Free A Jade's Trick (Lilly Black's Jaded Series Book 1) by Lilly Black

want to do tonight?" he asks as Lucy pulls away from the curb.
    "I don't know.  How early does your flight leave tomorrow?" 
    "Any time I want," he says.  "I don't have to be back in Boston until late afternoon, and I can sleep on the plane, so I'm yours until as late as 3:00 am."
    We decide to go to a nightclub, and Cain suggests Envy, one of the other bars Steph is considering.  The decor is ultra modern with sleek lines and asymmetrical curves, everything in ice blue, silver, or black.  Even the lights are only shades of blue and cold white, a stark contrast to the warmth of Prometheus' lava red.
    The place is already packed when we get there, but of course there is still a table available for Cain Ballantyne.  A hostess leads us to a dark, corner booth behind a blue velvet rope, and our waitress is there within seconds.  As I look around, countless women have their eyes on Cain, their thoughts written on their faces, and far too many believe they could easily steal him from me.  It's something I am going to have to get used to because there will always be beautiful, Southern California blondes with perfect bodies and predatory instincts stalking him.
    The waitress brings our drinks, and we sit close enough together to hear each other over the music without touching, maintaining our delusion of being friends.  Though Cain is keeping me at a distance, it's really my choice.  All I have to do is beg to be his.
    "Do you dance?" I ask.
    "My mother forced us to learn ballroom dancing for her country club parties, but I'm afraid you wouldn't like what I'd do to you on the dance floor at a place like this," he says.
    "What does that mean?" I ask, but before he can answer, I hear a man's voice asking me to dance.  I don't want to dance with him, but to fuck with Cain, I defer the question to him.  He immediately makes me regret it.
    "I don't own her..." Cain says.  Then he leans in and whispers "...yet."  The man doesn't wait for my opinion, taking my hand, and as I shoot Cain an angry look, he just smiles and crinkles his nose.
    Asshole , I think, flipping him the bird behind my back.
    Once we're on the dance floor, this guy is an excellent leader.  He throws me around and makes it look like I know what I'm doing, but he also has the sense not to pull me in too close for too long as Cain watches us.  I glance at him every chance I get, though I can't always see him for the girls surrounding our table like bitches in heat.  How dare they think that just because I'm not right there at his side, they can swoop in and take him?  Of course, I don't own him...yet.
    When the song fades into a new one, I thank my partner and turn to leave, but as I try to find my path back to Cain, I'm quickly lost is a sea of writhing bodies, the crowd closing in around me, drawn by the new song, Massive Attack's Angel .  I'm trapped as my dance partner is slammed against me by the undulating throng, and when I feel another man at my back, his hot breath on my shoulder and his groin against my leg, anxiety floods my system with adrenaline.  It's fight or flight, but I have nowhere to fly.
    I put my hands on my partner's chest to shove him away but can't even push him to arm's length, so I elbow the guy behind me.  No effect.  Feeling I have no control over the situation, I begin to panic, but before it can overwhelm me, my partner suddenly hurries away, pushing forcefully through the grinding mass.  I move forward into the space he left to get away from the man behind me, but the freedom is fleeting as another man quickly takes his place - a man whose scent I detect even in this sea of sweat and pheromones, sucking it in like life-giving oxygen.
    "It's only me now," Cain whispers in my ear, and knowing that the breath on the back of my neck is his breath and the cock against me is his cock, the adrenaline in my system is redirected toward a more constructive purpose.  The closeness of the crowd becomes an advantage, shielding me