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“She’s mine,” Roman said again. “Did you really expect her to watch her mouth?”
Before I could stop him, he grabbed me by the arm and practically dragged me away from a bad situation turning worse by the second.
“Keep your mouth shut, and there’s a chance I’ll be able to get you out of this safely,” he growled under his breath after we’d gone a handful of feet. “I don’t want to have to kill him tonight.”
I said what was on my mind before I could stop myself. “I’ll do the dirty work if you get rid of the body.” When those words fell from my lips, they ended up sounding more like a proposition than a bargain.
“If you don’t shut your mouth, I might have to take you up on your offer.” He pulled me behind him, and the crowd around us suffocated me, threatening to swallow me whole.
“She’s off-limits,” Roman said suddenly to someone who wasn’t within my line of sight. “And you should know better than to challenge a Kinsley, especially inmyclub.”
Uh-oh.I didn’t know Roman except in the most primal way. I recognized the hunger in his eyes. The control he’d used to keep from killing Lars while they fought. The look he’d had in his eyes when he’d thrown the last punch. More than anything, I was sure I wanted to learn if it was the same look he had when he fucked. I also understood not to challenge his authority like whoever the idiot shouting was doing now.
I tried to peek around him, but Roman moved with me—a human shield between me and whatever was going down as he spirited me away.
“Not yours yet, Hawthorne,” someone else said.
Hawthorne? Roman was aHawthorne? There was a Hawthorne building at our university.
“You want to say that to my face?” Roman challenged, his voice dropping almost an entire decibel, and my body hummed even as ice frosted the air around us. “No? I didn’t think so.” He paused for a beat. “Get her out of here.”
Me? He was trying to get rid ofmealready? I didn’t need this kind of rejection, even the smallest hint of it, from a man who didn’t know me from a hole in the wall. Pulling away, I started my retreat. Except he still held onto my arm. I couldn’t get far, and he wasn’t letting go, either, making it even harder.
“Trying to,” someone else said suddenly. “But she’s freaking out over her friend.”
“Her friend is fine.” Roman sighed, and then hauled me in front of him, plastering my back to his front. Hisincredibly hardfront. His grip was pulling double duty. First, to make sure I didn’t miss the enormous cock pressed between us, and second, to make sure I didn’t get away.
“Ry.” The voice—it was breathless. Fearful.Emma.
My head snapped up. “I’m okay, Em.” Answering her silent question, I leaned back, pushing my body flush against his, giving my hips a wiggle, and testing the waters with Roman just for fun. At least, that was the lie I told myself.
Emma, completely oblivious to the rigors of my situation, coughed indelicately, and started talking again. “We need to go.” She was a woman who’d long ago mastered using her eyes to convey every emotion. Now, desperation darkened the irises to a deeper gray.
“No,” Roman snapped from behind me, his hand resting on my shoulder, the intensity in his voice mirrored in the touch. “Ryand I are going to have a word.”
He had a way of saying my name that made my pussy clench. I stared up at him, meeting the same ice-blue gaze that’d captivated me while he was in the ring. Everything about this man made me clench.
What do we have to talk about?
Nothing. Except maybe the way he compelled my body to react to his.
“Ry—”
Interrupting her, I forced out the only thing I could. “I’ll meet you back at the dorm.” Still, I never took my eyes off his.
“Good choice.” His challenge was evident, and I didn’t care about the awkward way I was peering up at him, or the fact he had a raging hard-on in a crowded room. That part actually turned me on. A littletoomuch, and my breath caught. Finally, he looked away, and I practically sagged against him in relief. “Didn’t I tell you to fuck off?”
But he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to the men who’d been there before us. Big, burly boys with less muscle than Roman, but more bulk. Bigger they were, the harder they fell.Ask Lars.
The other guy, Emma’s swimming coach or something? Colton, I believed his name was, snorted. “No, but I did.”
Roman crossed his arms almost comically over the top of my head, so I stepped away, observing everything intently. “And they should fucking listen.” He stared at them like they were annoying insects, waiting to be smothered in a glass of water mixed with soap.
Colton walked away, taking Emma with him, and almost immediately, regret churned in my stomach. I never should’ve agreed to stay.
With the two of them gone, Roman shifted his attention back to me, his gaze dark, raw, the kind of undressing a normal woman would’ve hidden from. I flipped my hair and slid my tongue along my lower lip.
“You’re the girl from the fight.” He moved me to face him and leaned in closer, and impossibly, I felt his presence all the way down to my toes. “Tell me—were you trying to distract me, or were you really getting off from the fight?”
