Page 21 of Bossy Ex's Brother

“Let me go, you bastard.” The man was dumb enough to continue fighting back, pushing back with his full weight and breaking my hold. He charged at me again, and I slammed my fist into his face.

He went down with a groan, cupping his hands over his nose as blood poured out.

One of his associates who was sitting down stood up, looking like he was about to defend his friend’s honor, but I cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Really?” I snarled, and he immediately balked. We both knew who would be coming out of this fight, and it would be a shame if he let his bravado get in the way of his reason.

“You’ll pay for this, Rossi,” Damien swore from the floor, glaring daggers at me while holding his hand over his nose. “I swear to God that you’ll pay.”

“I have no doubt.” I nodded to the guards who were standing to the side. “Get him the hell out of here” As they moved to obey, I grabbed Jane’s arm. “You, come with me.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but when I spared her a glance, her mouth slammed shut, and she nodded.

As the guards escorted a struggling Damien out, I immediately began striding toward the office. Jane struggled to keep up, taking two steps for every one of mine.

“You don’t have to drag me along,” she complained, trying to wrestle her hand out of my grasp, but I ignored her. I was still pretty pissed about everything that happened there. She’d cost me one of my VIP clients, and I would likely lose out on money as a result. Not to mention that there would likely be some retribution. Damien Black might not be from the mafia, but he had enough money to move heads. Of course, it wouldn’t be enough to destroy me, but with everything hanging in the balance, even a minor inconvenience might topple it over.

All because I protected her.

What was annoying was that, given everything, I would do it again. I didn’t even have a choice in the matter. My body had moved of its own accord to defend her even before I’d formed the rational thought to do so. When I saw him grab her, I was filled with overwhelmingly dark intent, and for a second there, I thought I might kill the guy.

Just because he touched her.

It was disconcerting as fuck and totally out of character for me. I didn’t know why I did it, and that only made me angrier.

When we got into my office, I slammed the door behind me and spun her around to face me.

“You have three seconds to explain what the fuck happened out there.”

“What happened…” she snapped, “…is that the guards in your club don’t know how to do their job. They were going to just stand aside when that man harassed one of your dancers,” she spat out.

“What do you mean harassed?”

“You should have heard the way he spoke to her, and he kept trying to touch her legs. And he even—”

“Her legs?” I sighed, shaking my head. “That’s why you freaked out? Jesus, girl, that’s what the fuck happens in those rooms. Every single dancer knows what they’re signing up for. And they get paid nearly a thousand bucks a night for it.”

Her eyes widened, and she stiffened. “I had no idea you were running a whorehouse.”

“A whorehouse? Could you be any more puritan? It’s not a fucking whorehouse. It’s a gentleman’s club, one of the fucking best in the city. A club where reputation is everything. Do you think what happened today won’t get out?” I rubbed my hand over my head, feeling like my brain was trying to pound out of my skull. “And you didn’t even ask me before you pulled a stuntlike that. The fact that you think you can just toss somebody out without telling me is fucking laughable.”

“What I find unacceptable…” she said, taking a step closer to me, daring me, like she’d dared Damien back there, “…is that you allow your employees to be harassed and treated like nothing more than pieces of meat. I thought you were different. But you’re just the same as every other disgusting man who commodifies women’s bodies. I don’t know why I even expected more from you.”

Her words stung. They shouldn’t have, but they did.

At the same time, her flashing eyes and luscious lips that were a mere breath away were setting a new kind of fire in my blood. A fire that was never extinguished.

“That was your first mistake,” I told her, feeling the violence and lust brewing inside me growing to a deadly boil. “You should never expect better from me. You should always expect worse.”

And with that, I wrapped my hand around her waist, dragged her body to mine, and kissed her.

It was supposed to be a punishing kiss to prove a point. Heck if I knew what that point was, but I wanted to show her that I was not her knight in shining armor, the savior of women, or protector of children. I was a ruthless bastard who did whatever I wanted and whatever I had to in order to get on top. I was a selfish bastard, a ruthless king, the stuff of nightmares—the man with the pretty face who was really rotten inside.

But by the time her lips met mine, all those thoughts fell on the wayside, and the only thing I could think about was how sweet she tasted.

Which was fucking sweet.

Her lips were soft, and I got a taste of bubblegum lipgloss, surprising for such a fiery woman. And then there was something deeper, an intoxicating flavor that shot straight to my brain, stunning me with the force of it. My dick was instantlyhard, and the rest of my body responded too. I felt myself drowning in her taste, overwhelmed by her scent. My hand went to the back of her head, holding her closer for the onslaught, and she kissed me back with just as much ferocity, her arms wrapping around my neck, her body pressing against mine.

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