Because of Kian Read Online Free

and I was down and fading fast. I heard Kian show up, heard a scuffle. Evan was never one to take on a man. Apparently, he’s more into beating up small women who can’t really fight back.” My mouth twisted wryly. “The next thing I knew, I was coming to on the ground, Kian’s arms around me. He said he was going to take me to the hospital.”
    “Well, I’m glad he did that,” she breathed in a sigh of relief. “Because, knowing you—”
    “I didn’t go,” I mumbled, and received the expected look of reproach. Rushing to explain, I suddenly felt like a kid who was being reprimanded. “Rose, I can’t do that. My parents… they’d end up finding out.”
    “Maybe they should find out.”
    “I’m not ready to go there. I don’t want to tell them yet.”
    “It’s not your fault, you know.” This wasn’t the first time she had told me this. And I didn’t believe her any more now than I did the first time .
    It was all my fault.
    “Yeah it is,” I murmured.
    She gave me a look full of empathy, then continued on. “You still won’t do a restraining order.”
    “Had one… didn’t work, remember?”
    “That was back in Beavertail, Brynn. His family owns that town, so, yeah, it didn’t do squat. But here—”
    “Not going there,” I interrupted, digging in my heels and raising my hands in protest. “It will only tell him where he shouldn’t be, and that’s exactly where he’ll go to find me.”
    Rose scribbled a few more notes and thoughtfully chewed on the tip of her pen. “Have you ever thought about self-defense?”
    I chuckled, then all out laughed as she looked at me over the rims of her reading glasses. “Kian actually, um… he teaches martial arts. He asked me if I’d be interested in learning some things.”
    “The man who saved you,” she asked.
    My smile faded. I didn’t like how that sounded. It made me feel weak and vulnerable. Yet, at the same time, if I was being totally honest to myself, part of me really did like what she said. Because it also made me feel warm and protected. “Yeah… the man who saved me.” My voice was barely a whisper.
    “ You know, it might be a good idea,” Rose said. “You need to do something, especially since hiding from Evan doesn’t seem to be working.” She looked pointedly at my bruised cheek.
    “I did tell Kian I’d stop by his gym someday.”
    Rose leaned forward and locked her gaze onto mine. “Well, I think today should be someday.”

    Kian
    The last of my students had left and I was pulling up the mats when I heard the outer door open and close. Someone must have forgotten something. Happened all the time and they’d just come in to the entryway and grab it before taking off back out the door.
    But then the swinging door to the gym opened and there was Brynn.
    I’d been thinking about her constantly , my thoughts whirling back and forth between her cryptic words and her rough story. And, of course, her looks. Because she was really fucking hot.
    I’d seen her at Hyper a few times when I was hanging out with the guys. Brynn didn’t really mix much with anyone. She mostly just talked to Sage for a few minutes to order a drink. She didn’t have a herd of women she hung out with and was pretty damn dismissive to just about anyone else who approached her. It took me a while to figure out why she even went there.
    But then I watched her dance. And that’s where she’d really gotten my attention. It wasn’t like she was trying to seduce every guy in the room with super sexy moves. She stayed a bit off to the side of the dance floor, out of the limelight. She didn’t bump or grind or twerk like so many of the other barstool bunnies out on a manhunt.
    She just… moved .
    Fluid and lithe. As though the beat poured through her body, and her muscles simply followed its command. Her expression would go from wary to sublime as she seemed to become the music.
    She’d dance for hours. I knew this because I watched her for hours.