King of Pride (Kings of Sin #2) by Ana Huang

I hardened, my mind alive with fantasies it had no business entertaining. I’d locked my less desirable impulses into foolproof boxes over the years, but one glance at her and the bolts disintegrated like parchment in flames.

Isabella’s laugh carried over the music to my ears. She tilted her head up to look at the man in front of her. Brown hair, ill-fitting shirt, the professionally whitened teeth of a politician or car salesman. Beautiful, my ass. He looked like a fucking douchebag.

My desire morphed into the flinty edge of jealousy. It glinted, one spark away from a fire, when he snaked an arm around her waist and whispered something in her ear.

Isabella must’ve felt the heat of my stare because instead of replying, she turned her head toward me. Our gazes collided, hers bright with surprise, mine undoubtedly dark with emotions I’d rather not examine too closely.

Her smile faded, and I heard the catch of her breath from across the room.

It should’ve been impossible, but I was so attuned to her I could single out her tiniest movement in a club full of people.

Car Salesman said something to her again. She broke our stare, but my feet were already moving, carrying me across the floor and to her side.

“There you are, darling.” I placed a hand on Isabella’s back, right above the asshole’s arm, which was still curled around her waist. My polite smile masked the vicious dose of possessiveness pouring through my blood. “You didn’t tell me you made a new friend.”

The man’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t take his arm off Isabella. “Who the hell are you?”

“Someone who’ll rearrange your already pitiful face if you don’t leave in the next ten seconds,” I said pleasantly. “In case your knockoff Patek Philippe can’t tell the time correctly, that would be right about now.”

Ten seconds was generous. I’d wanted to slam my fist into his jaw the moment I saw him.

Blotches of red formed on his face. “Fuck you. I—”

The man lapsed into silence when my smile sharpened. I didn’t enjoy violence outside the ring, but I would gladly knock his teeth out and feed them to him.

My pulse roared with bloody anticipation.

He must’ve read the intentions scrawled over my face because he quickly dropped his arm, mumbled an excuse, and scurried off.

“What the hell was that?” Isabella demanded. She shrugged off my hand and glared at me. “You scared off my date!”

A muscle ticked in my jaw. “It’s not a date if you didn’t show up with him.”

It occurred to me someone from Valhalla might see us, but my peers didn’t frequent places like this. Even if they did, they would be in the VIP lounge, not on the general dance floor. But honestly, I was too riled up to give a fuck. The entire managing committee could’ve been standing next to us, and I’d still be focused on Isabella.

She canted her chin up. “It is if I leave with him.”

“If that was all it took to scare him away, he doesn’t deserve you,” I said coolly. “If you’d left with him, you would’ve had to endure two minutes of assuredly unsatisfying fornication on a dirty mattress without a bed frame, so you should thank me. Given how he ran off, I doubt he could find enough rhythm to clap along to a basic nursery song, much less make your night worthwhile.”

Isabella’s jaw unhinged. She stared at me for a long moment before dissolving into laughter. “Wow. Fornication? Who talks like that?”

“Am I wrong?”

“I wouldn’t know. Like I said, you scared him off before I could confirm how—” Her sentence broke off in a gasp when I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her to me.

“Do you think you would’ve enjoyed your time with him, Isabella?” I asked softly. “Would you have screamed for him like you did for me when I had my fingers buried inside your sweet little pussy? When you rode my hand until it was soaked with your release? I can still hear your cries, love. Every damn second of every day.”

A dark flush colored her cheeks, swallowing her earlier amusement. Her eyes blazed with a fire that matched the one wreaking havoc on my good sense. “Stop.”

“Stop what?” My free hand slid from her waist to the small of her back. The warmth of her skin seared into my palm, branding me.

“Stop saying things like that.”

The noise should’ve overpowered her breathless words, but I heard her as clearly as if we were in an empty room.

Her throat flexed with a swallow when I grazed my knuckles up the bare expanse of her back. Her dress dipped to just above her waist, and her skin glided like silk beneath my touch.

“Things like what? The truth?” I lowered my head, my mouth brushing the shell of her ear. “If there’s one thing I regret, it’s walking away before we finished what we started in the piano room.”

If we had, maybe the memory of her wouldn’t have tortured me so much the past week. Maybe it would’ve satiated this savage, clawing need to etch myself in her so deeply I was the only man she could think of.

I’d abandoned an evening with my books for a nightclub, for Christ’s sake. If that wasn’t a sign of my irreversible spiral, nothing was.

A shiver rippled through her. Her head fell back when my lips skimmed down to her earlobe and nipped. “Kai…”

The breathy sound of my name on Isabella’s lips snapped whatever control I had left.