King’s nostrils flared and his hands clenched into fists.Beast behind him shifted and tensed.“And what is it that I think?”
Tracker, the arrogant arse, he didn’t so much as tense in the face of King’s anger.He gave him a knowing look and spoke in the same measured tone he always used.“The girl begged Loula.”
King frowned at the words that Tracker said so casually.
Nothing fazed Tracker.It was like he’d seen it all, and now he’d lost the ability to get angry or offended.He did his work and he did it well—but he did it all like a ghost, already dead and just biding his time.
Tracker shifted closer and lowered his voice.“Seems she owes money or something.”
The crowd shifted around them, the voices getting rowdy, their words crude.
“Loula tried to talk Kitty out of it,” Tracker continued.
King’s blood ran cold.“Kitty?”
“A maid,” Tracker said.“Pretty girl.Sweet, too.”
A buzzing sound replaced the voices around them, and the world grew startlingly sharp.King’s senses heightened.His muscles bunched and coiled.
His mind’s eye filled with an image of impossibly wide eyes, of soft, creamy skin…of a warm, curvy wonder in his arms before he could right her.
“I know who Kitty is,” he said.
Tracker’s eyes widened slightly at whatever he saw in King’s features.“She’s auctioning off her, uh…her virginity.”
“What?”The bark was too loud and far too angry.
King didn’t do anger.That was what he had Beast for.But it was rage coursing through him now, fury that had him glaring back at the men who dared to look over with unabashed curiosity.“She’s going to dowhat?”
“Want me to put a stop to it?”Beast said.
But before King could answer, it was already happening.There was some movement at the front of the room and Loula’s low voice filled the air.“Good evening, gentlemen.I see you’re all ready and willing,” she cooed.
Laughter followed and King pushed his way forward.As he strode through the men, he took note of who was here.This wasn’t the usual crowd.There were far too many.And most looked like they belonged on the other side of the building with the masks and the darkened rooms.The place where secrets were kept and dirty desires were fed.
Here under the brightly burning candelabra, King could clearly see the greed in their eyes, and he knew without looking the moment that Kitty appeared.Because now that greed turned to lust.
He would tear their throats out.There was no question in his mind.Rules and reason be damned.He would mutilate any man who touched Kitty.
He surged through the last of the men and came to a stop, his breath rushing out of him as if he’d just taken a blow to the gut.
It was his Kitty standing there at the front of the room…and it wasn’t.
Her blonde hair had been curled and it hung down over her shoulders, but that didn’t hide what she had on display.The deep red gown was low cut, showing off her lush tits.The neckline fell at the edges of her shoulders.It gave everyone looking the impression that with one little nudge, with one slip of the shoulder, the bodice would come down and her breasts would spill over.
But what caught him most off guard was the rouge on her cheeks and lips.
She still looked like an innocent—nothing could change that—but her lips looked like those of a siren.Her features and her hair and that gown…
He couldn’t breathe, she was so beautiful.
“Mmm, she’s a pretty picture, all right,” Loula was saying as the men heckled and hounded, numbers already being tossed about as Loula waved them aside.
“I know there are some in this room who have a special taste for the untouched, hmm?”Her seductive tone slid over the crowd, holding them transfixed.
But King was transfixed by Kitty.Her gaze was on the floor at her feet, her hands clasped together so tightly her knuckles were white.
That rage inside of him turned into a living breathing creature, and for a moment he didn’t know how it would come out.