Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
She froze and then looked around, seeing that they were in the main bar area of Pinkies.
Fucking hell.
She hadn’t even noticed.
But she didn’t even have to think how to react. Grady was all over it. He drew her into him, pressing her face to his chest.
Then she heard another voice.
Oh, fuck.
“What the fuck did you just say?” a deep voice roared.
Oh, fuck.
“Let me go, Grady.” She tried to fight her way free.
“No, let Steele handle this. Stop, Effie. Keep fighting me and as soon as we’re upstairs, you’re over my lap getting your ass tanned.”
She froze.
“Good girl.”
“Lex, get this motherfucker out of here. And you listen to me, asshole. You don’t speak to any woman like that in my club. Not if they’re a stripper or a server and certainly not if they’re my. Fucking. Woman!”
Oh Lord.
Steele wasn’t happy.
“I didn’t know she was yours, man! Hey, I’m a paying customer! Get your hands off me!”
“Be thankful it’s Lex touching you. I touched you, you’d be eating through a straw.”
Grady started moving her along and she had to turn away so she could see where she was going.
Grady stopped them at a door which Trev opened with a respectful nod. She forced a smile for him, even though her stomach was in knots. “Hey, Trev, how are your girls?”
“They sure keep life interesting. Alice reckons she’s old enough to date now. She’s fucking thirteen. Not fucking happening. And Julia has decided that she’s a vegan. Honest to God, Effie. I need some back-up in my house.”
His girls kept him on his toes, and they were only thirteen and eleven. Wait until they were older.
“Upstairs, Effie,” Grady said firmly.
“See ya, Trev.”
“Later, Effie.” He gave Grady a respectful nod.
Grady led her up the stairs and when they reached the top he led her over to the sofa and quickly took off her jacket, before taking her handbag. She’d left her duffel in the car. Then he sat back, drawing her down with him.
“Is Damon all right? Maybe I should go to him. That really wasn’t necessary.”
“It fucking was. Now sit here and prepare yourself.”
“For what?”
“Hurricane Steele.”
39
Steele wasn’t happy.
Nothing had gone his way today and he’d wasted way too much time on shit that was fucking annoying.
Which meant he didn’t have time to go pick up their girl. Maybe he needed to get an assistant like Grady.
Then he needed to fire Grady’s assistant so she could spend more time with him.
He grinned at the thought. Grady might complain. Then again, it would free her up to give Grady head while he was working.
So he might not.
Steele had seen her during the week, but a few minutes here and there along with some phone calls just weren’t enough.
Steele wanted all of Effie.
He was all in.
He paused on the stairs leading up to his private area.
Did he love Effie?
That was impossible, right? He hadn’t known her long enough. But was there a length of time you had to know someone to know they were yours?
Fucked if he knew. But he wanted her in his life.
Forever.
So maybe he did know.
Shaking off his thoughts and needing to see them both, he took off up the stairs.
When he got to the top, he saw Effie snuggled into Grady on the sofa.
She studied him with wide eyes. Was she scared of him? He’d let Lex deal with the asshole. He’d held back. Which was fucking hard when he’d wanted to rip the jerk’s head off.
No one messed with his girl.
He stopped and crossed his arms over his chest. He was going to shelter her as much as he could from the more dangerous parts of his life. The areas where he was the Boss. But she still had to take him as he was.
There was no way he could change that. And part of who he was, was a man who would always lay down his life for his woman.
He held out a finger to her, then crooked it.
She stared at him.
“Come. Here. Effie.”
She got up slowly, moving toward him. And he wished he could take a moment to study how gorgeous she looked in that killer dress. But she started running, throwing herself at him. He took a tight hold of her, pressing her to him.
“New rule,” he said. “I tell you to come to me, then you do, understand me?”
“Sorry,” she whispered. “You just . . . you sounded so mad down there.”
“Wasn’t mad at you, baby girl.” He’d have thought that was obvious. But maybe to Effie, it wasn’t. “And I’d never be so angry that I would harm you. Understand?”
“I was the one talking about blow jobs,” she said. “And I wasn’t that upset by what he said. I can deal with that sort of stuff.”
“I thought we’d made this obvious, but it seems we’ve got to make it more obvious.”