Spin smelled him before she felt him. A sweaty clubber had stepped up behind her and was matching her moves. The problem was that she didn’t want a partner.
Not on the dance floor. Not later outside the club at a rundown ducal estate. She was a loner. She was used to being on her own. It was better that way.
Spin turned around to tell the guy slipping into her personal space to take a hike. She met with empty air where the sweaty clubber should’ve been. Instead, he was on the ground. Zhi towered over him, a menacing look on his aristocratic features.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” Zhi shouted over the music. He hadn’t needed to shout. The warning radiated from his face.
“I was just dancing.” The man started to get up. Then thought better of it and stayed down.
The music didn’t die down, but the dancing did. All eyes in the club were on the scene of the threesome. It was more attention that Spin hadn’t wanted.
She turned and marched away from the prying eyes. Passing the DJ booth and speakers, she headed toward the back of the club. Once the heat of the stares was off her back, and the music volume was a distant thud, she took a deep breath. But she wasn’t alone.
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
Zhi’s hands were on her shoulders. His fingertips grazed the exposed skin there, and she shuddered. Spin whirled to face him, taking a step back and out of his embrace as she did so.
“What is wrong with you?” she shouted.
Aristocratic brows dipped down in annoyance at her. “He had his hands on you.”
“We were dancing.”
“You didn’t look like you wanted him there. Or did I read that wrong?”
No, he’d read it right. He’d read her right. That wasn’t the issue. “I don’t need rescuing.”
His brows softened, but the frown of confusion stayed in place. “I never said you did.”
“I do fine on my own. I don’t need some duke in shining armor coming into my world to protect me. I can fight my own battles.”
It was a low blow. One he could interpret as being aimed at his mother. It could have been. But Spin’s true aim had been at her own mother. Whether Zhi knew her intention or not, his voice softened when he reached out to her.
“I think you’re the strongest woman I know.”
It was his thumb brushing across her cheek that broke her. A single tear slid down her cheek. Zhi caught it with his thumb. He tilted her chin up so that she was staring into his eyes, eyes that saw everything. She was no longer hiding, and neither was he.
His descent was slow. At the last second, he veered from her lips, and his lips brushed her cheek, tracing the trail of the tear. Slowly, he moved over until his lips met hers. He gave her ample time and space to get away.
She should’ve run. It was what she was good at. But her feet refused.
For the first time in her life, Spin stopped running and held still. She felt something she’d never felt before, contentment. She’d be content to stand in this spot for the rest of her life waiting for this man to kiss her.
She’d have to wait a longer time. A millimeter before his lips met hers, a breath before she knew the wonder of his taste, Zhi pulled away.
He let out a long sigh. But he didn’t let her go. He pulled her into the cradle of his arms. He bent down to rest his face in the crook of her neck, breathing her in.
“I should not have done that,” he said. “That was weak of me.”
Spin felt weak herself. She didn’t have the strength to hold her walls up any longer. They were all crumbling down for this man. She had never understood how her mother had left herself so vulnerable for one man, until this moment.
She was going to kiss the Duke of Mondego. If he asked her to stay in Cordoba longer, she was going to say yes. If he asked her out on a date, she was going to go. She might even wear a dress.
“I used to think my mother was weak.” Zhi made the admission at the cone of Spin’s ear. “For taking every insult, every …” He drew in a shaky breath. “Every blow from that monster. It took me a long time to see that he was the one who was weak.”
It wasn’t kissing time yet. It was confession time. Spin let out a slow breath, finding the patience as well as the courage to admit her own truth.
“You never know what makes them stay,” she said. “Especially when you want them to leave the monster so badly.”