One Dance for Case (Possessed 2)

She arched into his hold as his grip tightened on her. His hands roamed her body as his lips sucked her into a hypnotic trance. She couldn’t say she fully participated so much as she just felt. Every little nip, suck, and moan reverberated through to her core. It allowed her to have the whole Case effect. The man was nitrous to her flame and together, they quickly went from hot to explosive.

Through all of the arguing and fighting, they’d forgotten one very important thing in the room…

Marcus.

A groan from the opposite side of the space had Casey slowly pulling away from their kiss. A curse burst from his mouth as he walked over to Marcus. She didn’t know what he was about to do, only knowing she had to stop him.

“Casey, leave him alone, please.” She dreaded having to tell him that he was her sister’s pimp and drug dealer, and that he’d been slapping Ev around as often as he could because she refused his advances.

“Seriously, Evelyn? This guy was gonna do God knows what to you, and you want me to leave him alone? No fucking way.” Acid laced his words.

She felt like Casey could be her salvation, but not before Marcus would be her damnation.

Her silence was her answer, and he knew it. Shaking his head, he blew out a disgusted breath, handing her a card. He muttered, “Call me when you’re ready to ditch the loser.”

Tears clogged her throat. Regret burned her eyes. Agony seared her heart.

She watched as he walked away from her for the second time. She wondered if it was for good. Would he come back? Would she have the strength to call him, to explain to him that she was trying to preserve the only family she had left? Would he even understand?

Confusion clouded her mind as the thoughts crowded around. She was lost and stumbling her way through a life she wished she never had. Immediately following that thought was pictures of Andy. She loved that boy like he was her own and was the one thing she didn’t want to change about her life. Except she feared his mother’s lifestyle was going to ruin him.

Laughter had her spinning around to face her worst nightmare. “You sisters think you’re hot shit, yet neither of you can keep a man. You’ll be just like Lacey soon, spreading your legs for anything with a dick. When you do, come see me. I’ll make sure you’re treated right, li’l momma.” His laughter followed him out of the club while she stood rooted to the spot.

Barely breathing and unable to think, Ev just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. Looking at the card Casey had handed her, it simply revealed his and Dom’s name and a phone number. Security Experts was scrawled along the bottom, also.

She was tempted to call Casey right then and ask him to come back. Worse…to find out if they were going on that date. She felt foolish for that one. What did it matter if they did or not, the end result would be the same? He’d want between her legs and then be done with her.

Crumpling the card, she tossed it into the wastebasket filled with the disgusting used condoms men put on before a show so they didn’t wet their pants.

“I can’t believe you fucking left that girl there all by her lonesome.” Ace laughed at Casey as he entered the club to do what he’d been asked—watch his girl.

Case couldn’t full-on ditch her. He had no intention of leaving her at all, but he needed her to know he was in it for the long haul. He needed her like he needed to breathe. He couldn’t imagine another day without her, which was why he was ready to throttle Ace.

At first, he thought Ace sticking around after Dee’s debacle was a godsend; he had someone new to hang out with while Dom and Dee did their mushy honeymoon thing. Recruiting him to help watch Evelyn after he’d met her and realized his lust had turned into obsession seemed like a good idea. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

He still wasn’t one hundred percent certain why Ace had stuck around. He’d never given anyone a full-on answer or would change the subject when they asked. What Casey had been able to get from him was that he was between jobs, not working full-time for Creed, and having no roots to put down anywhere. He’d see the sights. It was fucking Baltimore; he didn’t think there was much to see.

With the way he was always checking his phone, though, Casey figured he was either waiting on a job or a girl. As long as it wasn’t his girl, they were golden.

“Shut the fuck up and just make sure no one touches her for Christ sakes.” Hanging up, he tossed his phone across the table where it bounced off the wall and spun before stopping to mock him in the middle of the table.

It had been three days since the last time he saw her, and he felt like he was going through withdrawal. It was worse than when he’d quit drinking. He could tick off the pros and cons of cracking open the bottle. He could lean on Dom for support when he needed a drink, but with her, all he wanted to do was soak up every vision he could. He wanted to bathe in her vanilla-peach scent that never seemed to let her go. To find out which hidden crevice on her body gave her the most pleasure. Fuck, he just wanted her.

He looked at the unopened bottle of vodka sitting on his counter mocking him. It was a daily struggle not to take a drink. Especially when he was fighting other desires. Drowning in the nothingness liquor would provide was something he’d begun to do in the beginning. It was a slow but swift descent for him.

After he had fallen off the wagon all those weeks ago, he wasn’t sure he would ever recover. Shame had eaten at him for days. He’d obsessed over his failures, lost sleep, and had nightmares that had stopped haunting him years before.

Then Evie walked up on stage. He met her and began obsessing over her which ultimately turned into stalking her. Ace joked about his behavior, but he wasn’t so sure there wasn’t some truth to it. The only thing he hadn’t done was follow her home, and he strongly suspected that was only because she bussed it to and from work. If he had to wait as long as the bus took to get her home, he’d be tempted to reveal the extent of his obsession so it could be him giving her a ride instead.

From her address, he knew she lived in a shitty neighborhood, and he’d been even more tempted to move her in with him.

Basically, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. A soft knock on his door brought him from his internal debate of whether he was going to become an all-out stalker or not.

Opening it, he wasn’t surprised to see Dee. “Hey, Double D. How are ya?”

“Well, that depends.” She had a look on her face and a tone in her voice he didn’t like.

“On what?”