Read Online Sugarbaby by CRYSTAL GREEN - Free Book Online Page B

the café!” she said back to him as we were enveloped by music again. We passed the muscle man outside the door, and he impassively watched us leave. I wondered who he would be letting in the room now that
these
VIPs had gone on their way.
    Hah, me a VIP. Well, it’d been fun while it’d lasted. And the farther I got from that room, the more I wondered why I couldn’t find it in myself to be less defensive. Couldn’t I stay a little longer, letting my friends have fun . . . and letting myself?
    But I’d proven that I didn’t know the line between fun and overindulgence before. Maybe it was myself I didn’t trust rather than some billionaire boys who’d asked me to the Hellfire for kicks.
    The crowd had thickened, the music clanging on as if it’d never stop. To my left, a spectacle had started on the platform—a line of women parading in a kinky fashion show. There was a Halloween fox, pawing at the cheering audience while the strategically placed fur on her seemed to slip away, moment by moment. A cat-woman in leather, swiveling her hips to the beat. A ninja lady with two swords crossed at her back, grinding against a cheerleader.
    The room was louder and hotter now, and I wanted out, but the crowd . . . it was so tough to get through, so many people . . .
    I felt Carley’s hand slip out of mine, and I spun around to find her again, but I was surrounded by bodies, undulating, dancing, carrying me farther into the center of the room until—
    A hand grasped mine, pulling me back from them.
    But it wasn’t Carley.
    Noah looked down at me, and I almost drowned in those eyes. I struggled for air as the lights throbbed over him and my gaze settled on that scar on his neck.
    Something came over me, and I itched to touch the wound, to touch
him
.
    Was it wrong to think that he was thinking the same about me? Because the yearning in his gaze ripped me apart, right down the middle, splitting me until I felt it between my legs.
    â€œDon’t go,” he said and, somehow, I heard him over the music, even though he hadn’t shouted. His words vibrated through me.
    My skin felt as if it were a mass of tingles, my breath caught in my chest.
I don’t want to go
.
    But then I remembered that there’d been another night when I’d told myself the same thing. I’d been drunk, sad, and ready to be a boy’s toy.
    I’d never be ready for that again.
    I started to pull away from Noah, but he held firm.
    â€œYou don’t like me much, do you, Jadyn?” he said near my ear.
    â€œI don’t know you enough to like or dislike you!”
    â€œThen don’t run away.”
    Did he have a fetish for hard-to-get blue-collar girls who weren’t interested in games? “What do you want from me?”
    When he smiled, it was with a predatory slowness that mixed cryptically with the sadness and anger that always seemed to haunt him.
    At that moment, the crowd swarmed, pressing in on us while a woman dressed in nothing but a well-placed ribbon bow strutted down the platform. One guy who smelled like too much cologne fell into me, and the next second, Noah was surging toward him as if something inside had snapped.
    He took the guy by his collar, heaving him away from me. My heart throbbed as Noah stared at him as if . . .
    As if he was daring him to punch him and start something up?
    That couldn’t be right, though, especially since he was surrounded by guys who looked like they were ready to fight for their cologne-soaked friend as he yelled, “Fuck off, man!” and shoved Noah.
    He wasn’t moved at all, stone-solid as he merely stared them down. A tight smile owned him, his eyes seeming to go dark with temper and gleam with something else I couldn’t describe.
    But there was no time to figure him out because, suddenly, the throng welled toward the stage with the ribbon girl. They pressed in on