I see my words hit her when some of that malevolent spitefulness dims. She doesn’t know I’m lying, but I know she is.
“That was a nice try, babe,” I tell her before reaching over and picking one of her blond hairs off her breast, my finger grazing her hard nipple and I curl my lip up in disgust. “Honey,” I call over my shoulder, not giving her the satisfaction of looking away first.
“Hmm?”
“Do you think bleach would ruin your couch?” I ask, my brow arching high.
His laughter bellows from his chest, the richness fills the room instantly. The hand still holding my hip flexes and he pulls me closer, the other arm going around my chest to hold me to his body. Whether he’s doing that to keep me closer or to keep me from her, I don’t really care. The second every hard inch of him presses against me from top to toe, the woman before us might as well have been invisible.
He is finally able to calm down his hilarity to just a few bursts of air that I feel tickle the top of my head a few moments later. The woman is still topless and still fuming in front of us.
“You’re fired. If I see you back inside or near Dirty, I’ll make sure you’re in the back of a cop car in seconds, got me?” His deadly calm tone causes a shiver of arousal to stream down my spine. He’s doing it to intimidate her, show her he’s serious and in control, I’m sure … but hearing him take a tone full of domination flips a switch inside me that makes me shift uncomfortably when I feel the wetness between my legs.
“What?!” she screeches and throws her hands in the air. “A few weeks ago, you were on the bar dancing for me, and now, you’re throwing me out when we both know this is what you want.”
Instead of allowing her words to cut me, I reach back and push my hand between our bodies until my palm rests against the bulge in his pants. He’s not hard, thankfully, but he’s obviously a sizable man if the heavy weight of his cock beneath my palm is anything to go by. He hisses out a breath when I squeeze my hand. I want him to know that her words aren’t affecting me in the least and the only way I can think of is to remind him that I meant what I said yesterday. I still want him even with this clusterfuck in front of us. The old Ember, the one that let her past rule her, would have run the second I stepped into his office, but not the new me. I intend to live up to the nickname he gave me a long time ago.
His length hardens with my touch, but he just flexes the hold his hands have on me and lets me continue to play.
“You know damn well that I was giving a demonstration that day. Not for one goddamn second was I dancing for you. I don’t know what sick fantasy you’ve built up in your head, but I promise you that it will never come to fruition. Get the fuck out of my club.”
She hesitates.
“Now!” he roars, and she hastily covers herself with her top before running toward the door and down the stairs.
I feel him breathing rapidly against my back, my hand still holding his now very hard cock. I give him a squeeze, and it’s almost as if someone stuck him with a cattle prod. He jerks back, his hands going to my shoulders, and he spins me around roughly. I would have fallen, but the second I was facing him, he bent, grabbed me at the back of both thighs, and had me up in his arms before I could blink. His mouth crashes against mine roughly before turning us. I feel my back press against the cold, hard surface of his windows before all rational thought flies out the window.
“I won’t take you here,” he rumbles against my mouth before turning his head and deepening the kiss. I try to roll my hips, desperate to ease the ache between my legs, but he pushes me harder against the glass. “No.” The unwavering authority in his voice stops me instantly.
He steps back, gradually helping me to my feet until he is sure that I have steady footing. Stepping back and running his hand through his hair, I lick my lips when his brown hair falls back in a shiny curtain against his face. At the moan I must have let slip, he jerks and turns to face me.
“No, Ember. We’re going to set the table,” he commands, pointing at the table I hadn’t noticed on the other side of the room. One single rose sits in the center of the black surface. “You’re going to go over there and get everything set up before sitting down like a good girl. You aren’t ready for the kind of time-out I have planned for you, but know that if you disobey me, I’m going to start adding that shit up. I’m going to the bathroom to take care of this problem you’ve created, and you’re going to set the table, sit down, and wait for me so I can give you a proper first date you will remember for the rest of our lives.”