The handsome stranger raised his brows. “I’ll ask you once more. Did you put something in her drink?”
“Yes. A sedative.” I gasped, leaping forward to slap the shit out of the bastard, but my handsome watchdog stopped me, gripping my hand in his strong one.
“I don’t want you to sully your precious skin on such filth. It’s already disgusting that he put his hands on you.” I tried to control the urge to jump into his arms. I was turning into a horny mess. His fingers ran over my wrist, stroking my pulse. With his other hand he snapped his fingers, and then two men came up and snatched the man from behind the bar.
“What are you doing?” a woman in an elegant gown that cost more than my annual salary said.
“Replacing your bartender. He’s faulty,” he stated without waiting for her approval.
She didn’t argue. In fact, she sighed, but nodded and then said, “Very well. Can’t have a night like tonight ruined. At least try not to make a scene.”
“Layla, take over.” A woman in a pretty silver gown got behind the bar, who immediately looked at my rescuer with hungry eyes.
“What would you like?” she asked me.
“Suddenly, I’m not thirsty anymore. I think I’ll call it a night,” I replied, my stomach twisting with anxiety. I could have been drugged.
My knight intertwined our fingers as if that would stop me from leaving, and I hated to say it was working. “I hope I didn’t scare you off.”
I shook my head and looked around the room, avoiding his gaze as I spoke. “No. Thank you for your help, but I’m over my head and I’d rather not be here.” He was dangerously powerful, and I wasn’t even talking about the way he controlled the situation. He had my body at attention, and if I wasn’t careful, he’d have so much more. I’d never been in a serious relationship, and a man like him didn’t give the vibe that he did that kind of thing.
He released my fingers from his grasp, and I started to walk away, but he wasn’t having it. He took my hand in his, pulling me gently back to his broad chest. I didn’t resist, even though my brain was screaming for me to run. My nose brushed against his expensive suit and I breathed him in. The man smelled so incredible up close. Even at a party filled with expensive colognes and perfumes, his scent engulfed me in the best of ways.
He leaned down and pressed his lips against the shell of my ear. “Don’t leave, little treasure.”
I twisted my head and smiled up at the magnetic man in front of me and tried to ignore the way my pulse shot up from his touch. “Staying could be dangerous.” The words that had been in my head fell effortlessly and truthfully from my lips.
“I’ll protect you,” he insisted. From the show that I witnessed, he was telling the truth. I was physically safe from this man, but would I be emotionally safe?
He pulled me toward the dance floor as the music moved to a soft rhythmic beat. Perfect for slow movement with firm bodies pressed up against each other and that’s what he did. His large palm lay flat against the small of my back and pulled me right up against every plane of his taut body.
“Who is going to protect me from you?” I challenged, tossing a red-lipped smirk at him as I peered up at him through my dark mascara-rimmed lashes.
“You don’t need protection from me.”
I arched my brow and gave a light, sardonic laugh. The way he held me close, a part of me believed it and another knew he could crush me.
“I wouldn’t harm a single hair on your pretty head.”
“There are more ways to wound than physical, sir.”
He slid his huge hand under my chin, demonstrating the massive size difference between us. He could easily take me away, and I bet no one in this place would stop him. Hell, I wouldn’t even stop him. “Again, you don’t have to worry about that.”
I smiled at his handsome face and brushed my hand quickly against his chiseled jaw. “You’re right, because we only have tonight.”
His brow arched as his lips twisted in a questioning smirk. He gripped the back of my neck, tipping my head as he leaned in. “Why is that? Are you leaving the country?”
“No. Because one night is all I want and all I’m willing to give.” That had been the truth before he put his hands on me.
“You won’t be saying that in the morning.”
“Yes, I will,” I stated. This man was everything I wasn’t, and I couldn’t handle that. My brain screamed at me to run, but tonight I wasn’t operating with all my faculties. Maybe it was the few drinks I’d already consumed, or perhaps it was the titan of a man I was clinging to. “Tell me who you are, gorgeous.”
I shook my head and bit my lip. “No. No names. I’ve spent my life playing safe. Now I just want to let everything be. No names, just fun and free for one night.”
He slid his hand along my jaw and to the back of my head, cradling my skull. His fingers laced into my hair, and then he gave it a tug. “Fine. If you’re not sharing names, then we need to leave because everyone knows my name. Tit for tat.”
“You’re the host?” I asked with a concerned gasp. This man was more powerful than I’d imagined and that meant he was Magnus Masterson, the oil tycoon out of Texas.
