Page 14 of Her Fearless Ronin

His side smile grew as he took another step forward, looming over me, and instead of feeling threatened and overwhelmed, I felt safe.

“Trust me, Hope, I’m no one’s savior.”

I opened my mouth to contradict him, but Max used this moment to slide between us, facing Jiro and making me take a step back.

“May I help you?” Max asked, crossing his arms on his chest, widening his stance a little.

Even if I only had a view of the back of his neck, I knew that he was scowling—he always had a scowl when he took his “bouncer” pose.

Jiro had a good few inches on Max, even though he wasn’t as stocky as Max was. I had felt his hard body yesterday as I rode his bike, and I didn’t need to have seen him in action to know that his lean muscles were lethal and that he could probably kill Max in under three seconds.

Jiro looked him up and down, and his previously amused smile turned into a taunting grin.

“I’d advise you to take a step back, Max, my boy,” Jiro told him in a low warning tone.

I rolled my eyes and stepped to the side, resting my handon Jiro’s chest, and immediately regretted my gesture. The heat of his skin under his shirt, the firmness of his pecs… All that was enough to cause a jolt of electricity to go up my arm.

He took a sharp breath, gazing down at me, his pupils dilated, making his dark-brown eyes almost black.

“Max, this is my friend Jiro I told you about.” I kept my hand on his chest as I made the introduction while gesturing to Max with my other hand. “Jiro, this is myboss,Max.” I pressed on the word “boss” to remind him to be civil. I could not say I’d seen Jiro anything but composed, even when he was barely twenty-one, but part of me knew that an angry Jiro would be a force to be reckoned with.

Max turned his scowl toward me.What did I do now?

“Boss? This is all I am?” He crossed his arms over his chest.

I winced. He wasn’t wrong. “And my friend, of course.”

“Friend?” Jiro’s smile widened. “How adorable.”

I was trying to rack my brain on how to defuse a situation I never thought I would actually face when the bell above the door announced a customer and a blushing girl entered.

I sighed. Throwing my hands up in dismissal to the two men who were a few seconds away from whipping out their dicks in an attempt to assert dominance, I went to the uncomfortable-looking girl who was staring at one of the shelves with fearful, wide eyes.

For the next twenty minutes, I helped her choose her perfect first vibrator while making sure that the two men talking at the back of the store didn’t kill each other.

Once she paid, I was about to exit the store when Pedrowalked in with a shit-eating grin on his face.

I threw a quick look to Jiro, who was now focused on me, also very much aware of the change in atmosphere.

I hope he understood what I was not saying. This was the guy that could lead us to Leo.

“Mamacita!” He leaned on the glass counter, peeking behind it. “Wearing a dress? I always love it when you’re showing your pretty legs.” He jerked his head to the side. “Why don’t you come around and give me a hug?”

I forced a laugh despite my discomfort. “I’m working, Pedro.”

“Vale, what about after work then? I can come pick you up, and we—”

He stopped talking as Jiro approached the counter, standing quite close to Pedro.

“Hope,” he said, his voice deeper than I’d ever heard it.

Pedro turned toward him, his flirty look morphing into an annoyed glare. “Why don’t you go away,pendejo? I’m talking with her. Go look at the cock rings,” he added, pointing to the stand against the back wall.

I winced at the rudeness.

Jiro detailed him silently, his gaze taking in every tattoo he could see, including the numbers on the side of Pedro’s neck.

Jiro’s mouth tipped up at the corner. “Cock rings?” He raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry,pendejo,but I can’t wear cock rings—my Jacob’s ladder prevents it.”

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