Page 80 of Tempting Little Thief

Facing the ring once more, I watch, transfixed, as Bastian’s shirt leaves him next, and holy. Shit.

His art really is everywhere. All over.

His entire left rib cage, designed to look like a reaper tore his skin from his flesh, but instead of reaching his insides, a monster of sorts is released, its talons breaking free.

Bastian breaking free, but from what? or more … who?

Suddenly I want to know all his secrets, the deep, dark ones that sting. The ones that leave the circles beneath his eyes. The shadow within them.

Though now is not the time, as he’s backed up a few more feet, and both Kylo and Kenex are still in the ring. The crowd gets loud, swarming in, and Bastian’s gaze flashes to mine, then over my shoulder for a curt nod.

Suddenly two arms cage me in, gripping the rope steady and keeping those around from touching me.

I get a look at who it is, but the sharp bark in my ear makes me pause. “What’d he say, prep?”

I grit my teeth. “I could smash your windpipe in right now if I wanted to, just so you know.”

“So I heard, but I ain’t hurting you and as much as you pretend to hate it, me standing here is his way of protecting you, so shut the fuck up, face forward and give him what he wants.”

I do as he says, but only because Kenex and Kylo look to each other, both their gazes snapping to me, then back.

A second later, Bastian holds his arms out wide, cocks his head and my eyes bulge, my heartbeat thumping erratically in my chest as reality crashes into me all at once.

“He’s not—”

“He is.”

“He can’t—”

“He can.”

“He will—”

“He won’t.”

I slam my heel into the foot of the asshole caging me in and cutting me off, and he growls into my ear, pressing his body firmer into mine.

“Careful, schoolgirl. My boy will be real mad if I have to shut you up with my tongue.”

I can’t even threaten him back as the mood shifts once more.

The air buzzes, and the Greco brothers smile, tearing the shirts off their backs, bumping knuckles with one another as they too realize what they’ve been granted.

A free shot.

Bastian wants them to hit him. Tofighthim … at the same fucking time.

He told me about the free shots he gives, but if he assumes a Greyson, which I can’t say for sure he realizes they are, is remotely equal to the little boys who come out here to play fight club, he is mistaken. Plus, there are two of them.

Yet Kylo’s shirt was already half torn before he tore it from his body and there were some fresh scrapes across his arms, as well as a small scrape across his left cheek as if he were knocked down and dragged. There are no marks on Bastian’s skin, no fresh ones at least, which makes no sense because Kylo would have fought back.

None of that matters now, though, as the boys raise their fists.

Bass holds his hands behind his back, lifting and tipping his chin the slightest bit, offering his jaw, unaware he’s about to have it broken in two.

Kylo and Kenex are second to Damiano in combat, trained by professionals who show no mercy, but on the flip side, Bastian probably doesn’t acknowledge such a word. That doesn’t mean he’s stronger, and if somehow he is, it can’t be enough to take on two … yet here he is, prepared to do so.

I grip the rope, my chest inflating as the nonexistent bell dings.

---