Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Despite that Tate had started getting louder, we’d caught Reese’s attention, and he told Santiago to cover for him. Then Reese walked over to us too.
“Keep your voices down,” he warned.
The nameless idiot didn’t give up. “Don’t any of you see that the girl has had enough? I have fifteen years of experience with this. I see it clear as day.” He raised his voice enough for all of us to react. Like a flip of a switch, Reese became someone else, someone who was ready to throw another out on his ass, and Greer and I exchanged a quick look.
“You make sure Ash and Kingsley keep the pets distracted,” I ordered under my breath. My main concern was Nora, who was facing this way. If she opened her eyes, she’d see us.
Greer nodded and brought Archie with him.
Meanwhile, Reese and I directed our attention to the fuckwit, and Reese grabbed on to the man’s arm, instantly ushering him away from the area.
“Let’s take a walk,” Reese said.
The man tried to wrench free, but that didn’t work. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m escortin’ you off the fuckin’ premises,” Reese replied. “What’s your name?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the man scoffed. “You’re kicking me out because I show concern for a vulnerable sub?”
“Showing concern isn’t the issue,” I told him, my heart hammering faster. Anger flowed freely in my bloodstream, and I needed the guy gone. “I told you Nora’s okay, and Ash is a great Top for her.”
“How would you know?” he pressed.
I stared up at him, part in disbelief. “Because she’s mine, you fucking asshole. But that’s not the point. If a DM or a founder—on, in this case, both—tells you we have the situation under control, you back the fuck off and trust us.”
He clenched his jaw and didn’t say another word while we ushered him alongside the house and toward the front of the property.
“Your name, dude,” Reese repeated. He let the man break free from the hold this time, and he made a show of rubbing the spot Reese had had in his grip.
“You won’t need it,” he said angrily. “I’m not coming back. But I will warn others about this place.”
I snorted.
“You wouldn’t be the first to try, buddy.” Reese smiled thinly and scratched his eyebrow. “Maybe you can help us cut the line down some. We’re becomin’ too popular.”
The man glared and took a couple steps back, and he righted his suit. “I can’t imagine why. A community where abuse is okay—”
I stiffened.
“Say that one more fucking time,” Reese growled and flinched forward. “You wanna learn the difference between consensual pain and abuse? Take a step closer—I’ll be happy to show you.”
Fuck. I drew in an unsteady breath and put a hand on Reese’s back. He needed to cool it before the motherfucker decided to press charges. It was better to just get him out of here. His membership could be canceled without a name. We’d find him somehow.
Thankfully for all our sakes, the man threw us another glare before he stalked off toward the carport.
“Take a breath, hon.” I rubbed Reese’s back, and he relaxed some and scrubbed a hand over his face. “You know this is part of it.” It wasn’t the first time this had happened, and it wouldn’t be the last. A couple times a year, at least, someone pulled a similar stunt. Though, usually not this dramatically.
Reese sighed and shook his head, then draped an arm around my shoulders. “Motherfucker.”
“Amen.”
I nudged him in the direction of the back, because I wanted to return to Nora. Hopefully, she and Tate hadn’t noticed the commotion.
“You know what bothers me?” he asked. “When these asshats use their years of experience as a weapon. When Riv and I got involved—ten years later, we’d taken so many breaks in kink that we knew the basics. But once we bought this place and made it our life, we learned more in a year than in all the previous years combined.”
That was so true. We’d met people who burned for BDSM and learned a lot in a shorter period of time than some who’d been in and out of the lifestyle for decades. A blanket statement of how long you’d been around didn’t say much in the end.
“Anyway. Good riddance,” he finished.
I nodded once, and we passed the deck, where Colt nodded at us.
“Everythin’ all right?” he asked. “I heard someone was bein’ a tool.”
“We took care of it,” Reese replied. “All good now.”
“Glad to hear it.” Colt returned to Kit and Jack’s station.
Reese glanced down at me with a smirk. “So she’s yours, huh?”
Aw, crap. Of course he’d picked up on that.
I looked down the lawn, where Ash was still beating Nora. And Kingsley was still beating Tate.
And yeah. She was.
That girl belonged to me.