Now, her anger had skyrocketed to the same level as my jealousy.
“A good time, Mia? With his cock against your ass?”
“Well, if you want semantics, abso-fucking-lutely. And”—she leaned in, giving me a view right down her dress, moving her hands to her hips while she snarled—“since you’re asking, I’ll letyou in on a secret: His cock was big enough to feel good against it too.”
Her rage danced in my face, igniting my jealousy and fury to meet hers.
She wanted a fight, and I was more than happy to give it to her. She didn’t think she had to be worried about how pissed off I got; she would soon learn. I rubbed a hand over the scruff of my jaw and told her, “You must be plastered to think talking to me that way is warranted.”
“I could be stone-cold sober and not give a flyingfuckhow I talked to you after the way you acted in there.” Her tone sounded like she wanted to tear me limb from fucking limb. “Don’t you ever lay hands on my friends again.”
“I’ll do whatever the hell I want with myteam.” I pushed off the railing and moved toward her, willing her to back down.
“Not for me you won’t.” She stepped right up to my chest. “You think Archer wanted to dance with me? No. He did it to be nice, because I wasn’t willing to dance with other guys but still wanted to have a good time. Because your ass didn’t come out to dance with us, so I chose someone else. I’mallowedto have a good time. I fucking deserve it. And Archer doesn’t deserve your anger. You owe him an apology.”
An apology? Did she know who she was talking to? I saw red. No, I saw fucking black. She was going to make me lose every ounce of control I had left. She was sawing on the thread that was holding me together on purpose, I swear. “You’re out of your damn mind.”
“You can apologize to him, or I can go sleep at a hotel.” She even pulled the phone out that I had bought her to start searching for accommodations.
I snatched it from her and launched it over the balcony. It shattered into a million pieces, but she didn’t even flinch or look down. Most everyone shrank when I embraced my anger, mosteveryone knew they should fear it. Mia Darling? She stared at me like I were a child.
And then she followed up on that look with, “Having a tantrum like a five-year-old—like a literal student of mine—when you’re an adult will get you nowhere. I’ll just walk to a hotel and ask for a room.”
“You stay at home, or you don’t have a job, Darling,” I growled, ready to fire her and hold her captive.
She laughed at my threat. Laughed! “Tell me, you have a handbook on my duties,Mr. Knight? Is there a page I should look at on sleeping arrangements? How about fraternization?”
I grabbed her by the neck and shoved her into the railing, but she didn’t gasp in concern now. She clawed at my grip and tried to knee me in the balls even if she was practically hanging off the tenth story. “No rule book is going to be made for working within the syndicate. I could drop you off the side of this damn building and no one would say shit. You’remyemployee.Mine.” Her eyes shifted with that word, but I was on a roll. “And so I do what I want with you. Not Archer. Not Hades. No one but me.”
The city pulsed like it was alive as we stared at each other on that rooftop for a moment before she murmured, “Great. How lucky I am that I got you as a boss.” Her tone was soft, almost too soft, as she bit her lip and then looked up at the stars. “A man who considers killing me or dropping me off this balcony without a second thought, while I only considered if I made him proud with taking care of his daughter today, or if he thinks of me at night like I do him.”
That vulnerability. So fast it hit and scattered my emotions. So fast she dropped her guard that I didn’t know what to do but take what I wanted from the real her before it was too late.
“Darling Mia” fell from my lips before I yanked her small neck toward me so I could devour her lips, so I could taste thesweet cherries that I craved, that I’d been fiending for since the last time I got access to them.
I scraped my teeth over her soft lips and her insecurities, I gripped her neck tighter to steal at her breath and anger toward me, and snaked my arm around her waist like it was her soul because I wanted to capture it and keep it for myself.
Her legs wrapped around me, and her body balanced on only that small railing as if she trusted me much more than she said she did.
She had to know I never considered actually getting rid of her.
She was fucking imprinted on me from the moment I saw her. My hand left her neck to bury into her curls and pull so I could tip her head up and get more of her. I wanted it all. Every part of her open to me. I stepped even closer, making her legs spread further apart, and then I kissed down her neck as I told her, “You’re driving me mad. I told you I’d kill someone for looking at you.”
She shook her head like I was ridiculous, but her hands were at my leather jacket, pulling me closer. “Not Archer. He’s your security and my friend. That’s silly, Jameson.”
“He won’t be anything if he dances with you again.” It wasn’t an exaggeration either as I smelled his jacket on her instead of her own scent. I kept hold of her waist as I pulled the switchblade I carried with me from my pocket. “His jacket on your shoulders should be a damn death sentence.” I cut the buttoned area from her stomach. “Next time I’ll use this on his neck and not his jacket if he touches you, Mia. I swear it. And you know why that is?”
“Why?”
“Because I think of you day and night. All the damn time. No matter how hard I try not to … because you’re mine now … and everyone in this city knows not to touch what’s mine.”
I balled the suit jacket up enough behind her back that it slid from her shoulders, and we both watched as I threw the fabric over the edge and it landed in a pile on the road below.
Then, I slid the knife up to her neck and held it there, because I wanted her under my complete control for just a second, just a moment of her submitting to me rather than her controlling my every thought. “Say you understand.”
She held my gaze in defiance, but her eyes had softened with my confession. She bit her lip and spread her legs further, so much that her dress bunched around her ass and I felt her wet panties soaking through my jeans. “Slit my throat and throw me over, fuck me, or let me go, Jameson. Your choice if I’m yours, right? But I willnotbe telling you I understand the reasoning behind you not trusting your men.”
“You’d let me fuck you with a knife to your throat, Mia?”
