“You’re lucky,” Han informed her. “Lucky I saved you from that fate.”
Several beats of shocked silence passed, but then she rallied again with a prideful, “I would never have allowed that to happen. And how do I know that you’re any better if you’re working for a guy like K Diamond?”
Han still had her wrists in a tight vice grip, but that accusation was a punch across his face. “I said he was a boss. I did not say he was the boss of me. I am a Dragon.”
“A Dragon,” she repeated, her lovely brown eyes flashing. “Then why are you here if you’re not cut from the same asshole cloth as him?”
Yet another question Han couldn’t easily answer. So he didn’t. “We don’t have time for this,” he told her, scanning the room.
The one good thing Kuang had told him about his son was that he’d managed to get an extortion side hustle going here at Aloha Ballers. Basically, he taped married politicians and businessmen who decided to take him up on his free offer of a few hours in the VIP Champagne room with one of his “best girls.” So there had to be a camera hidden somewhere inside here.
Han stopped his scan at the TV and the small blinking red light above it. He bet that was it. And he bet Kuang Jr. was watching them right now as they argued. Han positioned the woman so that her back was to the TV, then he said, “Strip down to your underwear.”
Her eyes once again flashed with that hot anger. Han was beginning to suspect it always lurked close to her surface. “What is the problem? You were about to agree to take off your clothes for Aloha Ballers anyway.”
“Yeah, like, tomorrow, up on a stage, after drinking down some liquid courage and smoking a joint. There’s no way in hell I’m—” she began to say, tugging at her wrists.
He cut her off right there. “K Diamond is not my boss. But we are on his territory. If he thinks I am not completely serious about wanting you for myself, then he and his men will take you from me and do whatever they wish with you.”
She once again stopped struggling. Han could tell she was finally beginning to understand what kind of predatory world she’d stumbled into like an unknowing deer. And what would happen if she didn’t play along.
However, guilt rolled his stomach when the angry fire blinked out of her eyes and was replaced by fear.
She finally understood the stakes, but Han didn’t like this. He hated that they’d met under these circumstances instead of in some legitimate nightspot where Han could make a game of seducing her into his bed. Nonetheless…
“We need to put on a show,” he said, leaning down to murmur in her ear because Han knew it would look like he was seducing her on camera. “We need to make him think I want you so bad that I brought you straight back here to play with you. Otherwise, he’s not going to accept the deal. So it’s up to you….”
Han let go of her wrists then so that she knew the next choice was all hers. “Play in here with me. Or take your chances with K Diamond.”
4
JAZZ
Play in here with me. Or take your chances with K Diamond.
The thing was, I used to be good at running. I’d turned down several track scholarships and skipped college to pursue my pro surfing career. That had been in all my promotional materials when I was on the circuit, how I’d been particularly great at catching up to my opponents and overtaking them at the end of a race.
However, I didn’t feel fast right now. My mind scrambled and scrambled, but it couldn’t catch up.
I guess he took my lack of movement as me making my choice.
He wrapped his arms around me, gathering me in close. So close, my skin prickled with goosebumps. Whatever cologne he was wearing didn’t make me want to hurl inside my mouth. It was cool and brisk, a winter day paying a visit to Hawaii.
“I must claim you,” he murmured in my ear, stroking my back. “That is how this world works. Do you understand?”
My heart dropped to my belly. What? He had to claim me? Claim me like a car from the valet at the Tourmaline Waikiki, the luxury hotel I worked at back in high school?
I gritted my teeth, memories of Brad coming over to string an arm around my shoulders during interviews swirling in the back of my mind. “Nobody…nobody claims me. Nobody treats me like I’m property.”
The stroking hand abruptly stopped. “The alternative is working for Kuang Jr. to pay back your father’s debt.”
“Kuang Jr.?” I asked with a shake of my head.
“That’s what I call K Diamond behind his back. He will not be nearly as nice as me—especially after you punched him. You might have wanted to wait until tomorrow to begin working for him, but he wouldn’t have given you that courtesy. If you want us to walk out of this club without him stopping you, you’ll need to do as I tell you.”
