SMACK!

Gavin’s hand was ripped away from my body and I watched in horror as he crumpled to the floor, blood trickling down his nose. I glanced up at Braden who was shaking out his already swelling fist, his chest heaving with fury as he glared down at Gavin. The crowd had parted around us, watching, and I felt Adam and Ellie sidle up to us. “What the h.e.l.l was that?” I choked out, loud enough to be heard over the music that had incidentally been turned down a notch when the crowed ooohed at Braden’s punch.

Braden shot me a dirty look. “That is Gavin. The friend who f**ked a.n.a.lise. Why the h.e.l.l were you talking to him like you know him?”

My mouth fell open as I turned to look at the personal trainer, watching as he got back on his feet. Shock and disgust warred within me. “He’s a trainer at my gym. He helped me once.” I glanced back up at Braden. “I swear I didn’t know.”

Gavin snorted and we looked back at him. He was swiping the blood from his nose and grinning at Braden. “Looks like you moved onto better things, Bray.” His eyes scanned me now, sleazy and probing. “Here’s hoping history repeats itself, because I’ve wanted between her legs for f**king weeks. How about it, Joss? You fancy s.h.a.gging a real man?”

Braden was like lightning. One minute he was at my side and the next he had Gavin on the floor, his fist pounding into him again and again. Adam darted past me and started to pull him off, the security appearing through the crowds to pick up a bloodied Gavin and hold him back.

Adam held tight to Braden as the two faced off. Braden pointed threateningly at Gavin. “You stay the f**k away from her,” he snarled.

Gavin wiped at his face again, wincing. “Christ, you never hit me when I banged your old lady, Bray. Tease you about your latest s.k.a.n.k and I’m down in seconds. Is her pu**y made of gold or something?”

Braden growled and lunged for him again, and one of the bartenders helped Adam to hold him back. “Get him out of here,” Adam ordered the security and then his eyes narrowed on Gavin. “I see you out on the street, I’ll knock your teeth through the back of your skull.”

At Adam’s threat Gavin made a face and let the security manhandle him out of the club.

I stared wide-eyed at Braden, not really even registering Gavin’s horrible words. Braden had hit someone. Over me? After just telling me he’d never hit anyone since he was nineteen, he’d hit someone. Over me. Or was it about his ex-wife?

I struggled to process it, the blood still whooshing in my ears.

Braden jerked Adam’s hands off him.

“You alright, bud?” Adam asked him.

Instead of answering, Braden’s eyes slid to me. His arm shot out and he grabbed my wrist, pulling me as he spun around and started making his way towards his office. I shot a wide-eyed look over my shoulder at a worried Ellie, but didn’t stop the momentum for fear I’d go over on my ankle.

I was hauled into the office with a sharp tug and I tottered up against Braden’s ‘nice and big’ office desk as the door crashed shut behind us. Very deliberately, Braden turned the lock.

I waited, unnerved by this fire-breathing, scary caveman-on-crack, version of Braden as he strode menacingly towards me. “First, you wear that dress so every man in this club wants to screw you. Then you start flirting with the man who f**king betrayed me,” he hissed into my face.

I pushed against his chest to no avail, my own anger rising. “Hey!” I retorted. “One: back off the dress. I like it, so suck it up. And two: I didn’t even know who he was!”

If it was even possible his face got a whole lot cloudier. I shivered, trying to step back, but the desk was in my way. “And yet you were still flirting with him!”

He’d never yelled at me before, and I flinched back, intimidated and p.i.s.sed off in equal measure. I shoved harder at his chest, but he only pressed into my hands like a d.a.m.n cement block. “Me?” I huffed incredulously. “You ask me to take the night off for this, and then I find out you’ve invited all your previous f**k buddies and girlfriends, and you spend the entire night flirting your a.s.s off with more than one of them! What is this, Braden?” I felt the anger dissolve into hurt and with it my voice grew quieter, “Is this me getting laid off early?”

I watched some of the fury melt from his expression, his hands coming up to grip my h*ps tight to his. My breath stuttered at the feel of his erection rubbing against me, but I wasn’t surprised. There was something electric between us, and it was really confusing being this angry and this turned on all at the same time. “Babe, that wasn’t anything out there,” his voice was low, his head bending towards mine. “I wanted a big take tonight, and a lot of those girls like to party and have a lot of friends who like to party. That’s all it was.”

“And the flirting?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t even realize. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I scoffed, needing to hold onto a little bit of dignity. “You didn’t hurt me. I can’t be hurt by you.”

At my scathing tone, Braden’s mouth hardened—the anger was back. I found myself pushed roughly against the desk as Braden grasped the back of my thighs and lifted my legs, pressing in between them as he shoved the hem of my dress up to my waist. I clutched at him for balance, the desk cold against my backside. “Don’t f**king lie to me, Jocelyn.”

I tried to push at him, but he only pressed deeper, his right hand leaving my leg to unb.u.t.ton his slacks. I was panting now. “I’m not lying.”

I felt his c*ck nudge against my s.e.x as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. “You’re lying.” He kissed my neck.

Then he surprised me by taking a shaky breath. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”

I could only nod unsurely, feeling out of control of the entire situation.

“Babe.” He pulled back, his eyes blazing now with something I didn’t understand. “I hit him,” he said hoa.r.s.ely and I suddenly realized the look was disbelief. “I hit him. Seeing him with you… I hit him.”

Because of me. I cupped his face in my hands, suddenly not afraid of him. “Don’t,” I whispered across his lips. “Don’t do that to yourself.”

He crushed my lips beneath his at the exact same time he tore my panties off, his tongue thrusting into my mouth hungrily as his c*ck thrust hungrily inside me. I gasped at the sudden invasion, arching my back as he gripped me high by the back of the thighs and pounded into me over and over, my cries of pleasure filling the office, his grunts m.u.f.fled in my neck. “Jocelyn,” he growled, trying to bury deeper. “Lie back,” he demanded.

I did it instantly, falling back, the bare skin revealed by the dress pressed against the cool wood. At this angle, Braden lifted my legs higher, allowing him to slide in harder, deeper. I writhed on the desk, my lower body completely in Braden’s control. The torture was exquisite, and the o.r.g.a.s.m tore through me in record time.

Braden wasn’t done. As I came down off my o.r.g.a.s.m, I watched him watch me as he ground into me, chasing his own cl**ax. I could feel another o.r.g.a.s.m building. When Braden came, he threw his head back, his teeth gritted, the muscles in his neck straining as his h*ps jerked against me. The feel of him coming inside of me, the image of his face in release, was the s.e.xiest thing I’d ever seen, and I cried out, my s.e.x pulsing around his c*ck as I came again.

“Jesus.” Braden watched me, hunger in his eyes.

Finally, my muscles relaxed and I closed my eyes, trying to catch my breath.

He was still inside me when he apologized softly, “I was a d.i.c.k tonight.”

“Yeah,” I murmured.

He squeezed my hip. “Am I forgiven?”

I opened my eyes and smiled, amused. “I already accepted the two o.r.g.a.s.ms as an apology.”

Braden didn’t laugh like he normally would. Instead he nudged his semi-hard c*ck a little further inside me until I could almost feel it kissing my womb, and he muttered, “Mine.”

I blinked, not sure I heard right. “What?”

“Come on,” Braden sighed, pulling carefully out of me and tucking himself back into his pants. He gently eased me up off the table and grimaced as he picked up my torn panties.

“Now, I’m walking out of there in this dress without any underwear on, Caveman.” I grinned saucily.

Braden closed his eyes at the thought. “f.u.c.k.”

~19~

The next few months were a blur of Braden. After the night at Fire he was still pretty raw about the whole Gavin thing, but I did my best to convince him the guy deserved to be punched, but more importantly that losing his temper in that moment did not a make him a bad guy. I discovered more from Adam about Gavin. Apparently they’d all been friends since elementary, but as they’d gotten older Gavin had turned into a bit of an a**hole. He was sly, sometimes caustic, horrible to women, a s.h.i.t-stirrer as Adam called it, and a liar. Braden had had this stubborn sense of loyalty to him because they’d been friends for so long. That was until the guy had screwed his wife. As I reiterated all these things to Braden, I think I finally got through, and a few weeks later I watched the grim contemplation gradually disappear from him.

Of course I cancelled my gym membership and Braden persuaded me to join his gym where I discovered that part of the reason he had those s.e.xy broad shoulders and narrow h*ps was because he swam after every workout. Somehow, more often than not, I ended up working out with him and taking that swim too. Somehow, in fact, we invaded one another’s lives almost completely. We took turns staying at each other’s apartment on weeknights whenever we could; we both were pretty content to just hang out watching TV, listening to music, but we also had fun throwing in restaurants and going to the movies, or grabbing a few drinks with friends. At least twice a month we had some kind of event that involved Braden’s work. I’d even ended up mentioned in an entertainment article for the local paper as Braden’s regular plus one and latest ‘woman’. I tried not to let it get to me.