Something in my neck cracked, loudly. I scrambled to recover, gripping the pick as I jammed it home… but just as suddenly I held nothing but air.
Damn.
He moved with astonishing speed, spinning from the bed and reaching for a switch on the wall. The bedchamber erupted with light. I squinted hard, holding my weapon out before me, waiting for a quick lunge that never came.
The giant standing across from me was a well-muscled Adonis. He stood at least six and a half-feet tall, with dark hair and a matching beard. His jaw was angular, his shoulders massive. So were his arms… his chest…
“Open your mouth,” I growled, gripping the pick with both hands. I shook it his way. “Now!”
He looked back at me in total confusion.
“Show me your teeth!”
He opened slowly, curling his lips back as I peered inside. I counted two big incisors, among his top row of bright white teeth.
But neither one of them were gold.
“DAMN,” I swore, dropping my arms. A rush of disappointment surged in, joining the adrenaline. “You’re not Xander Kyrkos!”
“Could’ve told you that,” said the burly stranger. “In fact, I did tell you that.”
The man made no motion forward, no threatening moves in my direction. Instead, he began pulling his clothes back on. I dropped the pick and smoothed my dress down, suddenly very aware of my nakedness.
“So where is he?” he demanded.
“Who?”
“Kyrkos!”
Now it was my turn to be confused. “I— I don’t know,” I said. “He was being brought here. I mean, I arranged it so that I was being brought to him… And… and…”
“You’re not his concubine?”
Concubine. It seemed like an odd word. The strangest word in the whole fucking world.
“Hell no.”
“Then why are you here?”
He was handsome as all hell — gorgeous even. And young too. Much too young to be Kyrkos, although in the heat and the darkness this wasn’t something I ever could’ve realized.
Not to mention having him behind me the whole time.
“I…”
I hesitated, looking again at the dark, gorgeous stranger. This stranger who’d just fucked me. A man who’d fucked me hard enough, and well enough, to actually make me come… even though I despised him for who I’d expected him to be.
Then, staring back at him, I realized something.
He didn’t expect to find you here either, the little voice in my mind spoke up. He’s just as surprised as you are.
It was definitely a holy shit moment.
“You’re here for him too,” I breathed, in sudden understanding. “Xander Kyrkos.”
He was looking at the ice pick now. His eyes scanning back and forth between it and me.
“Yes.”