She didn't want to hear compliments, but her lips twitched before she could control them.
She shook her head as the doorbell rang again. She started for the door and stared in shock as the security disengaged and the doorknob turned. Chase stepped inside, bold as brass, twirling a key in his hand and staring back at her with a hint of anger as he snapped the door closed behind him.
He found Khalid immediately, his gaze moving between her expression and the other man's.
"Is she okay?" he asked Khalid.
"I have yet to establish this," Khalid answered. "A bit angry, though I must admit she may well have reason to be."
"Hello, guys, excuse me. I am still here." She felt like bouncing something off both their heads as she stalked to Chase and jerked the key out of his hand. "How did you get this?"
His brow arched. "Ian owns the building. I'm his employee. Remember?"
She turned and stalked away from him, slapping the key on the counter before she lifted the wine and took a healthy swallow.
"I'm fine. Both of you can leave now."
She didn't look fine. She looked hurt. Pain glittered in her bright eyes. Her face was pale, her lips tight.
"What did he say to you?"
Kia set the wineglass down and stared back at him. God, she loved looking at him. The way his hair brushed over his forehead and framed his dark face. Those light green eyes. He was so tall he made her feel dainty, and so strong he reminded her she was a woman. And so much of what she should have known better than to try to have.
"Why didn't you tell me he asked you to be his third that night?" She finished her wine as she forced the words past her lips.
False courage. Two half glasses were enough. Champagne could put her under the table, wine made her too damned brave. Either way, alcohol was something she knew better than to consume when she needed to keep her wits about her.
She had managed to surprise him. His jaw clenched as he glanced back to Khalid. The other man shrugged, his expression inscrutable.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you hurt by it," he finally said. "I turned him down, Kia. I wasn't the one here with him that night."
"Oh yes, I'm very well aware of the fact you turned him down," she said. "He made that quite clear today. How many other people know? How many other men did he approach in that damned club of yours before he got lucky and found a taker?"
She crossed her arms over her br**sts and hid her tears with her anger. She felt like a piece of meat that had been on display and hadn't measured up. Which was worse? she wondered. Knowing she had been on display or knowing she had been rejected?
"I never asked him," Chase answered her, his voice too soft, almost warningly so. "And it doesn't matter at this point."
"But it does matter." She shook her head, trying to hold on to her anger because she didn't have anything else to hold on to.
"You need to stay away from Drew, Kia," Chase told her decisively, his expression flickering with anger as he moved to her, gripped her arms, and watched her demandingly. "Give me time to take care of things and he'll leave you alone again. Until then, make certain you keep a distance between you two."
She stared back at him incredulously before jerking her arms away. "Until you can do what? Take care of things? What are you going to do, Chase? Lock him up somewhere?" She laughed bitterly as she turned her back to him. "Sorry about your luck there, big boy, but this isn't the Wild West. You don't just make your own rules."
"You're to stay away from him, Kia," he spit out again.
She turned back to him, staring at him in fury as he made his demands.
"You are the same man who didn't want me two years ago, right?" she finally asked him. "You know, when I got married, I thought all that preening and posturing to catch male attention was over. Who knew it only got worse? No, I wasn't shopping for a husband anymore. Hell no. I was shopping for a third. Who knew!"
She glared at both of them. They stood there, their gazes brooding as though she were the one who had somehow managed to lose her senses.
"Drew twisted what it's all about, Kia." Chase finally sighed. "You experienced something that was never meant to be."
"So just tell me what it was meant to be then," she demanded. "Or should I guess? Why, the husbands of your great and wonderful club just love their wives so much that they want to make sure there's someone to always watch over them," she said sarcastically. "So you have your little bunch of gigolos who play a nice little third in your beds so she's well and suitably watched over should something happen to you, right?"
"Gigolo?" Khalid murmured. "Should I be insulted, Chase?"
"Probably," Chase drawled, glancing at Kia with a hint of amusement.
"Definitely," she shot back at him. "So why don't you leave? Then you won't have to be insulted any longer."
"Sorry, baby, you got the terms a little off there." Chase tsktd.
"And you've got your arrogance a little off, Falladay," she snapped back. "I really don't care what your little boys club is or how their game-playing works. What I do care about is being humiliated, not once, but twice by one of your members. What I do care about is keeping my mouth shut to preserve your damned secrecy while that bastard you protect stands in public and begins informing me to my face that I was rejected in a dirty little game I didn't have any interest in."
"Dammit, Kia." He pushed his fingers roughly through his hair. "Do you think I didn't know you, even then? Did you think I wasn't perfectly aware of the fact that you would have never survived what Drew wanted from you?"
"You didn't even tell me what he was doing to me!" she yelled back at him. "You let him, Chase. You let him do that to me and then you made me take the blame for every sordid tale he told me about your perfect little club. Damn you!"
"Kia, it wasn't like that."
"Get the hell out of my apartment!" she snarled to both of them. "I've had enough."
"Stay away from Drew, Kia." Chase's voice hardened.
Kia stared at him. A year ago, hell, a month ago, she would have eagerly acceded to any such demand. It didn't matter that she had every intention of staying just as far away from Drew as possible. That was completely beside the point.