The feeling that he looked familiar kept nagging at me, but I pushed it down, not wanting to focus on it. We were in the VIP of one of New York City’s hottest clubs; of course there were celebrities running around. I just didn’t want to think about Lyric being one.
All I wanted was some fun until I found the guy who would love me like Dad loved Mom. I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than the guy I loved loving me as completely as my parents loved each other. It was a hard act to follow, but I wasn’t going to compromise.
That we were running on such a short time frame told me that Lyric wasn’t going to be my future, but he looked like he could give me what I wanted for one night.
“Can we get out of here?” I asked him as I looked up at him through my lashes. “I don’t want to waste our night together surrounded by curious eyes and music so loud I can’t hear myself think.”
His brown eyes stopped swirling russet and amber and settled into a cinnamon color that became my newest favorite color, the perfect blend of the two. “Whatever you want, my Mila.” Taking my hand, he started to tug me away from the bar and toward the nearest exit, but I couldn’t just leave without telling someone where I was going.
My brother and cousins would throw a huge fit, and someone would call Dad and I wouldn’t get my one night with Lyric.
“Wait,” I said and turned us toward where Monroe was sitting.
Several feet behind the couch, Maverick was sitting with River, so I waved my sister over. She rolled her eyes at me but got to her feet and walked over to us, muttering something that had River pulling Mav’s head down and distracting the hell out of him with her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Monroe asked, her gaze lifting to take in Lyric before going back to me. Her eyes were still full of sadness, and it wasn’t a second later before she was reaching for that damn medallion that wasn’t around her neck. When she didn’t feel it, she balled her hand into a tight fist and dropped it to her side.
“Mon, this is Lyric. Lyric, my sister, Monroe,” I introduced. “Now you know who I’m with. We’re going to get out of here. Please cover for me.”
My sister was used to me doing things like this, so it didn’t surprise her, but she still shook her head at me. “Mila.”
“Thanks, Mon,” I said, kissing her cheek. “I’ll owe you one,” I told her before stepping back. “I promise to be there before it’s time to leave for the church.”
“You better be,” she grumbled and walked back to her chair.
“You have a twin sister?” Lyric commented as we walked out of the club.
I shrugged. “Monroe and I are identical, but we’re actually triplets. My brother, Maverick, was the one lip-locked with the gorgeous blonde.”
“Mila.” He stopped once we were outside and turned to face me. “I have an identical twin brother.”
Surprised, I blinked up at him a few times then ran my eyes over him from head to toe again. “Your poor mother,” I said with a grin. “She had to birth two of you beasts at once?”
A hearty laugh left him. “Guess that’s why she and Dad stopped after us.” Lifting a hand, he hailed a taxi. Not surprisingly, one pulled right up beside us within seconds. “You hungry?”
Even though it hadn’t been that long since I’d had Taco Bell with the others, I wasn’t going to turn down more food. I might have been on the small side, but I loved to eat. “I’m always hungry,” I told him as he slid into the back seat of the taxi before I could. Once I was beside him, I poked him in the ribs. “That wasn’t very gentlemanly of you, mister.”
Not that I was used to guys treating me like a lady, but for some reason, it had surprised me that Lyric hadn’t let me in first.
“It’s dangerous for a girl to get into a cab or an Uber first. The driver could drive away before I get a chance to get in.” He draped his arm over the back of the seat, and he turned his big body toward me. “My mom would kick my ass if I ever let a woman I’m with get into either before me, but I’m especially not taking the risk with you.”
“Because I’m oh-so-special,” I teased.
But his face was serious as he lowered his head so that our gazes locked in the dim light coming through the windows. “Yes,” was all he murmured before touching his lips to the corner of my mouth.
The kiss was over before I could even respond, and then he was lifting his head and telling the driver the address of his hotel. “Room service okay?” he asked, sitting back. Reaching across himself, he grabbed my hand and entwined our fingers. “If not, I think there is a really good restaurant across the street.”
“Room service is perfect,” I assured him, loving how he was playing with my fingers. His hand was so big, my hand looked childlike in his. It should have been weird, yet it was kind of comforting.
All my life, I had been surrounded by big, alpha MC men who would kill anyone who so much as looked threateningly at me. Not that I needed them to. My mom and aunts had more than taught me how to take care of myself. Yet right there in the back of that taxi with Lyric—a guy whose last name I didn’t even know—I’d never felt safer.
“What’s your last name?” he asked when the driver stopped for the next red light.
“Masterson. Yours?”
He frowned down at me. “You don’t know who I am?”
I elbowed him in the side. “Am I supposed to? I’ll admit you look familiar to me, but no, I don’t have a clue who you are.”