Page 76 of Equilibrium
The crowd went wild as she sauntered toward one of the poles, playing with it, touching it in a sensual yet strong way and looking over the crowd. I glanced at both men and women gathered around the stage as the lights went up, illuminating the dark skin of the goddess on the stage, with her dark hair in messy curls and a body to kill for.
“Jesus.”
I was breathless, speechless as she twirled around the pole, keeping us all in a trance.
“That’s Thalia.” Atlas’s voice was both near and far because the way she moved, the way she commanded the stage, the whole crowd, it was magical. I quickly realized that this wasn’t your typical strip club. One look at the balconies on both sides and I knew I was wrong.
So fucking wrong.
That whole statement about businessmen not coming here was pure shit, because those balconies seated men and women in various stages of undress. Some of them kissing each other, some fully dressed, and some moving to the rhythm of the music as the lyrics of the devil in the eyes of the person the singer was singing about danced through the pumped-up air.
It was suffocating, it was liberating, and I wanted to stand up and dance. I wanted to be lost to this feeling, this freedom music was bringing, and I knew whose arms I wanted to be in while doing that.
My eyes found Storm, who was already looking at me with a heated gaze. My breathing became shallow, molten lava rushing through my veins and on shaky limbs, I slowly stood up and started walking toward him. The rest of the world disappeared and the only person I could see was him.
I extended my hand, reaching for his, and when he grabbed me, pulling me to him, I felt like I could breathe again. A faster song came on, my heart following the rhythm of the bass and Storm pressed his hand against my heart, just below my breast, killing me with his touch. I did the same, feeling his heartbeat beneath my fingertips, pumping at the same time as mine.
In sync.
Together.
A soft touch on my cheek as he pressed his palm against my skin, a thumb beneath my eye tracing a path all the way to the scar Kieran left, and a tightening in my chest, and my whole body burned with desire stronger than anything else I had ever felt.
He managed to bring this out in me like nobody else did. I thought what I felt for Kieran was love, but if we continued on this path, I knew I could get lost in Storm and I wouldn’t mind. I wouldn’t mind feeling like this for the years that were about to come, because the heartache and the sadness were two friends I wouldn’t mind parting with.
They taught me how to be strong, how to be resilient, but it was time for me to become more. To become a woman capable of happiness even as the bullets flew around me, and I could find all of it with him. I knew I could.
I shivered as he lowered his head, his breath tickling my ear. “If we didn’t have to do what we came here to do, I would take you to the nearest room, bend you over one of the tables and fuck you until your legs gave out.” My legs almost gave out, but he moved his hand from my chest to my waist, holding me steady. “I would show you who you truly belong to.” Pressing his finger against my bottom lip, he leaned closer, our noses touching, his eyes burning into mine. “I wanna fuck this pouty mouth, Sunshine. I wanna see you on your knees, worshipping me and then I am going to worship you. Lick your whole body, bite you, suck you, mark you. I want you to feel me between your legs while you walk. I want you to think about me even while you talk to other people. I want it all.”
“God,” I moaned. Coherent thoughts left my mind, and I was leaving it up to him to decide what we were going to do. I didn’t want to fight this, fight us. I didn’t want to run anymore. “Please.” I wasn’t above begging, pleading.
“Later.” The bastard chuckled, taking a step back, leaving me hot and bothered and I wasn’t the only one. His cheeks were flushed, eyes hooded and the bulge in his pants definitely wasn’t because he saw another girl prancing around naked. It was for me. “We have a job to do.”
I was about to moan some more, when Creed walked into my line of sight, looking smug himself.
“Storm,” he called out before looking out over all of us. “He’s in the basement, waiting for you.”
“Does he know?” my favorite behemoth asked, still looking at me with a small smirk.
“Of course not. He’s as oblivious as he can be.”
My excited girl parts quieted down when it all registered. We were going to talk to Sam.
Show-fucking-time.
* * *
The more we walked through the club, the more I realized that this wasn’t some kind of a shady strip club where girls were forced to work, and patrons were sleazy bastards with no boundaries. Some of them were just dancers, like that first girl I saw, Thalia. Some were dressed in barely there outfits, and seeing them freely walking around, I wanted to know how it felt.
To be so free and so happy.
Walking behind Storm, who wouldn’t let my hand go even as we passed several other bikers who seemed to know him, we slowly came to the stairs leading to what I assumed was the basement. Whenever somebody mentioned a basement to me, I thought about the one Kieran and his brothers held me in, and the familiar anger would start rising again. It wasn’t enough for them to lock me up, chain me like an animal when we first found Ava in their house, but they locked me up again when I let them find me.
Stupid fucking men. Their stupidity and naivety cost them more than they could ever imagine.
“Are you okay?” Storm asked as we walked down the stairs and then through the hallway with several doors on each side, heading toward the one on the far end. He seemed concerned, and I wasn’t entirely sure if it was because I kept quiet or because I kept fidgeting. Truth be told, I couldn’t wait to get this over with. To hold those knives and to feel like I did so many times before when men that didn’t deserve to live came to me.
Instead of answering, I nodded, squeezing his hand tighter. This would be the first time for me to do anything like this with a man I cared about. Kieran never wanted to go on missions with me, and it took me a while to figure out why.
