Page 59 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

“Hey!”

He looks back from reaching for the door to enter the coffee place. His cocky smirk falls into a full scowl, and he releases the door, letting it shut on someone else exiting, likely assuming he was holding the door open for them.

“What the hell!” she complains as the door smacks into her face.

He doesn’t acknowledge the woman as he strides toward me. We approach each other on the sidewalk, and other pedestrians dodge out of the way.

“You better get lost. Now,” I warn him.

He scoffs, setting his hands on his hips from a few feet away, like he’s afraid to come right up into my face. I’m not intimidated by his pissed-off scowl. I continue, glad when he backpedals to maintain some space between us.

“Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do?”

I grit my teeth and point at him. “Stay away from Lauren.”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “Yeah, right. I won’t be doing that.”

“I’m warning you.” I lurch forward a step, scaring him back.

Before I can strike out and clear that smirk from his face, the door opens.

Ken steps out, and behind him, Earl.

“Is there a problem out here?” Ken asks.

It seems this is more interesting than their chess game. But the old man’s gruff and no-nonsense question is directed to Jeremy, not me.

“None of your business,” the punk retorts, straightening to his full height. “Now f—”

Earl steps closer, giving him a stern look to shut up right then and there. “You want me to make it my business?” He checks him in the shoulder as he and Ken walk to the bench down a couple of yards. They keep their eyes on Jeremy the whole time. I can’t say they’d be backup, but I feel better that they care enough to intervene.

“Freaking old geezers.” Jeremy rolls his eyes. “And what I do with Lauren isn’t any of your business either.”

I cross my arms, keeping my fists locked at my sides.

“She’s my fiancée and I’ll decide—”

“Nothing. You won’t decide a damn thing at all,” I shout. “She ended your engagement the moment she left you at the altar.” I creep closer, fighting the urge to strangle him. “She tossed you away when she met me.”

His lips curl up in disdain. Fury blazes from his eyes.

“And she forgot all about you”—I say as I poke at his chest, hard—“when I showed her how a real man treats a lady.”

He doesn’t lunge at me with rage. I expected him to lash out when I told him that Lauren slept with me, that she has chosen me. Instead, he laughs. “Yeah? You helped yourself to her dried-up pussy? What a disappointment, huh? A frigid bitch who can’t even get a man hard.”

I grin slowly, letting him see how far from the mark his comment was.

“That’s what she does,” he snarls. “Sleeps around and trying to whore her way through her daddy’s friends.”

I shake my head.

“That’s why she ran. She couldn’t imagine settling down and giving up her slutty ways.”

I grab his shirt, but he pushes me off before I can punch him. None of what he says is remotely true. I know this. He’s projecting himself onto her.

“Just a cheating bitch,” he shouts. “But she’s mine. I saw her first, and I will make her my wife.”

“You won’t go near her.”

---