The redhead I was dancing with on the upper deck of the club was putting her all into the movements of her body. Her ass bounced in the small skirt she wore and which flashed upwards from time to time, teasing me with pearl-white naked flesh. She wore a purple thong. The girl could do magic with her ass. I didn’t catch her name. Shelly. Sophie. Susie. Damned if I could remember, but it definitely started with S. Her ass ticked over the front of my cock—one very unexcited cock—and made me wonder if it was broken. Very few men wouldn’t have a hard-on right now from a woman who rolled her waistline like this and twerked like the move would be banned tomorrow and she was getting it all out of her system.

And it was wasted on me. It wasn’t her. I’d danced with two other women, a brunette and a blonde, mixing it up to see if one of the variety would get my blood heated, but nothing. If this redhead and the witchery of her hips didn’t work, nothing would.

Except for her.

I blinked then, my hands stilling on the redhead’s waist. I could have sworn I’d seen someone who looked a lot like Debra. It couldn’t be. Debra wasn’t a party girl and this club was wild. It had everything—booze, easy women, music, and even soft drugs going around. I didn’t do drugs, not even the softer kind. I stuck to liquor and the easy women. But those two still did nothing for me tonight.

There she was again! That girl bore a striking resemblance to Debra. From where I stood—what I was doing could no longer be construed as dancing—I could make out the form at the bar, talking to Aaron, a guy who hung around me sometimes but one I didn’t particularly like. Rumors had circulated of his father paying settlement to a college girl he’d date-raped. Other girls had also complained about him getting aggressive when they didn’t want to have sex with him.

I watched on a frown, unable to get the girl out of my head. I was being the most attentive I had been all night. I couldn’t make out the girl’s profile since she had her back to me. No, definitely not Debra, I thought, glancing appreciatively over the shimmery loose curls hanging about her back, a back practically naked in the caged-lace style of the dress.

I winced as the girl, Sharon—no, definitely not Sharon—hit her ass into my cock hard, as though she sensed my distraction. I was a good dancer, could make a girl cream her panties just by my body rubbing against hers, but tonight, I had the awkward finesse of a board.

I watched Aaron grasp the brunette by the waist and led her to the dancefloor. She turned…

“Bloody hell!” I exclaimed loud enough for Selena—nope, wrong again—to jerk upright and turn towards me. I ignored her, my eyes widening in disbelief, trailing her.

It didn’t just look like Debra. She was Debra. What the hell was she doing here? And dressed like that with a scumbag like Aaron too. My gaze roved her body, noticing the way her tight-fitting dress moved with her body, becoming like a second skin. She turned again to face Aaron, her hands going above her head as she started to dance.

That ass. It was smaller by comparison to the girl I was dancing with, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her pert butt. I’d always known she had curves but the dress showed me just how much. And she was dancing with another man.

“What the fuck are you staring at?”

A slap cracked across my face. “What the hell!” I turned to my dance partner who had slapped the shit out of me.

“How dare you ogle another woman while dancing with me?” she demanded and made to slap me again. I caught her hand this time. The first time I was willing to overlook, but not a second.

“You should go,” I told her, indicating for her to leave my booth on the upper deck.

She turned to leave, shooting me daggers, and I held onto her arm. She looked up at me hopefully and I let her go lest she misconstrue why I had kept her back.

“I’m sorry. It’s not you!” I shouted close to her face so she could hear me. “I’m just caught up with another girl right now. I’m sorry, okay?”

She didn’t fuss this time. She gave me a smile followed by a ‘whatever’ shrug and walked away. Almost instantly, I returned my gaze to where Debra was dancing, more jealous than I’d ever been in my life. I’d never been in love before, had strong liking for a few girls but not even then did I ever harbor jealousy with them. Maybe it was because I knew where I stood with those girls. With Debra, I couldn’t tell.

What the hell was she doing here when we had a trip to take at eight tomorrow? I’d not been able to get an early flight to Pagosa Springs but I’d swallowed my pride and called my dad, asking to borrow one of his two private jets. I should have known he wouldn’t object once he knew the purpose. He even approved. My father was no stranger to using his status, money, and power to sway women—usually younger women—to fall into bed with him.

I’d decided not to mention the jet to Debra but to surprise her tomorrow. I’d drive her to the private airfield where we would take off and be in Pagosa Springs four hours earlier than if we were to drive. She’d been concerned about the airport being an hour away from where she lived but I’d been assured, when I’d contacted Dad’s pilot with the instructions, that there was a private landing strip only fifteen minutes away from the heart of the town.

After going through all this trouble for her, seeing her now gyrating against another guy made me livid. Okay, so maybe her dancing was tamer than the other girls, some of whom literally had their dresses up to their waists as their male or female partners gyrated against them. That made me calm down a bit before I saw Aaron push her to a bent position and grab her breasts.

What the fuck was she doing? I was fuming at her until I saw her struggle against his attempt to pull her up close. The asshole kissed her and jealousy and anger ran a course through me. One thing kept me from being pissed at her and for directing all my anger toward Aaron. I could see her trying to pull away but the bastard wouldn’t let her go. I glanced around then, everyone either so far gone with alcohol or the music that no one paid them any mind.

Keeping my eyes on them, I left the upper deck, watching in the event that he tried to get her alone with him. In the drunkenness that usually took place at clubs, many girls often found themselves taken advantage of even in a room full of people.

She had gotten loose and was trying to walk away by the time I reached the ground floor. I lost sight of them for a bit, pushing my way through the thick crowd, my heart pounding a beat harder than the music. She looked quite helpless, her back up against Aaron’s chest once more. He had an arm around her, strapping hers to her sides, moving against her body while a hand roamed her figure.

I grabbed him by the back of his shirt. He exclaimed something in surprise that I didn’t hear over the screaming of the crowd as the DJ played a favorite hit. Aaron let her go and both turned to face me. Her face was white and she looked shaken.

“Lucas!” Aaron shouted to be heard, trying to get out of my grip. If only he knew an army couldn’t drag me away from him. “Let me go, man! Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?”

Ignoring him, I observed Debra who stared back at me in surprise…and was that a sliver of guilt? She should be guilty. I didn’t register I had been doing the same thing in dancing with another girl, only the anger, desire and jealousy she’d made me feel while dancing with Aaron.

“Are you okay?” I asked her stiffly.

She nodded and her lips moved but I couldn’t hear her because she spoke softly.

“Look, man, I didn’t know she was your girl!” Aaron shouted. “I’d never have—”

He never got to finish his statement. It didn’t matter if Debra was my girl or not. What he had done was despicable, ignoring her protests and mauling her against her wishes. I punched him in the face as hard as I could. Hard enough for my hand to hurt in the process. Hard enough for him to lie there on the floor, clutching his bloody nose in pain.

“You’ll want to avoid her wherever you see her!” I concluded then reached out for Debra’s hand. She didn’t protest. She followed meekly me. A bouncer had seen the display and was walking over to us. Our time was up at the club.

“We’re already leaving,” I informed him and we headed for the door. “You got a coat?” I asked Debra as I collected mine. She shook her head and I gave her an incredulous once-over. It was cold out and she barely had anything on. What was she thinking? Was she this desperate to seek attention tonight?

I draped my coat over her shoulders to conceal temptation. With a guy like Aaron’s reputation, I was surprised he hadn’t slipped her a roofie. Damn good thing I was there, too, but why the hell had she come?

“I’ve to tell my roommate I’m leaving,” she announced when we were outside the club, walking towards my car.

“Text her, call her, I don’t care, but no way I’m letting you back into that club.”

We got to my car and I unlocked the door to her seat. Her seat. It had become hers over the past week. Before I could let her in the vehicle and as cold as I was, I just had to know.

“Are you truly okay?” I heard myself ask. Not the question that had come to mind. I wanted to rant at her for coming to a club dressed so provocatively but her face was still white.

“I’m f-fine,” she stammered, looking down at her feet. “I shouldn’t have come.”

“Why did you? I’ve never seen you at a club before. Why now?”

“Just something new.”

“Fuck, Debra, isn’t it obvious you’re not the clubbing type?” I couldn’t help being explosive then. I was still pent-up with adrenaline.

She angled her jaw then and stared stubbornly at me. “Why am I not the clubbing type? What is it about me that makes you think I’m unfit for this?”

“Because you’re too good a person to become involved in all this—the booze, the drugs, and random men dancing and trying to get you to leave with them.”

“I didn’t know he wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she murmured. “How did you see us, anyway? I looked and I didn’t see you.”

“You were looking for me?”

She blushed and ducked her head. “I-I just thought you might be there.”

Had she come there with the intention of seeing me?

“I was furious, seeing you with him,” I admitted, backing her up against the car and framing her face with my hands. “I didn’t like you dancing with him, Deb. Even before he got all forceful with you. I don’t like you dancing with another guy.”

“Are you saying you weren’t dancing with other girls tonight?” I flushed guiltily and her eyes registered disappointment. “Exactly. What gives you the right to say all this to me? Earlier you were with…”

She trailed off and tried to divert her gaze but I wouldn’t allow her. “She came by unannounced, Deb.”

She reluctantly lifted her eyes to mine again. “And?” she prodded.

“And nothing happened,” I concluded with a small, satisfied smile. She had been jealous.

“Why was she there in the first place?” she demanded. “It doesn’t matter, anyway.”

I dipped my head low to her height so I could take her lips in a kiss. She didn’t try to pull away as she had done with Aaron. Her lips moved beneath mine and parted. With a groan, I closed the gap between our bodies and deepened the kiss by plunging my tongue into her mouth. She tasted of margarita and a hint of cigar. From Aaron’s kiss. I plundered her mouth, wanting to wipe all trace of that kiss from memory.

She clutched my upper arms tightly, the span of her hands not wide enough to completely enclose around my muscular biceps. I captured her moan into my mouth and had to break the kiss. Her sweet curves rocking against my body was hell on my cock.

“That’s why it matters,” I groaned, not able to resist sucking on her succulent bottom lip one last time. “I don’t want you thinking I was interested in anyone else. Now, get in so I can drive you back to the dorm. We’ve a trip to take tomorrow.”