Chapter 1072: Teaser
As everyone began taking their turns toward the elevator, the hall slowly emptied of its warmth.
Laughter moved away first, drifting in clusters with the princesses, the boys, their women, the older beauties, the newer faces, the half-drunken teasing and the lingering shock of Sienna abandoning her own birthday in a midnight PcLaren like a girl who had finally found a reason to forgive society. The crystal rain above still shimmered. The black-silver floor still reflected violet light. The central platform still stood beneath the glow of the hall, but the heart of the gathering had begun moving upward toward the penthouse.
Phei should have moved with them.
He did not.
He remained near the stage, hands loose at his sides, gaze fixed across the hall on Dravenna after she signaled him something he did not understand at a all.
The jade-eyed woman was moving toward the exit with the others, ivory silk flowing around her like the last mercy of some ancient goddess who had learned to be cruel for sport. Every step did something unforgivable to the dress. The Grecian folds slid over her slim body in soft, luminous waves, gathering around her waist before falling over the long line of her hips. The exposed side of her waist caught the light each time she turned, smooth skin framed between silk and gold, a narrow, elegant stretch that made Phei’s fingers remember too much.
His gaze dropped when that slit opened again deliberately when she knew he was watching and gave him a daring smile:
One long leg flashed through the ivory fabric, sculpted and graceful, the dress parting around her thigh like it knew exactly how much ruin to reveal before pretending innocence. Her train whispered behind her. Her silver hair brushed the nearly bare line of her back. And when she turned slightly to speak to someone beside her, the dress pulled over the medium perky and hearty bur round shape curve of her ass with such clean, wicked precision that Phei’s entire attention sharpened to a point.
Fuck.
He looked down at his hand.
Then back at her waist.
His fingers tingled, he could not stop once again think about that narrow waist soft beneath his grip despite the composed cruelty of her eyes. The firmness of her hips. The way she had let him hold her close enough to feel the warmth of her breath and the challenge in her body. The way she had made him think the next step was inevitable, then left him suspended there, burning, denied, and promised.
She had said she would call.
Phei almost laughed.
Jokes was on him, apparently, for thinking Dravenna Ashford would ever reach back first.
For all he knew, she had walked out of that office, recovered her sanity, and decided making out with him had been a scandalous mistake.
A lapse and a dangerous little indulgence with her student; a boy too young, too beautiful, too hungry, and too capable of becoming a problem she could not neatly lock away in some Ashford drawer.
Maybe she had realized how much that moment had made her feel and she had panicked or maybe she had wanted to end it there.
But because she was Dravenna, she had not ended it honestly.
No.
She had laid down a soft little lie to cushion his fall: "I’ll call you" a merciful landing for his fragile young ego.
Phei’s smile thinned.
How kind of her.
How insulting.
If that was the case, then fine.
He would pursue her himself.
"That hot?"
The voice came from behind him.
Phei did not look back.
His eyes stayed on Dravenna as she walked, because the woman was a crime scene wrapped in ivory silk and someone needed to document the damage. The gold ornament at her hip caught the light. The fabric tightened over the round, perky curve of her ass for one perfect second, then softened again as she moved, the firmness of that body too and the elegant resistance beneath his hands.
The way desire had turned her composure sharper instead of weaker.
"Yeah," Phei said honestly. "That hot."
Only then did he look back.
Melissa stood behind him.
And because the universe had a sense of humor forged by demons, she looked devastating.
She had dressed in deep, mature elegance tonight, a gown in rich dark wine threaded with faint black shimmer, the kind of fabric that did not scream for attention because it had already captured it by existing on her body. It hugged her full chest with warm, sinful restraint, the neckline low enough to make Phei’s gaze lose its manners but elegant enough that no one could accuse it of vulgarity without lying in public.
The bodice drew in at her waist, emphasizing that lush hourglass softness he knew far too intimately, before the dress flowed over her hips and thighs in smooth, expensive weight.
Melissa was not slim like Dravenna.
She was ripe.
Lush.
Soft in places that made a man’s hands forget every noble principle they had ever pretended to own.
The gown loved her body:
It held her round generous breasts like it had been designed by someone with faith and bad intentions, narrowed around her waist, then surrendered over the generous curve of her hips in a way that made undressing her feel less like removing clothing and more like opening a treasure chest with teeth.
Phei’s throat went slightly dry.
’Fuck, Mel looks hot tonight.’
The kind of hot that made him imagine peeling that dress from her slowly, watching the fabric give way inch by inch until he reached the prize beneath all that elegance. His eyes lowered for one breath too long, and Melissa saw it; she had been reading him since before his dragon had learned how to roar properly, after all.
Her smile deepened.
"You know," she said, walking closer, "you can just go after her relentlessly."
Phei’s brows lifted.
Melissa took his hand in hers.
Her fingers were warm.
Soft.
Possessive in that quiet Melissa way that made even advice feel like affection.
"You know how much we like it when men actually pursue us, right?" she said. "Do not let her give you sleepless nights."
Phei looked at their joined hands.
Then back to Melissa’s face.