Ryan Reign (New York Ruthless #4)(13)

I’ve only been sitting alone for a few minutes when I feel a warm hand on my back. I turn, expecting and hoping to see Shane, but it’s Sean O’Connor’s face that smiles back at me. I shrug his hand off me.

“Something wrong?” he grins at me. “You were much more friendly before.”

“I don’t like to be touched by people I don’t know,” I say as I scoot back in my seat, looking around the room for Shane but I don’t see him.

“But we know each other now, don’t we?” He leers at me as he trails two fingers over the bare skin on my arm and I shudder. How did I not notice how creepy he was before?

I’m about to tell him to go to hell when his hand is forcibly removed from my arm and twisted up his back. I hear the cracking of bone as Sean winces and howls in pain before his head is slammed onto the bar in front of us and he stumbles to the ground with blood pouring from his nose. When I look up again Shane is standing right in front of me with a murderous look in his eyes.

“We’re going!”

I blink at him.

“Now!” he barks as he reaches for my hand and pulls me from the stool.

I allow him to walk me out of the crowded bar while everyone stares at us. Nobody says anything and I doubt they would dare after what he just did. When we are outside in the afternoon sun, I wrench my hand from his grip.

“What the hell, Shane?” I snap.

He turns to me, full of anger and venom. “I told you to stay the fuck away from him.”

“I did!” I protest. “He found me.”

“You should never have spoken to him in the first place.”

“Erin introduced me to him. Why does she get to do whatever she wants with no reproach?” I scowl at him.

He grabs my chin in one of his strong hands, squeezing as he bends his face close to mine. “Because I don’t give a fuck what Erin does,” he hisses. “I don’t care who she talks to, who she smiles at, who she fucks.” He shifts closer to me, pressing his groin into mine until the heat from his body sears against my skin. “But you…” He narrows his eyes at me before dipping his head lower, brushing his lips against my ear and making a shiver skitter along my spine. “I see you talking to another man and I want to rip his tongue out. When you smile at him, I want to gouge his fucking eyes out. And if anyone touches you, like even brushes against you when you’re passing by, it makes me feel so fucking angry that I feel like ripping their head off with my bare hands.”

“Shane! I didn’t…” I start to plead but he turns away from me.

“Get into the car,” he snarls and I do as he orders, rolling my eyes once his back is turned. Once inside the car, I scooch over onto the back seat, shrinking into the corner so I can sit as far away from him as possible. But when he climbs in after me, he follows me, sitting on the seat directly beside me. I bristle at his touch but he seems to take that as a signal to pull me up and onto his lap as he settles back into the seat.

“Shane!” I hiss as I wriggle from his grip, but he wraps his powerful arms around me and holds me in place.

“Stay!” he growls, as though I’m a puppy dog and not a person. I am about to tell him to go to hell when I notice Erin climbing into the car too and I press my lips together. The look of anguish on her face at seeing me wrapped in the arms of the man she still so clearly loves is obvious, if only for a fleeting moment, before she disguises it with an eye roll and a look of disgust.

There is no way I will give her the satisfaction of making a scene here in the car, so I reluctantly settle into Shane’s lap, leaning against his broad chest. Some of the tension slips from him as he hugs me tighter. He barks an order to the driver and then he sighs softly before he plants a soft kiss on my shoulder. It’s such a tender kiss that it almost makes me forget how mad I am at him.

Almost.





Chapter 8





Jessie





As I take off my make-up in the bathroom, I see Shane’s reflection in the mirror. He leans against the doorframe with his arms folded over his chest and his legs crossed at the ankles, wearing just his suit pants and looking as hot as hell, which is pretty fitting considering he is the devil’s own spawn.

I avoid making eye contact and he just stands there watching me until I’m done. I don’t want to leave this bathroom. I don’t want to have to walk past him, or ask him to move out of my way, because I am beyond pissed at him. I feel like taking a plane straight back to New York and crawling into bed with one of his brothers for a bear hug. I blink away the tears at the thought of Conor and the twins and how much I miss them, and wonder why the hell I agreed to come here with their asshole big brother.

“You going to speak to me at all tonight?” he snaps.

“No!”

“Because of what I did to some prick you barely know?” he growls.

I spin around. “You think I give a damn about that jackass?”

“Then what the fuck is wrong with you?” he snarls.

I glare at him. The fact that he doesn’t even realize why I’m so upset only makes me more annoyed with him. “You told me to be more like Erin!” I spit the words at him before I turn back to the mirror so he doesn’t see the tears in my eyes.

“Jessie!”