Chapter 21 Nick #2
She’s wearing a short red minidress with matching red lipstick and high heels laced all the way up her toned calves.
She’s got her hair pulled up with curled tendrils hanging down, the smooth curves of her neck and shoulders on full display.
My cock twitches, giving her a hypothetical round of applause.
I make a mental note to thank Emma later for making sure she was dressed to impress—because I am very impressed and that’s something that doesn’t happen often.
By the look of things, I’m not the only one.
Vade and Marcus are both gaping at her. If I didn’t need them, I’d kill them… or at least take an eye.
Ethan leans over and whispers something in her ear, putting her beautiful smile on full display, and suddenly I want to punch his lights out.
Her eyes lock on mine for a brief moment but quickly turn to Ethan who leads her over to our table, both of her hands holding one of his, keeping her from anxiously picking at her fingers.
The men at the table, myself included, stand to greet her as she takes the seat Ethan holds out for her. Sasha stays seated, eyeing her carefully, but doesn’t say anything. The girl smiles as Ethan introduces her to everyone but doesn’t look my way.
That shouldn’t get under my skin as much as it does. Marcus and Sasha are the only two who don’t know her true identity. Marcus seems thrilled to meet her. Sasha not so much, even though she thinks the girl’s my niece.
“What would you like to drink, Emily?” The fake name I gave her tastes sour coming off my tongue.
She takes a seat and gently slides one leg up the other, careful not to spread her legs as she crosses them. It’s such a sensual move, I can’t help but give her a wicked grin when she looks my way. She quickly looks away—again. What the fuck?
“I’ll have a margarita, please.” The waitress takes her order and walks off. The girl goes back to looking everywhere but my way. I grit my teeth, trying to keep my composure.
After everyone has their drinks, I go over the plan. From Sasha’s role in training the girl to dance and be alluring to men, Marcus’ role in undercover and self-defense training, to Ethan’s roll in surveillance. Vade and I will be there to supervise and make sure everything goes as planned.
Vade, Ethan, and I are currently the only ones aware of Kaleb Cherry’s involvement and have decided to continue with the girl’s training in case he turns out to be an unreliable source. I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case because none of us want to send her in.
Everyone seems to understand their part, and to my surprise, the girl doesn’t ask any questions.
Whether she’s surprised, or nervous, I can’t tell.
I’ll go back over everything with her later—one-on-one.
She must have questions and concerns that she doesn’t want to discuss in front of people she doesn’t know, which is understandable.
She best believe I will ask her why she’s ignoring me.
“Wanna dance?” Marcus holds his hand out to the girl, and to my surprise, she takes it. The dress—mostly open in the back except for a couple thin crisscrossing spaghetti straps—is so short, if she bends down, she will expose everything.
She better not fucking bend over.
I crack my neck and down my bourbon. It’s taking every bit of restraint I have not to cut in and break Marcus’ fingers as his hand lightly snakes over the exposed skin to her lower back, stopping just above her backside and pulling her closer while “Everybody Here Wants You” by Jeff Buckley plays over the sound system.
Damn right they fucking want her. Even Ethan is gawking. I told them they couldn’t touch her, but that’s not stopping him or Vade from eye-fucking her. I’m going to gouge out their eyeballs if they don’t look away soon.
“Do you want to dance?” Sasha asks me while rubbing her hand up my leg.
“No,” I snap and remove her hand. I’m going to sit here and make sure Marcus keeps his damn hands mostly to himself. It’s annoying that this is getting under my skin so much.
“Fine,” she huffs and walks off towards the bar, Vade trailing after her. Probably going to get the fingerpaint.
The girl doesn’t belong to me, nor do I want her to, but I’ll never forget the night she looked in my eyes and jumped off that bridge. Every single bit of fear and desperation is eternally burned into my memory.
There was something there when I looked back into hers that I knew I had to save. No matter how much I told myself I should just let her die, even when she was in the hospital, I couldn’t let her go.
I risked my life to save her and can’t just let that slide. It’s natural to be protective of her after surviving something so reckless and traumatic for both of us. Sure, she’s an attractive girl, any man can see that.
Since I haven’t been laid in months, seeing her with that much flesh exposed is sending my sexual frustration into overdrive.
I need a fucking cigarette. Joke’s on me for using sex as a coping tool for quitting cigarettes, because now I’m not getting either.
I refuse to drink my frustrations away after the office incident.
How long is this fucking song? She’s totally unaware of her surroundings.
Awareness of your surroundings is self-defense 101.
Danger can be avoided simply by being in tune with what’s going on, reading the room, and acting accordingly.
He should be teaching her that, not trying to charm her with his smile.
“Worship Me” by Ari Abdul plays next and Marcus still doesn’t let her go. Fuck it, I’m cutting in.