Page 38 of Rut Bar

VERONICA

Anthony smirks.“You can’t say I’m not good to you. I’ll give you a choice.” He leans down so he can whisper his next words without the entire club hearing as he shouts to be heard over the music. “Either I can ruck your skirt up right now and fuck you right here, right now, on the dance floor, or you’ll stay after closing and I get to do anything I want to you.”

“Define anything,” I demand, because there’s a lot of stuff I don’t like and he and I haven’t had a discussion about hard limits yet. We haven’t done much talking at all, actually. We’re like horny teenagers discovering orgasms for the first time. It’s ridiculous.

“No,” he says, shutting down my demand. “Make your choice.”

I bite back a scream while his fingers rub the crack of my ass. They press until the skirt fabric sticks to my wet mound. One finger slips over my cleft and rubs the seam of my pussy. God, when did I get so wet? It’s gotta be slick from my upcoming heat. There’s no way I’d normally like this… this manhandling.

“Tick tock,” he says just as he works lower and his thumb brushes the bare skin along the inside of my knee. “Decide now or I’ll decide for you.”

“Fine! Later. Within reason.”

He laughs and gives my tender ass a squeeze, then lets me go. “Deal. See you later, boss. Agent Hall might need you right now. I think he’s got a crush.”

He’s wrong. But arguing with Anthony will only make him more insistent that he’s right.

I head to the stairs and climb them without once looking over my shoulder to find Anthony in the crowd. I expect to push open the door and find my IRS agent furiously packing up his things. Instead, he’s sitting at his desk and working. His red ears give him away as the color of his warm brown skin deepens when I step over the threshold.

The door creaks as I swing it shut so the music dampens to a dull thump. “Agent Hall, I have to apologize for my behavior. I should not have touched you like that. The extent and inner workings of my nonprofit are a mystery even to most of my own employees. People only know what they have to know to play their role. I trust you’ll understand that secrecy is necessary when dealing with sensitive things like omega shelters. I would appreciate your discretion.”

There. That sounded professional.

He looks up by the end of my apology speech, and I see his eyes are back to normal. “Call me Brendan, please. And I understand. Surprise made me speak without thinking.”

I nod and take a deep breath. “That’s still no excuse for putting my hands on you like that.” Although he seemed to have enjoyed it. I think of the horrible things I whispered to him in the moment and wince.

“Your protective urges were close to the surface. It’s understandable,” he says.

When he says nothing else after that, I cross to my desk and sit.Well. That went better than I thought it would.I nudge the desk drawer, the one I keep the angel shot in, closed with my foot, and stare at it as I let myself get lost in thought.

She’s probably made it to the first safehouse by now. It’s really more of a pit stop to make sure she doesn’t need urgent attention before they hit the road again. They’ll be feeding her and letting her shower and change clothes before they make the second leg of their journey. No matter what the fallout of today ends up costing us, we did a good thing, and that’s what matters.

“I have three sisters,” Brendan says, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Excuse me?”

He twirls his pen in his hand and eyes his coffee mug, the one I called sad. “I have three sisters. Two of them are omegas. What you’re doing is important. I would want someone like you to be around to help them if they needed it.”

“Thank you.” Maybe he really understands. Maybe I won’t be put into handcuffs in the morning.Assaulting a federal employee… Fuck.

And then I think of the reckless promise I made to Anthony. The one I’ll no doubt regret tomorrow. I might end up in handcuffs anyway if that crazy beta has his way.

Trepidation makes my belly squirm.

We work in a tense silence that eases when nothing else unsavory happens, and then when last call comes, Brendan stands and packs up his things. He stayed later tonight than he ever had before.Is he getting used to our schedule?

“Good night, Veronica.” He nods at me as he snaps his briefcase shut.

“Good night, Brendan.”

At the doorway, he pauses with one hand on the trim. He looks over his shoulder. “You’ve built something really amazing here.”

Nerves flutter back to life before turning into something molten at his praise. I must be more starved for attention than I realized, because I don’t want him to stop. I want him to keep telling me how good I am, how great Rut is, with his deep, fatherly voice.

“Thank you.”

“See you later,” he promises. His smile is genuine, and he raps his knuckles against the trim before leaving. I watch his descent down the stairs until I can’t see him anymore.

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