"What about you? Do you have a big ego?"

He smirked. "I wouldn't be a man if I didn't." He took another drink, making the glass empty with the exception of the ice cubes that hadn't melted yet. "I'll take the tab, sweetheart."

It was the time for him to make his move, but I suspected the offer would never come. He was the magnet that drew everyone in. He didn't need to chase anyone. Just sit there and wait for all the pretty girls to come to him.

I moved down the bar to the computer and generated his tab, putting in all the drinks that would have put a normal man flat on the floor. But before I could print the tab, I glanced to the other side of the room and instinctively knew something wasn't right.

Three men entered the bar, moving far too fast if all they wanted was a drink. And they had handkerchiefs tied over the bottom half of their faces to hide their identities from the cameras in all the corners.

Frozen to the spot, all I could do was stand there and watch one of them come at me-with a fucking machete.

He held up the machete at eye level. "Cash in the bag." He tossed a burlap sack on the counter. The other two men also had their machetes out, watching everyone else in the bar to make sure no one came to my rescue.

I stilled on the spot, struggling to breathe through the sheer panic.

"Bitch, fill the bag."

I didn't gasp or scream, but I was frozen to the spot in sheer terror.

"You picked the wrong bar, man."

My eyes glanced at Bastien, who remained on the stool. Everyone else at the bar had scurried to the wall. The other people in the seating area had tried to crawl under their tables or put their shaking arms in the air. Bastien was the only one who regarded the situation with an insane level of calm.

The man turned his attention to Bastien, taking the heat and the knife off me. "What'd you say, asshole?"

"I'm not the one threatening a girl with a knife, asshole." He left the stool and stood upright, and he seemed to grow several inches taller from when he had walked inside. He brandished no weapon other than his words, but he was still armed to the teeth with invisible power. "Homines ex codice."

My eyes flicked back and forth between them, having no idea what was transpiring.

The words were in Latin, but the meaning was unclear. I couldn't tell if my assailant understood what that meant or if he was just as bewildered as I was.

There was a silent standoff between them, a tension that rose like flames from a newly lit bonfire. The bar was normally loud and boisterous with chatter and laughter, but now it'd gone deadly quiet-like a graveyard.

The asshole with the machete moved, slashing his weapon down like he would hack Bastien to pieces.

I screamed in terror and moved for one of the empty bottles behind the counter.

It happened so fast that I wasn't sure exactly what transpired, but Bastien made the other man's face bloody and wrested the machete free. He slammed the guy's face down on the counter, not once but twice-and broke his nose. He pinned his head to the top of the counter and looked at me. "Your turn, sweetheart."

I slammed the bottle down on his head, and it shattered into pieces.

"Nice swing." Bastien let go, and the man dropped to the floor in a pile of broken glass and blood.

The other two rushed to the door to split when shit got real, but Bastien got there first and punched one so hard in the face he slammed into the wall and collapsed on the floor. He made a series of moves on the other guy, blocking the arm holding the machete before slamming his elbow straight into his head and knocking him out cold.

When he was done, a strained silence enveloped the bar, everyone still too afraid to move or speak.

Bastien walked across the hardwood floor and the broken glass, back to the counter where I stood. He pulled out his wallet and rifled through the euros that were stuffed into it, and as if nothing serious had just happened, he asked, "What do I owe you?"

The bar closed and the police came. They asked Bastien a couple of questions, but it seemed like they already knew him because they didn't ask who he was. In fact, they treated him like a superior.

I stepped outside into the cold, the air wet from a drizzle that had just passed through. The pavement was wet from the recent rainfall, and a few people were on the street because no one ever slept in this city.

Bastien came outside a moment later and looked me over. "You alright?"

"A little frazzled, but I'm fine."

He continued to stare me down with those piercing blue eyes. "It's okay not to be fine."

My eyes flicked away, touched by the softness he was showing when he had been so ruthless a moment ago. "I know it is."

"Where's your apartment?"

I normally wouldn't give out my address to a stranger, but he somehow felt like anything but a stranger even though I only knew his first name. "Rue Coquilliere. By the Louvre."

"I'll walk you."

"I'm okay⁠-"

"Come on." He took the lead, stepping into the empty street under the bright lampposts, moving past a building that had stood the test of time and survived the Second World War. "We have a conversation to finish."

We walked down the wet pavement together, side by side, but nothing was really said. He seemed to be a long-term resident of the city because he knew exactly where he was going, knew exactly what street to take without looking at his phone for guidance.

"How long have you lived in Paris?"

"All my life. You?"

"Same."

That was the extent of our conversation. We passed Loup on the corner and walked down the path where the restaurants were located beneath my apartment. There was a small road for cars, but only taxis pulled up to the area. Right now, it was deserted, all the restaurants closed except for Au Pied de Cochon.

He seemed to know it was one of the few restaurants open all hours of the day because he checked in with the host and asked for a table outside. The second we sat down, he lit up a cigar and blew the smoke into the air. We were the only ones outside because it was either too cold or too late.

He offered me a cigar.

"No thanks." I reached into my purse and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. I lit up and felt the hit of nicotine the second the smoke hit my lungs.

He gave a subtle smile before he held his cigar between his fingertips. "You don't strike me as a smoker."

"I quit a couple years ago."

"But carry a pack wherever you go." He returned the cigar to his mouth and pulled in a puff before he let it out from his nostrils.

My eyes narrowed but in a playful way. "You are an asshole."

His smirk widened.

"I started up again once I moved out."

The playfulness evaporated, and he gave a slight nod in understanding.

"It's always been my vice."

"Everyone has their poison. No shame in that."

"Yes, but I want to live to see middle age at least."

He looked at the street as people passed, only a person every now and then, coming from the mall far down the way.

"You don't worry about that?"

He let the smoke leave his mouth before he answered. "No."

"Why?"

"I don't expect to live long-nor do I desire it." When he spotted the waitress in the window, he waved her over. "I'll take a scotch on the rocks. And whatever she's having."

I ordered my drink, and she left.

The last thing he said hadn't left my mind. "Why do you feel that way?"

He looked as he let the cigar rest between his fingertips, and the strength of his stare seemed to be his answer-or lack thereof.

I didn't press the question again, remembering we'd met just a few hours ago and I wasn't entitled to such personal information. "Are you a cop?"

A smile that lit up all his features hit his face, and when he chuckled, it came from deep in his chest. "No."

"It seemed like they knew you."

"Oh, they know me."

"But you aren't a cop."

He gave a slight shake of his head. "There are more than cops and bandits. The food web is a lot bigger than most people realize."

"And where do you fit in this food web?"

He took another puff of his cigar. The waitress came out and brought our drinks before she returned to the warmth inside the restaurant. He glanced out at the darkness and the sycamore trees that lined the sidewalk before he looked at me again. "At the top."

I didn't consider my husband to be a criminal because he didn't kill people, but he made his money in less than notable ways. He and his guys stole famous pieces of art and replaced them with fakes because they sold the originals on the black market for a pretty penny. There were men out there with real van Goghs, da Vincis, and Michelangelos in their bathrooms-while the museums had counterfeits. Now I suspected Bastien was on a whole different-and dangerous-level. "The less I know, the better."

"Smart girl." He released the smoke from his mouth and let it float on the cool air. "And you've got a steely spine too. I like that."

"How so?"

"Most women would just put up with a man's infidelity so they could live in a big house and drive a nice car. But not you. You're an idealist, a woman of great moral character, who knows she's worth more than a man's bullshit. That's hot."

I held his stare but felt the warmth in my cheeks. Everyone I knew had told me to take Adrien back, that it was a one-time mistake and I should fight for the marriage. While there were times I considered it, letting it go didn't sit right with me.

"And you held your ground with that asshole. Didn't scream or cry."

"Make no mistake, I was fucking scared."

"But you didn't show it." He lowered the cigar and gave me a harder stare than he had before, full of authority and command. "And that's what matters. You reached for that wine bottle with every intention to kill-and you swung." He took a drink, wiped a drop from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, and then smiled. "And that's fucking hot."

My apartment was right next to Poppy Café, so literally just a few feet away from the restaurant. He walked me to the front door, painted green with two trees in planters on either side. It required a code to come and go, and the door weighed at least one hundred pounds and required two hands every time I had to open or close it.

He stopped several feet away from the door like he had no intention of coming inside. "Are you going to keep working at Silencio?"

I needed the job to keep the apartment, so I couldn't just quit the second things got rough. Another aspect of poverty that I didn't enjoy. "It can't get robbed a second time, right?"

"Then I'll see you next time, Fleur." He turned away, the pathway lined with tall bushes in planters.

"Bastien."

He turned back around, his blue eyes bright even from a distance in the dark, the sexiest man ever to have set foot on this road. One look at him showed he was dangerous, but that only made it harder to look away.

"You said there was a story behind my eyes. What's the story behind yours?" Maybe it was just lust that bound me to him, but I didn't want to let him go. Didn't want him to slip away in the night and disappear like a phantom that was never real in the first place. He was a man so hard but with such contradictory beauty, one who could speak the truth with a cruelty that hurt in a way that felt good.

His hands slid into his pockets as he looked at me, his shoulders shifting with the movement and showing a hint of the cut muscles underneath. "Are you inviting me inside, sweetheart?"

My entire body came alive at the prospect, the first rush of excitement I'd felt in months. Once I'd found out about Adrien's infidelity, I'd fallen into a depression so deep, it didn't have a bottom. But I stopped my fall and gripped the ledge, prepared to begin the climb back up. "Yes."

A smile didn't move across his face as I expected. It was the first time he looked at me like an opponent rather than an equal, with an unequivocal expression of warning in his steel-like gaze. "If you let me into your apartment, I'll throw your ass on the bed. I'll choke you. I'll spank you so hard my handprint will still be on your ass in the morning. You've been warned." He continued his stare, pulling off that statement in a way no other man ever could, and it had the intended effect because I was both scared-and fucking turned on.

So turned on, I had bumps on my arms, felt my mouth go dry, and sensed a throb down below. I held up my phone to the screen to scan the code so the door would unlock. I opened it, the hinges screaming from the weight, and then I looked at him. "Let's see if you're a man of your word."

The second the apartment door was shut behind us, he was on me, pinning me against the wall in the hallway, pushing up my top and bra so my tits would come out. He gripped my ass with his big hands and lifted me, my back to the wall, and he sealed his mouth over mine for a kiss that nearly ripped my soul from my body.

He could hold me with a single arm because he seemed like he must lift tractors in the gym. He didn't slide his free hand into my hair but gripped one of my tits, squeezed it hard, and he flicked his thumb over my nipple, kissing me at the same time, a kiss that took the lead as I followed.

I grabbed his shirt and started to pull it over his head, having a hard time getting it off because he was all over me, kissing me so deeply I lost my train of thought, his hand squeezing my tit so hard I almost released a yelp. He was too into me to care about his clothing, so it took another tug to get it over his head and reveal what was underneath.

"Jesus Christ..." He was built. He was ripped. He had the single sexiest physique I'd ever seen-and I'd slept with some hot guys. He was so tight that cords on his body popped everywhere. I could see the definition of every muscle, the details of his body underneath the skin, the muscles hard enough to be armor. He had ink over his skin, black ink that showed death and misery and darkness, but it only enhanced just how hot he was. "You're so fucking hot⁠-"

His mouth silenced my words with another kiss as he pinned me against the wall, his hand squeezing my ass through my jeans. He carried me down the hallway into the bedroom, the foot of the bed visible from the doorway. Just as he promised, he fucking threw me on the mattress.

I landed and rolled onto my stomach, my hair flipping into my face.

He grabbed my ankles and dragged me toward him before he gripped my jeans and started to tug, not even bothering to unbutton them first. He chose brute force over inconvenience and continued to tug, taking my thong with it because my clothing was skintight.

He got my bottoms to the backs of my knees then bit me right on the ass.

I released a gasp mixed with a quiet scream.

He bit my other cheek before he tugged again.

I let out another scream, louder this time because he bit me harder.

He yanked off my shoes then got my jeans and thong off before he spread my cheeks with his hands and kissed my pussy, his nose in my ass, sucking with the same force as when he'd bit me, making my body twitch and writhe from the unexpected pleasure.

"Tell me you're on the pill." He stood up and dropped his pants and boxers.

I looked over my shoulder, my eyes immediately on his forklift of a dick. I stared and stared, seeing the veins run from base to tip, the fat dick that would have to ram its way inside me if it wanted to fill me. "IUD." It was all I could get out at the moment, seeing the sexiest man ever at the foot of my bed, with a dick that could support an Olympic medal around its base.

"Good." His knees hit the bed, and he smacked me with his palm, hit me hard on the right ass cheek.

I let out a gasp from the hit. "Fuck."

He smacked me again, harder this time.

"God..."

He grabbed both of my wrists and pinned them against my lower back before he smacked the other ass cheek, the hardest strike of the three.

"Fuck."

"Look at those handprints." He kept his grip on my wrists and kissed my cheeks, dragging his tongue over the inflamed skin in apology. His mouth returned to the place where I throbbed most, and he kissed me there, still aggressive but purposeful, like he really wanted to make me wet for his entrance.

I breathed through the pleasure, fighting the grip he had on my wrists every few seconds, my spine arched to accommodate the way he held me. The sting on my cheeks mixed with the bliss between my legs, and the result was a perfect mix of pain and pleasure. My senses were on fire, and now the sensation of every touch was magnified tenfold.

He released my wrists and moved over me, the bottom of his chest against my back and his dick right in the crack of my ass. He ground against me, his mouth coming close to my ear. "I'm gonna fuck this pussy-and I'm gonna come inside this pussy." He continued to grind against me, pushing my pelvis into the bed and providing a bit of friction against my clit. He gave me a couple seconds to resist his intentions.

I didn't want to resist them. "Are you clean?"

"Always."

He didn't ask me if I was clean before he put it in, before he pushed his massive head through my entrance and sank deep inside, breathing a sigh of satisfaction when he felt how slick I was, how slick I'd become the first moment I saw him.