Chapter Ten
Rip
Eric spun around to face me, his expression apoplectic with rage.
“Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck are you still doing here?” he raved, a wave of spittle flying from his mouth.
Thankfully, it was dark, so neither of them saw me shunt it aside, using the water base to prevent it from landing all over my chin and shirt.
“Enough,” I rumbled warningly.
“Enough of your interference,” Eric snarled, practically foaming at the mouth in his fury. “Leave us alone. This is none of your damn business.”
I was done taking his shit, so I took an intimidating step forward, letting my eyes bug out slightly. “Not until you tell me what your intentions are with Laurie.”
Eric shook his head. “The audacity of the help, sticking their nose in where it doesn't belong. My business with my fiancée is just that, dipshit, my business. So back the fuck up and leave us alone, got it? We were just having a talk.”
I tilted my head down, glaring hard. “A talk, you say,” I replied with false pleasantry. “Really. How interesting. Because, and I mean, I’m just the help, of course, so I might be misinterpreting this wrong, but it looked to me like you were about to hit her!”
I finished in a full roar, my ferocity sending Eric back a step. Behind him, Laurie dodged out of the way, moving to stand off to the side, not getting between us. Clever girl.
“What did you just say?” Eric hissed. “Did you just accuse me of being a woman beater?”
I looked him up and down contemptuously. “Yes.”
Eric flew into a rage, cursing me up and down. His hands curled into fists, and I let a subtle smirk settle over my face.
Hit me, I dared him mentally. Please. Try it. Throw a punch, do your best. I dare you.
But something about my stance, or the look I gave him, stopped the lunatic from actually taking a swing at me, much to my dismay.
“You’d better leave,” Eric said, pointing behind him toward the door. “Just walk away right now.”
“Or what?” I challenged, baring my teeth.
“Okay, that’s enough!” Laurie cried, getting between us and lifting her arms to stop us from closing in on each other.
Eric just sniffed at me in disdain as she pushed him back, but I barely noticed. The effect of her hand on my breastbone was immediate and extreme. My body howled with a need to be closer to her. I wanted to take that hand and yank her toward me. She was a female, and she was with an inferior mate.
I was the superior, and we both knew it.
A growl filled the air around us as I locked eyes with Eric, nose flaring, inhaling deep, her hand still touching me.
I almost launched myself at him. The pull to defeat her mate and take his place was immense, and I could feel the bloodlust of combat beginning to fill me.
She was mine, and I would claim her. One way or another.
“Back up,” Laurie said in a stronger tone. “Both of you. Now.”
Eric sneered at me, then took a step back.
I didn’t. I stood my ground, looking down with purposeful slowness to where her hand was still stuck to my chest. She was touching me still, and not him. And it didn’t look like she wanted to let go anytime soon, either.
Her soon-to-be ex-mate noticed as well, his anger redoubling.
He reached out and took her hand, pulling her away from me.
Even as she was dragged to his side, she looked back at me.
Our eyes locked, and I knew, in one way or another, I had her.
She would never look at that pathetic piece of shit the same again.
I was the new alpha in her eyes, and nothing would change that. I didn’t intend ever to let her go either. She would be mine.
“Stop looking at my girl,” Eric barked. “She doesn’t like it.”
A low, ominous chuckle filled the air as I rebuked his claim wordlessly. I didn’t have to tell him how wrong he was. Laurie did it for me.
She flung off his grip on her shoulder and stepped away from him. “I’m not ‘your girl’ anymore. Did you not pick up on that?”
Eric looked at her sharply. “You can’t be serious. This guy shows up twice, and you want to leave me? How long has this been going on, you cheating whore?”
Laurie slapped him. “I did not cheat! Just because you’re a lying sack of shit who was trying to use me for money doesn’t mean all of us are like that.
I’ve never seen him before today, and nothing has happened between us.
He’s just intervening because you’re acting like a maniac.
Now get the fuck off my property before I have Winston call the police. ”
“What’s gotten into you?” Eric exclaimed as I stood and watched. “First the prenup, now this? Are you on drugs?”
“No, not at all,” she said with a harsh laugh.
“Just seeing clearly for the first time, that’s all.
I feel bad, you know. You were so upset about being stuck with me for three more years, so I decided you could be free of your Trust Fund Barbie in just three hours.
And, oh, would you look at that. Time’s up. Get the fuck out.”
I beamed. She was feisty, and I liked it.
“Laurie,” Eric said, spreading his arms wide, pleading.
“Don’t ‘Laurie’ me,” she fired back. “I heard you on the phone. I know what you said about me.”
“It was a joke,” he pleaded, shaking his head. “Is that what this is all about? A joke?”
“You jokingly call me a Trust Fund Barbie behind my back? You already have an expected exit from our relationship? And that’s all a joke to you?” she cried. “What sort of person does that?”
“None of that was real! I wasn’t serious,” he said, reaching out for her. “Come on. Let’s go inside and talk it over. It’s all just a big misunderstanding.”
“No, a misunderstanding is you not realizing we’re done. So you need to get out.”
“We’re not done,” Eric said frantically. “I can make it up to you. Show you that I’m serious. We’re not done. I promise this will get better. Now, come on, and let’s talk it out.”
He grabbed her wrist, but she shook it off.
“Leave me alone!”
“No, you’re acting stupid. Let’s go in and talk,” he growled, snatching her wrist and trying to pull her after him.
That was the last I could stand by and let happen. I moved until I was suddenly standing in front of him. “You should stop touching her,” I said as calmly as I could manage. “She doesn’t like it.”
“Don’t try to tell me what my girl does or does not like. Now, get out of my way!”
Eric dropped his grip on Laurie and used both hands to push me away.
I didn’t even sway. He was forced backward from the effort.
“That was assault,” I said mildly. “Final chance. Leave.”
“Fuck you,” Eric spat, then did the one thing he shouldn’t have. The one thing I’d longed for him to do since the moment I met him.
He swung at me.
It was a wild, uncorked haymaker intended to surprise me. There was no training, however, and I saw it coming from a mile away.
My left arm came up, blocking his strike with enough force to bruise. Then my right hand darted out, and I hit him across the face.
More accurately, I bitch-slapped the motherfucker hard enough to split his lips.
Eric stumbled away, holding a hand to his mouth as he moaned in pain. Laurie cried out in shock but didn’t step away from me.
“Don’t,” I said, lifting a single finger as Eric tried to come back for me. “You really don’t want that.”
He glared daggers at me, but I shrugged it off. I’d stared death down a thousand times in my youth as wave after wave of enemies from the darkest reaches of the sea had tried to kill me and drag me into their depths. The pathetic human was nothing after that.
Wordlessly, he turned and stormed back into the room, for once choosing the better option.
We watched without speaking as he grabbed a bag and something off a table, then left the room behind, slamming the door hard enough for us to hear from the balcony.
Once he was gone, Laurie sagged next to me, letting out a long-held breath.
“Thank you,” she managed.
I grunted. It was nothing. In fact, I’d had fun with it. The things I usually fought were nameless, faceless evil. Taking Eric down a peg was way better because he was a real person, and I could see the humiliation building in him at the ease with which I’d dispatched him.
Sure, it wasn’t a fair fight. But he was an asshole, so who cared.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” she asked. “Put in a good word with Winston? A day off, anything like that?”
I laughed. None of that would do a thing for me since I didn’t actually work for her father.
“Um, not like that,” I said, struck by sudden inspiration. “Though there’s something you could maybe do, but it’s a lot to ask.”
“What’s that?” she said, looking eager.
“Well, this is a little awkward, but could you give me a ride back to the city?” I asked with a shrug.