The clubs of Luciano’s early adulthood were unchanged by time. The faces were different, and the fashions were marginally changed, but there was nothing unfamiliar when he stepped through the doors of The Underground. The LED wall still blinked and strobed along to the electro beats the DJ spun. The dance cages were as wild as ever, and the women dancing inside them were hot as hell but he only had eyes for Melanie. It was the middle of April and from the look of the crowd, spring break was in full swing and the dance floor was stuffed with young people looking to have a good time. The music blasted his eardrums, and he saw Melanie flinch as they entered.

She looked down at her stamped hand as they walked under the black light before catching his hand and giving it a squeeze. When he turned to look at her, he knew the fear in her eyes was temporary. He remembered the first time Cassandra had brought him to a nightclub that he’d felt the same way. It was unfamiliarity that stilted her. He’d fix that.

Without wasting another second, he drew her close to help with some of her fear, and then guided her across the floor to the bar. The place was hopping, and it took a good few minutes before one of the bartenders had time to take their order. A curvaceous bombshell with dyed gray hair with black undertones leaned across the counter toward them. Luciano leaned the rest of the way and shouted his order to her. The music was so loud that there was no other way to get his words across.

The bartender drew back, flashed him a dazzling smile, and then produced a stack of six shot glasses from beneath the counter. She hooked a bottle of vodka up to the distributor, and then poured their drinks. When she was done mixing in other ingredients, she slid all six of the bright red shots across the bar to Luciano.

Luciano slipped her a few bills, refused the change, and then turned his attention to Melanie. She was staring at the shots like she’d never seen one before.

“For you,” he shouted over the music.

“All of them?” she shouted back.

He laughed. “No. Just four.” Luciano slid two of the shots away from the others, knocking back each of them and clinking the shot glass back onto the bar. He liked his alcohol harder than what he’d ordered, but he figured that Melanie would like something with a sweeter flavor.

The four shots remained untouched. She stared at him as if he was crazy.

“What?” Luciano asked.

“I don’t really drink,” Melanie said. “I mean, I do, but—”

“We’re here to have fun,” Luciano told her. “Don’t worry about it so much.”

“Take one of them,” she insisted. He did as he was told. Three shots weren’t going to be enough to affect him in any significant way. Luciano clinked the newly emptied shot glass back down on the bar, and Melanie picked up the first of hers. She took a deep breath, frowned only for a moment, and then shot it back. When she slammed the glass back down and made a face, Luciano had to laugh. It looked like she wasn’t lying. From time to time, they’d shared a beer, but it was very rare that he saw Melanie drink anything else.

He slid the next shot in her direction and gave her a pointed look, and she scowled playfully at him and swung it back. The last one fell even easier, and when Melanie set the shot glass down, the bartender whisked them away to clear space.

“You good now?” Luciano asked.

“Yeah.” Melanie smacked her lips and shook her head. “Good for a while.”

“Good.” Luciano winked. “’Cuz, we’re dancing.”

He took her hand and directed her to the dance floor. Bright, colorful lights traveled in beams over the ground, crisscrossing and blinding on and off. The chaos was beautiful. Luciano forgot how much he’d loved coming here.

When they’d been at Horseshoes, he’d been too drunk to see much of what was going on. All he’d known then was that Melanie was there, that he’d wanted her, and that they’d danced. He remembered the feeling of her body, and the way she’d ground against his groin, and even how her hair had smelled so beautifully of jasmine and lily.

Tonight, though, he was sober and when he guided Melanie to a quieter spot on the dance floor and started to move with the music, he saw firsthand how awkward she was. For a while, she just watched him, looking uncomfortable and miserable. She blinked hard and glanced around out of the corner of her eye. There was some obvious discomfort going on. But when he took her hand and drew her closer, she started to move with him out of instinct. Even then, her rhythm was off and the way she moved her body was…

Strange.

Luciano laughed, the noise drowned out by the beats. Melanie was dancing as if she was one with the music flowing and swaying and alive with it. It wasn’t the energetic, sultry kind of dancing he was expecting at all. There was no grinding, no twerking, no shimmying….

If she hadn’t shared her past earlier that day, he never would have understood what she was doing but he understood it now. The dance made sense based on her upbringing.

As the night slipped on and the alcohol started to loosen her inhibitions a little more, she got more into it. From time to time, others dancing around them gave her a strange look, but Melanie was in a world of her own. A world he shared with her. It was them, the dance floor, and the flashing lights. The people around them were inconsequential. No one would remember their faces come the morning—for just that moment, they were free to be whoever they wanted to be.

Melanie was herself in her truest form. No longer was she the woman overly concerned with planning and sticking to hard logic. She was someone else now. She’d burst free from her cocoon to become a butterfly. An awkward, but vibrant, butterfly.

There was no other woman like her in the world.

They made their way across the floor. Melanie kept dancing in her strange, endearing way, and Luciano found himself joining her instead of sticking to the dance moves Cassandra had taught him. The sway of his hips and the pump of his fist in the air were less important than chilling out and following Melanie’s flow. The music washed over both of them, dragging them under its current. Before Luciano knew it, they’d transitioned to the middle of the floor. One of the cages had descended from its elevated state, and the girl inside was climbing out as people cheered her on. Melanie’s lips twisted with mirth, and she headed in its direction. Luciano barked out a laugh, feeling his whole soul laugh with him.

There was no way she was going to get into that cage and dance. No way. He could only imagine the faces of everyone else in the club. Some go-go dancer would probably pop a vein out of frustration.

Before Melanie could climb into the cage, the song melded into the next, and Luciano froze. From the very first note, he knew what it was.

Cassandra’s favorite song.

All of the good times he’d been having evaporated. His mouth felt dry. He saw Melanie look back at him, laughing, then saw her face grow serious. She abandoned her quest for the cage and made her way over to him. “Luc?”

He couldn’t focus on her. The past rose up like a cobra ready to strike, fanning its hood. In his mind’s eye he saw Cassandra, her blue eyes sparkling, her lips full, her face relaxed and at peace. He saw her shimmying to the music. He saw the flash of her sequins under the club lights. He saw her hair flying wild and free as she shook her head.

“Hey, Lucy,” Cassandra had laughed. He hated the nickname, but she’d loved it. She’d loved to tease him almost as much as he loved to tease her. “Dance with me, will you?”

Luciano’s knees locked. He stared out across the crowds, lost to the sorrow he felt. She was never coming back. She would never dance to this song again.

Melanie squeezed his hand, and Luciano redirected his attention. He focused on her. She flashed him one of her strange smiles, her red lips quirked with mischief. She was still dancing, he realized, and by the looks of it, she was trying to get him to dance back. She kept rocking her body back and forth, leaning close and then leaning away, stepping over only to step back, ducking and bobbing and having fun, but looking absolutely ridiculous for it.

He snorted. How could he be sad when she was dancing like that, so eager to make a fool of herself? Every step of the way over the last two years, she’d cared for him. She’d been by his side through every shop they’d skipped between, through all the month-by-month leases they’d signed, through every hotel and mile of highway. She’d looked after him, and here she was again, looking out for his best interest.

If he wanted to respect Cassandra’s memory, that was fine. Luciano knew that she would never stop him from doing it. But there was a difference between respecting her memory and being hung up on it.

And Melanie, impossibly gorgeous Melanie, was trying to get him back on track because she knew he deserved to live, not just survive.

Luciano’s stomach twisted, and he felt it pinch. He stepped forward, closing the scant distance between them. Melanie looked up, eyes partially lidded. God, was she beautiful. Luciano reached out and tangled his fingers in her hair, letting his fingertips trace along the back of her head. She breathed out, the sound of it lost against the booming bass from the speakers.

Luciano needed to taste her lips again.

His fingers tightened in her hair to keep her head in place, and then he kissed her. The passion nearly choked him, and he closed in and gave himself up to the way she felt and the way she made him feel. Like an ice cube left to melt on hot pavement, his whole existence changed for her. The man he was when they’d met was very different from the man who stood before her today and it was all because she’d been patient with him. He kissed her with everything he had, but not hard enough to bruise her skin. The craved need they’d shared on the couch in the truck was replaced with something more tender, but no less starved.

He wanted her. He needed her.

Tonight, Luciano would make her his.

Time passed, how much, he didn’t know. The song changed and another took its place. The music blended together, no song marked by a clear beginning or end. The night was timeless, and their kiss endured.

Melanie was the first one to pull away. She curled her fingers in his shirt to hold him close. “Let’s go find someplace to ourselves,” she told him.

Luciano wasn’t going to object to that. Hands all over each other, they made their way across the floor. Sometimes, overwhelmed by desire, they stopped and made out until Luciano’s jaw ached and his cock throbbed in anticipation. Her hands trailed along his chest, across his hips, inward and over the bulge beneath his fly….

It had been a long time since he’d been so crazy with lust, and Luciano wasn’t going to let it go to waste. When finally they made it to the stairs, he picked her up in his arms, bridal style. Melanie cried out and wrapped her arms around his neck. The moment was perfect. Priceless. Needed.

Luciano didn’t realize how lonely he’d been until that very moment. With Melanie in his arms, her eyes for him and him alone, he realized all he had.

There was nothing like sharing a connection with another human being. Cassandra would always be special to him, but he couldn’t keep denying himself. He was human, and he deserved to be happy. He deserved to enjoy this moment.

He climbed the stairs with Melanie in his arms. She was surprisingly light, and he had no issues supporting her weight. As they went, she kept her arms locked around his neck and kissed the corner of his mouth. Each time, Luciano wanted to turn his head and give into the kiss, but he knew if he held out, it would be worth it.

The upstairs of The Underground was more lounge than dance floor. Booths and couches occupied the walls. Seated on them, couples made out. Some of the more daring ones went further. None of them realized that The Underground housed a secret—it was very rarely used, and Luciano hoped that no one in the know was looking to use it tonight. He needed it for himself.

Down the hall leading to the second floor bathrooms was an unmarked door with a keypad that made it look like a restricted area. Looking at it, there was no indication that it was anything more than a janitorial closet. Luciano knew better. He jiggled the handle in just the right way, and the door swung open without taking a code. Behind it was a short stairway leading downward.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Melanie asked. She didn’t make any move to pull away from him. “It looks like it’s an employees’ only door.”

“We’re fine,” Luciano promised. Not once had he ever been in trouble using this room. Cassandra had said she’d found it when she noticed one of the bartenders serving shots on the floor heading into it in order to sell drinks. As far as he knew, it was one of The Underground’s secret locations. “I promise.”

She said nothing else about it. He carried her down the short stairway and into the secret enclosure. It was laid out with the same booths as the lounge was, but they were secluded and divided from the party at large.

No one else was in the room.

Down there, the music was an echo. Luciano laid Melanie down on one of the booth benches and climbed over her as she laughed. Soon enough, he silenced her laughter with a kiss, and their passion resumed. She parted her lips for him, and his tongue entered her mouth in turn. The kiss grew darker and more lustful, and Luciano’s hands started to wander. He teased the bottom hem of her dress, sliding it up her thighs, and to his surprise, Melanie didn’t try to stop him.

He ran his fingers along the soft skin of her inner thigh, and then moved inward. Beneath her dress, the thin strap of a thong was all that separated him from her sex. He shuddered with desire and teased her. She was already drenched for him.

“Luc,” she breathed against his lips. The utterance was desperate, and he loved how her voice hitched when she spoke. Melanie shifted her hips and pressed down against him. It turned him on to no end to know she was so greedy for him she couldn’t help herself.

“We’re in public,” he scolded her. The kiss resumed, and when it ended, she sighed with need.

“Don’t care.”

“So you want me to touch you here?” He traced his fingers teasingly along the thin string of her thong. Her lips were swollen for him, and he felt her heat. He wanted inside of her so badly.

“Want it,” she pleaded, her words so laden with pleasure that they were disjointed. Melanie picked up her hips and ground against him. “P-please.”

It was the most fantastic thing in the world to hear her beg for him. Luciano’s balls tightened, and he felt pleasure pulse dangerously inside of him. He wasn’t going to come just yet. Not before he got to feel her. The night was still young, and he wasn’t going to lose his chance to take what he wanted because he was a little too excited.

“What if I do this?” Luciano whispered. He slipped a single finger beneath the string of her thong and ran it between her lips. Melanie shuddered and pressed against him desperately, and Luciano released a short, throaty chuckle. “Looks like you enjoy it.”

“So good,” Melanie replied. She was so wet. The awkward, dorky girl he’d kept at his side for the last two years liked it dirty. Luciano never would have believed it if he hadn’t experienced it.

“Mm, and what about this?” Luciano’s finger dipped a little deeper down, and he found the hardened bud of her arousal. Melanie moaned, clamping a hand over her mouth as she bucked against his hand. It looked like her clit was sensitive. Luciano loved it. “You want more of this?”

“Please,” Melanie croaked from beneath her hand. She tossed her head back and closed her eyes, and Luciano took full advantage. He stopped touching her, but only long enough for him to wrench her panties aside. His hand slipped back under her dress, and he stroked and swirled and pushed against her clit as Melanie choked back her pleasure.

It wasn’t long before he’d made her so wet, she was dripping.

“Luc,” she begged him. Her words were rattled and distant. “Luc, I need you inside of me. I need it. Now.”

Who was he to refuse a woman who’d done so much for him? Luciano’s cock was ready for her. It had been ready since the night at the bar.

He was going to make Melanie his tonight, and he didn’t have a single regret about it.