Page 57 of Temptress

My smile turned a little more brittle. “No hurry, just trying to get home. If you’ll excuse me.” He immediately mirrored me as I stepped left, refusing to let me by. My eyelids narrowed into a nasty glare. “What’s your problem, man?”

“Hey, no problem here.” He held his hands up in surrender. “You were bangin’ that Bridger asshole, weren’t you? You guys still together?”

“That’s none of your damn business,” I snapped, officially over this Neanderthal. “Now move.” This time, when I tried to duck past him, his hand shot out, his fingers wrapping around my arm in a painful grip. “What the hell?” I jerked, trying to break free, but he only tightened his hold. “Let me go, asshole!”

“Now, hold on a minute, sweetness. I got a proposition for you.” He stepped closer, too close, and for the first time since the exchange started, I felt a spark of fear. “How about you and me go back to my place, and I rock your world in a way that uptight prick probably never has.” His grip on my arm turned bruising as I pulled, trying to get free. For every step he took toward me, I took one back. A mistake, I discovered, when my back hit the wall behind me. I was trapped between him and the wall with no hopes of escape.

“That’snevergoing to happen,” I spit at him. “Not only because I suspect the steroids you’ve clearly been popping like Tic Tacs have shriveled your balls into raisins, but because I have too much self-respect to ever let your shrimp dick anywhere near me.”

His face turned an unhealthy shade of purple, anger bleeding into his eyes. “You got a smart mouth, bitch.” He used his hold on my arm to give me a shake, causing the back of my head to smack into the wall. “How about I give you something else to do with it?”

One second the piece of shit was pinning me in place, threatening me, and the next my path to the back exit was clear when his body was physically thrown a good few feet away.

It all happened so fast, I barely had time to comprehend what was going on around me. I blinked, and all the sudden Silas was standing in front of me, his head twisted as he barked orders at the other security guards filling the hallway. “Get that piece of shit out of here. I don’t want to see him in this club ever again. He’s fired.”

Matthew spewed hate and vitriol as members of Silas’s team dragged him toward the exit, and in no time, the door was kicked open and the asshole was gone. For good this time.

Thank god.

As soon as the door closed, Silas’s attention landed on me. “Hey,” he said softly, drawing my attention back to him. “You okay, Sassy? Did that asshole hurt you?” He crouched down close to eye level, concern swimming in those navy eyes as he trailed his hands from my shoulders to my elbows and back up again.

I stepped back, away from his touch. “I’m fine,” I answered. It was the truth, after all. Sure, the dick had grabbed my arm, and I’d probably have bruises, but it really was nothing in the grand scheme of things. “And, hey. You finally got your reason to fire him. Silver lining, right?”

His frown deepened at my sad attempt at humor. “I don’t give a shit about that. I want to know if you’re okay.”

I shrugged, hefting the strap of my gym bag higher. “Like I said, I’m good. But thanks for stepping in. The guy really has an issue with rejection.”

I knew that was the wrong thing to say when Silas’s nostrils flared angrily and rage flashed in his eyes. But he wasn’t mine anymore, so his anger was no longer my business. “If you’ll just give me a minute to close everything down, I can drive you home.”

I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but there was no chance I was getting into a car with him. My poor battered heart couldn’t handle it. “No thank you.” Pushing past him, I offered a lame, “See you around.”

“Darcy misses you,” he blurted out, and at those words, I froze in place, dropping my head as the blow he’d just landed shot pain through my entire body. It would have been less agonizing if he’d shoved a rusty knife into my heart.

“I miss her too,” I said thickly, squeezing my eyes closed as I let that burn course through my body. It took a second to fizzle out, but once it did, I pushed on, walking out of the club and away from Silas without looking back.

27

SILAS

Igrabbed the wrench tighter and pulled harder, grunting as I struggled to twist the rusted bolt holding the lawnmower blade in place.

The blade had bent when I accidentally went over a rock while mowing the back yard, and now I couldn’t get the damn thing off so I could fix it. The piece of shit lawnmower was just another symbol of how bad things had been for the past two weeks. Nothing had gone right for me since I walked away from Sloane.

I couldn’t sleep without dreaming about her. I couldn’t eat without remembering how she’d gone out of her way time and time again to make me and my girl our favorite cookies. Her smell was still on my sheets, and my fingers tingled at the memory of touching her skin. Everything I did reminded me of her somehow. Christ, even mowing my yard took me back to the time she’d teased about peeping on me from her window every time I did yard work.

I ended our relationship because I’d been so goddamn sure it was the right thing to do, but I’d been fucking miserable every single day that passed and I couldn’t touch her or kiss her the way I had before.

It was on that thought that I put all my weight into yanking that wrench, only for the fucking thing to slip.

“Goddamn it!” I shouted as the backs of my knuckles sliced open on the jagged piece of metal on the underneath of the mower. “You stupid piece of shit,” I barked, standing up and giving the offending machine a hard kick.

“Wow.” My head shot up at the sound of my daughter’s voice. She was standing just outside the opened back door, her lips trembling like she was struggling to keep from laughing. “No offense, Dad, but I think you might be going a little crazy.”

I let out a sigh and worked to rein in my anger. “Sorry, baby girl. I didn’t mean for you to hear that.”

Leaving the lawnmower behind, I moved inside to the sink, grabbing the first aid kit from the cabinet beneath and flipping on the hot water so I could clean the cut.

Darcy followed me inside, and I could feel her eyes drilling into the back of my skull as she hopped up on one of the barstools at the kitchen island. She’d been in surprisingly good spirits since breaking her arm, which surprised the hell out of me. Only a few days after the accident, she was back at school, her bright pink cast on display. She couldn’t do stunts or anything like that until it came off, but her coach still let her cheer on game days, so my girl wasn’t too upset, and she certainly wasn’t letting a little thing like a broken arm keep her down.

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