RISK(6)

Her eyes fall to my belt and then drop lower. There's no subtlety at all. "You're setting me up, aren't you? Do I have to come out and say that I want to …"

"Get your hands off of her, you jerk! Do it now!"

That voice. The voice yelling those words is the same throaty voice I heard earlier in Meadow Grill.

I turn away from Lacy as she lists the things she wants to do to me and I turn toward the voice of the woman I can't stop thinking about.

Dressed exactly as she was earlier, Ellie's long red hair is flying over her shoulder as she single-handily drops a man double her weight to the floor.





Chapter 4


Ellie




"You're going down for this, Jerry." I squat on the floor next to him; my hands wrapped tightly around his wrists. I squeeze as I press them both into the small of his back. "You crossed a line this time. I can't believe how f*cked up you are."

"How f*cked up I am?" He squirms beneath me, his chest pressed against the cool marble. "You're the one who tackled me. You broke my nose. I think you broke my f*cking nose."

I glance down at the blood that's pooling near his face. "You make me sick. I hope the judge throws you in jail and buries the key."

"What judge?" He turns his head so he can look right at me. "I'll leave, Ellie. I'll walk out and never step foot in here again."

I arch my neck back, an exasperated sigh escaping me. "You're not getting a warning this time. This is way more serious than jerking off in the staff room."

He closes his eyes for a minute. The resistance in his body fades as I shuffle my feet.

"The police will be here soon," I say hoping that someone who works at the club will step into this fray. I don't know how long I can pin down a man Jerry's size. If he pushes back, I'm going to end up with my ass on the floor, and my lace panties on display. Damn this short dress.

I don't look up even though I know that a circle of people has gathered around us. I heard the gasps when I yelled at Jerry. I saw the movement of bodies when I jerked him to the ground as he was trying to bolt. I was so close to the club's entrance, but I couldn't just walk past Jerry when I saw what he was doing.

My duty as a security officer of this resort wouldn't allow me to and my conscience wouldn't either.

"When a woman tells you to stop touching her, you damn well stop," I spit the words out through clenched teeth. "What gives you the right to ignore that?"

"She didn't want me to stop. That 'no' meant nothing."

"What?" I twist his left wrist. "You didn't just say that."

"You didn't see the way she was grinding on me earlier, Ellie. That chick wants me." He sucks in a deep breath as a drop of blood trails out of his nostril. "She was just playing hard to get in the line."

"You had your hand up her skirt," I say, shaking with anger. "She was pushing you away. I heard her tell you to stop."

"That wasn't real." He laughs. He f*cking laughs as blood flows out of his nose and onto his upper lip. "I guarantee her panties were wet. She wanted me. Her body was screaming yes. I don't give a f*ck if her mouth was saying 'no.' "

I look up at the face of the woman who I saw pushing Jerry away. I heard the desperation in her voice. I saw the panic that flashed over her expression when she told him to stop. Her words may have been quiet, but the emotion behind them was loud enough to wake the dead. The tears in her eyes and the stuttering breaths that escape between her sobs, tells me everything I need to know.

"I don't think your nose is broken, Jerry." I stare down at his nausea-inducing face. He's the boy-next-door type. When he worked security with me, women would constantly stop him to ask for directions, or assistance, or his number. That ended the day I caught him in the staff room with his pants shoved to his thighs, his cock in his hand as he jerked off, oblivious to the fact that motion sensitive cameras anchored to the ceiling were capturing his every stroke.

"I fell hard," he whines, the distinct scent of beer on his breath. "I've never had a broken nose, but this feels like one."

I know two wrongs don't make a right. I'm acutely aware that I'm violating protocol by even considering what I'm about to do, but sometimes rules have to be broken and lessons have to be learned the hard way.

I reach forward, grab a handful of blonde hair on the back of Jerry's head and just as I'm about to smash his smug face onto the hard tile to guarantee his nose is indeed broken, I feel something brush against my shoulder.

I turn at the touch, my gaze sweeping over the handsome face of the man whose lap I landed in earlier. Broad shoulders, messy hair and evening stubble greet my eyes. "Hey, Nolan Black. How's your night been?"

***

"You're inviting her for a drink too?" Lacy, one of the resort's deputy night managers, asks. "I thought it was just going to be me and you. You know, just us two."

Really? You'd think after everything that's happened tonight, the fact that Nolan Black is hot for Lacy wouldn't shock me. It does. I get that some men are into older women. I didn't peg Nolan as one of them, but then again what do I know about the man other than he smells fantastic and his ex-non-girlfriend pockets everything in sight.