AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Maddie wasn’t in tonight. I thought she was rostered, but maybe I was mistaken, or maybe she was sick, but usually, she’d text me about something like that. I was thankful, though, and not in the mood to deal with her judgment about giving into the temptation that existed in the form of the boss of this club, not to mention the boss of half the underground crime in the city. But perhaps Maddie didn’t understand me as well as she thought she did. Few people knew the truth of my past—that was between me, the police, and my ex-boyfriend.
And the victims, who could no longer tell their side.
Emrick had been a hell of a temptation, but he’d left a bad taste in my mouth, and rather than aching for him physically, I was aching to wrap my fingers around his throat. A flicker of a grin passed over my face at the thought. I knew violence should be avoided at all costs. Violence came with a heavy price, but sometimes it solved the problem too.
Sometimes violence was all they understood.
The night was uneventful, and something about that left me feeling empty. I was ready for a confrontation, ready to give someone a piece of my mind in lieu of Emrick, but I hadn’t even seen him on the balcony tonight.
Toward the end of my shift, I was heading back to the bar with an empty tray, and yelped involuntarily as I was yanked sideways into a small hall which led to the bathrooms.
The tray clanged to the floor, and then Emrick was behind me. I didn’t need to ask who it was to know it was him. I was familiar enough with the feeling of my back against his hard chest, his arms wrapped around my body, and his breath against my neck. He had one arm wrapped around my stomach and the other forearm pressing between my breasts as he gripped my throat, his large hand encompassing my neck and fingers wrapping around, threatening me with their size alone. My neck ached where his fingers pressed against the bruises, but I felt a flush between my legs at his proximity.
He smelled so good.
Emrick’s chest rose and fell against me with his breathing—heavy, deep, almost labored breaths.
He was angry.
That made two of us.
“What are you doing here?” he hissed.
Twisting my neck until he slightly loosened his grip, I gasped a breath, trying to glare at him out of the corner of my eye before answering, “I work here.”
“Don’t give me cheek, you little bitch. I mean, why did you come back?” His breath was hot against my neck as he snarled the words into my ear, keeping quiet even though it was unnecessary over the pounding music.
“I told you, I work here. Or was your little fit this morning supposed to be you firing me?” His fingers tightened around my neck at my comment, and when I tried to twist away from him, he crushed me against him. The breath was knocked from me when his back hit the wall and he held me to him, absorbing the impact together. Clutching at his forearm, I gripped with my nails into his skin, warning him without words. Emrick simply continued to heave angry breaths against me, so I dug my nails into his arm until I drew blood. Only then did he loosen his grip. But it was after a pause, and if I didn’t know better, it almost sounded like he chuckled.
“You’re such a fucking slut. You’ll fuck anyone, won’t you?”
He was practically spitting the words out, hate dripping from every syllable.
Where the hell was all this coming from?
“I sleep with who I want to,sir.”This time there was a definite chuckle, but there was no humor behind it, and I’d have smiled coldly if I wasn’t so pissed off. What was he playing at? I couldn’t wrap my head around his actions, seeming to change and switch with the wind and his whims. “I bet you treat all the girls like this.” I sneered at him.
He spun me around then, and on reflex, I lifted my arms between us, forced to slam my forearms against his chest as he yanked me against him. He tilted his head down and assessed me over the top of his sunglasses, holding me still with those dark eyes. Almost black, like his soul.
And mine.
“Not all the girls,” he whispered. “Only you.”
He was so close, and I watched his lips. There was no smile or hint of humor, only pressed into a thin line as his anger pulsed from him. I couldn’t figure out what it was I had done to enrage him so, but if he weren’t man enough to tell me, then I wasn’t going to feel bad about it. I owed him nothing but a night’s work for the pay I earned, and that’s all.
Emrick moved closer, and I gasped when I thought he was going to kiss me. But he stopped, moments from contact, so close I could almost feel the brush of his lips against mine.
I wanted him and found myself slightly pouting my lips.
So close.
In a second, his demeanor changed, and he thrust me hard away from him, and I fell against the opposite wall as he muttered, “Get back to work, slut,” before disappearing around the corner and back into the club.
Staring after him, I rubbed my arms, a chill over me now his warmth wasn’t near.
What the hell was that about?
I was still no closer to an answer.
