The next two days passed without a call from Maxx and tonight, we were going to see Jana and the band. Damon had run out to pick up a few things at the grocery store, but just as I stepped out of the shower, he approached, his expression serious.

“What is it?”

He held an envelope out to me. “Not sure. Someone slipped it beneath the door downstairs.”

I took it and read my full first name, Katalina, typed neatly across the front.

We didn’t exchange words as I opened it. The note was a printout, not handwritten.

You wanted to keep me safe. Now I’m keeping you safe.

That’s all it said.

I read it twice, three times. My brain made sense of what it said, I understood, but I didn’t want to. I handed it to Damon but didn’t wait for him to read it. I walked away to get dressed. A moment later, I heard the tearing of paper. I looked up to watch as he ripped both the envelope and the note apart, walked into the bathroom, dropped the pieces into the toilet, and flushed them away.

Our eyes met. It was a moment before I spoke. “I want to book our tickets to go home.”

He didn’t miss a beat. “I’ll call Lewis in the morning.”

Neither of us mentioned what had just happened.

“Why Lewis?” I asked.

“See if he can put some pressure on Maxx to hurry this along. Alexi’s dead. No reason for you to testify now.”

“Thanks.”

We stood like that for a moment, studying each other. We had a secret now. One neither of us would mention ever again.

I turned to get dressed.

After slipping on a tight-fitting black dress and a pair of high-heeled black pumps, I faced him again. He hadn’t moved.

“Ready?”

Damon’s gaze burned as it raked over me. It made me think of the last time we’d gone to the club.

He nodded once, his expression never relaxing. We went down the stairs and out the door, hailing a taxi about half a block away. Always the gentleman, Damon opened the door for me, let me in before climbing in himself and giving the driver the address.

The band was already playing when we arrived. It was close to midnight. The club was packed, the scent of beer and sweat and just too many people assaulted all my senses upon entering.

“We don’t have to stay long. I just want to see Jana. Tell her I’m leaving soon.”

“That’s fine. Want a soda?”

Shawn the bartender walked over toward us.

“Please.”

He ordered, and Shawn gave me a wink, then got our drinks. Damon turned his back to the bar and sipped his beer.

“Do you remember the last time we were here?” he asked.

“Yes.” I also remembered how the night had ended.

He slid his gaze over me. “You danced with those men to get my attention.”

I cocked my head to the side. “The way you responded, I already had your attention.”

“I asked you if you liked it. Liked men looking at you. Wanting you. You never answered.”

“I thought you were flirting.”

“Do you?”

He didn’t miss a beat, his expression unchanging. Hard.

That was the first time he’d acted more like a possessive boyfriend than a brother-in-law or a man soon to be a priest. He didn’t like men looking at me. I didn’t want to tell him I did like it. I especially liked watching him when they did. It was the look he got in his eyes. The knowledge that he wanted me. That he couldn’t stand even another man’s eyes on me.

I shrugged a shoulder, stuck the straw in my mouth, and watched people dance.

He took my drink and set it down next to his. With one arm wrapped around my waist, he led me to the dance floor, then through it, past the bathrooms, toward an isolated alcove.

“This would once have been a confessional.”

He pushed me into the tiny space and drew the dark red curtain closed.

“Now it’s a make-out room.”

He shoved me against the wall and smashed his mouth against mine, his fingers at the hem of my short dress.

“Is that why you brought me in here?” I asked when he leaned away.

He grinned, hiking my dress to my waist and drawing the crotch of my panties aside to drag his fingers through my folds.

“No.”

He pinched my clit between thumb and forefinger, making me bite my lip as I raised one leg up and wrapped it around his hip. Since he’d made me take that pregnancy test, he’d also made an appointment for me with an OB/GYN, and I was now on birth control pills. But he’d still been cautious, still always using a condom.

“Then why?” I asked.

Damon unzipped his jeans and shoved them and his briefs down far enough to free his ready cock. He hoisted me up so that I straddled him. I wrapped my legs around him and, keeping his gaze on mine, he slid me onto himself.

“I brought you in here to fuck you.”

He thrust as I clung to him.

“Damon—”

“That’s not all.”

He kissed me feverishly, gripped the hair on the back of my head, and forced my face up.

“I want every man in here to know you’re mine. I want my scent on you. My cum inside you.”

I let out a moan as he pulled harder, hurting me a little, and, at the same time, making me feel so good.

“I’m just not sure if I should come in your cunt and let it drip down your thighs as you dance, or make you kneel here and fuck your face. Come down your throat.”

I dripped around him, more turned on by his words than I wanted to admit.

“Or maybe I should turn you around, bend you over, and fuck your tight little ass. Make you keep my cum inside you all night.”

I let out a small moan, curling my fingers in his hair, but then he stilled inside me, watching me closely.

“Maybe I should fuck your ass to punish you for lying.”

That sobered me. “I didn’t lie,” I said. “Not to you,” I amended.

“No, but you did lie to Maxx.”

He cupped my ass hard.

“I knew where he was going with his questions, and no matter what, I couldn’t hang my grandfather out to dry.”

“You can get into real trouble lying to a federal agent.”

“I know.”

He released my hair and cupped my jaw, gripping it hard.

“I don’t want you to lie to me like you did him. I don’t ever want you to lie to me. Understood?”

I nodded.

He kissed me again, holding my face as he devoured my mouth and pulled back to drive into me, making me gasp.

“I like you like this,” he said, thrusting again. “I like your tight little cunt squeezing my cock,” he whispered. “I like how warm and wet it is.”

“Damon,” I gasped, “I’m close.”

He fucked me harder, and I watched his face, his eyes going black but for the ring of blue circling his dilated pupils, getting that look they got just before he came. He rubbed the scruff of his jaw against my cheek, and I bit my lip when his breath tickled my neck, his whisper prickled my ear.

“Come, Lina. Let me feel you come.”

One more thrust, and I did, not caring if I was too loud, if people heard us, not caring about anything at all but Damon, his body tight to mine, his cock thickening inside me as his breath hitched and he throbbed and came. He pressed his forehead to mine, our eyes locked, his cock pulsing, releasing, emptying inside me, filling me up.

“Fuck, Lina.”

His voice was ragged when he slid out, closing my panties over my sex as cum dripped out of me. I set my legs down, and he adjusted my dress. I watched him draw his briefs and jeans up and closed before leaning down to kiss me, one hand cupping the back of my head.

“I want you to feel me.”

“Damon—”

“Shh.”

He kissed me again, turned to draw the curtains open, and walked me out into the crowd.

“Feel me all night long.”

His whispered words stayed with me as he led me to the dance floor.

* * *

We danced for two hours, and when the bar closed, Jana, Shawn, Damon, and I sat around a table, and I told them I’d be leaving soon. I’d be going home. It felt good to say it, felt like it would really happen this time. Damon held my hand beneath the table while we talked for another hour, Jana promising to come visit me while they looked at us with questions in their eyes that neither one asked.

By the time we grabbed a taxi and got back to Damon’s apartment, it was past three in the morning.

“I’m exhausted,” I said as we climbed the stairs.

Damon paused at the downstairs door, then shook his head and climbed up ahead of me to the apartment door. Keeping an arm out to hold me back, he slipped a key into the lock, turned it, and pushed it open.

“Wait,” he said quietly to me. He stepped into the room.

“What is it?” I asked.

We saw the shadow at the same moment. I gasped, nearly screaming. Damon, however, only studied the form who stood at the window, which was open a crack. The man blew cigarette smoke out before flicking the butt out onto the alley below. He dropped the curtain closed and turned to face us. I heard Damon’s incredulous voice.

“Zach?”

Damon flipped on the lights.