Page 16 of Dance of Defiance
At least, I think I did.
Laz snorts. “Him?Nope. Didn’t you hear?”
“Shut the fuck up, Laz,” Bane growls, shooting our friend a dark look.
“Hear what?” I perk up.
“Nothing,” Bane hisses.
Laz rolls his eyes, then sighs and turns his attention to me, “Our boy here?—”
“I’m warning you, shut thefuckup, Kislev,” Bane says tightly.
“—has a little crush,” Laz finishes, blowing a dramatic air kiss toward a scowling Bane.
I grin as I turn to him. “On?”
“Really,” he mutters. “It’snothing.”
“And by ‘nothing’,” Laz chimes in, “he means ‘blurring the lines between a crush and stalking’ as far as he can—yo, chill, motherfucker!” He squawks the last part, ducking to the side to avoid Bane’s fist as he leans across the table and throws a wild punch.
“Okay, okay, peace,” I growl. “Seriously. Shake hands.”
“Should we kiss and make up, Antonov?” Laz grins.
Bane rolls his eyes. “Switching teams?”
“Fuckno,” Laz chuckles. “Can you imagine doing a dude?”
A tightness forms in my throat, but I swallow it back along with a mouthful of vodka.
Laz shakes his head. “I obviously don’t mean that in a phobic way. But pussy is just too fuckingsweet.” He turns his attention back to me as I force my expression to stay neutral. “Speaking of…what happened with that girl you walked out of the place with?”
I got halfway home with her, realized I had zero goddamn interest in fucking her, had the cab drop me off in front of a bodega that would sell me a six-pack at five in the morning, and sent her home.
“She had a boyfriend,” I shrug, leaning back against the cushion behind me with a shrug. “A serious one.”
Laz frowns. “Yeah, one sheseriously forgot aboutwhile she was sitting in your lap slobbering all over your neck all night. Pretty rude of her,” he sighs. “Wasting your time like that.”
Bane rolls his eyes. “A woman isn’t obliged to fuck you just because you bought her a few drinks and offered her a ride.”
Laz flips him off. “You know that’s not what I mean. I’m just saying, our boy here has a limited window of opportunity to introduce his dick to new vaginas before he’s shackled to just one for the rest of his life.”
Bane frowns as he glances my way. “I genuinely keep forgetting about the whole you-getting-married thing.”
“Yeah, can we talk aboutliterallyanything else,” I mutter under my breath.
“Oh, come on,” Laz winks. “I don’t know why you’re so bent out of shape?—”
“Areyoumarrying a woman you don’t know for the sake of your family empire, Kislev?”
“Fuckno.” He makes a face. “I mean, can you imagine?”
Bane gives him a look. “Yeah, dipshit, I would imaginethe guy getting married for the sake of his family empireHAS, in fact, imagined it.”
“Well,” Laz shrugs, “she seemed nice enough at that dinner party your father threw for her family and yours last month.”
Bane frowns. “Did you even talk to her?”
