The cocktail waitress came scurrying. It was then I saw the bouncer who was hovering was now at the end of the dais, another black-suited bouncer was standing on the floor under him, he had his hands up to cup around his mouth and he was yelling something.

“What are you drinking?”

I tore my eyes from the bouncer, sucked in breath and looked at Nick.

“Sparkling water,” I ordered.

“Fuck, you f**kin kidding me?” he bit out.

Okay, that was the wrong answer.

He looked at the waitress. “Get her a cosmo. Me, Hennessy, Paradis.”

Her eyes bugged out a second before she pulled it together, obviously having witnessed the scene or just knowing Nick, and she scurried away.

Nick looked at me and announced, “Your friend’s a pain in my ass.”

She was a pain in mine too. Then again, at that moment, so was he.

I decided not to answer.

“Fuck, she thinks she can make me come and she owns me?” he asked.

I had no answer for that either, though, I had to admit, he was a screaming jerk but he was kind of right.

“You’re also a pain in my ass,” he declared.

What did I do?

I didn’t ask. First, I didn’t want to know. Second, I was trying not to throw up and/or have a heart attack and I thought both were priorities.

“Only way I know your honey isn’t locked up in ironclad panties is I’d see ‘em through that f**kin’ dress. Jesus, do you f**k anybody?” he asked.

“Um…” I mumbled but said no more mostly because this was none of his business, partly because I had, indeed, hit a long, dry spell and lastly because he was scaring the heck out of me.

I watched him pull a hand through his hair and it hit me that he slightly resembled his brother but not much. They both had black hair with a bit of wave in it but Nick kept his perfectly cut and styled with product. Nick also had blue eyes but they were nowhere near as vibrant as Knight’s. He was at least two inches shorter but still tall. And although Nick was built, he was slighter of frame.

Their facial features, however, were not the same. Not at all. Nick was handsome but he didn’t pack the punch of Knight’s pure, aggressive, masculine beauty. Not even close.

He dropped his hand and looked at me.

“Fucked up,” he muttered.

“What?” I whispered and he watched my mouth move which was uncomfortable but considering the fact I was whispering in a club, if he didn’t lip read, he’d have no idea what I said.

He leaned in and repeated, “I f**ked up.” Then he went on, “With you. That scene. Fucked up.”

Yeah he did.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said back, this time louder so he could hear me. “Let’s just have this drink then I’ll, uh… go and, uh… check on things.”

His eyes held mine and I noticed the anger had leaked out of his. “What’s it take with you?”

I felt my eyebrows draw together. “Pardon?”

He leaned further in and I tried not to lean back because he seemed not to be angry anymore but I didn’t want to test it.

“What’s it take with you? Dinner?” he asked.

Oh God, please, do not ask me out. Please, please, please.

I was considering the option of informing him I was a lipstick lesbian, concerned about the fact this might turn him on more, when I felt it.

That swell of frightening, searing, vibrating heat.

I knew the feel of that so I knew he was coming.

Nick did too because his body jerked, his head whipped around and mine did as well, to see Knight stalking up to us, face a mask of unadulterated fury, eyes on his brother.

He stopped in front of Nick, chin tipped down, eyes scorching and I froze.

“Knight –” Nick started.

“You put your hands on a woman in my club?” Knight asked, his voice vibrating with that same heat he was radiating.

I debated the merits of inching away when Nick started again, “Knight –”

That was all he got out because suddenly, Nick wasn’t sitting next to me. Suddenly, Nick was out of his seat and flying across the dais. He slammed into the back of a couple of guys and some girls who all went down with him.

I jumped from the seat.

Knight’s head snapped around so his eyes could pin me to the spot which they absolutely did.

“Do not move,” he growled.

I stopped moving.

He looked back at Nick and so did I to see him getting up, three bouncers closing in, the people he took down with him also slowly coming to their feet and Nick’s entire VIP dais posse beating a hasty retreat.

“Lesson,” Knight clipped to one of the bouncers, the bouncer nodded and put hands on a now pale-faced Nick and instantly dragged him to the steps as another of the bouncers followed. Knight kept talking. “Find Anya’s friends. They don’t have a car, escort them home. They do, escort them to their car. And VIP vouchers. Now.”

Wow, that was nice. VIP vouchers at Slade. Everyone knew what that meant. Your own dais for you and your friends, your own cocktail waitress, your own bouncer and if you carried the voucher card, you drank for free.

I was thinking this therefore when Knight’s hand closed around mine hard, scrunching my fingers together somewhat painfully, it came as a shock.

I had no time to respond to this mostly because now I was being dragged to the steps. He didn’t release the pressure on my hand and I was working hard not to fall as well as keep up with him, so I didn’t make a peep as he prowled down the steps with me in tow. Then he prowled through the crowd around the dais, shoving them aside without hesitation. Then he prowled to the back of the club toward a door. A bouncer standing beside it opened it before we arrived and I saw it led to some lit stairs. Then we were through it and I was climbing the stairs, clamoring after a very swiftly moving Knight.

“Knight!” I snapped. “Slow down! I can’t keep up.”

Mistake. He jerked my hand as he turned and I started falling. He caught me, swinging me up in his arms as I cried out in shock and grabbed on like I did the night he carried me over the coats. Then we were up the stairs, he dipped down, opened a door and walked through. Then he slammed me down on my feet, hard, the movement jarring me and he closed the door. The music that was muted when we walked into the stairs disappeared completely when the door closed and I found myself facing down a seriously angry, seriously terrifying Knight Sebring in a private office to the strains of what sounded to my uncultured ears like Beethoven.