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I was breathing heavy as I looked into his icy blue eyes. Shrugging nonchalantly, I replied, “Maybe you should consider piercing your…” I trailed off, shooting a knowing look at his crotch. “It could spice things up. You know, make it lessvanilla.”
“Oh, I got your vanilla,” he growled, taking the bait perfectly.
I latched my limbs around his body as he pushed up, hefting me off the couch. “Where are we going?”
“Bedroom. I’m about to show you shit you’ve never evenimagined. Then we’ll see who’s talking about vanilla.”
I let out a sharp yelp when his palm came down hard on my ass. The moment the sting subsided, all I could think was,Yay, me!
Me: Come over
Navie: Can’t. I have plans.
Me: Then come over after. You can stay the night. We have a weekend full of non-work hours.
Navie: Sorry. I have company this weekend. I can’t come over. See you Monday.
Me: What company? You didn’t tell me you were having company.
My last text was an hour and a half old, and without a response. I started off curious, but after the first fifteen minutes, that curiosity turned into concern. At the forty-five-minute mark, that concern morphed into agitation. At an hour fifteen, I was just straight up pissed. My mind was all over the place, wondering who the hell she was with and why she hadn’t told me. I felt like I was reliving the past with Bree all over again, only this time, the tension in my chest was almost unbearable.
It was over a twenty-minute cab ride to Navie’s place in Murray Hill and by the time I got there, I was ready to kick whoever’s ass was encroaching on my territory. I took the stairs up to her apartment like a raging bull preparing to gore the motherfucker standing in front of me.
I made it to her landing and pounded on her front door, just itching for a fight. And that was exactly what I got. The moment the front door swung open and I was hit with an eyeful of naked chest—nakedmalechest—my vision went red and I lunged.
“Motherfucker!” I shouted as I barreled into the guy standing in front of me, slamming my shoulder into his stomach with a satisfying grunt. “I’m gonna kill you!” We went down in a heap onto Navie’s entryway floor. I had to hand it to the dude; I might have caught him off guard, but he rallied quickly, twisting around and landing a right hook that had me seeing stars with a shocked, “What the hell?”
While we wrestled around on the floor, each of us landing blows, I vaguely registered the sound of feminine screams. I was pretty sure my lip was split, and my eye was hurting like a son of a bitch, but I wasn’t giving up. The guy pinned me in a headlock as he rose to his feet, and I took the opportunity to land a few well-placed punches to his kidney and ribs. And the bastardstilldidn’t let go.
“You fuck my girl, I fuck you up!” I voiced in a painful wheeze as he squeezed my neck tighter. At that point, it had become clear I was losing, but I’d be damned if I tapped out before that asshole did.
I was just two seconds away from taking a cheap shot to his nuts when Navie’s voice cut through the rush of blood raging through my ears.
“Carson, Rowan,STOP!”
Carson? Oh, shit!
“Carson?” I coughed, unable to breathe with the guy’s arm threatening to crush my windpipe. I could only speculate, but I was pretty sure my face was turning purple.
“Let him go!” another woman yelled, and the arm around my throat instantly loosened. Gulping down air like a man, well, choking, I tilted my head the best I could while still in a headlock to find Navie and averypregnant woman standing in the middle of the living room, looking like they were about to murder someone.
“Carson Langford,” the pregnant woman scolded. “I said let him go. Right. Now.”
“This shithead started it,” the guy—apparently named Carson—said as he released me with a less than friendly shove. I stood straight and turned to see that his face hadn’t fared much better than mine. It shouldn’t have sent a spike of male pride through me, considering I’d just jumped Navie’s fuckingbrother, but what could I do?
“Rowan!” Navie screeched, stomping up to me, the look on her face so furious I had to keep myself from cowering. “What the fuck were youthinking? I cannotbelieveyou!”
“Who the hell is this dickhead?” Carson bit from across the living room where the pregnant lady—his wife Cassidy, I assumed—was examining the cut on his lip.
“Jesus, I’m sorry, man,” I started, running a hand through my hair as my gaze darted back and forth between him and Navie. “You opened the door without a shirt, and I just… I didn’t realize who you were. I just thought… hell, I don’t know what I thought.”
“This guy? Seriously?” Carson asked Navie incredulously, and she turned her glare from me to him.
“For the love of God, will you just please put a damn shirt on!” Looking back at me, she sucked in a deep breath, exhaling slowly as though she were trying to get herself centered. “Rowan—”
“Rowan!” Carson cut in. “Your douchebagboss, Rowan—?”
“Carson!” both Navie and Cassidy yelled at the same time. The sting from knowing how she’d once described me to the people she loved settled in the pit of my stomach like rancid meat as Carson continued his tirade.
