AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When the doors opened upstairs, I didn’t hesitate to storm out.
I had never seen Jay in person. My best friend had been fucking this guy for months—my best friend was in love with this guy—yet none of us had met him. I knew that was by his design. He was still clinging to all the rules he’d created at the beginning of their relationship, still scrambling for control. He wanted to send Stella a message by not meeting the most important people in her life.
Good thing I was here to send a message too.
“You’re still here,” I snapped at the man behind the desk.
His eyes moved up from the computer screen as I approached, surprise flickering in them, the rest of his face a cold and unforgiving mask.
He was handsome. That was a given. With the suit, the emerald eyes, the hair. I’d expected that, as well as the general air of danger around the man.
I was fucking Karson, who had an entirely different and, in my opinion, entirely more malicious air of danger, so I wasn’t fazed. Moreover, I was here to battle for my girl. I would fight fucking dragons for her.
This was not a dragon. This was just a man.
“Why are you still here?” I demanded, laying my palms flat on his desk, leaning down to glare at him, to communicate that his badass mask did not work on me. Not even a little.
He was inspecting me in a way that felt uncomfortable. Probing. Not in any kind of sexual way, but similar to the way Karson had originally looked at me on the street that first day. Weighing me. Considering me. Really fucking looking.
“I’m here because this is my office.” His voice was smooth, deep, even.
There was a ding as the elevator doors opened once more. Karson was obviously not content to have me up here alone with his boss. I didn’t know if he thought Jay was going to hurt me or if he thought I might hurt Jay. I didn’t look back at him, though Jay’s emerald eyes darted back.
“I’m so sorry, sir,” Karson said from behind me. “I’ll get rid of her.”
That was when I looked at my boyfriend. “Pray tell, Karson, honey, tell me how you plan on getting rid of me.” My tone was full of challenge. Of warning.
I fucking hated the way Karson called Jay ‘sir’ too. Like he was less than him in some way.
“It’s okay, Karson,” Jay’s voice interrupted our stare off.
Karson did not look at his boss, he was staring daggers at me, promising all sorts of punishment. I stared right back, promising him the exact same thing.
Once I had silently expressed how pissed I was with him, I turned to face Jay once more. “You need to go to Stella,” I told him.
Jay’s expression didn’t crack as I said her name, but I saw something move in his eyes. He was not the marble man he considered himself to be.
Of course, he didn’t answer me. That would seriously fuck with his ‘I’m the bad guy, I don’t care about anyone or anything’ routine.
Time to go a new route.
“You know she’s in the hospital, right?” I asked, keeping my expression even.
A lie. A tiny white one for the greater good. Nothing lit a fire under an alpha male’s ass like thinking his woman was in some kind of danger. It cut through all the bullshit.
That was when the marble façade cracked. Fucking shattered.
Jay turned into something else, something that even I was a teeny bit afraid of. He had stood and rounded his desk before I could fathom what was going on. He was coming for me, that much was clear. To do what, I wasn’t sure. But if the look in his eyes was anything to go by, it wasn’t going to be good.
Karson stepped in front of me.
His hand was flat on Jay’s chest, stance rigid as danger rippled from him.
“Stand down, Jay,” he commanded in a voice I’d never heard before.
This was it. This was Karson going to battle for me. Against his boss and kind of bestie.
Jay glowered at Karson. His own stance was taut, wired. They were in an alpha male standoff. Though I was concerned that Karson might get another scar to add to his collection, I figured even if this went south it would be entertaining. They wouldn’t actually kill each other. And Karson would win. He was in protective mode. And he was a total fucking badass.
