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.

“What… the f**k… is the matter with you?” he asked slowly, his voice still vibrating, the fury still radiating and I blinked.

What?

I didn’t do anything.

And I thought he should know that and not mistake it.

So I yelled it, leaning toward him and everything.

“I didn’t do anything!”

He came at me, fast. I retreated, not as fast. I hit something, went into freefall and my bottom landed sideways in a chair, back to a cushioned armrest, legs over the other one. Knight leaned over me, one hand to the top back of the chair, one hand in the seat beside me, face an inch from mine.

God, God, God, he was scaring the hell out of me.

Why was he angry? At me!

“You put on that dress, didn’t you?” he whispered and it was sinister.

“What?” I whispered back.

“You… do not… leave your house… dressed like that… without being on the arm of a man like me,” he ground out on a terrifying staccato with scary pauses.

“A man like you?” I whispered.

“A man who’d shoot another man in the face he even looked at you. Yeah, Anya, a man… like… me.”

He meant that. He meant that. Every word. God, he meant every word of that.

“Knight, you’re scaring me.”

Yep, still whispering.

“Good,” he bit out, his eyes moved over my face for a while then he growled, “Fuck me. Fuck me. Fuck… me.”

What now?

No, no. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want VIP vouchers either even though I could possibly sell them on the internet for half the cost of opening up a mountain retreat spa.

I just wanted to go.

Now.

“Can you move up so I can get up and get out of here?” I requested cautiously.

“Tomorrow, I’m giving you breakfast. I’ll pick you up at nine.”

I blinked.

Then, yes still whispering, “Pardon?”

“You heard me.”

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Bullshit. Nine. You say no again I’m givin’ you breakfast anyway but only because tonight, all night, until morning, you’re tied to my bed.”

There it was. The whole body shiver I wasn’t sure was good, as in very, very good or bad as in very, very bad.

“Knight,” I breathed.

“Nine.”

“I have a client at eleven,” I blurted and his head jerked as his brows shot together.

“A client?”

“Acrylics. Um… fake nails. Standing appointment every two weeks. Her name is Shirley,” I explained though went overboard on the information because I was freaking out.

He stared at me and I felt my entire body heat from the infuriated blaze coming from his eyes.

Then he said, “Lunch, one.”

Oh God.

“Knight –” I repeated.

“Lunch, Anya, one. You come to me. My place. I don’t get a call up at one, the boys find you and bring you to me.”

He meant that too. God, he meant every word.

“You’re scaring me,” I told him quietly and honestly.

“Good, then you’ll do what the f**k I say,” he bit back. “Now, I’m gonna go, send up a drink and you’re gonna drink it while you wait for me to find a man I trust to take you out back so no man’s eyes are on you as you walk through my club. He’s gonna put your ass in a car and take you home. He’s walkin’ you to your door. He’s also doin’ a walkthrough of your place. You give him shit, he’ll tell me and I’ll punish you. Are you with me?”