Rafe accompanies the last notes of the song with a wicked drumroll, and even that is soon drowned in the applause of the small crowd gathered in Halo. The bar is dimly lit as always, but that doesn’t deter me from scanning the sea of faces for my friends as I let go of the mike and struggle to catch my breath.

Audrey’s red curls and Tessa’s platinum tresses catch the light. Then I see Dylan, standing like a pillar behind her, and Ash, then Tyler with his arms around Erin.

Zane isn’t with them. I don’t expect him to. I wave, and bow, and then turn around to get my stuff from the back.

A dark silhouette leans against the wall, arms folded over his broad chest, the crest of his hair casting a shadow over his face. He’s at his usual place, and I smile. He has my back. He’s always there to catch me.

And then his lips turn up in a wicked grin. He pushes off the wall and lets his gaze rake my body from head to toe. Shivers wrack me when he grabs my hand and tugs me through a door into…

“What’s this place?” It’s a small room with a couch and armchairs. Cozy.

“Private room. Kenneth said I could use it.”

“You know the bar owner?”

“Who do you think inked him?” Zane winks and closes the door, latching it. Then he turns toward me.

Holy crap… He’s dressed in low-slung gray jeans and a black T-shirt that molds to the hard planes of his chest, leaving his tattooed arms bare. He looks… delicious. And dangerous. In a good way.

His eyes burn through me. He stalks toward me, and I take a step back, my heart hammering. My back bumps into the wall, and I gasp.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He’s still walking toward me, and the swagger in his step… Holy shit.

My whole body is tight with want. My breasts tingle, and I’m wet just from watching him move.

He leans over me, bracing one hand on the wall beside me. “Hey, babe.”

I swallow thickly. “Hey.”

He touches my chin, then trails his hand down my neck, grips my waist and pulls me against him. Another gasp escapes me at the feel of his hard cock pressing into me.

I push my hands under his T-shirt, skimming his firm abs. My mouth waters at the thought of getting him naked here, in this borrowed room, touching him everywhere, tasting him…

His gaze smolders. “What am I gonna do with you?” he breathes.

“Anything,” I whisper back.

“I have a few rules,” he says as he lowers his face, and his lips brush over mine.

“You do?”

“Yeah. I don’t take girls home. I don’t kiss them. I don’t look into their eyes when I fuck them.”

I shudder.

“But you…” He nips at my mouth, making me moan with need, and grins. “I don’t know. For you I could make an exception.”

I laugh and throw my arms around his neck to kiss him properly. There’s that tiny flinch like every time I touch his scars, but he’s working on it, and he relaxes again.

I open my mouth to ask if he’s okay, and his tongue thrusts into my mouth. It strokes and licks at me, until I have to close my eyes and surrender to his kiss.

When I finally resurface for air some time later, he’s breathless like me, his cheekbones flushed, and his hard-on hot where it’s trapped between us.

“I want you,” I gasp. “I want you right here.”

“Naughty,” he pants, grinning again. It’s beautiful. He’s beautiful. And oh so sexy. “I wanna do it my way.”

I smile. “You just get off looking at my new tattoo, don’t you?”

“Hell yeah.” He grabs the hem of my blouse and pulls it up, over my head, and I lift my arms to aid him. His eyes darken when my bra is revealed, a black triangle bikini top. He growls softly and puts his hands over my breasts, then nips at my mouth again as his thumbs flick over my stiffening nipples over the soft cloth.

A second later he’s undoing my pants and pushing them down my legs, along with my black panties. I toe off my sandals, and I’m left only in my bra, squirming under his hot scrutiny.

“So pretty,” he breathes and pulls me to him, his hands smoothing down my sides, down the back to grip my ass. “Smoking hot.”

I don’t fight it when he turns me around in his arms to face the wall. I splay my hands on its surface willingly, bending over slightly. I glance at him over my shoulder. “Like this?”

“Yeah. Oh fuck…” His hands stroke my upper back where his tattoo now spreads, having my deathmoth as a centerpiece. “My girl.”

“Yours,” I whisper and shudder when his hands travel down my back to my ass and then lower, spreading me. “God, Zane…”

“Just Zane is fine,” he says, predictably, and then buries his fingers in me, making my back bow and drawing moans from my throat. “So wet. Oh Christ…You’re ready for me.”

I am, more than ready. I’ve been waiting for his touch all day. “Please, Zane.”

I hear his zipper, and then he’s nudging my entrance, slowly slipping into me. He grips my hips as he slides in deeper, and I shake with the pleasure of it. Nothing compares to Zane’s cock inside me, the feel of him.

His voice, hoarse with arousal, saying my name.

The pleasure spreads like liquid fire, licking my spine, rising up to my breasts, and I come with a cry, rocking on his hard-on. His hand slams on the wall by my head, his colorful tats swirling in my hazy vision.

I’m vaguely aware that he’s drawing out of me, still fully hard. His hands turn me around and tug me in, so that I’m flush against him, pressed to the front of his body.

“I’ve seen enough of your tattoo,” he growls. “Now I want to see your face. Your way.” He kisses me, long and deep. “I love all your ways.”

He pulls me to the sofa and sits, dragging me onto his lap. When he enters me again, it’s even more intense than before, his cock stroking me deep. He unties my bikini top and throws it off me, then bends to suck on my breasts. I’m already clenching again around him, squeezing him so hard he gasps. He licks my nipples, and I clench again, moving, riding his cock.

“Oh fuck.” His head falls back. He leans into the cushions, his hips thrusting upward. His face is flushed, his eyes closed, dark lashes shadowing his cheekbones, his beautiful lips parted. Breathtaking.

My orgasm takes me by surprise, slamming into me, forcing a keening moan from my lips. My eyes are closing, but I manage to keep them open, to see him as he comes.

His head falls back all the way, his neck arching, and he pulses inside me. “Dakota,” he whispers, and I’m lost, riding on the wave of pleasure that shakes my body. I crash on his chest, and we hold on to each other as the final tremors fade.

“I love you,” he says. “God, I…”

His eyes widen, and I look over my shoulder to see what he’s seeing.

There’s a full-length mirror on the wall behind me, and in it I see the tattoo Zane inked on my back, in its full glory.

Two dark wings, folding so they brush the small of my back, each feather perfectly drawn and inked into my skin. Between my shoulder blades is a charm, a spider web, and the deathmoth is caught in it. A fear-catcher, Zane called it when he first showed me the drawing.

I’ll give you wings, so you can fly.

And he did. As I twist to see better, the wings seem to shiver and move, ready to unfold. They’re magnificent. And of course, below the spider web…

“You had to sign it, didn’t you?” His name is there in big letters between the wings, artfully woven in the design. I turn back to Zane and give him a mock glare.

“Of course. The world needs to know you’re mine.”

I smack his arm, but I have to laugh. “I love you, Zane Madden.”

He smiles warmly, then glances again at the tattoo and looks smug. It’s so funny. Smug and aroused, which isn’t funny at all.

No, not funny, I think as his cock swells again inside me, and he groans, shifting underneath me.

So I grab his face and kiss his mouth to stop from smiling, even as my heart soars.