The dance floor was already heaving with bodies, and I could feel the music working its way through me, urging me to move. Sipping at my drink, I let my eyes roam over the crowd. Searching. Was this even a good idea? Probably not, but I wanted one hour where I didn’t have to be the scared girl running for her life. 

I wanted to be free. 

To dance when I wanted, fuck who I chose, and forget anyone who had a problem with it. We had checked in with home base—as I had insisted on calling it, much to Jett’s disgruntlement—so the clock was ticking. Leaving Linden on the sidelines, watching a muted sports game on the screen over the bar, I dove into the crowd and let the music take over. 

As I moved, I side-stepped couples staggering over each other and deftly dodged groping hands. Close to the stage was exactly what I was looking for. I hoped. A man who looked a little younger than me danced with wild abandon to the music, as though the throbbing bass had him in a thrall. He was tall, with long lashes brushing high cheekbones as he kept his eyes closed to the world. 

Just as I decided I couldn’t intrude, deep brown eyes flashed open and caught mine. He grinned and held a hand out, inviting me into his space, and I went. How could I do anything but follow? Pin straight black hair fell into his eyes as he ducked his head to yell in my ear. 

“Zephyr.”

I grinned.

“Rowen.”

And then we danced. I let out a laugh of sheer joy as we moved in sync with the beat. Fast and slow. Complex and simple. Until we were both sweating profusely and smiling so hard it hurt. I knew I would pay for it later, but I was in a pleasant kind of numb where my side didn’t hurt in the slightest. 

“Can I get you a drink?” he asked, taking my hand and leading me from the floor.

“Rowen,” Linden appeared at my elbow, a frown creasing his brow.

“I need this,” I said simply. 

I couldn’t decipher the look that crossed his face—it was gone too fast—but just in case, I pushed up on my toes and kissed his cheek. It was meant to be his cheek, anyway. His head turned toward me and I found my lips at the corner of his mouth. His warm breath fluttered across my cheek and my heart hammered as I lowered myself. Grabbing Zephyr’s hand, I took off toward the back of the building like a coward.

Down a dark hallway, near the washrooms, was a storeroom with its door standing slightly ajar. Pushing it wider, I turned and fisted Zephyr’s button-down shirt. “Kiss me.”

His smiling mouth crashed to mine in a wild and passionate frenzy I hadn’t been expecting. His hands cupped my face gently as he pressed me back into the wall beside the doorway.  

 “You’re beautiful,” he said in between kisses as he brushed my hair away from my eyes.

“I want you to fuck me. Ok?” I replied, feeling awkward at the praise and keen to get moving before anything could go wrong. 

His face morphed comically from shock into enthusiastic joy as my words registered. I barked a laugh and pushed him through the open doorway as a shadow passed across the end of the hallway.

“Rowen,” Linden called, striding toward me as I froze in my tracks.

“I’m not trying to be an asshole here, but I need to keep you safe. The others will literally kill me if anything happens to you.”

“They will not,” I replied automatically, although Linden probably knew both men better than I did, anyway. 

The thought was a sobering one, and the exact thing I was trying to avoid. So I did what I did best: I went on the offensive.

“If you’re so worried about my wellbeing, you have two options here. You can stand sentry and make sure we’re not disturbed… or you can join us.” I kicked my chin up and waited for him to back down from my challenge. Or just call and rat me out to the others, honestly. I wouldn’t have blamed him for either action… much. Instead, he stilled. 

“You want me?” His gaze bore into me, and part of me could acknowledge this had been building all day. Hell, it had been building for the last two days since I woke up in his house.

“Yeah. I mean, because you… do? If… I mean, if you want to?” 

Smooth, Row. Real smooth. 

As I fumbled through a proposition which was nothing like the one I had just offered Zephyr, my would-be lover poked his head out of the storeroom. 

“Oh, cool. Hey, dude, are you joining us? Or you want me to leave?” His face was open and keen, and it was at that moment it occurred to me that I had decided to have a threesome. With two strangers. In the back of a nightclub.

And there was nothing I wanted more.

With a deep breath for courage, I smiled up at my travel companion, injecting as much sass as I could into my words.

“Linden’s just deciding if he’ll join or not.”