Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance #2)(25)

“I’ve done all of this for you,” she whined, her red high heel stomping against the marble floor. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her. How childish was it that she was making a huge deal out of nothing? It didn’t bother me, though, it wasn’t me who looked dumb in front of all of these people.

“And I’ve told you thank you more than once.” I gritted my teeth while speaking.

“Then prove it and make it official between us.” She pursed her lips. The challenge in her eyes made my cock hard. I loved the darkness in her, but the shit coming out of her mouth shattered the mood. She wanted what she couldn’t have and what I wasn’t willing to give to anyone.

Except Noelle.

“Why don’t you get on your knees right here, right now, and suck my cock.” I tilted my head at her, meeting her eyes with the same challenge as I reached for the button on my jeans. I was serious as f*ck, and I was sure she didn’t believe me.

I watched as she visibly sucked in a breath, her face puckering like she ate something sour. Clearly she wasn’t happy with that idea. I felt the same about her wanting to me make it official between the two of us. The only thing official about us was the fact that we f*cked.

“Sasha?” One of her many friends, a chick that went by the name of Max, walked up behind her, saying her name as if she had a question.

“What!?” she snarled, her tone pissy and filled with anger. The girl seemed more frightened than anything as she bit at her bottom lip.

Since when did people treat their friends like garbage?

“You told us to be on the lookout for a girl….” Max looked between Sasha and I. She could feel the tension, just like I was sure everyone in the room could.

“What girl?” I asked before Sasha could answer her. If this had anything to do with Noelle, I would cut Sasha the f*ck off so fast her head would spin. I might be engaging in sexual affairs with her, but Noelle wasn’t, which meant she didn’t have to deal with childish bullshit antics Sasha put out there. I had already warned Sasha that f*cking with Noelle was like f*cking with me. It wasn’t something you did without being prepared to take a fist to the face.

Max shifted from one leg to another as she stared at Sasha as if she was asking with her eyes if it was okay to tell me.

Think real hard before either of you answer me. What was left of my patience was quickly wearing thin.

I flexed my fists and asked again, my eyes scanning the floor before coming back to Sasha and Max. There was no one that matched Noelle’s description in the crowd, at least not within my sight.

“I’m not going to repeat myself again. What girl?” My anger was mounting with each second they waited to speak.

“Ummm…” Max stuttered again, and I could tell she was scared. She probably wasn’t even one of Sasha’s friends, but nothing more than a groupie, one of the people that Sasha appointed to do shit for her.

“Sasha!” I ordered her, raising my voice. I could feel eyes on me. They started to drift toward us. We were drawing attention and I didn’t like it, not in the least f*cking bit.

“Jesus, Royal. It’s your little bitch of a stepsister, Noelle. Happy?” The way she spoke of Noelle antagonized me. I shoved from the railing, pissed that I had to pry the information out of Sasha, and even more pissed that Noelle had come even after I told her not to.

“Is this the part where you run off and rescue her?” I wanted to strangle the hell out of Sasha, but ignored her comment while I descended the stairs without hesitation. I stopped at the second to last step, scanning the crowd. My fists tightened in rage as my eyes clashed with Dom’s from across the room. A smirk marred his face as he wrapped his scuzzy arm around a sexy girl with sunshine colored hair.

Noelle. My Noelle.

“Oh, f*ck no!” I bellowed out, jumping from the stairs and landing feet first on the floor. Pain radiated up my legs, but I kept moving as I shoved through the mass of bodies, sweat and the smell of alcohol filling my nostrils almost instantly.

Panic filled me as I pushed through the masses, losing sight of Noelle and Dom almost instantly. There were too many people here, making it harder to tell people apart. Air filtered into my lungs. I would kill him if he hurt her. The thought popped in my head, and I had no time to recognize what it meant. All I wanted to do was find her and leave. The fight didn’t matter anymore, nor did the money that was placed on it. All that mattered was protecting Noelle.

Mine. The alpha in me told me what I needed to do. That I needed to find her, throw her over my shoulder, and take her back home ravishing her sweet ass the whole way, proving just how in charge I was.

“Noelle!” I called out her name, the panic in my voice rising as I shoved through the rest of the crowd, coming out on the other side where her and Dom were just standing minutes ago. Where the hell did she go, and why didn’t she listen to me?

God, why the f*ck did she have to decide tonight would the night to be rebellious?

As I looked around the room, my eyes snagged on her best friend Jordan sitting in the kitchen on the granite countertop. Quickly making my way over to her, I stopped directly in front of where she was, grabbing firmly onto her shoulders and bringing her face up to mine.

“Where is Noelle?” I ordered, roughly shaking her, and forcing her to look at me and focus on what I was saying. She startled, sucking in a breath before speaking. She smelt like a bottle of Jack Daniels.