“Kick his ass, Mike,” said his piece of fluff.
But then, sometimes people surprise you. His eyebrows twitched a bit as he lost nerve and backed down, slowly lowering himself to his hands and knees in front of Kendall.
No self-respecting man ever literally licked somebody’s shoes, but that’s what Mike did. For a second my rage threatened to boil over, as if he had robbed me of a fight specifically to piss me off. I almost kicked him in the head right there, he was at the right height for it now.
“Please forgive me,” he mumbled to my date.
Kendall’s mouth was opening and closing like a goldfish as she tried to find the words. Honestly, how could the hottest woman in the room stand to have these pretentious cunts look down on her?
Tell him to stand up and fight like a man, I thought.
“It’s OK, it’s OK! Please stop!” she managed to blurt out.
Mike got up and murmured something at me that was probably an apology as the blonde arm candy belittled him.
“You should fuck off, if you know what’s good for you,” I said. “Take that noisy bitch with you.”
“C’mon, Liv,” said Mike, reaching for Liv’s arm and heading towards the front.
She stumbled after him, spouting words of disbelief, and I turned to watch them go. Not a single pair of eyes in the entire restaurant was on their own food, they were all on us, and it was deathly silent.
“Anybody else got a fuckin’ problem?” I asked.
Instantly, not a single pair of eyes was on us, they were all trained determinedly on their own plates.
I was practically shaking with pent-up energy when I sat down again and waved Coralie away. Across the table, Kendall was wearing her heart on her sleeve.
There was fear there, a certain shock at the promises my body language and tone had just made to our dear friend Mike, but overwhelmingly she was looking at me with awe. She was looking at me like I was some kind of hero.
I was nothing of the sort, but I could see myself reflected in her eyes. In them I was practically wearing shining armor and riding a white horse while lightning shot out of my sword.
“Th-thank you,” she said, so quietly that I could barely even hear her in the near-silence of the stunned restaurant.
Her hair, naturally lush and dark, shone and flowed over her shoulders, some of it grouping together in curls and ringlets. She may not have much money, but she had movie-star hair, and my eyes followed it down until I saw she had undone the top button of her shirt.
There was no doubt in my mind it had been done for my benefit. Shy as she was, it seemed she’d made a decision while I was outside, decided to give me exactly what I wanted.
She couldn’t know how much I wanted, though. At this point, denied a fight, I needed to release this energy and I bet Kendall had the most perfect little pussy to take it all.
I’d been thinking about fucking her from the moment I laid eyes on her, hadn’t I? It was time to stop teasing myself with this prize. It was time to fuck this little teen within an inch of her life.
Chapter 7
Kendall
He stood up for me. For the first time in my life, somebody thought I was worth standing up for. I was still shaking from the shock. Things had moved so quickly from being ridiculed, to the entire situation being reversed, my head was spinning.
When that man and woman were standing over me, mocking me, I was scared. However, that was nothing compared to the way Jace terrified them.
When most people thought of Jace Barlow, they thought of the multi-millionaire sitting in his office running a diverse portfolio of companies. As the head of such an empire, they probably thought he was decisive at the very least.
Well, that was the understatement of the century. They didn’t know the half of it. I’d just been given a glimpse under the hood, at the unrelenting power that drove Jace to the heights he had achieved.
It was intoxicating. Imagine going through life like that, knowing that you’re coming through like a freight train and people better get on board or get out of the way if they don’t want to get pulverized.
When he sat down, he looked like he was still on edge from the encounter himself. So full of energy, he was practically buzzing with it.
“Th-thank you,” I squeaked.
His eyes! His eyes! They were on me again, drinking up all the bare skin they could see with no apologies for it.
I remembered the button I’d undone and felt an electric pulse of excitement make my skin tingle as his gaze lingered there. When he brought his eyes back up to mine, that delicious sensation seemed to gather between my legs and I could feel my heart rate climbing.
“Fuck this, c’mon,” he said, standing again.
“What is…” I began as he took my hand and I was pulled to my feet.
Jace ushered me in front of him towards the back of the restaurant, where the woman from the front desk was talking to the waiter who had been leading that couple, Mike and Liv, to their table. Not too far behind them were the doors that presumably led to the kitchen.
“Sorry, sir, ma’am, I was just on my way over to see if there was anything I could-” began the waiter.
“Not now,” said Jace, still urging me forward in the direction of the doors.
“Sir, you can’t-”
“It’s OK, Donovan. Mr. Barlow has an arrangement with the owner.”
Poor Donovan didn’t seem to be having much of a day for getting full sentences out. Before I knew it we were through the doors and at the edge of a busy kitchen with celebrity chef, Luc Monette himself, barking orders through the steam and smoke.
A couple people glanced up from what they were doing as we rushed through, Jace steering me to the right, but nobody said a word. Just around the corner from the kitchen was another door, and Jace reached out ahead of me to turn the handle, pulling it open and pushing me through with his hand on the small of my back.
I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, an office or a rear exit perhaps, but this was a dimly lit storage room. Shelves upon shelves of ingredients lined the walls on all sides, but other than that there was nothing in there except Jace and me.
Turning to face him with a confused expression, I saw him close the door and then advance on me with such hunger on his face that my question faltered before it could escape me.
Is he going to ki-
Jace Barlow cradled my head with both hands, his fingers burying themselves in my hair as he tilted my head up and pressed his lips against mine. I opened my mouth to gasp in surprise but, as he was already mid-kiss, it only allowed him to kiss me more deeply.
Even though he was leaning down, I was still up on the balls of my feet to meet his kiss. That thrill of excitement I’d been feeling ever since I felt his eyes on me grew to a powerful flutter that made me breathe in short shallow bursts as a million butterflies rioted inside my belly.
Jace kept up his momentum and I was forced awkwardly backwards, our lips never losing contact with each other. My hands were on his stomach, feeling those washboard abs through his shirt as he steered me wherever he wanted to go, while giving me a kiss more urgent and primal than I had ever dreamed a kiss could be.
One of his hands pushed harder than the other, and we went around a corner in a gap between two shelves until I felt my back hit the wall. Jace didn’t stop kissing me, if anything he kissed me harder now that I had nowhere to escape, forcing my mouth wide open and curling one hand around the back of my head, as he let the other hand trail down my arm, coming to rest at my hip.
His knee pushed between my legs and his whole body was pressed up against me, pinning me against the wall, before he let our lips part. One time, I ran a half-marathon, I thought I was more breathless now, in this moment.