AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He was in control now, but he hadn’t maintained his control earlier. He had known the moment he bared her pretty ass to his gaze that he was severely out of control. Thank God that she hadn’t realized the line he had been riding. But he had known. He had known and he hadn’t been able to pull himself back from the brink.
It had been all he could do not to spank her as he wanted to, and that was only because he had been so desperate to test her sexual submission to him.
She was innocent, as of days ago, a virgin. She wouldn’t have known the implications of what he was doing to her, and she shouldn’t have accepted it so easily. There should have been a measure of fear, of wariness from her. He had expected to have to ease her, gentle her. Instead, she had lifted that pert little butt right up to him and invited him to do his worst.
He wiped his hand over his face as he started the truck’s engine and reversed out of the driveway. She had taken a part of him that night that he didn’t think he would ever be able to give a woman. She had stolen his heart when he had believed he didn’t have a heart to steal.
It wasn’t just the sex or her submission to it. It wasn’t any one thing, Zeke realized. It was the realization at the moment he had taken her that she didn’t just belong to him, but he belonged to her. Because in all the years that he had known of the dark sexual core he possessed, he had never known a woman like Rogue.
She was adventurous, wild as the wind, but steady, honorable. She was a woman that would love a man with every ounce of her heart, and he knew she loved him. It had been in her eyes, in her sighs, in every response she had given to every touch he had bestowed.
She was his, and protecting her was his right, ensuring that she was never, ever harmed was his privilege. Making certain he never lost her because of the job that meant so much to him was imperative.
That part would be harder than what he was setting out to do tonight. Tonight, he would make certain one particular man understood that he was never to lay his hands on her again.
Keeping control when he had driven up on the scene had nearly been impossible.
Giving in to her demands that he release Jonesy had been even harder. But he had realized something about Rogue a long time ago. She would lay down her own life for a friend; she had proved that when she had defended Shane and lost her own reputation.
He wasn’t going to risk such a confrontation, especially in public, over Jonesy.
No, he would take care of Jonesy privately, just between the two of them while Rogue slept.
It didn’t take more than a half hour to arrive at the Bar. It was close to four in the morning now, but Jonesy’s truck was still in the parking lot, as Zeke knew it would be.
The bartender was usually in the bar until daylight, leaving just as the sun peeked over the horizon and didn’t return until just before the evening shift. His assistant bartenders along with Rogue opened the bar at five every evening except Sunday.
He pulled his truck into the front lot and shut off the engine before leaving the vehicle.
The front door was locked until Zeke strode up to it and pounded on the heavy panel.
He didn’t have to wait long before it was pushed open and Jonesy stepped outside, his expression wary. Bald and heavily muscled, Jonesy was a bull of a man that most men were uncertain of antagonizing.
Zeke intended to do more than antagonize him.
“Change your mind about arrestin’ me?” Jonesy’s broad face twisted into a sneer as he faced Zeke, his heavy fists clenching. “Ain’t you scared Rogue might cry a little bit if you do?”
A hard laugh left the bartender’s throat at the statement. As though the thought of Rogue crying amused him. It sent a spurt of pure undiluted rage building inside him.
“Whether or not Rogue sheds tears over you isn’t what concerns me, Jonesy,” Zeke drawled. “The bruises you left on her arm tonight does. ”
For a moment there was a flicker of regret in the bartender’s eyes. It was gone just as quickly and replaced with a hateful sneer.
“She don’t ever listen to reason,” he bit out furiously. “That girl waded right into that fight as though it was her business who was slingin’ fists. Better a bruise on the arm from me than a snapped neck from someone else. ”
Like hell.
Zeke didn’t intend to stand around arguing with the other man; he had come here for a reason.
“This makes the second time you’ve laid your hand on what belongs to me,” Zeke state softly. “You don’t touch what’s mine, Jonesy, not for any reason. No way, no how. ”
“Last I heard no man had papers on that girl,” Jonesy grunted. “I been watching out for her for four years now. Where the hell were you when she needed someone at her back?
You were whorin’, Sheriff. Sleeping with tramps and trash while I was watching after Rogue. Now you think you can waltz right in here and treat her like you treat your flybys? Not while I can still talk some sense into her. ”
“Like one of my flybys?” Zeke’s eyes narrowed.
“Yeah, your fly-by-night little whores that you keep hanging on a string. You know, Sheriff, the ones you hide in the day and fuck at night? Or was I wrong about Rogue?
