“For fuck’s sake, Spike,” Denham shakes his head at his little brother, then looks back at Amy and pinches the bridge of his nose, screws his eyes shut, and takes a deep breath.
“Amy, what are you doing up here?” He repeats his question to her, but with less tolerance than last time.
She opens her mouth to speak but I speak for her. “She was just leaving. Weren’t you, Amy?”
Denham looks between us, just as confused as to what’s going on here as I am, but steps into my side, making room for Amy to leave.
She regains her composure, making the slip in her mask seem like a figment of my imagination. The hard exterior is reinforced, and she’s back to the persona everyone is familiar with. She raises her finger and lightly places it at Denham’s jaw. She looks him directly in the eye and trails her fingertip the length of his jawbone. His jaw twitches, then he snaps his hand up to grab herforearm. “Don’t push me to my limit, Amy,” he grates out, low and threatening.
By now, Spike has regained his breath and stands by the elevator, holding the doors open.
“I gave you many chances, D, baby ...” Despite Denham still having a hold on her wrist, it doesn’t stop her from leaning closer into him. I immediately want to tear the hair from her pretty head, but he’s handling this and I know better than most that violence doesn’t solve anything. “I wasn’t joking before either ... about the threesome. She’s pretty, and I’ll bet she’s a screamer,” she whispers, but she does so in a way that everyone can hear.
I actually gasp at her statement. There is nothing remotely sexual about the tension in the air, how she would even think of such things in a situation like this is beyond my comprehension. Is she that desperate to have him that she’d do that? Would she really take him any way she could get him? He’s addictive. I get that. Maybe, like a drug addiction, the withdrawal is driving her crazy. How would a junkie react to see someone that’s high on the very substance that you crave?
Denham adjusts his grip on her arm and marches her toward the elevator. She digs her pointed heels into the plush carpet, and stumbles. But Denham doesn’t slow or stop. He half drags her, although she’s still upright. He lets her go with a little force, and she trips over the lip of the door.
“Get out, Amy,” he growls. “You’re a fucking troublemaker, just go and find a life somewhere else.”
“You forget, King. You need me. This place will crumble and fall if you don’t have me.”
He laughs, but it’s not warm and inviting. “You think I need you? You think The Kingdom needs you? You’re wrong. So wrong. I’m buying you out, Amy.”
“You can’t,” she fires back.
Denham steps forward. Spike takes a step back. This is between Denham and Amy, and I almost feel like this should be done in private, but I can’t turn away.
“No? Did you read the clauses in the contract?”
They square off in the doorway, standing on separate thresholds but with determined looks in their eyes.
She smiles as if she knows something no one else does, and raises her perfectly arched brows. “Didyouread it through, D? Are you sure you read every clause? Every word? Small print, baby. Small. Print.”
She smirks, then steps back from the doors and presses the button to descend. Her smug grin is fixed until the doors slide closed, and Denham bangs the flat of his hand against them in frustration and then puts his hands on his hips.
“Spike, get your ass down those stairs and make sure she doesn’t leave the fucking building. It’s about time this was sorted. I want her taken to my office, but make sure there’s security. This could get ugly. Then get Dom to change all the codes on the elevators, offices, and all the doors that have the entry systems. Got it?”
“D-Man, I just ran up ten flights of stairs to get here, are you telling me that I have to run back down them?”
Denham thuds the elevator button with the side of his closed fist and tries not to break out into a grin. He claps Spike on the shoulder as the doors open again. “Cheers, man.”
“You’re lucky you’re my brother,” Spike grumbles with a shake of his head.
“I know, Spike. Now get your butt downstairs.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles under his breath. “You’re like a fuckin’ mother hen, do this, do that.”
Denham turns to me, and smiles at his brother’s antics. But he looks sad, tired even. There are deep worry lines around his eyes,and it makes me wonder just how much of a burden he carries around with him, and how much I’ve added to that.
Chapter 7
Denham
Damn if she doesn’t look fucking hot in my shirt. She’s showered, so she smells edible, and after seeing her stick up for herself with Amy, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more than a little turned on right now. The only thing stopping me from carrying her, cave man style, into the bedroom, and showing her just how sexy she is, is the fact that I have that crazy bitch to deal with in my office. Seriously, could she fuck anything else up for me today?
I pull Arianna into me, feeling her soft, warm skin against my hands as I run them up her back under the cotton shirt. Her arms wrap around my waist, and she splays her fingers across my lower back before gently squeezing.
I nuzzle my head into hers and she sighs.
