“I didn’t think we’d get past that bouncer,” Trice said, hooking her arm through mine.

I adjusted the neckline of my dress. It was designed to be low, but I strategically made it a little lower as I distracted said bouncer. Trice’s fake ID was pretty damn good, but he’d been giving it a pretty thorough once-over.

“Just don’t try to order anything but a soft drink,” I told her, ignoring the face she gave me. “I’ll let you have some of mine while we dance, okay? But you don’t want to get caught ordering anything with booze in it. It will be harder for me to use my ta-tas to distract a bartender or one of the servers.” I nodded at the servers. They were all female and much less likely to be distracted by my tits.

She laughed. “Okay, deal. Just promise I can have something…this week has sucked. Vano is being such an ass, and my mother keeps saying that awful M word.”

“I know, honey.” I gave her a tight hug, wanting to promise that I’d save her from that dreaded M, but not wanting to make a promise I couldn’t keep. Not to family, not to one of my few real friends.

“You know, you’re lucky,” Trice said, a note of wistfulness obvious in her voice even over the loud music pulsing in the air.

“Why is that?”

“Because you make so much money for the family.” She shrugged, looking out at the gyrating, twisting bodies. “He won’t want to give that up. He doesn’t make nowhere near as much as you do. If you marry off, you won’t be sharing your take with him anymore. It will go through your husband to Vano.” She rolled her eyes. “Your papa won’t like that. He may not make you marry at all.”

While I wasn’t keen on the idea of being forced into one of the famed arranged marriages, I’d go in a heartbeat if it meant that Trice and Joelle would be spared such a fate. I could take care of myself. I was good at manipulating people without them even realizing – my father and aunt, for starters.

But Trice and Joelle weren’t like that.

“You know, some Rom clans are actually getting a little more modern.” That wistful note still hadn’t left Trice’s voice, and I cut my eyes back to her face. “Some even let the couple have a say in who is selected for marriage, and if either party is outright against it, they don’t force them. Why can’t Vano and the elders wake up and smell…” She sighed, wrinkling her nose, “if not the twenty-first century, I’d settle for the nineteenth?”

“Or even the eighteenth…depending on the culture,” I offered. I caught her hand. “We came here to have fun. Do you really want to think about my father, or Vano, or the elders?”

“Hell, no.” Trice shook her head emphatically.

“Then let’s go dance.”

At the edge of the dance floor, I flagged one of the servers down and asked for whiskey on the rocks. She did ask to see my ID, despite the fact that I’d already been carded, so as she studied it, I slid Trice a quick look. Told ya, I mouthed.

She just rolled her eyes.

After the girl disappeared into the crowd, the two of us eased the last few inches onto the dance floor and started to move. Dancing was one thing I loved, that I’d always loved, but I didn’t get to do dancing like this at home.

Trice and I threw ourselves into the music, and I only pulled myself out of the spell when a hand tapped me on the shoulder.

It was the server with my drink.

Pulling a bill from inside my shirt, I paid and tipped her – I knew how important tips were – then lifted the glass to my lips. From the corner of my eye, I watched until I knew she was gone – and the other staff that might be watching weren’t – then I passed the glass over to Trice.

She took a quick sip and mimed gagging as she passed it back over.

“I don’t see how you can drink that stuff. It’s like…I don’t know…medicine.”

Loftily, I informed her, “It’s an acquired taste.”

Somebody tapped her on the shoulder, and I grinned at her as a good-looking brunet asked her to dance. She shot me a hopeful look, and I waved her off.

None of us got to mingle much with people our own age. Who was I to deny her a chance at dancing with a sexy guy with big, dark eyes?

Making my way off the dance floor, I focused on the bar, thinking I’d get a glass of wine and find a bare space on the wall where I could watch Trice.

I made it almost off the dance floor before I bumped into somebody.

A pair of hands gripped my hips, and I looked up, an automatic apology on my lips.

It died at the sight of pale eyes meeting mine.

Pale eyes under a shaggy fall of bangs, hair that looked almost gold under the flashing display of lights going on overhead. A smile creased his lips. “Since we’re already halfway there…want to dance?”

I wasn’t the type to be open to charmers or players. I was the charmer, and although I didn’t like it, I’d been the player too.

Still, there was something about his boyishly handsome, open smile that made me loop my arms around his neck. “Why not?”

We swayed to the music as it went from a fast cadence to a slower one. One dance became two, then three, and it wasn’t until the third one ended that either of us spoke.

“My name’s Kian,” he said, dipping his head so he could talk into my ear without shouting.

I turned my head to do the same.

“Suria,” I said, giving him my real name without thinking.

That was something I hardly ever did.

Was there anybody outside the clan who knew my real name?

Well, yes. Now this blue-eyed stranger by the name of Kian knew it. But did others? I couldn’t remember the last time I’d given that piece of myself to somebody. I realized I was smiling and had no idea why.

“You come here often?” Kian asked.

There was something about the way he asked, about the way he watched me that made me think that it wasn’t just a line. I shrugged. “Not too often. But once or twice.”

He grinned at me. “Maybe you should try to get out here a bit more frequently.”

“Why?” I gave him a bold smile. “You think you might want to meet here sometime?”

“I think that could be a possibility.” The hand he’d placed low on my spine spread wide, his fingers like brands through the thin material of my dress.

“Hmmm…” I licked my lower lip, decided that maybe I liked the sound of that. “Maybe tomorrow?”

“Maybe.”

He dipped his head.

I tensed, but to my surprise, he caught my hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

Then, quick as a wink, he lost himself in the crowd.

“Until tomorrow,” I murmured.

Then I realized…I was going to have to sneak away two nights in a row.

That was going to be just plain awesome.