Page 16 of The Champion
“Fine, but you’ll have to keep your distance, or my brother will tear us apart. Thor already has smoke coming out of his ears because Linea is dancing with an Nman, and she’s not even his sister.”
Victor’s jaws tensed. “I’m tired of keeping my distance. Let him and the others see what’s going on between us.”
“Nothing is going on between us.” My lie sounded hollow as I closed my body off to him by wrapping my arms around my waist. “The last thing we need is for everyone to make a big deal out of something that can never be.”
It was as if my words set off something in Victor. With a tight grip on the back of my head, he pressed his forehead against mine and spoke fast. “We can have amazing sex together, doesn’t that count?”
I pushed free from his hold and stepped back, looking over my shoulder to make sure no one saw the intimate moment between us.
Standing with his hands down by his sides and his shoulders sunken, he furrowed his brow. “You’re never going to sleep with me, are you?” His tone hardened with frustration.
I found it cruel of him to keep pushing when he wasn’t willing to give me the whole package.
“Not unless we can find a way to be together.”
“You want me to marry you, but I can’t. It’s illegal.”
“Banni and Belle married Sparrow and Mason.”
“And it cost them everything. I’m not them and I won’t ever marry anyone.”
“Then you have your answer.”
We stood locked in the same stupid knot that we had been in for eleven years. If I could, I would have torn the love I felt for Victor out of my chest and never thought of him again. I was twenty-nine years old and should have been enjoying years of marital bliss by now with a perfectly fine man who could have given me a family. Why did my stubborn heart insist on loving Victor when he had nothing to offer me?
Tears sprung to my eyes, and I wanted to escape this painful confrontation, so I pivoted and walked away.
The expression on Thor’s face when I returned to the bar made me sure he had seen Victor touch me. I prepared myself for another battle with him, but it turned out that all he had eyes for was Linea, who was still dancing with Shiva.
At one point they hugged for a long time, which made Thor smack his beer on the counter. “That’s it. I’m telling him to get his hands off her.”
Thor was about to storm to the dance floor when I got in front of him. “Let me do it. If you go there will be a fight between you and Shiva, and you know how squeamish the French are when it comes to violence.”
Thor pointed to Shiva. “You’d better tell him to back off and keep his hands to himself.”
“I will.” Without any drama, I snatched Linea away from Shiva. We stood on the side of the dance floor, talking, when I spotted Victor in a lounge area with two gorgeous women on each side of him. He had a drink in his hand and his usual look of arrogance.
Linea was perceptive and noticed that I was upset, but even though she was one of my favorite people, I couldn’t tell her the real reason why I was sad. Instead, I just muttered that I hated Victor.
Every minute at that nightclub felt like an hour. Several French people asked us to dance and at one point Thor went with a group of women who were persistent in their efforts to make him dance with them.
For the most parts, the French respected a polite rejection, but when I came out from the bathroom, a French woman touched me. She was talking to me in French but my objections to her touch made her switch to an accented English.
“Let me give you a memory for life. My place isn’t far from here.”
“No thank you.” I tried jerking my hand away one more time, but she was strong and wouldn’t let go.
“Have you ever been with a woman?”
“No.”
“Non?”
If I had been a full-blooded Motlander I would have taken time to give her a gentle rejection, but I was my father’s daughter and found it unacceptable for her to touch me without consent. “Let go of me!”
“If you haven’t tried it then you don’t know if you would enjoy the experience.” If her grin was supposed to be seductive then it didn’t work. I found the woman unappealing and annoying.
“Where I’m from, the word no works as a full sentence. Don’t force me to elaborate with a punch to your face.”
