“This is ridiculous,” she muttered, cutting into the steak. “I feel like I’ve been kidnapped into a billionaire’s fantasy.”
Vector smirked, swirling his wine. “You have been. This is my fantasy.”
Her fork hesitated mid-air. “I don’t know what to think about you.”
He leaned in, voice low. “Then stop thinking.”
She exhaled, shaking her head. “You’re impossible.”
Before he could respond, a low chuckle sounded nearby. A well-dressed man at the bar, hiswatch gleaming in the candlelight, lifted his glass in Raven’s direction. “If he’s impossible, sweetheart, I’m happy to be the alternative.”
Raven blinked, caught off guard. How had he heard their conversation over the music? She was still trying to decide what to say when Vector’s hand shot out, resting possessively on her thigh.
His grip was firm, heated. His voice was a dangerous purr. “She’s taken.”
The man held his gaze for a long beat before offering a smirk. “Just making conversation.”
Vector’s fingers flexed. “Find another table.”
The man hesitated. Then, wisely, he turned back to his drink.
Raven exhaled, cheeks flushed. “That was unnecessary.”
Vector met her gaze, his thumb brushing over her skin in slow, deliberate strokes. “No, it wasn’t. He was testing me. Trust me, he is dangerous, especially to an unclaimed female.”
“Unclaimed female? Where did you grow up again? You say the strangest things.”
“He is more than he seems,” Vector warned.
Her lips parted, but whatever she had been about to say was lost in the intensity of his gaze. He wasn’t just claiming her in front of a stranger—he was reminding her exactly who she belonged to.
“You’re really like this, aren’t you?” she murmured, shifting under his touch. “Possessive. Controlling.”
His grin returned, but this time, there was somethingdarker, hungrierbehind it. “You have no idea.”
“Paranoid.”
When he didn’t deny it, she huffed at him. “I can take care of myself, you know. I grew up in the city. Ran with a tough crowd. Guys that like don’t scare me.”
Vector’s gaze lingered on her lips. “You have never met one such as he, love. Trust me.”
She risked a glance back to the bar as the pianist played on. The man was still there, but somehow, with Vector’s hand on her thigh, she could see…more.A dark sludge around the edges, like an aura—or what she imagined an aura would look like. She’d never seen one before. And something seemed to move across his back. Shift.
Like wings.
What the hell?
She blinked and the strangeness was gone. The world around them carried on, oblivious to the quiet, simmering storm building between them.
And Raven, despite every warning her mind screamed at her, moved closer to Vector, to his strength. His heat. His protection.
The strange man was led to his table somewhere deeper in the restaurant and Vector’s shoulders visibly relaxed. Raven decided to shake it off and enjoy the rest of the evening.
“You don’t have to do this,” she muttered. “Take me out. Buy me clothes. I don’t need any of it.”
“I want to.”
Despite herself, she enjoyed the attention. The way he looked at her when she tried on something he liked or took a bite of food from him. She especially loved the way his presence wrapped around her, shielding her from everything else.
