Someone said something about scorpions and a house somewhere. Or a club. Someone was talking about a club while someone else was talking about someone’s house? I shook my head as I tried making sense of it. I stole a glance over at Fangs, who had his eyes closed as his head slowly bobbed up at down.
As if their gibberish were fluent English to him.
“Fangs, do you know what they’re—”
He shot me a look. “Didn’t I say to shut up?”
I balked. “Not in so many words, you son of a bitch.”
He rushed me, cupping his hand over my mouth. He backed me into the nearest wall and pinned me to it with his knee pressed between my legs. His heat overcame me. It silenced me, even though I wanted to fight back. Even though I wanted to smack him across the face. And as his twinkling gray eyes stayed locked with my stare, the mumbling men above us seeming to agitate him. He ground his teeth together. His face turned red as he slowly moved his hand away from my lips. And when he took a step away from me, I found myself wanting to reach out and pull him back.
In another world, if we hadn’t been trapped together in that nasty basement, maybe I would have done something about the distance between our bodies. Maybe I would have rushed him and kissed him, forcing him back to me with nothing but the tip of my tongue against the slit of his cute little thin lips. But as their mumbled voices fell away, we were left to our silence before Fangs pierced it with his soft roar of a voice. Like a growing flame at the end of a candle.
Just as those heavy footfalls made their way toward the basement door again.
“Stay behind me. Don’t do anything without my permission and don’t scream. Got it?”
Fangs’s voice ripped me out of my trance. “What?”
He turned toward me, and his stare grew dark. “Two men bring you dinner, right? Always two men?”
I nodded. “How long was I asleep?”
“Do you really want to know?”
I swallowed hard. “No.”
“Then do as I ask and not a thing more. Understood?”
I drew in a broken breath. “But—but how do you know that? About the guys? And dinner?”
Fangs snickered. “Because they really are stupid enough, that’s why.”
I had no idea what in the hell he was talking about. How did he know all of this? He’d only spent one night down there with me! The footsteps grew closer to the basement stairs. They guffawed as they paused just outside the basement door. I watched their shadows like a hawk as Fangs crept silently toward the bottom of the steps. And as I rushed to get behind him, he froze.
So, I did as well.
“Hey! You two! Over here for a second!”
One of the guys shifted, and so did his shadow. “We gotta feed these little shits real quick.”
“Oh, I’m the little shit?” I whispered.
“Shut up, or you’ll get us both killed,” Fangs grumbled.
I rolled my eyes, but I also curled my lips over my teeth to keep from firing back at him. The men kept talking amongst themselves, their voices mounting higher and higher. Giving us a perfect idea of what they were talking about. Fangs tilted his ear toward the staircase as his gaze fell to the floor, as if he were committing everything they said to memory.
And as the voices faded away, Fangs cursed beneath his breath.
“Shit.”
I blinked. “What?”
He turned to face me. “Let’s give it a few minutes. Dinner’s going to be late tonight.”
“Why? How do you know that?”
He shot me a look before turning his back to me. “I just do, okay?”
