Page 27 of Taming Scarlet

She wasn’t mine.

And, sure, it was my job to make sure she didn’t bring too much shame to the family name. But this was a club full of consenting adults. And no cameras.

No one would know what she did—or didn’t do—here unless she told them.

Even knowing this, my arm tightened around her.

“This is the exact thing I was hired to keep you from doing.”

“What? Having fun?” she asked.

Did her ass wiggle against me purposely?

Or was she trying to move away?

Whichever it was, the way my cock stiffened was completely fucking inappropriate.

I was so distracted by my reaction to her that she twirled away.

That haughty chin of hers raised and her blue eyes flashed as she grabbed a shot off of a tray as it passed, throwing it back as she glared at me.

Then she twirled away into a crowd, and I didn’t find her again until she had a drink in both her hands, and Di at her side, the two of them whispering to each other as they watched a man push another man onto his knees.

Needing a moment, I went to the bar myself. I lucked out that no one was getting rammed there while I ordered a single shot to try to ease the frazzled edges of my nerves, to soothe over my urge to go over there and push Scarlet herself onto her knees.

I stayed at that bar, my gaze fixed on Scarlet as she and Di kept watching the goings on, making sure to keep their eyes averted from Drea who’d climbed on that man’s lap, and was riding him slowly while another man reached out to expose her breasts and start feeling her up.

Scarlet and Di drank.

Excessively, as usual.

But they were clearly there to watch, not experiment.

The problem was, as they got more visually wasted, the men around them started to get ideas. Moving in close. Hands brushing. Faces leaning in and whispering fuck-knew what into their ears.

I forced my feet to stay in place as the urge to march over there and physically remove those men from Scarlet’s vicinity overtook me.

Then, like she sensed my flickering grasp on my control, she moved herself in front of a man old enough to be her father, her arm going back around his neck as her ass ground up against his hips as she moved in a slow, sensual dance.

I would have just let it go.

If her gaze hadn’t lifted.

If it hadn’t found mine.

If her blue eyes hadn’t held so much defiance.

If everything about her wasn’t screamingWhat are you going to do about it?

My jaw ticked from how tightly I was clenching it as I balled up my fists as I kept my gaze on hers.

She would look away first.

But even I was surprised with how long it took her to.

We’d work on that.

She was going to learn I was not someone to play with.

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