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My heart is slamming against my chest cage so damn hard right now, the effort of not smashing my coffee mug almost becoming too much to handle. Every inch of me is blazing with rage, with true white-hot feral rage, ready to grab this jackass and throw him through the window.
I remind myself to remain civilized. Remember where I am, and the consequences if I let my rage take over.
I could get arrested. My woman could lose her job.
Maybe I can start something with him like I did with that jackass who insinuated himself to that sixteen year old girl?
But no, I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want to make him see that he has no damn right to talk to my woman like that.
“I’m docking an hour’s pay,” he says finally.
“But I was only ten minutes late.”
“Do you want to make it two hours?” he snaps. “That’s what you get for being such a shit worker. Hell, if you were anything like that gal pal of yours, with that fine body… But look at you. Christ. Your uniform hardly fits—”
I stalk across the cracked and dirty floor, my footsteps pounding loudly. Before I’ve even made a conscious decision to do it, I’m looming over this jackass, staring hard at him, eye to eye.
He’s tall, almost as tall as I am, and clearly thinks he’s tough.
My woman lets out a little gasp when she spots me, but I don’t turn to look at her. I just keep staring at this piece of shit, my muscles tight, pulsing with the need to do this bastard harm.
“Can I help you?” he says, with a bitter tone to his voice like he’s still trying to act tough.
But he can’t hide the little glimmer of fear behind his eyes… eyes that flit to the bar, where I’m guessing he has a weapon he’d like to use on me right now. It’s in the way he shifts his body subtly too, as though getting ready for something.
“Apologize,” I snap.
He laughs like he thinks he’s above saying sorry.
“I mean it,” I growl, taking another step forward. “Nobody gets to talk to my woman like that. So you’re going to tell her you’re sorry or I’ll put you through the fucking window.”
I know I’m going too far, but the beast in me wants to go much further, wants to make this piece of shit bleed and scream for the way he spoke to my woman.
My heart is sending a thundering beat through my whole body, pounding over and over, as I try to hold myself back.
“She was late,” he says, a quiver in his voice, his phony courage draining.
“That doesn’t give you the right to speak to her like a piece of dirt. It doesn’t give you the right to make comments about her body either.”
“I—”
“Apologize,” I snap. “Now. Or this is going to get really fucking bad for you.”
He turns to Maddie slowly and then turns back to me, his mouth opening and closing stupidly like a fish.
Finally, he settles his gaze on Maddie and swallows, clearly delaying before he says the words he has to say unless he wants this to get much worse for him.
“I’m sorry.” He forces them out. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”
Maddie’s eyes widen for a moment and then she looks at me, a note of gratitude in her expression, which does confusing things to my insides. I want to tell her she doesn’t have to be thankful, pathetically grateful that this man has to show her respect.
Because everyone should show her respect, always.
It’s not a privilege. It’s a right.
“Maddie, say the word,” I snarl. “Say the word and you never have to set foot in this place again. Say the word and you can spend the rest of your life focusing on your true passion. On your writing. I’ll take care of you. Forever.”
I don’t mean to say all of this in front of Gerry the prick, but I can’t help but let the words surge out of me, her presence compelling me.
Like it always does.
“I need somebody to work the floor today,” Gerry grumbles. “She can’t just leave. She has to—”
He abruptly cuts off when I snap my gaze to him, staring at him with fire in my eyes.
“Are you serious?” my woman murmurs, toying with her ponytail as though she wants to free it as badly as I do, as though she wants to shake her head and let it cascade around her shoulders.
“Yes,” I snarl. “I mean it. Just like I meant what I said last night.”
Maddie turns back to Gerry, a playful smile toying at the edge of her lips.
“You know what, Gerry?” she says, with intoxicating sassiness in her voice. “I quit.”
Chapter Nineteen
Maddison
“What the heck am I doing?” I say as we walk onto the street together.
