Taming the Legend by Kat Latham Page B

when he was wearing more than a bathing suit. He was short. To hit sixfeet tall, he would have to wear two-inch platforms and stand on his toes. “No offense, but you’re not exactly intimidating.”
    His grin grew. “I might be compact, sweetness, but I know how to use what I’ve got.”
    Damn.
Her breath caught in her lungs as desire and intrigue spread in a hot wave through her lower belly. He had to be talking about physical accomplishments other than sex. Accordingto what she’d heard on the beach, he had no clue how use what he had, sexually speaking. But she had no doubts he’d figure himself out quickly. “All right. Let’s go for a walk. I just need to tell my cousin.”
    She finally took his hand, and a trickle of excitement shuddered up her arm from where their flesh connected for the first time.
    He followed her around the edge of the dance floortill she found Sergio. Ash stood back far enough that she didn’t think he would overhear the conversation, and she was pretty sure he didn’t understand Spanish, much less the Catalan she was picking up from her cousins.
    Sergio was an arrogant bastard at the best of times, but she’d never seen him drunk so she had no idea what he’d say when she told him she was leaving and would find her ownway home. Still, he shocked her. He shot Ash a glance and then gave her a derisive, full-body once-over and said in Catalan, “So I was right. The slut doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
    The blood in her veins turned to icy sludge. Her jaw trembled with the force of her fury. “That was unnecessary, dickhead.”
    Dickhead
was in English—her Catalan wasn’t
that
good—and Ash perked up. He didthat stupid male thing of puffing out his chest and taking a step forward, despite his opponent being significantly bigger and a mean bastard. Desperate to spare Ash a pummeling, she grabbed his arm and turned him toward the door.
    “Puta!”
    Whore.
    That word sliced deep into her back, catching her lungs and making all her sludgy blood pour out.
    Ash spun back and faced him. “Whatdid you say, mate?”
    Camila grabbed his elbow. “Ash, don’t. It doesn’t matter.”
    “Of course it matters. You matter, so it matters.”
    It took several seconds for those words to sink in, but they couldn’t patch up the damage. All she could think was
You’re wrong.
    “I said she’s a whore,
mate.
” Sergio’s voice dripped with taunting mockery.
    “You know what, Sergio?” Camila gotall up in her cousin’s face, hoping to draw his attention away from Ash because she doubted Sergio would hit her. Even if he did, she’d been hit by boys before, enough that she considered herself an expert on the matter. They never hit girls as hard as they seemed to hit other boys. The blows were more for humiliation, to teach a lesson about where her place in the world was in relation to theirs.But if Sergio hit Ash, he would do it to cause real physical damage.
    As opposed to that fake emotional damage it’s done you?
She pushed the troubling thought aside and focused on her sneering cousin, who was still trying to intimidate Ash despite Camila fronting up to him. “I don’t give a shit what a fucked-up loser like you thinks about me. I’m leaving. Come on, Ash.”
    She grabbed Ash’shand and tugged. He seemed reluctant, but he came with her. Sergio wouldn’t give up, though. He yelled in Spanish, so she couldn’t fail to understand, “Spread your legs and get used to it, whore. It’s all your mother was good for, and you’re no better.”
    Camila felt the blood drain from her face. She squeezed her lips together and blinked hard. A tear slipped down her cheek, and she triedto hide it by turning her head away from Ash.
    Too late. Cursing under his breath, he spun around and rushed back to Sergio, who was still yelling and jabbing the air with his finger when Ash flew at him in a full tackle. Camila gasped, her hands covering her mouth in shock just like silly female bystanders did