“Oh my god!” My hands fly up and cover my face as I stare in horror as Bast’s face whips to the side. When he turns around, blood is spurting from his nose and dripping down his face.
I want to rush over, but some of the girls I was dancing with hold me by my arms. I need to make sure he’s okay.
But Bast gives the guy a feral grin, blood staining the edges of his teeth. He has two good punches in before the guy even reacts, then they’re toppling to the floor. Bast has the advantage on top and rains punches down on the guy, who tries to buck him off to no avail.
Everyone around us is screaming and shouting, forming a circle around the duo until two massive security guards push through the crowd and separate them.
Bast pays them no mind. “Next time, keep your hands off my woman. And if she tells you to let her go, you do!” His face is red and angry and covered in blood that’s now smeared everywhere, but all I can focus on are the words that have come out of his mouth.
My woman.
The bouncers push the drunk guy toward the back door and Bast toward the front. I follow, stopping quickly to grab my bag from the table. The bouncer pushes Bast out the front door, and he immediately whirls around to make sure I’m there.
“Are you okay?” I raise my hand to his face but don’t actually touch him in case it will hurt.
“I’m fine.” He pulls his phone from his pocket and taps on the screen. “Uber will be here in two minutes. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m not the one who just got in a fight.”
His brows drop low. “He had his hands all over you.”
Is he mad at me? “I thought it was you behind me. As soon as I knew, I tried to get him to let go.”
He runs his hand down my back. “I know.”
The Uber pulls up along the curb, and Bast opens the door for me. When he slides in the back seat beside me, the driver looks as though he’s about to protest, but Bast slides him a hundred-dollar bill. The driver takes it without a word and turns back around.
Bast’s quiet the entire drive back to the condo, so I follow his lead and say nothing. When he doesn’t say anything on the elevator ride up, I worry that maybe he’s angry with me.
As soon as the condo door closes behind us, he heads for his room. I stand for a moment, debating what I should do.
“Forget this.” I’m not going to let him sulk or whatever he’s doing and shut me out.
I slide off my shoes, then stomp down the hall until I reach his bedroom. He’s just exiting the en suite, having washed the blood off his face.
“If you’re mad at me, just come out and say it.”
He looks at me, eyes narrowed. “I’m not mad at you.” He reaches behind his head and pulls his shirt forward and off his body.
“Then why aren’t you speaking to me?”
His jaw clenches, and a rush of air leaves his lungs. “Because I’m trying to calm myself down. I’m worked up, and I don’t want to take it out on you. I need to purge this adrenaline from my system somehow.” He walks into his closet. “I’m going to change and go work out.”
Relief swamps me that he doesn’t think I was doing anything intentionally to upset him. My mind flashes back to how angry he was and how affected he was by another man paying me attention, and I get an idea of what Renee and Paige were talking about when they said they feel powerful on stage. I brought out that reaction in him, which is a turn-on, and suddenly I get an idea.
I follow Bast into the massive walk-in closet to find him pulling his workout clothes out of a drawer in the center island. “I can think of other ways for you to work it out of your system.” I bite my bottom lip.
Bast glances at me, then does a double-take. “If I fucked you right now, I’d probably split you in two, Hattie.”
I saunter over to him, exaggerating the sway of my hips the same way I’ve seen the dancers at the club do. “What if you didn’t fuck me?”
The curse word feels foreign on my tongue, but Bast’s eyes light with pleasure at hearing me use it.
He swallows audibly. “What did you have in mind?”
Not answering him, I drop to my knees when I’m only a few feet away.
A hum of approval leaks out from low in his throat. “Have you ever done this before?”
