Page 29 of Pawn

And I want more.

Pulling up the fabric of her dress, I want to expose her skin to me. I want to feel that sting on my hand when I smack her ass.

“Damien,” Eric says, his hand on my shoulder. “Enough.”

Shrugging him off, I groan against Jo’s lips, “I’ll tell you when I’ve had enough.”

“What’re you doing?” Jo murmurs, her cheeks red, face flushed. With her eyes all droopy, it makes me want to fuck her right here.

“Fixing this shit,” I promise, smoothing a hair behind her ear.

Trust me.

Guests murmur and mutter around us, Nancy’s blonde hair whipping from side to side. Willow giggles but Jordan glares at Jo. The fuck is his problem?

“I’m sorry everyone,” Nancy comes to the middle of the floor, looking around with red cheeks. She clasps her hands together. “Forgive him. Damien is grieving the loss of his family.”

Some businessmen nod, others look like they pity me, but I’ll give them something to pity.

“Shouldn’t you still be grieving, Nancy?” I ask this loud enough for the murmuring room to hear. “Figured you’d be crying your eyes out since you’ve been fucking my dad for years.” Her eyes go wide, hands to her face as gasps come from around us.

Eric takes a step forward so I square up with him, pushing Jo to the side. He wants to go? I’m game.

“I thought we had a deal,” he says, my eyes dropping to his clenched fists.

“We did. And now I’ve changed my mind.” Taking Jo’s warm hand in mine, she doesn’t pull away and that gives me the confidence I need to double-down. “She’s better off with me instead of you using her as some pathetic ploy in your business.”

Eric takes another step forward before Nancy calls to him but he’s not backing down. He’s a pretty boy who went to Harvard and joined their golf team. I’m a hockey player with two feet on him. Guess who’s winning this round?

“I’ll send the whore back to The Grove,” he threatens. “Or better yet, juvie.” His hand comes out to the side like he’s over the nice dad shtick. “It doesn’t work the way you want it to, Damien. Quit acting like a child.”

He makes me laugh. “You sure you wanna do that? You sure you wanna risk it when I’m the one who has all it takes for this to go away? For everyone to, ‘forget what they saw’?” I pause using air quotes to emphasize what I’m getting at. “You can’t pay these people to keep their mouth shut without taking a dip into the ol’ King wallet. So come talk to me when you find your senses.”

Without giving him time to answer, I start leading Jo out of the room, all eyes on us. “I’ll send for her things!” I call, glancing at Willow.

She’s still beside Jordan who pulls her to his side. I’ll have to send a car to make sure she gets back to the house but for now, I’m only dealing with one Rowland.

My Rowland.

Jo waits until we’re outside before she pulls away from me. “What the fuck was that?” I unlock the door to my car, ushering her inside the passenger’s seat. I wanna be out of here before all this settles and a coked-up Eric has his fit.

When I get in, pressing the ignition, she doesn’t let up. “When you said you wanted to be my date, I didn’t expect this. What about Willow?”

“She’ll get home safe, I’ll make sure of it.” When I look at Jo, her arms crossed, she doesn’t look satisfied. “Would you rather I embarrass her?”

“Oh, but I’m fair game?”

What the fuck is her problem? Keeping my eyes on the road, my grip tightens on the wheel. She should be happy. I just freed her from her evil foster home and she’s giving me shit.

“Kissing you embarrasses you?”

“No! It’s not about the kiss!”

Well, alright. “So it doesn’t?”

She bangs at my dash. ”I said I didn’t want to move in with you. Is that why you came? To make me move in with you?”

My foot’s heavy on the gas. “So you’d rather stay with people who use you and your sister like puppets instead of crashing with me?”

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