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“I’m sure you’re at least intelligent enough to know that it would be unwise to threaten me.” Adrian’s leg pushed down harder on Damon’s chest as he struggled beneath his foot.

Damon’s father stood up straight. “He didn’t mean to offend you,” he said quickly.

I snorted before I could stop it. He meant to offendmeat least.

Adriantsk-ed and his arm fell to this space next to him, his hand open and silently beckoning me. I grabbed it, needing to distract myself from my too warm cheeks. “Oh, I don’t think he has the faculties to form complex thoughts,” Adrian said coolly. “But he offended Reyna. And that offends me.”

Adrian lifted his shoe off his chest, resting it back on the floor. He took a step towards Damon’s father, pulling me with him. He spoke low, low enough that only Damon, his father, and I could hear him. “Get him out of here before I decide that a lightning bolt would be more effective than my shoe.”

The threat rang true, both Damon and his father looking down at the spot where Adrian’s shoe had been. Right in the center of his chest. His father grabbed him by the collar, pulling him up like a child and shaking some sense into him.

But that was all I could see, because Adrian turned and dragged me after him, away from the open-mouthed crowd and prying eyes.

Dull waves of static were pulsing up my arm, the onlysign that there was something darker under his mask of control.

“Walk away, then!” Damon’s voice came from behind us, loud and shrill. I begged Adrian to keep walking. To take me away from here. “Take that bitch with you while you’re at it.”

Adrian stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to face me and I looked up at him with pleading eyes. “Adrian,please.”

He breathed out deeply, his head tilting with a wince. And then he strode past me and I could do nothing but stand still and watch.

Watch as he walked through the hoard of people who’d made something of a channel for him.

Watch as he strolled right up to a hopelessly overconfident Damon and his nervous father. And as he gracefully switched his signet ring to the other hand to prevent his finger from breaking. And as he reared his arm back, punching Damon so soundly that the crunch of bone could be heard over the shocked gasps.

Damon twisted and fell to the ground, barely catching himself. He rolled over onto his back, his hands flying up to his nose, a waterfall of blood flowing down his face.

Adrian’s shoulders rolled back and he straightened his cuff links. I didn’t have to look at his face to know that he was pinning Damon with a dark stare. “Be happy it’s your nose I decided to break and not your neck.”

Damon rightly blanched at the threat.

There was nothing more revealing about the loyalties of my heart than the realization that I didn’t even care about the state of his nose. I cared more about Adrian. About making sure his defense of me didn’t sethim back and cause him more strife than he was already dealing with.

I looked up and released a relieved breath. Sure, there were some people—particularly men—staring at Adrian with visibly threatened pride, confronted with the fact that their money or their influence had nothing on him.

But the majority of the crowd was looking at him like this human moment, this lack of control, made him more likable. And there were a few blushes I caught, which did nothing but made me want to pull him away from here before someone got a bright idea and tried to flirt with him.

You know what, I can do just that,I thought.

I stepped forward, my hand coming down on the back of Adrian’s arm. At the touch, he immediately straightened, as if he’d forgotten that I was there.

At the reminder, all attention he’d given to Damon, to the room for that matter, dropped away. He turned to me, a deep, intentional look on his face and grabbed my hand roughly, using his other to make sure our fingers were firmly intertwined.

At the touch, I was forced to confront what his show of protectiveness was doing to my body. Wreaking havoc on it was probably the better descriptor. The pace of Adrian’s march out of the ballroom matched the urgency spinning through my chest.

I needed tomove, to do something with it.

For now, until we were out of sight, I’d have to settle for scurrying after Adrian, trying to keep up with his long strides in my heels.

Through a series of calculated, sharp moves he had us down a quiet hallway and free of spectators. Andthat’s when I broke. I twisted my hand out of his, trying to get his attention.

But he just kept walking.

My heart was pounding so hard it interrupted any logic trying to stop me, to tell me to slow down.

“Adrian,” I said, one last attempt to get his attention the normal way.

He ignored me. If he could even hear me.