The crowd looks a little less douchey than the usual, and it turns out that Dante knows one of the guys on the door.

“That’s Leo,” he murmurs in my ear after the guy waves us through the line and inside. “He works security at Venom when he’s not here.”

I smirk as we step into the steamy heat and neon-tinged darkness. “I wonder if anyone else from Venom will recognize you.”

“Doubt it. No one aside from my staff and a few select VIPs know my face. When I’m on the floor at Venom, my mask is always on, just like everyone else.”

I turn to eye him. “Do you do that a lot? Browse the scene out on the main floor?”

His lips curl into a smirk and his hand lands on my ass, yanking me close. “Was that your subtle way of asking—again, I mightadd—if I participate in public sex at my own club? You know I don’t.”

My breath catches as I sink against his chest. “What if it was me?”

A growl rumbles in his throat. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what if it was you and me out on the floor of Venom, with masks on, but nothing else? Would you…participatethen?”

“Just you and me?”

I nod.

“And if I could gouge the eyes out afterward of every single man who saw you like that?”

I grin. “Sure.”

Dante’s brow arches. “I’m joking.”

“Areyou?”

Something dangerous flickers in his eyes. “Maybe. Ifyouwanted that?—”

“I’m not saying I?—”

“If itwas,” he growls. “I want you to always be able to explore what you want to explore about yourself.”

“Oh, good!” I grin. “So, when we get back to New York, I’d love to explore having three strangers totally bang?—”

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