“Is this how you thank everyone who rescues you, Kitten?” the voice from the phone a minute ago asked.
The sound of it had the fight draining right out of him. Bay dropped his forehead against the cool wall and inhaled and exhaled slowly, the relief palpable. “It’s you.”
“Eyes closed.” The man eased closer, the large palm on his lower back keeping Bay pinned in place against the wall. His heart leapt wildly in his chest, but no matter how scared he was, it was as if he’d been taken over, unable to turn his head to try and catch a glimpse of the person behind him.
Obeying for no real reason other than the feeling of gratitude he felt at having been rescued from Castle.
“Is he…” Bay took another stuttering breath and tried again. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“Your coworker is on something,” the stranger informed him. “He’s still hard even unconscious.”
Unconscious. So no, Castle wasn’t dead.
That was good.
Wasn’t it?
Although…
“What did you do to him?” Castle wasn’t exactly a tiny person, but whoever was standing behind him, he’d managed to incapacitate him in less than two minutes. “The bathrooms are right next door. Someone will find us soon.”
“Don’t be afraid, Kitten,” the man said, his warm breath fanning against the curve of Bay’s right ear, sending shivers down his spine. “It’s too soon for that. You’ll ruin the game, and I didn’t come here to hurt you.”
Yet. It went unspoken, but Bay could hear the word floating on the air between them anyway.
The man chuckled. “You’re clever. Too bad you’re not better at slinking through the shadows as you believe. Things might have turned out differently for you if you were.”
“What?” Bay licked his dry lips. “What does that mean?”
“You’ll understand eventually.”
“I want to know now.”
“You aren’t ready.”
“I am,” Bay insisted.
“I’m not ready.”
“Why?”
There was a lengthy pause, as though the person was debating over how much they wanted to divulge before the silky voice said, “I didn’t mean to come to you like this tonight. But an opportunity arose wherein I could return the favor and I don’t like to keep things out of balance for longer than they have to be. Now that I’ve done what I came here to do, I should go.”
“Wait.” As far as he was aware, no one owed him any favors, especially not ones that warranted getting involved with an office scuffle. Castle was a garbage person who deserved to have his hands lopped off, but he came from old money with a hefty family name. If he took actual offense to what had transpired here, there was no telling what he’d do to Bay’s rescuer. “I don’t like being left in the dark.”
The man at his back snorted. “Liar.”
He jolted when he felt a hand drop onto his hip and frantically shook his head. “Don’t.”
“Why not?” He didn’t remove his touch, but he didn’t take things any further either, merely letting his fingers rest there over the band of Bay’s dress pants.
“Because,” he blurted before he could change his mind, “there’s already someone I’m interested in.”
“Ah,” the man didn’t sound surprised. “Does this person reciprocate your…interest?”
Bay kept his mouth shut.
“They don’t know,” the man surmised without Bay having to say. “What’s the plan, Kitten? Going to make your move?”
