Page 49 of Under Their Protection

“What am I missing?” Mia asks.

“Nothing,” I say quickly. She narrows her eyes at me. “Mia, I’ll tell you later.”

“Why? He will find out sooner or later that you…” she starts to say.

“Jesus. He was there Saturday with his wife,Mia,” I huff.

“Ohhhh. Gotcha. What’s so bad about him hearing you get railed? That’s literally the most normal place to hear something like that,” Mia says.

“Please stop,” I sigh. Theo, Rowan, and Max exchange a look for a moment before looking back to me.

“Where is Annie?” Theo asks Emma.

“She’s on the porch on the phone with the pharmacy,” Emma says.

“Can you tell her to come here when she’s done?” he asks and Emma nods, then goes outside. Theo turns back to me and looks me over for a moment.

“What?” I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.

“First, I’d like to put you on anxiety medication. I’ll start you off at a low dose and go from there,” he says.

“Okay. That’s fine,” I say.

“Also… We are all going to have a conversation about Saturday,” Theo says.

“No,” I say firmly and go to stand.

“Nika. Sit,” Max says in a familiarly dominant tone.

“No,” I huff and go to step past him. He stands and blocks me and I take a step back from him only to run into Rowan.

“He will not step in and save you from what I will do if you do not sit down and stop being a brat about this,” Max says at a low rumble.

“Whatever.” I roll my eyes and go to walk away when Max grabs the back of my neck, pushes my chin up with his thumb so that I look at him, then pulls me against his chest. I whimper at the sudden rush of arousal that this brings.

“Do you really want to challenge me right now, Anika?” Max growls.

“Ooo. He used her government name,” Mia giggles.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say, holding my ground.

“You either obey or everyone in this room is going to find outexactlywhat we did to you Saturday,” he threatens.

“You wouldn’t do that,” I challenge him with a smile.

“Little girl, I will put you in my car and drive you there myself,” Max says as he squeezes the back of my neck and makes me whimper again. “You have three seconds before I pick your sexy little ass up and take you to that club. 3… 2…”

“Fine,” I huff.Yeah, I am not sitting down.

“Good girl. Sit down,” he says as he lets go of me and sits back down on the couch. I know I’m going to regret this, but I do it anyway. Max sees it on my face right before I jump past him before he or Rowan can grab me and move to the other side of the couch. “Anika Noelle,” Max scolds me. I let a giggle slip past me and back away.

“How did I know she’d do that?” Theo laughs.

“I definitely saw that coming,” Mia says as she joins his laughter.

“Is this funny to you Anika?” Rowan asks.

I have not seen Rowan’s dominant side yet but I have a feeling it’s about to come out and play. I don’t push Max often either so it always catches me off guard when he looks at me like he wants to devour me. Rowan has a similar look on his face right now.

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