Surrender To Me

WREN

SKIMMING my hands down the stretchy electric-blue fabric of the dress I was wearing, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Even I had to admit that I looked great. I’d gone a little heavier on the eye makeup, lighter on the face, and painted my lips a bright red. Darcy was going to have a fucking aneurysm when she saw me.

With one final check of my reflection, I grabbed my phone and switched purses, making sure I had all the essentials, which included a condom. Because a girl never knew when she might need one. Plus, seeing Bane this evening had left me an aching mess despite the proposition he’d made.

Since coming home, that had been all I could think about, but even as I tried to come up with all the reasons why I shouldn’t, I kept returning to the fact that Hawk would be off the hook after this. It wasn’t a stay of execution, rather just a reprieve until he fucked things up again.

So when I looked at it that way, there was no point in even considering the offer, was there? Of course, I wasn’t a cold-hearted bitch. I understood that Hawk would probably not be walking this earth anymore if I let Bane destroy him like he wanted to.

Slipping my feet into the only pair of heels I owned, I locked my apartment and walked outside to call an Uber. I only had to wait a few minutes before I was safely tucked into the back of an air-conditioned minivan driven by what looked like a soccer mom.

“I love that dress,” she exclaimed as she navigated her way through the busy LA streets.

“Oh, thank you,” I replied, pulling the hem down a little. It was funny-if I were wearing a pair of shorts, I wouldn’t give a fuck how far they’d ridden up, but in a dress, it was a different story.

We ended up chatting the entire way to the nightclub, and when she pulled to the curb, she gave me a bottle of water and told me to keep hydrated. I got out, making sure everything was in place before strolling over to the bouncer and giving him my name.

“Welcome to Temptation,” the bouncer said. “You’re in the VIP section. The hostess will escort you to your table.”

VIP? What the fuck?

I nodded mutely and walked inside, my breath leaving me in a whoosh. This place was amazing. The lighting was moody, the music moving through me in an almost erotic beat. A young woman with blonde hair met me just inside the front door. When I gave her my name, she guided me through the club to a VIP area cordoned off with a red velvet rope. Unclipping one end from the pole, she smiled at me as I walked in. Surely, there had to be some sort of mistake. Darcy had said Baron was only the accountant for this place. Somehow, I found it hard to believe that his position would warrant the VIP section.

I stood there for a moment, simply absorbing the club’s mood and wondering where I could get a drink.

“Here,” someone said behind me, holding the stem of a champagne flute. I looked down at the tattoo-covered hand and spun around.

“What are you doing here? Please don’t tell me you own this club, too?”

He shook his head, his eyes giving nothing away, especially in the low light of the VIP section. “No, Evangeline wouldn’t sell it to me,” he replied easily. He gestured to the champagne again.

“Drink?”

I reached out and took the glass from him, our fingers brushing briefly. A small growl escaped him, but I had no other gauge of his mood. Taking me by the elbow, he guided me to the long couches set against the back wall. We were hidden on three sides-the wall to our back and one side and a partition on the other side that opened onto the bar. Although I knew we didn’t have real privacy, it certainly felt like we did.

Bane drew his attention back to me with his hand on my thigh, his thumb caressing the skin just above my knee. I stared at his tattooed hand with his long fingers. His hand was bigger than mine, and my leg looked so small compared to his. If he wanted to, he could just sweep his hand up and under my dress. A little breath escaped me as I tried to ignore the fact that it was what I wanted him to do.

“What are you thinking about, Little Bird?” he asked close to my ear, his warm breath feathering against my skin like a lover’s fingers.

I swallowed. Jesus, I felt hot all over but like my skin was too tight for my body at the same time.

“I’m trying to figure out how Darcy got us into the VIP section.”

His grip tightened on my thigh. “I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend,” he growled.

“I don’t. Darcy is a woman and my best friend.”

As soon as I said those words, he released the death grip and swept his hand a little higher. “Good. And in answer to your question, Darcy didn’t get into the VIP section… I did. We have this entire place to ourselves.”

I looked around the private space one more time. There was a door on the far wall, a picture of a man and woman split by a line on a plaque in the middle. Well, at least I knew where the bathroom was.

“How did you know I was coming here?”

“I have my ways.” He picked up his glass of champagne and swallowed a large mouthful. I watched the way his throat bobbed as he swallowed down the gold liquid.

“Have you been tapping my phone?” Indignant didn’t start to explain the ferocity of my feelings. I could handle men who thought they needed to dominate a relationship, but I wasn’t up for a stalker-grade man, especially not one like Bane Rivera. He had money and resources on his side.