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“Then make fucking sure she doesn’t.” He staggers to his feet, resembling a soldier in a defeated battalion.
Just when I think the unpleasant meeting is over, Aspen has to open her mouth. “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. She has the right to protect herself from you and I won’t be the one to take that privilege away.”
The little fucking shit.
Mateo spins around in a flash of movement and lunges at her. I step between them at the last second and he slams into my chest.
I grab him by the shoulders. “Let’s calm down, Mateo.”
“Repeat that,” he speaks to Aspen who didn’t even stand up. “The part about how she’s protecting herself from me. I dare you to fucking repeat it.”
She finally slides from her seat and moves beside me, her expression as cool as Siberia’s ice. “You cheated on her and have shown you’ll be violent when it comes to her, so she wishes protection from you.”
“I did not fucking cheat on her.” He grunts, sounding out of breath.
“I’ll take care of it,” I tell him. “Go home, Mateo.”
Aspen opens her mouth to say something, probably foolish and unnecessary, again. But I elbow her and she steps on my foot with the pointy part of her heel.
Mateo staggers out of the club, shoulders drooped and definitely not walking the line.
“For the record, I don’t need you to defend me. I could’ve done that myself just fine.”
“And when would you do that? When your blood is the club’s new wallpaper?” I face her, my jaw locked as tightly as her crossed arms. “Mind your words before you speak them. I thought I was the one lacking diplomacy, but apparently, you lack common sense. Besides, if you still want Nicolo’s protection, you won’t get it by pissing off his brother.”
She pales and it cements the idea I had from earlier. Aspen was speaking from her emotions, being illogically angry at Mateo and lashing out with her icy attitude as a response.
I doubt she thought about the deal she made with Nicolo concerning this whole charade.
“Is there something I should know about?”
She lifts her chin with defiance that hardens my dick. Her eyes shine in a mixture of forbidden earth and mysterious forest. “Why? So you can sabotage me with it?”
“If that was my intention, it would’ve happened with or without your cooperation.”
“Excuse my stoicism and inability to believe you have any noble motives.”
“Nobility and I don’t share the same universe, beliefs, or social standing. Also, your idol, Nietzsche, was a self-professed nihilist who was highly critical of stoics, so to adopt their philosophical term should be presumptuous to your little Nietzsche heart.”
“Being stoic and actually adopting the philosophy are entirely different.”
“That’s like the chicken and egg conundrum. Being a stoic is to adopt the philosophy that, unlike what your darling Nietzsche wants you and his vintage fan club to believe, actually share common ground with nihilism. Neither thought an individual has free will and, therefore, cannot actively play a role in their own fate. But at least stoics give people the room to find ways to exist within nature. Nihilists do not.”
“So now you’re a stoic?”
“I’m neither of those fools. I decide my own fate in spite of what those bands of textbook nerds say.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“That’s exactly how it works.” I pause, running my gaze over her face that has no business being so fucking attractive. “For instance, if I want those pretty lips wrapped around my finger or another part of me, all I have to do is take action.”
She remains unaffected, short of the splash of red that explodes on her neck, which completely gives her away.
That, and she swallows, twice, before speaking in her usual haughty tone. “The only action you’ll be taking is defending yourself when I sue for sexual harassment, dick.”
“You’re the one who just mentioned my dick, so the suit could go both ways. Though a lawsuit would be the last thing on your mind once I have you writhing underneath me.”
“Your arrogance should get you banned from breathing.”
