Page 78 of After the Burn

Conversation erupted all over again. And why wouldn’t it? My Fox looked gorgeous, as always. Her dark hair fell in a French braid over one shoulder, almost brushing her lush breasts. And those eyes… those amazing eyes most people called gray. Gray didn’t do them justice. They were every shade between silver and smoke, shifting in the light. One minute, soft enough to make a man forget his own name. The next, sharp enough to cut him open.

My heartbeat kicked once.

Hard.

Gideon motioned toward a single chair positioned beside the ring. Of course, it was front and center.

Every damn person could see it and her, too.

For half a second, I expected her to argue. Instead, she walked toward it calmly, as if she’d accepted invitations like this one every day since the world ended.

She sat, crossed one leg over the other, then rested her hands in her lap, and lifted her chin.

She didn’t look nervous or embarrassed.

Hell… she looked as if she’d been crowned queen.

A slow grin tugged at the corner of my mouth, and I felt my dick get hard. Gideon thought he’d put her on display.

And I guess he had. But he didn’t realize Taryn would never be anyone’s pawn.

Her beautiful eyes were already moving. Watching and calculating. Learning. She wasn’t some damsel in distress; she was gathering ammunition.

I was one lucky bastard, and I couldn’t wait to fuck this piece of shit up so I could claim my evil queen.

Adrian and Lucas settled to her left and right. Both remained standing, watching the crowd rather than the ring. Two very different men, yet with the same instinct to protect our heart.

Even if one of them hadn’t admitted the truth to himself.

Then fucking Gage walked over and took the empty spot behind her. Something ugly twisted in my chest, and my hands clenched.

Mace noticed and laughed. “If that pisses you off, imagine how bad it’ll be when we have her spit-roasted between us.”

I rolled my neck. “We’ll see.”

The bastard was trying to get in my head, but I was focused now. Beating his ass was the only thing standing between Taryn and me.

His smile dropped, and for the first time, he looked a little worried.

The bell rang again.

Time to let all these fuckers watching find out what happens when you try to take something that's mine.

Before the bell's echo had time to fade, Mace came at me like a freight train. Way too damn fast for a man built like him. His fist crashed into my shoulder, hard enough to numb my entire arm before I could fully block it.

Fuck, that hurt.

I smiled.

Good. That meant the fun would last longer than I’d anticipated.

I answered with a straight right that caught him across the jaw. The impact echoed through the ring as if someone had swung a baseball bat into a telephone pole.

The crowd roared as Mace’s head snapped sideways. He spat blood into the dirt, then looked back at me. “You’ve got some moves, boy, but it’s not going to change the outcome.”

He barely finished speaking when his shoulder slammed into my chest, lifting my feet off the ground.

I crashed through a corner rail, splintering thick oak boards before landing in the dirt outside the ring.