Page 31 of Double Shot

“—is just going to… the bathroom first. I’m going to show him where it is.”

“Alright,” Clarence said. “I’ll come with—”

“No, you just wait here.” I turned around with a bright smile. “I won’t be long.”

I was just going to politely reintroduce myself to the big, hunky werewolf. Remind him of our last meeting and tell him how impressive his performance had been tonight.

That was all. I was just being nice.

And my boner was tucked into the waistband of my pants anyway, so he’d never even know about that.

After giving Clarence one last tiny smile, I hurriedly followed the gargoyle as he made his way to the edge of the seats and started heading down the steps between them. My legs were a little shaky with nervous excitement, pulse still rabbiting in my throat.

“Why’s he calling you Niko if your name’s Klaus?” the gargoyle asked me once we were out of earshot.

I sighed. “He decided my full name is Nikolaus and has ignored me every single time I’ve told him it’s not.”

The gargoyle snorted. “What an ass.”

I glanced up at him with a tentative smile. “Thanks for, you know, defending me back there and stuff. What’s your name?”

“Rocky.” He looked down at me with a lopsided grin. “Yeah, yeah, I know. My parents are hilarious.”

“It suits you.” I grinned back up at him. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too, Klaus. Do me a favour, would you?”

My brows twitched. “What’s that?”

“Do not go home with that guy.”

After a second, I let out a nervous bleat of laughter. “Oh. No, I won’t. I… It was stupid of me to come on a second date with him, to be honest. We’re not… compatible.”

“He’s an ass,” he repeated flatly, which made my mouth twitch. I suppressed my laughter, though. Out of respect. “And he’s full of shit, sweetheart. All that stuff he said about never approaching strangers, and how you’re the most beautiful guy he’s ever seen? I guarantee he says that to every single guy he hits on. Not that you’re not beautiful, but…”

“No, I know.” I heaved a great big sigh, because Rocky was right.

His huge hand briefly patted my shoulder. “You can do so, so much better, sweetheart.”

A blush warmed my cheeks. “Thanks, Rocky.”

I didn’t necessarily believe him, but it was a nice thing for him to say.

He led me right to that unmarked door I’d watched B. Were carry Menoetius through. There was a hulking lizard shifter in a suit standing just beside it, arms folded across his wide chest as he scanned the room with his yellow eyes. Rocky greeted him and they briefly clasped hands before the gargoyle gestured at me with a tiny grin.

“Klaus here is a friend of Fenrir’s. Was wondering if he could just head back there to say hey.”

The lizard shifter grunted, eyeing me. “You can vouch for him?”

Rocky shot me a very quick, stern glance that told me I was not, under any circumstances, allowed to do something weird to or in front of the club’s most prized fighter. Not when Rocky’s name and standing here were on the line.

I didn’t plan to anyway—honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do—so I gave him an innocent smile back.

“Yep,” Rocky told the lizard shifter. “Just gonna quickly catch up with his buddy, that’s all.”

The lizard shifter grunted again and reached back to open the door. “Fine.”

“Tell him good fight from me.” Rocky gave me another quick grin. “That feral bastard earned me a fuckload tonight.”