“He what?”David and Mason snapped out in unison, and the Ken Doll in question cried out again as Mason’s grip on his wrist tightened.
“Let me go, or I’m going to sue you!”he cried out.“Someone call the police, this is assault!”
“So is throwing a brick through someone’s window,” Mason snapped out.
“That couldn’t have been Cash,” Audrey replied, finally saying something.She was standing and hugging herself, only a few feet away from him.Mason immediately let go of the Ken Doll and stepped forward to hug her, only to crash into David, who was coming forward to do the same thing, going by the way his arms were outstretched.
“Shit.”
“Fuck.”
They managed to get themselves untangled, and Mason stepped back so David could put his arm around his sister.Audrey’s eyes were huge, and she looked paler than ever, which made Mason’s chest tighten, but when it came down to it, brotherly relationship trumped whatever was between them.He didn’t know if she wanted everyone to know that they were… not together, but doing whatever it was they were doing.
“This is Cash?”Claudia asked, nudging the blond with her foot.He cradled his arm as he got to his feet, staring around in confusion.Maybe wondering why no one was calling the cops.Mason didn’t bother to tell him that the alarm system would bring them here soon enough.“The douchebag who cheated on you?”
“He what?”Once again, Mason and David spoke in unison, both of them stepping toward the Ken Doll at the same time.Audrey grabbed hold of David, keeping him from moving forward, while Jensen smoothly stepped in front of Mason to block him.
“If you hit him, he’ll definitely press charges,” Jensen murmured.
That might be worth it now that he knew the douchebag had cheated on Audrey.Who the hell would cheat on a woman like Audrey?A dumbass who deserved to be punched in the face, that’s who.But Audrey had grabbed her brother to stop him from doing the same thing, which meant she didn’t want the sad sack punched in the face.
Mason would have to settle for hoping the guy’s arm hurt like hell right now.He wished he’d twisted even harder.
“I made a mistake, Audrey,” Dumbass said earnestly.Mason hoped like hell that Audrey wasn’t buying his wide-eyed bullshit.“Losing you is what made me realize how much I love you.Look, I even got you a Cartier ring.You love Cartier.”
“I don’t want Cartier, Chase.I want to be able to trust my boyfriend not to cheat on me!”Audrey stared at him in pure disbelief.
Claudia broke into a coughing fit that sounded an awful lot like her saying “fuckwad” over and over again.
Dumbass’ face heated bright red, but he didn’t look at her.He was mostly focused on Audrey, with his gaze occasionally darting to Mason and David.
“He’s your friend, right?”Cash said, tipping his head toward Mason.“He was defending you.It’s just a misunderstanding.So if you marry me, I won’t press charges.”
“The fuck?”Jensen asked, turning around, before remembering what he was doing and managing to block Mason from lunging at Dumbass again.
“Are you trying to blackmail her into marrying you, dude?”Grant asked incredulously.His team was hanging back and watching the drama rather than inserting themselves into it, which was probably the smart move.
Darcie let out a low whistle.“Wow, that’s pretty desperate.”
An ugly expression flashed across Dumbass’ face before he managed to bury it under a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“I am desperate,” he said, his voice dripping with poisoned honey as he gazed with intent at Audrey.“Desperate for you, Audrey.Desperate for you to be my wife.Can you send your friends away so we can talk about this privately?I didn’t mean for my proposal to turn public like this.”
“I… no.”Audrey shook her head, digging her fingers into David’s arm.She was so pale, her face looked utterly bloodless.
Cash sighed.
“You really want to talk about this with all of them around?”He gestured broadly at the audience, of which Mason was a part of.It felt like his jaw was going to crack, he was clenching his teeth so hard, and he didn’t know what he would do if Audrey did try to go off alone with Dumbass.
The wave of possessiveness that rolled over him was impossible to ignore.
Audrey washis.
His submissive.
His lover.
And if she said yes to this douchebag’s proposal, all hell was going to break loose.
