Ripping away from the warmth of Raina’s mouth, I look at the idiot who had the balls to interrupt us. I bite back the urge to tell him to fuck off when I see the level of intoxicated he is, trying to push into the men’s room but instead pushing into the wall next to it.
Turning my attention back to Raina, her blue eyes sparkle up at me, her chest still rising and falling in heavy breaths. My hand’s still under her skirt, and as much as it pains me, I remove it, watching a pout grace her pink-painted lips as I do.
“Take me home?” she asks, trailing her hand down the front of my body until she reaches the painfully hard bulge in my pants.
“Soon,” I promise, and I mean it.
This may have been a shitty place to realize the magnitude of my feelings for this woman, but now that the discovery’s been made, I don’t want to waste another second of my life not showing her how amazing she is.
Even if that means risking everything I’ve worked for.
Parq East hasn’t slowed for a second, if anything, the amount of people in the club has doubled, and while I’m not a fire marshal, I’m confident if one were to show up right now the whole place would get shut down. Swirling my whiskey, I look down from my perch in the lounge and take it all in, my self-given birthday present of allowing myself to relax a little.
Returning my gaze to whom it’s been constantly trained on all evening, my brow immediately furrows, face turning into a glare when I see a very tall man standing next to Raina. The look etched into her features sends ice through my veins, and I can tell something isn’t right.
Her posture. The half-swivel she makes on her barstool.
The way her eyes flick around as if she’s looking for a way out of the situation.
I don’t hesitate.
Rushing to the stairs faster than I can fathom, I take them two at a time as I race down to get to my girl.
Footsteps pound behind me, and I don’t need to look to know Sully and Nixon—who were leaning against the private bar of the lounge—are following close on my heels.
By the time we make it downstairs, Raina’s off her barstool, trying to inch away from the man. Our eyes connect, and the second they do, her face pales, and he follows her line of sight, turning to face me.
“Oh, so there he is,” he says in a thick accent as a slimy smile tugs at his lips. “The fiancé himself.”
The guy is a behemoth, at least four inches taller than my six-two, with probably fifty pounds on me. Dressed in all black, he keeps his hands in his pockets, which makes me a little uneasy.
“Fiancé?” I hear Nixon's question behind me, but I ignore him, my eyes never leaving the man.
My shoulders square and I look behind him at Raina, searching her eyes for the answers to the questions running through my mind.
“I was just asking this beauty where you might be.” His voice forces me to pull my attention from Raina and look back at him.
I take a step forward, which he mirrors. “Yeah? And who the hell are you?”
“I come with a message. Javier is not pleased with you.” He looks over his shoulder at Raina. “With either of you. So much so I’m surprised he did not come here to deliver this message himself, although under the circumstances, I’m sure you can understand his absence.”
“In order to understand, I would have to care, which I don’t. Go ahead and deliver your little message and get the hell out of here.”
The man laughs, the rumble mixing with the bass of the music that hasn’t faltered around us.
In my peripheral, I see Sly, Vinnie, and Cecilia join us, followed by Enzo finally sauntering over, and I put my hand out wide, my palm facing them, indicating for them to not come closer. My hackles are raised.
“What’s going on?” my far too sweet sister asks.
“The message,” I growl, refusing to let my eyes stray from the man. I don’t trust him. Everything about him screams bad news.
He rubs his jaw, watching me with fascination. “I can entertain you with the first part. Javier wants your fiancée back in Spain for the succession, as discussed. You are not to join her. If you do, Javier will see to it that the divorce is not granted, and your career is destroyed.”
Fuck.
I keep my face stoic while I stare at the guy who single-handedly managed to turn my stomach into knots. Like a fool, I never considered the possibility that Javier would look intome. Of course he did, and it took him two seconds to figure out I am a divorce attorney, and likely less time to make the connection that I’m representing Raina.
Behind me, dots aren’t being connected quite as quickly, though. I glance over my shoulder at our friends, who all look confused as hell.
