She didn’t know why he’d gone to this much trouble to make her feel guilty, but she didn’t really care. There was no need to defend herself or her situation. She just wanted him to leave.
“Of course you can,” Julian said with an annoyingly calm tone.
“My cook is a problem,” she informed him.
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Ned came flying out of the kitchen and landed on his ass behind the bar.
Sandie leaned into the service window as she warned, “And stay out of the kitchen. If you can’t even make a decent hamburger without copping an attitude, you’re fired.”
Kristin bit her lip to keep from smiling as she watched Ned rise to his feet and limp out the door of the bar.
Obviously, the petite master chef had kicked Ned’s ass in under a minute. Seeing somebody put Ned in his place was almost worth this whole farce.
“He’s not a problem anymore,” Julian finally answered drily as he grabbed her hand. “We’re out of here.”
She tried to shake her fingers from his grip. “No, we are not. You can’t just walk in here, replace the staff, and expect me to walk out the door with you willingly.”
“That’s exactly what I expect,” he contradicted in a sexy baritone that skittered up Kristin’s spine. “Do you really want to disappoint everybody who wants you to be at Tessa’s wedding?”
“Of course not,” Kristin denied, feeling angry at herself for giving in to the guilt Julian was laying on so heavily. “But you can’t just arrange my life to get what you want.” She huffed and started to walk away. “I want to go, but I learned a long time ago that you can’t always get everything you want.”
“You have no reason not to go—other than pure stubbornness.” Julian wasn’t smiling anymore, and his expression was more determined than amused.
She shrugged. “Think what you want, but I resent you trying to tell me what to do. I’m not one of your employees or part of your fan club.”
“No reason to think. Your responsibilities are covered,” Julian remarked casually. “I was hoping to make it easy for you to go. But I should have known you’d still be stubborn. We’ll just have to do this the hard way.” He raised his voice. “Hey, Carl. Quarterback skills. We’re going forced exit.”
Without missing a beat, Carl pulled Kristin’s purse out from under the bar and tossed it over the crowd to Julian. It was a perfect throw and an expert one-handed catch.
Kristin was still trying to yank her fingers from his grip when Julian easily picked up her significant weight and slung her over his shoulder like she was barely a burden, then bodily carried her out of Shamrock’s without saying another word.
CHAPTER 2
“Don’t even think about it,” Julian warned as he leaned back on the plush seat of their limousine.
“Think about what?” Kristin asked angrily.
“If you jump from a moving vehicle, you’ll more than likely end up breaking your neck, and that would be a shame. You’d miss Vegas and the wedding.”
It irritated her that he not only had known exactly what she was contemplating, but had quickly come to the same conclusion as her. There was no way she was taking a swan dive from a moving vehicle.
She’d been so shocked by his outrageous behavior that she hadn’t been able to speak until now, even though they’d been riding for several minutes. How he’d gotten the fancy limo down a closed street, she didn’t know. But Kristin was fairly certain it had a lot to do with the chief of police being Julian’s cousin, Dante. The old chief had retired just a few months ago, and Dante Sinclair had taken the promotion when it was offered to him.
Kristin shot Julian a furious glare. Even though it was already getting dark, the vehicle had lights in the passenger area. As far as Kristin could tell, the fancy car had everything, any luxury a person could ever want. Hell, she could throw a damn party in the back of the limo if she wanted. Unfortunately, parties were the last thing on her mind.
As she stared at the man across from her, it was impossible not to notice how Julian was sprawled across the seat, looking like he hadn’t just kidnapped a woman from her father’s bar, and like there was nothing he couldn’t do if he wanted to do it. He seemed to exude some kind of alpha-male pheromones that made her uncomfortable. Sure, he was handsome. He was, after all, a superstar. But there was something about the way Julian seemed comfortable in his own skin that rattled the hell out of her.