The two men stare at each other for a long moment, and then Aiden stands. Before I even know what’s happening, he cages my face in his big hands and tips his head down, pressing his lips to mine. I flex my fist around the iPad I’m holding so tight I’m surprised I don’t break the screen. Aiden tastes like mint with a hint of smoke, and he doesn’t kiss me gently or politely. He fucking claims me for the whole club to see. I know what this is: a show for Dagger. Only the moment his tongue trails the seam of my mouth and meets mine, I forget anyone else is in the room. I forget my own damn name. The hurricane inside me surges again as lust and rage chase through my veins, but just as I reach my hand up to grip the hair at the nape of his neck, it’s over and he’s backing up, leaving me breathless. “You can show yourselves out,” he says to Dagger gruffly.
“I’ll see you soon, Mia,” Dagger says as Aiden wraps an arm around me and pulls me toward the back of the club, pushing me into an office. The one I’ve been trying to get into for three days.
The moment the door closes behind us, the room becomes frigid. Aiden’s back is to me as he braces a hand against the doorframe, breathing deeply for a moment before he turns and raises his deep-blue eyes. He stalks toward me, and I back into the wall. “You willneverdisrespect me like that again. Is that fucking clear?”
I’m pinned against the wall much as I was the other night in the alley, but this time his wrath is fixed on me.
“It’s not about disrespect,” I say as bravely as I can. “I’m not something you can just take ownership of.”
“Exactly,” he bites out, and I don’t understand. “That is exactly why I put a claim on you!”
“Claim on me?” My voice is at least two octaves higher.
Aiden’s fist smashes into the wall beside my head, and I jump. “This isn’t a fucking game, woman! Dagger wouldn’t ask your permission. He’d simplytakeyou. The only way to keep that from happening is for another boss to put a claim on you.” His jaw does that tensing thing it does when he’s angry, but his words come out evenly.
“Best case scenario, you’d run that fucking mouth for an hour and he’d push you off the roof to shut you up. Worst case, maybe he’d lock you in a fucking cage, chewing your food and spitting it into your mouth while he makes you squawk like a bird.”
I don’t answer, because the idea revolts me too much to speak.
“Maybe he’d have you gagged, fucking you with a lead pipe? Or worse, a fucking animal.” He leans in closer, and I suck in a breath. “I fucking saved you,” he says, looking into my eyes, and I know I need him.
“So what? Now we’re a couple? You just decide for me? I still have to go home, Aiden.” I say his name for the first time, but the way he looks at me is still fueled by wrath. He thinks I’m going to be grateful just because I was saved by the lesser of two evils?
“No,” he says. It’s a quick, hard answer.
“No?” I repeat.
“No. You’ll come home with me. Dagger will be watching. He’s a sadistic fuck, and for some reason, he really fucking wants you, especially now that he thinks you’re mine.”
“Can’t you just kill him? Isn’t that what outlaw club presidents do?”
The storm surges in his eyes.“You fucking little brat…” he mumbles. “You have no idea what I do.” No smart president would ever admit violence to a stranger. “I can’t start a fucking war because he looked at you the wrong way. Right now, the only way I can keep you safe is if you’remine.”
His?
Those words entice me more than they should, but he needs to think I’m resisting.I am resisting, right?
I close my eyes, because in this moment, I’m not so sure. My panties are soaked just from his lips on mine, however briefly they stayed there.
“So, I trade one prison for another? I either go with him or become your little…pet?” I whisper.
Aiden pushes away from the wall with a low rumble through his chest and strides across the office. I wait, not knowing what he’s going to do. I’ve hated myself every time I thought of him, forcing myself to remember why I’m really here. Yet I’ve become even more intrigued by him. All he has to do is look at me, and my body is begging for this very dangerous man to take me hard and fast, while his sinful name falls from my lips.
Aiden nods toward his office door, his jaw flexing and chest heaving as he pushes his dark-blond hair from his forehead. “You’re such a big girl? Then choose,” he says through clenched teeth.
“E-excuse me?”
“I said…choose, Mia.” He wraps one hand around my waist, the other around my throat, and pushes me into the wall even harder, until the room is buzzing.
“Because I only have so much control, and I’m reallyfucking sick and tired of your smart mouth questioning my actions when all it should be doing isthanking me.”
This time, I can’t hold in my whimper as his hand tightens on my throat. Everything in me screams to push him away; instead, I fist his black T-shirt under his cut, pulling him close. He slowly drags his eyes from mine, down to my lips.
“If you don’t want my protection, then get the fuck out of my sight. Take your chances.” His voice is so deep and low it sinks beneath my skin and makes honesty bubble up.
“I—I don’t know what I want,” I say breathlessly.I just know I don’t want you to leave.I just want one moment where I can shut my brain off andfeel.
“Yes, you do,” he urges.
