She stepped closer to me, her smile flirty and wicked. “So, what will it be, surfer girl? Want Han and me to rock your world?”
The answer to that question was no. Of course, it was no. But as fast as I rushed out of that bathroom, it turned out not to be fast enough.
When I got back to the table, I found Faizan slipping several bills into a leather portfolio. Meanwhile, Han had this triumphant smirk on his face. Like the cat who’d swallowed the bird.
“What are you doing?” I asked Faizan.
He stood up and shot Han an uncomfortable look. “I have decided against dessert.”
“Good idea,” I said, glancing at Han. “Who needs dessert? Or maybe we can get it someplace else.”
If Han was insulted by how obviously I wanted to get away from him, he didn’t show it.
He merely flicked his eyes to Lana, who came cat walking in behind me shortly after my arrival. He asked her something in Cantonese, and she answered with a mocking tilt of her head toward me and a wicked laugh.
I ignored them and said to Faizan, “Please? I don’t want this date to end. Not like this.”
Faizan came to his feet and clasped his hands behind him, like the soldier he used to be.
“I do not wish to embarrass you,” he said, his voice respectful and low. But then he added. “I also do not wish to be involved in a triangle such as the one I suspect is at play here.”
“There is no triangle,” I all but hissed back. “He is nothing to me. Nothing. A client who decided to overstep on Valentine’s Day.”
Faizan’s expression loosened a little with my words. But not with trust. With pity. “I believe you would like that to be true. But can you honestly tell me nothing has happened between the two of you? That this situation we find ourselves in now isn’t because of something left unresolved?”
I opened my mouth, wanting to deny it. But nothing came out.
And Faizan nodded.
“As I suspected, you are too young for me, Jazz. Please, take care of yourself,” he told me, his tone kind but firm.
Then he left.
Left me there with my ruthless mistake.
I turned back to him, my eyes flaming.
“Sit,” he commanded. “You’re making a scene.”
I did as he said, but only because my legs suddenly felt weak.
“What did you say to him?” I demanded. But before he could answer, I decided that wasn’t the right question. “Why are you here? Ruining my Valentine’s Day? And the one good thing that’s happened for me lately?”
He regarded me coldly and answered my question with one of his own. “What part of ‘you belong to me’ did you not understand?”
HAN
Two pairs of eyes regarded Han as if he was crazy.
But Han kept his hard gaze focused on only one of them. Jasmine.
He is nothing to me.
Her words rang in his head as he stared her down, waiting for her to answer his question.
“What is going on here?” Lana asked in Cantonese. “Is she your girlfriend?”
“Leave,” he answered without taking his eyes off Jasmine in her dowdy dress. Had she worn that beauty-muting number just for her SSG soldier?
“But, I thought—” Lana started to protest.
“I said leave,” he repeated in the voice he reserved for his men when they were dangerously close to pissing him off.
Lana left with a huff. And finally, it was just the two of them.
To his surprise, Jasmine didn’t say anything after Lana left. Instead, she just stared at him as if she was still waiting for an answer to her question.
He had one, actually. He’d prepared it soon after seeing her text exchange with the former SSG on his old iPhone. “It’s not a good idea to be seen with other men after I’ve claimed you. If word got back to K Diamond, he could perceive that as an invitation to move in on you.”
She folded her arms and pulled her chin back. “So you’re allowed to date whoever you want, but I have to act like a nun?”
He picked up one of the glasses of wine he had ordered when Jasmine was in the bathroom.
“No one has ever accused my world of being fair,” he informed her before taking a sip.
She considered his words. Then came back with, “I don’t believe you. I don’t think this is still about K Diamond. You could have texted me and said, ‘Hey, Jazz, going out on a date with a good guy is a bad look for me, so don’t do it.’ This? Sending that woman into the bathroom to ask for a threesome? Chasing Faizan off? That’s something else.”
His heart jolted at her assessment. Han was a predator. But the last thing predators ever expected was for their prey to suddenly turn around and call their bluff. He found himself fumbling for an answer to her accusations.
