Page 188 of Felonies are Forever

“Yeah, like, what if I did…this!” He swirls around behind me, getting me in a soft choke hold, but my instincts kick in. I don’tthink he means to hurt me, but he has zero right to touch me, so I stomp down hard on the top of his foot, spin around and thrust the knuckles of my fist into his throat.

He gags, doubling over, spitting and coughing as the girl squeals.

“What the fuck are you doing? He was just playing around!” I glance her way, she’s still holding the phone up capturing the scene, but I don’t care, he touched me first and I defended myself.

“He wanted to see what I’d do, so I showed him.” I shrug, my jaw tight as I back away, the guy finally getting his breath and standing, one hand rubbing his throat.

“Skinny fucking bitch—”

He stands, stepping into my space again as my fists ball at my sides. The world is a blur as I gather the tension in my muscles, focusing on him, anticipating…

“You wanna fucking die?” Jack’s voice cuts through my tunnel vision and I stumble back as he spins the guy around by the shoulder toward him. “You fucking touch her again, you’re going to be pulling your balls out of your throat.”

“Fuck you.” The guy bounces his chest off of Jack’s.

Jack has several inches and about a hundred pounds on him, and besides, he’s just meaner and that’s a huge advantage. There’s the fire of rage in his eyes as the guy jerks his head around toward me.

“She fucking throat punched me.”

He turns my way and Jack’s on him, but the guy is already swinging. Jack ducks, landing a hard right upper cut into his gut as the girl jumps him from behind.

They spin and tussle, Jack extricating pink leopard from his back without much trouble, but the guy is coming on strong. Jack spins, grabs him around the throat.

“I’m going to post this, what you do when someone meets you. You’re a bitch TutoDanceFighter!” The girl shouts.

“Just settle the fuck down.”

The guy doesn’t seem to know what’s good for him.

He tugs at Jack’s arm, bending and twisting, then hooking his foot behind Jack’s knee and throwing his weight forward.

“Jack!” I call but it’s too late.

Gravity takes control. There’s a huge splash as they fall into the harbor and the rest of their party comes running over, screaming and cursing. Jack is the first one up the ladder onto the dock as I back away and six or seven other people appear from other boats at the marina, lining up to have Jack’s back.

“Get the fuck out. Your charter is cancelled.” He shakes water from his head, nodding toward the other end of the dock.

“I paid you for five hours!” The older man screams.

“Sue me. Get the fuck out. Get your shit off my boat before I throw it all in the fucking lake.”

“You want me to call the sheriff?” The woman with white shorts and a charter shirt squeezes through the chaos as the group flips Jack the bird, calling him all sorts of creative names, as he wipes the green-tinted harbor water from his face.

“No. They’ll leave.” He turns and looks at me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sure?” His voice deepens and there’s a spinning inside of me that quickens.

Adrenaline and lust are a potent mixture as Jack peels his wet t-shirt over his head, dropping it with a sloppy plop on the dock and pulling me toward the little office, nodding toward the woman in white shorts and the other people that have shown up.

“Just everyone clear the area. Let them leave. If they don’t, I’ll take care of it, just give them space. Cowards hate an audience.”

Inside the small building, Jack’s fingers brush down my arm then gather my wrist, pulling me back into what I know is his private office. There’s no one else inside the building but he closes the door, making me tense as a pulsing starts between my legs.

“Please, don’t tell Carter about that…what happened. He’s so…”

“Protective.” Jack’s voice is a low growl, which only heightens the tense vibration in the air between us.

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