In Silence She Screams (Midnight Mayhem 3)

The corner of his mouth tips upward, flashing teeth that any dentist would be proud of. “Heard someone didn’t, so I guess it’d be a shame not to?”

I tilt forward and flick my tongue over his lip teasingly, but when I giggle and start to pull back, he catches my tongue between his teeth, his fingers flexing around the curve of my jaw to keep me in place. My fingers and toes tingle as electricity forces itself to the pit of my belly when he deepens the kiss.

Releasing me gently, his mouth tips in a half smile as he watches my lips. “Damn. He’s missing out.”

This is nothing like Midnight Mayhem. For one, it’s a club, not a circus, and two, it’s clean, and I don’t mean the tidiness. Everything seems prim and—sterile. The kind of clean that makes my skin crawl, wanting—no, needing—to be rubbed dirty. There’s slow, sensual music playing, but to my ears, it feels more like nails being dragged down a chalkboard. A bar is set up at the back of the room, with alcohol of all caliber placed expertly on metal shelves. The design is somewhat industrial, and although I know they’re trying to appear classy, it’s more ostentatious. As if they’re trying too hard. The pretentious suits scattered through the area make it obvious that the audience is mainly for men. It only lowers my rating for it further.

I turn to face Saskia. “This isn’t really my vibe.”

She takes my hand in hers as Killian directs the boys to a private booth toward the back of the room. Once he’s far enough ahead to not hear, she leans into my ear as we follow.

“You know, you could probably have them both.”

I turn to face her with an arched brow. “What makes you think I want both?” I don’t need to ask her who she’s talking about. It’s beginning to feel like common knowledge since they’re both not making any effort to hide what they want.

Her eyes roll to the back of her head. “Girl, I’m not blind.”

I zigzag my attention back and forward between Eli and Kyrin. “Can I” from Drake starts playing, and the deeper the song goes, the more I find it a struggle to inhale any fresh air. Kyrin’s eyes fall down to my toes before coming back up to my head. I curl my lips between my teeth and find Eli, who is smirking at me from behind his glass. I know what Saskia means by having both of them, but I can barely handle one of them, let alone two. It’s beside the point. Kyrin doesn’t come off as someone who would share. He carries the ambience of a lion, and I have no doubt at all that he’d have absolutely no issues with tearing into the flesh of anyone that touches what belongs to him.

I take the spot beside Kyrin, with Eli on the other side. Saskia slides over my drink, clinking our glasses together enough so that they don’t tip over the rim. She winks at me, shooting her whiskey back in one go. I decide to sip on it, since it has something that looks painfully similar to cream floating on the top. The lights dim as the song continues to play. A girl appears on stage, wearing nothing but black lace lingerie. The showy part of the club is an obvious similarity to Midnight Mayhem, but Saskia was reaching far. Very far… you couldn’t even put both of them in the same category.

The girl has long dark hair, a little heart-shaped face, and legs that could wrap around you twice. She dances to the song unrestrained, as if her body is telling the story that the lyrics aren’t saying. I watch her carefully. Every now and then she smiles out to the crowd, but it’s forced. She hates it here. She’s good at pretending. I find my fingers around my whiskey and the liquid goes down a lot smoother than the shots. Before I can stop myself, I’ve finished the whole glass and Sass has replaced it with a new one.

Eli’s phone lights up in his hand, momentarily distracting me. His attention flicks up behind me, his face turning stoic. It’s an unusual look for him. The song dies out and the lights flicker a shade brighter, but not enough to pull people out of the euphoria.

“Are you going to introduce me to your friends, Eli?”

I turn slightly to see who owns the voice, when he moves to the other side of the table, taking the spot right beside Eli. When Eli doesn’t say anything, the man leans over and gives his hand to Kyrin first.

Kyrin’s eyes fall to his hand, moving back to his face.

“No?” the man says, and Kyrin casts a simple look to a now tense Eli.