The Luna Choosing Game

Chapter 263

Nicholas’s mouth was hot on mine. His arms wrapped around my waist, holding me closely. I clutched at his shoulders, early accepting his kisses, until the need for air forced us apart.

He rested his forehead against mine. “You have to change.”

“Nick,” I said. He was being ridiculous. “This dress is not revealing.”

“You look so sexy in it. I can’t stand the thought of Terry seeing you like this.”

I smiled a little. This dress was not flattering on me. I knew that. I looked okay, but out of fashion. I’d worn more revealing clothes before.

I imagined a big part of Nicholas’s trouble was that he was attracted to me in anything. “You’d probably be jealous even if I wore a potato sack.”

He didn’t argue. “I don’t like the way Terry looks at you.” His arms squeezed me closer. “Why don’t you stay here, after all. Stay with Elva. Julian and I can snoop around Terry’s mansion. You don’t need to endanger yourself.”

I shook my head. “You know I can’t do that. Even if I wanted to. I had such a poor showing in the last event, that I can’t risk botching another. I need attend and do the best I can.”

“Terry won’t make it easy on you.‘

“I know that,” I said. “But I don’t have any other choice.”

Nicholas frowned deeply but he made no further remarks. Instead, he stepped back from me and turned on the lights to the garage. Taking my hand, he led me through the various fancy cars until we

reached a black sedan with tinted windows. Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.

He opened the passenger door and helped me inside. Then he went around to the driver’s side. The seats were soft leather, the console black and impeccably clean. When Nicholas turned the key, the car started with a confident purr.

He put the car into drive and carefully navigated out of the garage and driveway.

When we pulled out onto the street, my nerves began to prickle again. I worried my hands together.

Nicholas continuously glanced over at me, likely seeing my tense posture and the way I couldn’t sit still.

No one else was on the road at all. The other cars were long gone and no one else seemed to use this road this time of night. The sun had set, and the road was dark. Nicholas clicked on the high beams. The light sliced through the darkness, illuminating the road.

I focused on the double yellow line, trying to collect my thoughts. Yes, I was a lamb headed into the lion’s den. But Nicholas and Julian would be there. And Susie and the other girls. If Terry wanted to isolate me, he’d have to do so with a lot of witnesses.

That didn’t make me feel all that better. Terry was bold. He didn’t seem like the type that would be all that bothered what others thought of him or his actions. He had the ear of the Luna and the King. Why should the opinions of the lowly commoners matter to him? Even the nobles were beneath him.

We were reaching the mansion. I could tell from the way Nicholas’s hands choked the steering wheel, his knuckles white.

Woods lined the road on either side of us. Nicholas lifted his foot off the gas. Slowly, he pulled onto the side of the road, where a dirt road seemed to lead to nowhere. He put the car into park.

“Nicholas?”

He turned to look at me and I saw a bit of desperation in his gaze. I knew what it was because I felt it too, all the way down into the deepest parts of me.

“Come here,” he said, and I complied at once, leaning toward him. He leaned too, and caught me halfway.

Our hug was a bit awkward, with the center console jutting unwelcomed into the space between us. But our need to hold each other overcame any obstacle. Nicholas buried his fingers into my hair. I clawed at his back, trying and failing to pull him closer.

I wanted him so close that I wouldn’t be able to tell where he ended and I began. That way, maybe I

could finally feel safe again.

Terry would find a way to separate us tonight. I knew that to be true. Somehow, I would have to be strong, depend on my physical training from Nicholas, and my mental lessons from Julian. I didn’t feel ready.

I was frightened. I held Nicholas tighter.

His face turned toward mine, and our mouths found each other’s. He licked his way past the seam of my lips. I opened willingly for his greedy tongue, and held on while he stole my breath away.

Like this, with our lips pressed together and our hands holding each other closer, I could almost forget about what was going to happen tonight. I could find solace in this man, in his closeness, in his strength and his desire for me. My desire for him.

Whatever Terry threw at me tonight would not be about to surmount this stolen moment of closeness with this man I was so soft–hearted for. Nicholas and I couldn’t be together long term, but for now, like this, nothing mattered but he and I and the pursuit of the pleasure only attainable from our kiss.

“Piper,” Nicholas breathed against my lips, my name twisted in worry.

I didn’t want him to say my name like that, like he was frightened too, or concerned, or jealous, or all three. So I pressed my lips back to his and worked on muddling his thoughts for a while instead.

He hummed against my mouth, pleased. I moaned but he swallowed it.

When we broke again, he whispered, “It’s not too late to change your mind. Until the moment you cross the threshold, I can take you back to your room.”

I smiled, small and pitiful, and shook my head. “You know I can’t.”

“I want you safe more than I care about catching Terry.”

“I can only be safe when Terry is caught.”

Nicholas’s face went grim. “I hate that you have to do this.”

To reassure him, I ran my hands across his shoulders and down his arms. His worry for me brought out something in me, a hidden courage I didn’t know I possessed.

“I’m frightened,” I admitted, “But I know that you will help keep me safe.”

He nodded. “I will never leave your side.”

We both knew that was impossible. We were supposed to go our separate ways when we sneaked through the mansion. Three people individually searching would cover more ground, quicker, than an individual and a couple would.

“Even if we aren’t, I know all I have to do is press my panic button and you and Julian would come running.” I brushed my hair back from my shoulders, showing off the golden necklace around my neck.

Nicholas looked at it, then up at me. His brow pulled together. “What panic button?”

I clutched the pendant of my necklace and held it up for him to see. “This? I have it if I get into any real trouble. It’s a relief, knowing you and Julian are only a push of a button away from me.”

Nicholas’s frown fell impossibly deeper. “Piper. I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Wait. Julian had promised he would tell Nicholas about the panic button and get him in the loop? Hadn’t he?