Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Ignoring him, I crossed to Charlotte.
Gently placing my hands on her waist, I lifted her to her feet. Cupping her cheek, I ran my thumb over the emerging bruise as I brushed away a tear.
She wrapped her hands around my wrist. “You should go,” she whispered. “He means it. He’ll get you fired from your job.”
My brow furrowed. “Protecting you isn’t my job, babygirl. It’s my purpose in life.”
“Get your hands off my wife.”
His wife?
Nevermind that Charlotte was not officially his wife yet.
That this piece of shit excuse for a man would make any claim on my woman had me seeing red.
I kissed Charlotte on the forehead. “Go find your brother or father. Romney and I are going to have a little chat.”
She shook her head as she urgently whispered, “I can’t. I need to smooth this over before anyone finds out. Don’t worry. I’ll convince him not to get you fired.”
Romney placed his hands on his hips. “If you don’t leave this instant, I will call up my security team and have you thrown out with the trash.”
I didn’t even bother turning in his direction. I would deal with him soon enough. “Baby, I don’t give a flying fat rat’s ass about my damn job. Now, do as you’re told.”
There was no profit in having her witness what I was about to do.
Romney huffed as he directed his next comment to Charlotte. “Look at you, throwing yourself at the help like a common trollop. My mother will hear about this.”
Fuck, I was going to enjoy beating this man bloody.
I turned as I shrugged out of my tuxedo jacket. “Thanks for that. It’s been at least two weeks since I’ve hit someone.”
Romney blanched as the thin skin of his throat contracted. “I’m not afraid of you.”
My eyebrow raised as I rolled up my sleeves while slowly stalking him into a far corner of the room. “The human body has countless fear markers. Your paler than normal skin is the blood rushing to your hands and feet.”
Romney stretched out his fingers before him.
I continued, “Your pupils are dilated, allowing your brain to hyper-focus on the threat before you. Your heartbeat is elevated, pumping more oxygen into your muscles.”
With a nod of my head, I gestured toward his hands. “Your hands are trembling. That’s from the surge in adrenaline.”
Without warning, my arm snapped out as I grabbed his throat.
My fingers squeezed as I lifted him up against the wall until his feet were dangling in the air, kicking. “It’s all part of your fight-or-flight response, and you have no idea how badly I want you to be stupid enough to fight.”
I barely registered his feet hitting my shins. His pale face pinkened as his thin lips turned blue. A high-pitched shriek pierced the room as he called out, “Help! Help me! He’s going to kill me!”
He had struck Charlotte. My Charlotte.
While I wasn’t stupid enough to kill the man, I would make sure he left this room on a fucking stretcher. He needed to know how it felt to have someone bigger than him, stronger than him, hit him in the face.
I savored the fear in his eyes as I lifted my hand and pulled it back slowly.
I hadn’t even hit him yet, and he was crying, his fingers trying in vain to pry my other hand from his throat as he stared at the fist I had cocked back. “Not the face! Not the face!”
Jesus Christ, what a piece of shit.
My fist slammed into his face with punishing force.
His cry of fear turned into a scream of shock and pain.
The blood spraying from his nose to stain his crisp white, way-overpriced shirt was satisfying, but not enough.
I didn’t give him a moment to recover. I didn’t even leave enough time for the pain to fully register before I hit him again with the same intensity in the exact same place.
Each hit was more and more satisfying, but it was still not enough.
He’d dared to touch Charlotte, my princess.
I didn’t give a fuck what her father had planned… she was mine.
If Lucian Manwarring thought his family had connections, he hadn’t met mine yet.
I’d go toe-to-toe with him any day, even if it meant reconnecting with my own, estranged father. Charlotte was worth it.
Romney wasn’t good enough for her. No mortal man would be, not even me.
But at least I was willing to spend my life fighting to deserve her.
Unlike this bastard, who seemed to think he deserved her simply because of his title.
How could he?
This flaccid little runt couldn’t take care of her. He couldn’t even take care of himself.
This was the man her father thought could protect Charlotte against the Irish mob?
The more I thought about it, the harder I punched over and over, hitting his face, then moving down to work his body, hitting his kidneys a few times hard enough that I was sure he would be pissing blood for the foreseeable future.