One Night of Scandal

  It was so frickin’ weird to share the same space as AJ and Reed, especially since she’d been in bed with the latter mere hours ago. The two of them had gone to her place after wrapping up the last self-defense class at her school, and just as she’d come to expect, the sex had been ridiculously awesome.

  Now that Reed was five feet away from her, desire returned in full force, slamming into her like a sledgehammer. He was in all black again, wearing one of those tight T-shirts that hugged his broad chest, and pants just snug enough to outline his long, muscular legs.

  And boy, it was so wrong to even acknowledge how sexy he was with AJ standing right beside her. A pretzel of guilt knotted around her insides as she looked from one man to the other.

  “The improv thing sounds fun,” Reed said lightly.

  She fidgeted with the strap of her purse. “Yeah. Um. Should be a good time.”

  A brief silence fell over the room, broken up after a few seconds by AJ’s exasperated sigh.

  “Okay, I’ll admit it—this is wicked awkward,” he announced. “But you guys don’t have to pretend you don’t know each other. We’re all adults here. I’m sure eventually things will go back to normal. Well, a new kind of normal, but normal all the same.”

  AJ was…extraordinary. Darcy couldn’t think of another word to describe him at the moment. The man possessed the most uncanny ability to put everyone around him at ease.

  Darcy leaned in and brushed a quick kiss on his clean-shaven cheek. “You’re right. I’m sure we’ll reach that normal point again. But I actually should get going. I don’t want to bug you guys at work.”

  “I’ll walk you downstairs,” Reed said gruffly. He glanced at his friend. “I’ll be back in a minute. Need to talk to you about that new liquor supplier.”

  “Sounds good,” AJ replied as he headed back to his desk.

  Darcy and Reed left the office, Reed pausing to close the door behind them. The second they stepped into the corridor, a swell of muffled music from the club below met Darcy’s ears, and the floor beneath her feet vibrated from the rhythmic bass line.

  Neither of them spoke as they walked toward the staircase at the very end of the hall. The stairs overlooked a part of the club’s main floor, and the music got even louder as they got closer.

  Just before Darcy’s foot hit the top step, Reed grabbed her hand and yanked her toward him.

  His mouth crashed down on hers in a blistering kiss. Gasping, she flung her arms around his neck to steady herself and hungrily kissed him back. Their tongues tangled in a greedy duel, the heat of Reed’s lips and his addictive taste snaking its way into her system until he was all she could see, hear, and feel.

  Every time he kissed her felt like the first time. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to the visceral burst of lust that erupted inside her whenever their lips met.

  God, why couldn’t she have found that level of passion with AJ? She suddenly had to wonder if that kind of relationship was even possible, the kind that combined all the wonderful things she’d had with AJ with the sheer passion she felt with Reed.

  Reed’s blue eyes glittered as he pulled back. “I wish you were naked right now.”

  Darcy’s heart pounded as loud and fast as the dance beat blasting up at them. “Me, too.”

  “You sure I can’t convince you to wait up for me tonight so I can see you after we close?” He slanted his head enticingly.

  She shook hers. “There’s no way I’ll be able to stay up until three or four. It’s only eight o’clock now and I’m pretty much ready for bed. Besides, I have some errands to run tomorrow morning.”

  He stuck out his chin, glum. “I hate weekends. By the time I leave this place, the whole world is asleep.”

  “How about this? Come over tomorrow night,” she suggested. “I’ll drink a ton of coffee during the day. That way I’ll be wired and awake by the time you get there, and then we can sleep in because I have nothing to do on Sunday.”

  She realized what she’d done the second she finished talking—she’d invited him to spend the night at her place.

  From the way his entire face brightened, he knew it too.

  Crap. One day into their fling and she was already breaking one of the cardinal rules.

  “Okay, I should get going,” she told him. “I—” A flash of light in the corner of her eye had her turning her head, and when her brain registered what she’d glimpsed, her jaw dropped. She peered at the shadowy space dozens of feet below them, the strobe lighting making it incredibly difficult to see, but she was certain she hadn’t imagined it. “Oh my God, Reed.”

  Concern creased his chiseled features. “What’s wrong?”

  “I swear I just saw…” She grabbed his hand and started tugging him down the stairs. “I think I know who your dealer is.”

  The music drowned out her last words, and Reed looked confused as he raised his voice and shouted, “You want me to feel who?”

  “No, I know who the drug dealer is!” she shouted back.

  Clearly he hadn’t heard her again, because he still looked bewildered as she dragged his six-foot frame through the sweaty crowd.

  Frustration hit her left and right with each body they had to dodge. She jostled one man, who spun around in annoyance and yelled something she couldn’t make out, but his expression told her it had been nasty. With a hasty “sorry,” she kept going, yanking on Reed’s hand and hurrying all the way to the red curtain on the other side of the dance floor.

  It was the same alcove where she and Reed had fooled around for the first time, but at the moment she was too tense to relive the naughty memory. She pointed at the curtain, then pinned Reed with an urgent look. “He’s in there!”

  Once again, the music overpowered her words, but Reed seemed to know exactly what she’d meant. His features hardened, broad shoulders stiffer than two-by-fours.

  “Wait here.” He stepped in front of her, gently moving her to the side before jerking aside the curtain and bounding into the alcove.

  Darcy was too curious not to follow. She ducked in after him, blinking to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. When she spotted the two people huddled there, she gasped. She didn’t recognize the skinny blonde in the tight top, but the man behind the curtain? It wasn’t the Wizard of Oz, nor was it a little man pretending to be the Great and Powerful—it was Jeff, the bouncer she’d seen at the club dozens of times before.

  “Son of a bitch.” Reed sounded livid as he laid eyes on his employee, and then, when he glimpsed the small plastic baggie in the beefy man’s hand, he cursed up a blue streak.

  Jeff’s face paled. “Reed, it’s not what you—”

  “Shut up,” Reed snapped. He turned to glare at the female customer. “Get out of here. Now. Before I call the cops.”

  The girl scurried out of the alcove with such speed that Darcy couldn’t help but be impressed.

  Once she was gone, Reed directed that icy glare at the bouncer, his tone dripping with disgust as he took a menacing step forward. “Give me the bag, Jeff.”

  The other man was shorter than Reed, but had at least fifty pounds on his boss. Reed didn’t seem deterred by that fact. When Jeff didn’t hand over the drugs, Reed’s arm shot out with lightning speed to snatch the baggie.

  “Seriously? It was you all along?” Reed spat out. “All this time you were pretending to help us find the dealer, and it was you? You goddamn son of a bitch. Do you realize that Sin could’ve been shut down over this?”

  Jeff sputtered out a denial. “It’s not what it looks like. I wasn’t selling those, I swear. That chick is just a friend of mine and we were, uh, gonna get high together.”

  Reed’s expression became incredulous. “One, that doesn’t make this any fucking better, admitting you were about to get high on the job. And two? Bull-fucking-shit.” He let out an angry curse. “I vouched for you! I asked Gage to hire you and this is how you repay me? By putting my job and everyone else’s at risk?”

  Reed suddenly look
ed stricken, sounding so betrayed that Darcy experienced a pang of sympathy. She hadn’t realized he’d been the one to recommend Jeff for the security gig, and she couldn’t imagine how awful he must feel knowing he’d allowed someone like that to work at the club.

  With a lethal scowl, Reed clicked the earpiece Darcy hadn’t even noticed he was wearing. “AJ,” he barked. “Call Vinnie. I just found our asshole. And get Gage down here. The alcove near the emergency exit. It’s one of our guys—”

  Reed had barely finished his sentence when Jeff the bouncer slash drug dealer lunged at the doorway, trying to make his great escape.

  He only made it two steps before Reed’s fist slammed into the side of his face. The bouncer’s head was thrown back from the impact, but rather than cower or surrender, a wild gleam entered his eyes and he went on the attack.

  Darcy cried out when the man’s meaty fist flew back at Reed. A sharp thwack and a grunt of pain sliced through the air, both sounds muffled thanks to the music pouring in from the narrow doorway. The alcove was too small to accommodate a violent fistfight, but that was precisely what the confrontation turned into.

  Eyes wide, Darcy pressed her back against the wall as the two men came at each other in a blur of punches and jabs and undercuts that made her gasp each time knuckles collided with flesh.

  “Reed, stop!” she yelled when he tackled the bouncer and slammed him into the wall.

  Her voice temporarily distracted him, and Darcy cursed herself for opening her mouth, because it cost Reed his advantage.

  Suddenly he was the one pinned to the wall, while Jeff’s thick forearm rammed into his throat and elicited a choking sound from Reed as his windpipe was crushed in the powerful grip.

  “Let him go, you stupid brute!”

  Darcy hurtled forward without thinking and threw herself at Jeff. She collided into him with a thud, grabbing his hair with both hands and pulling hard.

  The man roared in outrage, and then his elbow shot back and clipped her right in the face. She flew backward, promptly losing her footing and falling on the floor with an ungraceful thump.

  The curtain suddenly whipped open, AJ’s incensed voice rising over the music. “What the hell?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Reed struggled for air as his lungs began working again. AJ had yanked Jeff off him, and the bouncer was now being restrained by both AJ and Gage, who’d hurled themselves into the fray.

  Panting out ragged breaths, Reed wildly searched the dark space for Darcy. His chest tightened right back up again when he spotted her on the ground.

  Her palm was pressed to her left cheek, and the vulnerable, protective gesture smashed apart the last bit of his control. Growling, he threw himself at Jeff, whose arms had been yanked behind his back by Gage.

  Reed bunched up the bouncer’s collar, digging his fingers into the flesh at the base of the man’s neck. He still couldn’t believe Jeff was the culprit. His supposed friend, the man he’d done a solid for by giving him this job. That error of judgment, combined with the fact that Jeff had laid a hand on Darcy, was enough to make him go postal.

  “You better hope the cops lock you up tonight,” Reed hissed out. “Because if I find out you’re not behind bars, I’m going to hunt you down and kill you.”

  AJ’s calm voice penetrated the red haze of fury. “Get Darcy out of here, bro. We’ll take care of this.”

  The urge to beat the living crap out of their traitorous bouncer was so powerful Reed could taste it on his lips, but he forced himself to release the man. Sucking in a breath, he whirled around and took Darcy’s arm just as she staggered to her feet. Then he squared his jaw and dragged her out of the tiny space. He saw her mouth move, but couldn’t hear what she said over the loud music or the deafening hammering of his heart.

  Reed shoved open the emergency exit door and pulled her through it. As they entered the fluorescent-lit corridor, the music became muffled again, and Darcy’s protests became audible.

  “Where are we going? We should wait until the cops come!”

  “You’re not staying in this club a second longer,” he snapped. He couldn’t even look at her, afraid that if he saw the damage Jeff had done to her face, he might storm back inside and strangle the man with his bare hands. “You’re leaving.”

  He tried to forcibly make her walk, but she didn’t budge. “Reed, stop.”

  “Goddammit, am I going to have to carry you out of here myself?” When another objection left her lips, he scooped her off her feet. “I guess so.”

  Darcy’s astonished squeak barely even registered. He flung her over his shoulder and marched toward the metal door at the hallway’s end, ignoring her angry yelps and the small fists battering his back.

  “Put me down right this instant! Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re doing this! I hate you so much right now!”

  He didn’t respond, didn’t even acknowledge the squirming woman in his arms. To her credit, though, she was implementing a damn good worm, wiggling like a pro as she attempted to escape his grasp.

  Only when they emerged into the alley that separated the club from the restaurant next door did he put her down.

  Ignoring the death glare she shot him, he spoke in a low, deadly voice. “I have one question for you. And you better answer it right.”

  Aggravation darkened her eyes. “I can’t believe you just carried me out of there like I was a five-year-old!”

  “Answer the question, Darcy.”

  “You didn’t ask one!”

  He drew a calming breath. “What the hell were you thinking attacking Jeff like that?”

  She looked amazed that he would even ask. “He had you pinned against the wall! I didn’t want him to hurt you. I was trying to protect—”

  “Wrong answer,” he cut in. “The correct answer was, I’m sorry, Reed. I was being stupid.”

  Her jaw fell open. “It was stupid of me to want to help you?”

  “It was stupid of you to throw yourself at a man who’s twice your size! He could have killed you!”

  Reed’s breathing was labored as he examined her face, running his shaky fingers over the red mark on her cheek. Jeff had hit her right on the cheekbone, and when Reed noticed the slight swelling there, red-hot anger bubbled in his stomach. The thought of Darcy getting hurt, and on his watch, made him want to smash his fist into the brick wall behind her head.

  Afraid he’d say something he might regret, he gave her cheek one last caress before taking her hand and leading her toward the alley’s entrance. He expected more protesting, but Darcy followed him silently, all the way to the main street and then around the side of the club to the parking lot behind it.

  “My car’s over there,” she said in a tight voice.

  Her displeased tone didn’t spark even an iota of guilt or remorse. The shock of learning that Jeff was the one dealing drugs at Sin was nothing compared to the horror of seeing the man’s elbow connect with Darcy’s face. Protective urges he’d never known he possessed had reared their head, and they were surging through his blood now, refusing to let Darcy out of his sight.

  He walked her to her older model hatchback, then gestured to her purse. “Keys,” he said flatly.

  She pulled her key ring out of her purse and wordlessly handed it over. Reed clicked the button to unlock the doors, then hovered over her while she settled in the driver’s seat.

  “You’re behaving like a total Neanderthal,” she muttered as she reached for the door handle.

  Stifling his frustration, he rounded the vehicle and slid into the passenger side before she could drive away. “I won’t apologize for being worried about you. You saw the look in Jeff’s eyes—he was like a cornered animal. He would’ve knocked you unconscious if it meant escaping. “

  After a beat, Darcy spoke grudgingly. “Fine, I can see why you’re upset.”

  He waited, but when she didn’t continue, irritation seized his chest. “I still haven’t heard an apology for you throwing yourself in the mid
dle of a dangerous situation.”

  “I was trying to help you!”

  “At the expense of your own safety? For fuck’s sake, I thought you had more sense than that.”

  Her blue eyes blazed. “I’m hating you again. This whole alpha macho thing is annoying.”

  “Tough shit. I don’t care if you’re annoyed. The next time you’re in the same room as a huge bouncer who’s out for blood, stay far away from him, do you hear me?”

  The insufferable woman had the nerve to give him a haughty look.

  “Damn it, Darce. What’s it gonna take to make you recognize how reckless you were? Am I going to have to fuck some sense into you? Is that it?”

  Rather than the angry retort he expected, she responded with a gleam of defiance in her eyes. “Maybe you should.”

  In the blink of an eye, the tension in the car transformed into a thick canopy of heat.

  With a low growl, Reed leaned over the center console and captured her lips in a hard kiss. Then he pulled back slightly, hissing a warning against her mouth. “You’re trouble. Go home and put some ice on your cheek.”

  “No.” She smirked at him.

  “Darcy…”

  “I don’t feel like going home yet. So whatcha gonna do about it? Punish me?”

  Sweet baby Jesus. No woman had ever aggravated him this much. And for someone who worked in an environment that revolved around enforcing rules and following directions, Darcy sure as hell didn’t subscribe to her own teaching philosophy.

  All she ever did was argue with him, challenge him, and at the moment, he was torn between yelling at her again, and ripping her clothes off and screwing her into silence.

  Reed slowly released a breath. “Get in the backseat. Now.”

  It was almost comical how fast she scrambled. Her excitement incinerated the air, and he was surprised that the windows didn’t fog up from all the heat she was radiating. But he didn’t expect them to stay transparent for long. The temperature spiked by about a hundred degrees as he climbed into the back with her. It was hard to maneuver in such a cramped space, but luckily they didn’t require much room for what he had in mind.