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I don’t mean to turn this beastly, but hearing him take jabs at my woman’s weight has messed me up.
“I’m done,” Jane says a few moments later, appearing in the doorway with a backpack.
“That’s it?” I ask.
She nods, her gaze flitting to Axel. Her eyes snap open wide, and I wonder if she’s judging me for letting out all this darkness and scaring her. It’s the last thing I want to do, but if I showed her all the heat inside me, bursting out, she’d be even more terrified.
“I haven’t got a lot,” she says. “The rest is in the duffel bag.”
“Okay, then.” I stand, then give Axel a gentle shove in the side. “Tell her.”
Axel sits up and gazes at Jane. He doesn’t say anything for a while. My body twitches. If he insults her again… Maybe I should have let Christopher come up here with me. Not to protect me, though, but thankfully, Axel does the smart thing. “I’m sorry, Jane. I never should’ve said any of that stuff or thrown your laptop.”
“Okay,” Jane says as she walks across the room.
We leave the apartment, and she turns to me. “Why did you do that?”
“He deserved it,” I snap. “Men like him think they can say and do anything they want. It’s because nobody has ever stopped them. Maybe he’ll remember this next time he wants to play the tough guy.”
“I hate bullies too,” she murmurs.
Is that disappointment I detect in her voice? Maybe she wanted me to tell her I did it because she means the world to me and is my entire world. If I told her the truth, I might end this and scare her away. I remember how she flinched each time I touched her.
“Is your friend going to be okay?” I ask as we walk down the stairs.
“She’s not my friend,” Jane says. “There have been nights when they both get drunk and make fun of me, but… yeah, he’s never hit her. He hits things and stomps around the apartment. He’d never been outright violent until he threw the laptop at me.”
I can’t listen to this for long. I’ll end up running back up the stairs, kicking the door down, and finishing what I started.
“You won’t have to worry about him anymore,” I say.
When we leave the building, Christopher approaches with a severe look on his face.
“Wait in the car, Jane,” I tell her.
She doesn’t need to hear about this Russian crap. She does as I ask, alerting my savage mind to other circumstances where she’ll obey my instructions. As she walks to the car, I can’t help but indulge in her large, perfect ass, round and full and ready for a spanking.
“Sir,” Christopher says, drawing my attention to him.
“Another threat?”
He nods. “In this one, they say they’ll find somebody you care about to get to you. They say… well, they’ll do many terrible things to this person.”
“I’m a loner, Christopher. Hell, you’re the closest thing I have to a friend.”
This isn’t exactly true since I’ve got Kenny. We grew up together. He was an integral part of my company until he sold his shares and moved to Australia with his wife and kids, but Kenny lives on a well-guarded estate in a different country, and he’s aware of the Russian stuff. They’re not getting to him.
Christopher glances at the car and Jane. Can he sense how badly I need this woman?
“I just thought you should be aware.”
I nod. “I need you to arrange something for me.”
“Anything.”
“An apartment with the best security money can buy with all the luxuries a person could want.”
A place fit for a queen, I almost say.
“Consider it done,” Christopher says.
“I need it fast, as in, right now.”
He takes out his phone. “Sir.”
I join Jane in the car. She’s letting her hair down and running her fingers through it, adorably curly locks down to her shoulders. Her ringlets frame her face, the shocked flush in her cheeks.
“That was the craziest thing ever,” she says. “Nobody’s ever done that for me before. Stood up for me, I mean.”
“You deserve it,” I tell her, thinking about Christopher’s threat.
A few weeks ago, the Russians sent somebody to follow us until we caught him and got his ass locked up. What if they’re still following but being sneakier? What if they see me kiss Jane, hold her, want her… and decide to make her their target? It’s not fair to put her in harm’s way. Maybe I should hold off until this stuff is sorted out.
“Thank you,” she says softly. “For everything. Really, and…”
“Jane?” I prompt when she trails off.
“That thing he said back there about the poster on the wall. I don’t want you to think it’s anything. I’m not some dorky teen with a photo of my crush on the wall. It really was just about the programming stuff.”
