My fist slammed against the front door over and over until Charlie threw it open, her eyes going wide with just the right amount of fear in them when she saw me.
“You said I should come and see her, so here I am!” I growled out.
“Now’s not a good time,” she stammered and tried to shut the door on me.
Was this bitch fucking kidding me?
I thrust my foot in the doorway, stopping her. “Now’s the best fuckin’ time, now get out of my way.” I started to push inside and she put a hand against my chest.
“Jesse, I said no! Get the fuck away from here before I call Rider!”
I laughed in her face. “Your old man’s out of town, Charlie. Now I’m coming in to see Laney, so get out of my way before you get hurt.”
Fear and anger took ahold of her features, her gaze darting behind me. I turned and looked at the driveway, finally noticing the black truck that was parked there next to Charlie’s little red Jeep.
“Who the fuck is here?” I snapped, pushing my way inside, and hoping that Charlie was fucking around on Rider because if not then whoever was here, was here for Laney, and that shit was not going to end well.
Charlie grabbed hold of my cut and tried to stop me from walking further inside, but despite her ferociousness I easily shrugged out of her grip and stormed toward the living room. The door was closed and I pushed it open and walked inside, and my heart stopped in my chest.
It wasn’t my finest moment in history, but no one can say it was entirely unprovoked either. Any man would have done the same if they had found their woman in the arms of another man.
Laney untangled herself from the asshole that currently had his arms around my property, and she glared at me in fear and anger.
“Get out of here, Jesse!” she said calmly, though I knew she was anything but calm by the tremble of her chin.
“Who the fuck are you?” I snarled at the man that was about to go to ground. “And what the fuck are you doing touching my woman?”
I sized him up with one quick, scathing look. He was as big as I was, and just as built, but he had a pussy-boy softness about him that meant he’d never had to have a real fight in his whole goddamned life. Looked like Laney had finally got herself a god’s honest college boy to treat her right. The thought brought an ugly sneer to my face.
He looked nervously toward Laney. “Thought you said you were single.”
I took a step towards him. “Hey, fuckface, you don’t talk to her, you talk to me. You feel me?”
I felt Charlie come into the room and move to stand with Laney, putting her arm across her shoulder. Laney shrugged out from under her grip, her tits jiggling in her low-cut top and grabbing pussy-boy’s attention immediately.
“Don’t you even fuckin’ look in her direction again or I will fuckin’ kill you!” I yelled, and he had the sense to look away from her though he refused to back down from me. Asshole was clearly still hoping that his size would make me rethink my current plan of ripping him to pieces and setting him on fire before pissing on the flames. He thought wrong.
“Jesse! This is not what it looks like, but even if it was, we’re through and I will see anyone I want,” Laney screeched, taking a step toward him.
“You touch him and I’ll kill him, Laney.” I glowered at her, my dick was hard despite the rage I felt burning through me, because goddamn, she looked fucking beautiful right then. Her hands curled into little fists by her sides, her eyes alight with anger and stubbornness. Wanted to take her upstairs and drag her panties off before shoving my way deep inside of her and claiming her all over again. Fuck it, after this, I was branding the bitch!
But first I needed to deal with this little pissant.
“You got two choices,” I said to him. “You walk away now, and I don’t see your face again, or you stay and I put you to ground.”
Laney looked between us both. “Do not listen to him! We’re separated! What I do has nothing to do with him anymore.” She reached out to touch his arm and he shrank back from her, which was good because I meant every word I’d said.
She may have decided that we were over, but seeing her with another man…nah, fuck that shit. She was mine untilIsaid we were over. I thought I was ready to let us go, that she would be better off without me—hell, that part was still true, but regardless she was still fucking mine. Call me a selfish dick all you want, but I wasn’t done with Laney Williams yet. Not by a long shot.
Fuck, Butch would be turning over in his grave if he saw the fucking mess I’d made of this shit.
“I think I better get going,” college boy said, though he refused to look at her.
“Think that might be a good idea if you still wanna be breathing in five minutes’ time,” I sneered.
He started to walk away, carefully sidestepping me and my radiating circle of hate for him. Laney stared after him, tears welling in her eyes, and Charlie, that bitch, was smiling like the cat that swallowed the canary, and I had a feeling that she’d set this shit up.
“I hate you!” Laney screamed in my face before barging past me.
