Base Instincts Read Online Free PDF Page B

groin.
    The female vamp was closer now, her lips parted to reveal two pristine fangs. Suddenly, his field of vision filled with a curvy brunette who made him sigh with relief.
    “Hey, my sweet baby,” Lexi purred, her thick Irish accent cutting through the other sounds. “Need a save?”
    He grinned. Like all of the club employees, she knew he was exclusive with Fayle. But unlike everyone else, she knew the real deal. The lion shifter saw what others didn’t, and within a couple months of working at Thirst, she’d started playfully teasing him, pointing out the especially hot guys when they came in. He should have been annoyed, he guessed, but it had been a relief to have someone besides Fayle to talk to.
    Fayle didn’t feel the same way.
    “You’re awesome,” he said, hugging her to him and taking grim satisfaction in the way the vamp stormed off. He liked Lexi, loved that her bubbly personality concealed a genius IQ she wielded like a weapon, unleashing it now and then to knock arrogant idiots down a few pegs. Watching her tend bar for a bunch of drunk imbeciles who thought she was just a dumb, pretty face was a form of entertainment. “If I were into females . . . and lion shifters . . .”
    Laughing, Lexi kissed him on the cheek. “My ass. If one of my brothers walked in here right now, you’d come all over yourself, lion shifter or not.”
    “If I could do that, I wouldn’t need Fayle.” He snorted. “Which would be a blessing right now.”
    Lexi frowned down at him. “What’s up her ass this time?”
    Not him, that was for sure. Fayle didn’t like to be touched. Or kissed. Didn’t like her body defiled by sweat and saliva and semen. Only on very rare occasions did she allow him more than a businesslike blowjob. Gods, what he wouldn’t give for someone to touch him. To hold him. To kiss him like he was the only person in the world.
    The way Slake had done just hours ago.
    “Nothing,” he muttered.
    “I seriously doubt that,” Lexi said, gesturing to her fellow bartender. “She’s holding out on you over this nothing , isn’t she?” The bartender handed Lexi a bottle of tequila and a shot glass. She poured a shot as she spoke. “You need to kick that controlling twat to the curb.”
    “She doesn’t do this often, Lex.”
    Lexi slammed the liquor and poured another. She was on duty, but management didn’t care if employees drank, as long as they could keep their shit together. Lexi could down the entire bottle and still win bartending competitions.
    “Don’t give in to her this time.” Lexi dropped her hand to his thigh. “Let me take care of you.”
    She offered now and then, and he’d been tempted to take her up on it. Lexi could keep sex and love separate, and he knew she’d be more than a robot in bed. But Fayle wouldn’t take it well, and he wouldn’t put Lexi in her crosshairs.
    “I can’t,” he said roughly, his need growing almost out of control now. Lexi’s hand cupping his erection wasn’t helping. Neither was the fact that Slake’s face kept popping into his mind, as if it was the male massaging his cock instead of Lexi. “Fayle—”
    She squeezed him, and he hissed in both pleasure at her touch, and pain at the need to come. Sweat broke out all over his body, and his mind went hazy as instinct began to override his rational thoughts.
    “Fayle will get over it,” Lexi said.
    He shook his head even as he arched into Lexi’s hand, and as he did, he got a glimpse of a silky black head of hair whipping around as the female it belonged to stormed toward the rear exit.
    Fayle .
    Cursing, he peeled Lexi’s hand away and stood. “She might get over it, but I’m the one who has to live with her until she does.”
    “Good luck,” Lexi called out as he made his way through the crowd, but he barely heard her over the rush of blood pounding in his ears. His body had control now, and it took every last brain cell he had to maintain forward momentum to the apartment