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He laughed and then looked her up and down like he couldn’t quite figure out if she was joking or not. “Of course you can see these. You’re a devotee. But you’re showing yours off to everyone. I know for certain because those men asked about your prominent display. I heard it over the music all the way across the club. What do you have to say for yourself, wildling?”
Erin’s tolerance for this discussion of shadow and innuendo had come to an end. “I said,Daniel, take your fucking hand off of me. Now. Or I’ll remove it for you.”
“I’m not the type to back down, sweetheart.” His grin transformed into a grimace, his grip twisting her wrist, pain spiraling up her arm. “You need to hide your markings now, or I’ll report you. Heck, I’m going to report you anyway, but how I pitch the report? Well, that’s entirely up to you.”
His glancing leer toward her slight cleavage left Erin dropping her mouth open in shock. “I’m afraid we’re not destined to get along.” Despite the pain in her wrist, she used it and her shoulder to press him against the back wall of the booth, leveraging off her left leg. Surprised, he released his grip, and once again tried to slither out of her presence, but she had him pinned. “I gave you fair warning, didn’t I?” Erin’s lips brushed from the corner of his lips up his cheek to his ear. Anyone watching might have confused the moment for a sexual overture.
They’d have been mistaken.
“I should warn you, little lady, I’m a renowned fighter. It’s rare that anyone bests my skills.”
His bluster was at odds with the way he continued to try to squirm out from under her. Erin straddled him in the booth, preventing his escape. “You manhandled me. Such behavior isn’t allowed.” Why Erin couldn’t back off this nonnegotiable point, she didn’t know. He’d crossed a line and she wouldn’t, couldn’t, back down.
“Fine.” Disgust rolled off his features, wrinkling his nose, curling his lips in an unattractive snarl. “But not here, have some decorum! Pick a time, a place, and I’ll meet your terms. I’m honorable when challenged.”
She barked a laugh right into his ear. “You already picked it. You should know better when dealing with, what did you call me? A wild one? A wildling?” she spat at him.
Grabbing his shirt by the lapels, she stood in the booth and dragged him out, despite his roar of protest and attempts to dig in his heels. Although he far outweighed her. Standing up, Erin could tell he had the hefty but lithe build of a wrestler. She’d been able to pull him out without too much trouble. Perhaps because of the slick surface of the vinyl seat?
His face had darkened with rage by the time she tossed him to the floor, but he had her by the shirt, and took her down with him, where they fell to a heap.
Erin had never been much of a scrapper, and in seconds, Daniel had rolled them over and pinned her arms to the dirty, sticky floor. “Your ways aren’t fit for the city,Lola. You should run back to the hills where behaving like a madwoman will be tolerated.”
His words lanced through her, and Erin knew in that moment she wasn’t insane. She hadn’t imagined what had happened. She couldn’t explain it, but it had been more than a dream.
The bonfire. The satyrs. The nymphs. The man with the amber eyes. The bruising kiss.The Vessel.
Somehow, all of it had been real.
Which meant she’d changed. Daniel knew what it meant better than she. Erin didn’t understand the depths, yet she felt the power of the wine coursing through her veins and understood it as truth.
With a sigh, she released her doubts, her questions, and gave herself over to the profound sensations beating in her chest, spreading through her entire body. At once, Erin experienced the same energetic high as she had danced around the bonfire. Her body hummed with power, and by the flicker of fear furrowing the brow of the man above her, he sensed it as well.
“Didn’t I warn you about handling me improperly?” Erin pouted, and then drew up her legs and used her leverage with one knee to fling him off her sideways. He rolled to the side, but maintained his grip on her wrists. Erin used the momentum to bunch up and narrow the angle of her wrists, forcing him to continue the roll onto his back and then punched him under the collarbones, at which point he finally released his grip.
For a tough guy, he laid there stunned and breathless. Erin pushed her advantage, kneeling onto his gut and landing a series of all-too-satisfying punches across his jaw, chest, defending arms, even shoulders. In a matter of moments, his eyes were rolling back in his head, and yet her anger only was stoked further.
Thick fingers laced around her arms, and Erin broke out of her destructive trance. Hauled up and off Daniel, Bono the bouncer held her back to his front, her feet dangling in the air, but Erin didn’t fight him. She had no beef with the man who’d intervened and saved her from more than one patron who’d crossed the line. Charlie stepped in and helped Daniel to his feet, while Bono set her back down on hers, although he didn’t release his grip. Not that she blamed him. Her knuckles still itched to swing toward her opponent.
Daniel recovered remarkably well, and spoke to an irate Charlie in hushed tones, his arm wound around him, and their backs turned away from Erin and Bono.
“What’s wrong, Lola?” Bono whispered into her ear above the din of the music.
She dug the toe of her shoe into the painted vinyl of the floor. “He’s an asshole.”
Bono grumbled out a laugh. “He’s a VIP, honey. Comes with the territory. I admire your fire, but this was not a viper you should have tangled with.”
“But I won.”
He snorted. “Youneverwin with them.”
Erin sighed, frustrated over having the trouncing cut short. “I will. Perhaps not today, but he’ll get what’s due.”
Charlie and Daniel turned, icy glares matching the hardened posture of their bodies. When Charlie spoke to her, all semblance of any prior camaraderie they’d shared was nonexistent.
“Needless to say, you’re fired. Bono will walk you out. If you even step inside this club again, I will get the security forces to arrest you for prostitution. Is that understood?”
Cold fury flared through Erin over his baseless claims, but she knew he could make it happen. The smug look on Daniel’s face behind him, although bruised and beaten, left little doubt. How long would it take her to find another job like this? Would Charlie spread the word to other clubs that she’d be trouble and prevent them from hiring her? Erin bit her lip. The consequences weighed on her slumped shoulders.
