Chapter 18
Mia
Making my way back to the table where Aiden sits with Dagger, I realize I was relieved when he showed up.
The more Dagger drinks, the more the demon in him comes out.
The way he looks at me makes me want to break his dick.
But I did hear him talking about the club with his men earlier, and what I pulled from the conversation is that he’s recently made Perrytown his home outside Savannah.
From what I can gather, he’s mostly spent the last couple years in Atlanta, with stints in California.
Which means the chances of him being here when Nic was raped are growing slimmer, and that points me right back to Aiden Foxx.
Though hating him is harder now. I need to fight harder to find something to incriminate him with and have been snooping around the back of the club whenever the chance presents itself.
I haven’t found anything just yet; everything is on lockdown.
I need to get closer to him, but I’m afraid of myself when I do.
The face he made as I came for him told me that he wants me just as much as I want him.
And I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind for the last three days.
No matter how hard I fight Briggs, no matter where I go, it’s all I see, and Lord help me, I was thankful to hear his deep voice behind me tonight.
“Foxx’s new little queen.” Dagger gives a slow methodical clap as I approach, and he looks at me like he’s got an inside joke I’m not a part of. “You know what I can’t figure out?” he asks, evil amusement in his eyes.
I set Aiden’s drink down in front of him and feel his hand slide over the back of my knee.
I stiffen instantly. It feels like a warning, and I struggle to understand what I’ve just walked into.
He’s so subtle about it, I’m sure no one else has even noticed.
All of the hours I spent telling myself what happened in the alley was a one-off, that I can resist his touch, fall to my feet like a collapsing house of fucking cards.
“Why the woman who belongs to Aiden Foxx is working as a server in his club.” Dagger folds his arms over his chest, and the scent of whiskey rolls off him as he looks straight at me for an answer. Aiden lightly squeezes my leg as my stomach drops.
Belongs? To Aiden Foxx?
“Dagger was inquiring about spending some time with you.” He turns his eyes to mine.
Skip.
“Personal time. So I informed him about our relationship.” Aiden looks at Dagger when he says this. My stomach immediately churns. I’d fucking kill Dagger before I spent even a minute of personal time with him. The dots quickly connect that Aiden put a stop to Dagger’s plans by saying I was his.
There’s no hesitation as I slide my hand around the back of Aiden’s neck, ignoring the heat from his hard, muscled shoulder.
Not only does pretending to be Aiden’s seem a lot smarter than being an option for Dagger to pursue, but my inner voice tells me this just might be my way in. My way to get closer.
“He likes to keep things private.” I blame Aiden, offering Dagger a sunny smile.
“He didn’t want the other girls to treat me any different.
” I wink. “And it’s always just been a fantasy of mine to work in a club.
” I slide my hand under Aiden’s hair just to fuck with him, ’cause two can play his game.
When his skin satisfyingly turns to goose bumps under my fingers, I grip him tighter, my nails digging into his flesh.
His face gives nothing away, but in retaliation, Aiden slowly slides his hand up a little farther, and I will my panties to stay dry as the pad of his thumb grazes my inner thigh. His grip is a warning to behave, or else.
“I aim to give her what she wants,” Aiden says to Dagger. “So clearly, she’ll have to decline your offer.”
“I can speak for myself, darlin’.” I say the words sweetly, and Dagger laughs.
“I’m here a lot.” Dagger eyes me suspiciously. “I wouldn’t have pegged you two bein’ together.”
“Me neither,” I agree. “Some days, it’s like it’s not even real.” Aiden’s hand digs deeper into my flesh. My body betrays me as wetness begins to pool between my thighs.
“I’m sure.” Dagger scrubs his scruffy beard with his hand. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever seen him claim,” he muses, as if I’m a piece of property he can own.
“There is no claiming me, but I suppose he’s the lucky one,” I fire back.
Dagger chuckles again. “Yea, you’re right, lass. It’s a shame he’s stolen the heart of the one woman who had nearly stolen mine.” Dagger offers a disappointed look in Aiden’s direction. I doubt he realizes it, but if he had tried to take me, I would have slit his throat myself.
“Shame,” Aiden almost growls. “Jared will have what you’ve been waiting for in Hilton Head next Friday.” It’s clearly meant as an invitation for Dagger to leave.
The two men stare at each other for a long moment, and then Aiden stands.
Before I even know what’s happening, he cages my face in his big hands and tips his head down, pressing his lips to mine.
I flex my fist around the iPad I’m holding so tight I’m surprised I don’t break the screen.
Aiden tastes like mint with a hint of smoke, and he doesn’t kiss me gently or politely.
He fucking claims me for the whole club to see.
I know what this is: a show for Dagger. Only the moment his tongue trails the seam of my mouth and meets mine, I forget anyone else is in the room.
I forget my own damn name. The hurricane inside me surges again as lust and rage chase through my veins, but just as I reach my hand up to grip the hair at the nape of his neck, it’s over and he’s backing up, leaving me breathless.
“You can show yourselves out,” he says to Dagger gruffly.
“I’ll see you soon, Mia,” Dagger says as Aiden wraps an arm around me and pulls me toward the back of the club, pushing me into an office. The one I’ve been trying to get into for three days.
The moment the door closes behind us, the room becomes frigid.
Aiden’s back is to me as he braces a hand against the doorframe, breathing deeply for a moment before he turns and raises his deep-blue eyes.
He stalks toward me, and I back into the wall.
“You will never disrespect me like that again. Is that fucking clear?”
I’m pinned against the wall much as I was the other night in the alley, but this time his wrath is fixed on me.
“It’s not about disrespect,” I say as bravely as I can. “I’m not something you can just take ownership of.”
“Exactly,” he bites out, and I don’t understand. “That is exactly why I put a claim on you!”
“Claim on me?” My voice is at least two octaves higher.
Aiden’s fist smashes into the wall beside my head, and I jump.
“This isn’t a fucking game, woman! Dagger wouldn’t ask your permission.
He’d simply take you. The only way to keep that from happening is for another boss to put a claim on you.
” His jaw does that tensing thing it does when he’s angry, but his words come out evenly.
“Best case scenario, you’d run that fucking mouth for an hour and he’d push you off the roof to shut you up. Worst case, maybe he’d lock you in a fucking cage, chewing your food and spitting it into your mouth while he makes you squawk like a bird.”
I don’t answer, because the idea revolts me too much to speak.
“Maybe he’d have you gagged, fucking you with a lead pipe? Or worse, a fucking animal.” He leans in closer, and I suck in a breath. “I fucking saved you,” he says, looking into my eyes, and I know I need him.
“So what? Now we’re a couple? You just decide for me? I still have to go home, Aiden.” I say his name for the first time, but the way he looks at me is still fueled by wrath. He thinks I’m going to be grateful just because I was saved by the lesser of two evils?
“No,” he says. It’s a quick, hard answer.
“No?” I repeat.
“No. You’ll come home with me. Dagger will be watching. He’s a sadistic fuck, and for some reason, he really fucking wants you, especially now that he thinks you’re mine.”
“Can’t you just kill him? Isn’t that what outlaw club presidents do?”
The storm surges in his eyes. “You fucking little brat…” he mumbles. “You have no idea what I do.” No smart president would ever admit violence to a stranger. “I can’t start a fucking war because he looked at you the wrong way. Right now, the only way I can keep you safe is if you’re mine.”
His?
Those words entice me more than they should, but he needs to think I’m resisting. I am resisting, right?
I close my eyes, because in this moment, I’m not so sure. My panties are soaked just from his lips on mine, however briefly they stayed there.
“So, I trade one prison for another? I either go with him or become your little…pet?” I whisper.
Aiden pushes away from the wall with a low rumble through his chest and strides across the office.
I wait, not knowing what he’s going to do.
I’ve hated myself every time I thought of him, forcing myself to remember why I’m really here.
Yet I’ve become even more intrigued by him.
All he has to do is look at me, and my body is begging for this very dangerous man to take me hard and fast, while his sinful name falls from my lips.
Aiden nods toward his office door, his jaw flexing and chest heaving as he pushes his dark-blond hair from his forehead. “You’re such a big girl? Then choose,” he says through clenched teeth.
“E-excuse me?”
“I said…choose, Mia.” He wraps one hand around my waist, the other around my throat, and pushes me into the wall even harder, until the room is buzzing.
“Because I only have so much control, and I’m really fucking sick and tired of your smart mouth questioning my actions when all it should be doing is thanking me.”
This time, I can’t hold in my whimper as his hand tightens on my throat. Everything in me screams to push him away; instead, I fist his black T-shirt under his cut, pulling him close. He slowly drags his eyes from mine, down to my lips.
“If you don’t want my protection, then get the fuck out of my sight. Take your chances.” His voice is so deep and low it sinks beneath my skin and makes honesty bubble up.
“I—I don’t know what I want,” I say breathlessly. I just know I don’t want you to leave. I just want one moment where I can shut my brain off and feel.
“Yes, you do,” he urges.
He’s right. I know exactly what I want. Reaching up on my tiptoes, I softly press my lips to his cheek, and he stiffens as I linger there for a second longer than I should, lightly ghosting my nose along his jaw. It’s so quiet in this room that I can hear the hum of the lights.
“Thank you, Aiden,” I whisper, and using his name again warms me as I look up at him.
His hand slides from my throat to wrap around my long braid, and my body ignites as I hear him whisper, “That’s not how you thank me.
” He pulls back slightly, the beast I couldn’t get enough of in the alley in his eyes.
My heart beats faster as he tugs on the buckle of his belt.
Just the sound is the beginning of my undoing.
“To thank me, Rhiannon…” He nods to the space between his boots. “You kneel.”