“I know why you’re here, Wolfe,” Trinity said as I came to a stop beside her at the balcony that overlooked the Hunting Grounds—otherwise known as level two of the den. There were five floors in all, and each catered to a different sort of fantasy fulfillment. The patrons below were still feeling each other out, quite literally, not quite ready to take things up a notch.
“It’s my club. I’m welcome to be anywhere I choose.”
Trinity smirked. “I know you’ve seen him, which means it’s in your best interest to turn around and go back upstairs.”
Spreading my hands out along the black iron of the balcony that overlooked the crowd below, I shook my head. “I don’t recall asking your opinion.” Then I pinned her with a look that said I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “You’re not above being fired.”
Trinity stared right back. “My opinion is one of the many reasons you keep me around. Who else will stand up to you? Or keep your pups in line?” she said, her gaze going back down below. “He’s way too sweet and innocent for the likes of you, whether you want to hear it or not. I can see his blush from here.”
“Duly noted.”
“You’re going to go after him anyway, aren’t you?”
I stayed silent, as opposed to lying further, because I wasn’t actually sure what my intentions had been when I followed him down there. All I’d known was that I needed a second look at him.
“Do you need me to remind you—”
“No. I don’t,” I said, cutting Trinity off before she could launch into all the reasons this was a truly bad idea. But there was no denying my interest in the fair-haired man below, so there was no use in me trying. “What do you know about him?”
Trinity looked back to the crowd below, and her eyes found the young man. He was standing beside the guy he’d been with up in the bar, and he looked about as uncomfortable in the Hunting Grounds as I would be standing in the middle of a church. Nothing shocking about that, though. An angel never looked right in a place full of sin. Just as the devil would stand out amongst all that was holy.
“Wolfe…”
“What do you know about him?” I said, and faced her. “I won’t ask you again.”
She frowned but then reluctantly gave me what I wanted: “His name is Jesse Clark, twenty-two years old, just graduated from Westport University with a degree in archaeology. He came tonight with Brayden Fairchild. And again—I must stress this point—he is not for you.”
Without a word, I turned back to the railing just in time to see his friend, Brayden, walk off with a man and woman, leaving the little lamb in a room full of hungry wolves. I braced my hands back on the rail to keep myself from heading to the stairs that led down to the main floor, and told myself to listen to Trinity.
She was right. He was too sweet. Too innocent. And way too young for me—sixteen years younger, in fact. There was no way I was going to go down there and put myself in his path.
As I resolved myself to that decision and was about to head back upstairs to the safety of my office, I spotted Sean King, one of the resident dominants, step up behind Jesse and brush his hand over his ass. My hands curled around the iron bars into fists, as I watched the object of my fixation jerk around and come face to face with the pompous dick.
As the two of them exchanged words, I could tell by the stiff set of Jesse’s shoulders that he was not interested in King, which shouldn’t have pleased me half as much as it did. And when Jesse finally turned around about to walk away from the man who liked to think he ruled supreme on the nights I was nowhere in sight, he looked up at the balcony, and I quickly darted out of sight. My cock hardened in an instant at the wide-eyed curiosity in those eyes. I wanted to draw him to me and defile him right then and there.
King chose that inopportune moment to make another move on the little lamb, reaching for his arm to haul him around once more, and a feral sound left my throat.
“Get him out of here,” I said to Trinity, who I knew still stood behind me. “He doesn’t belong in this crowd.” She didn’t have to ask who. The odd one out was the one in the most danger—from me and everyone else around him.
“Jesse, there you are.”
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Brayden, his lips swollen and bruised, but there was a huge grin on his face. His jacket was gone, and he was quickly unbuttoning the rest of his shirt.