Better When He's Bad (Welcome to the Point #1)(17)
This time when I smiled, it actually had humor in it.
“It’s what I’m best at. If you hear anything about Race, you better pass it along, or our next visit will be far less enjoyable for both of us.”
In the hallway, I rolled over what Ernie had told me. Race came from money. His family was tied into a lot of really wealthy families and charities on the Hill. He knew a lot of really powerful men from his life before. He could’ve been asking about any one of them and if the guy he was asking about was in Novak’s pocket, that meant whatever he wanted done was big and all kinds of bad. It was a shame I couldn’t just go to the source and ask. If I got in a room with Novak, one of us wasn’t coming out alive and I wasn’t cocky enough to automatically assume I would be the one walking away unscathed.
“Hey, Bax. Benny and his boys just rolled in and headed right for your redhead. You didn’t tell me you broke the old guy’s nose. Bet he was pissed.” I liked Chuck. He was a solid dude who just followed orders, and I think he was a pretty good judge of character.
I pointed to my black eye. “He sucker-punched me not even a minute after I got my first taste of pu**y in longer than I want to think about. He’s lucky the only thing I broke was his nose.”
“I always said none of those boys knew what they were doing messing around with you. Even when you were a kid, you were still twice as scary as the lot of them together.” Chuck sounded proud of that fact.
I lifted an eyebrow and nodded.
“I tried to tell them that. They never wanted to listen.”
I made my way back into the club and immediately saw Benny and two of his guys hovering at the edge of the booth where I had left Dovie. Honor caught my eye and gave me a wink from the stage. I rolled my eyes and shoved past Benny to slide back in the booth next to the redhead.
Those eyes, so green and leafy-colored, were hard, but I could see the fear lurking in the darker veins. I didn’t want to know exactly what Benny had done to her last time, but I wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t going to put his hands on her again without facing blowback from me. I pulled her so that she was flush up against my side. I ran a hand across the back of her neck and got a fistful of all that orange-red hair. The curls were soft and springy where it was gathered up off the elegant curve of her face. Her freckles were dark against the pale canvas of her skin and her mouth looked like all the things I had dreamed about while I was locked up. She wasn’t going to like what I was about to do, but I hoped she was smart enough to just roll with it. If not, it was every man for themselves and she could figure out her own way to get Benny to leave her alone. I didn’t need her to like me or respect me when all this was said and done, I just needed her to do what I wanted and stay out of my way while I handled business.
I brushed my thumb along the full sweep of her lower lip and saw her eyes widen in a flash of understanding right before I claimed her mouth with my own. I held her still with the hand I had wrapped around the back of her neck and held her face with my other hand so she couldn’t jerk away and set Benny off. She was stiff as a board and her hand was digging into my thigh like a claw. I was right, though; she was every kind of sweet and unsullied. She tasted like fresh strawberries and purity, and good God, that mouth, I could press my own to it forever and never get tired of it. The last thing she needed was a guy like me pawing at her. She didn’t open her lips, didn’t let me invade the moist heat of her mouth with my tongue, which I totally would have taken advantage of and done if she’d let me. It was probably a good thing. If Honor’s little bump and grind had elicited an unwanted erection, this closed-lip, virginal kiss with this bothersome girl had me ready to come in my jeans like a kid. I couldn’t feel anything other than the plush press of her mouth against my own, but it was erotic and a total turn-on, which was just one more surprise Race’s little sister had in store for me. I could only imagine what it would be like if she loosened up and actually let me kiss her for real.
I grinned against her pursed lips and licked the tight seam for good measure. I felt her tremble, in either desire or annoyance, and I didn’t care which. When I pulled back, I winked at her and saw that she was glaring daggers at me. I squeezed her neck in warning and turned to look at Benny with a smirk.
There was no missing the black-and-purple bruising around the white bandage that covered the bridge of his nose. He looked pissed.
“I think it’s an improvement.” I nodded at his battered face and grinned just to get a reaction.
He growled at me and I moved Dovie so she was pressed all along my side. She didn’t want to relax, and that wasn’t going to do anything to sell that I was into her to Benny. Not to mention she wasn’t my normal type, so chances of him buying it were slim already.
“Your buddy is gonna crawl out from under his rock sooner or later, Bax, and then you’re all mine.”
“You gonna sucker-punch me again, Benny? Might be harder now that I know you’re coming.”
His gaze flicked to Dovie and then back to me. “Picked up right where your boy left off? There really is no honor among thieves.”
I snorted. “Well, we all know Race owed me. And like you said, five years is a long time to go without. I’ll take my payback however I see fit.” I tilted my head in Dovie’s direction and tried not to grunt as she dug the pointy tip of her elbow into my ribs.
“Why her? I’ve seen the girls you usually roll with. She doesn’t fit the bill.”