Desired (Club Sin 3)

Rory blinked and then looked away. “I’m here to talk to her and smooth things over and to bring her back home.”

Kyler didn’t need to see more or hear anything else. While Rory might’ve been more inebriated when he abused Ella, he wasn’t without logic. Rory had backed down when pressed. The coward. Show power in the face of a scared woman. In the face of a man, submit. Weak. “She’s fine and she’s staying in Vegas. Go home.”

“You don’t know her like I do,” Rory said in a much softer voice.

Kyler nearly punched the words right off his mouth and clenched his hands in his lap. “You’re right. I don’t know the Ella you do. But I know her now and I’ll know her in the future, something you won’t get.”

“We’re not divorced,” Rory said, looking to his nearly empty beer. “Did she tell you that?”

Kyler’s jaw clenched. As if this asshole was trying to make Ella look bad. Did he think Kyler would jump on the Ella-is-in-the-wrong bandwagon? “Do you think I care about a fucking piece of paper? The day you hit her was the day you lost her. And if you think I’ll let you stay around and frighten her, you are more fucking stupid than I thought.”

Rory’s eyes blazed. “I was drunk.”

Kyler nearly bolted off his stool, but if he did, he’d be no better than Rory. Violence in any form wasn’t his way. Besides, stupidity was stupidity, no matter the excuses one tried to give. “Which I don’t give a shit about.” He rose from the stool and swiped his badge off the bar, gripping it tight in his hands. “You should know I have a PI watching you.”

Rory’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, yeah?”

He ignored Rory for the piece of shit he was, and added, “Ella ran from you. Now you’ll be the one running. If you’re not on a plane by tomorrow morning …” Heat burned through him with every word he spoke. “I’ll find you.”

Rory lifted his chin, glaring. “Threats by an officer. You might not be the only one with an advantage.”

Kyler smiled, knowing it looked deadly. He pressed his hands against the cool, marble bar and leaned down into Rory’s face. “Don’t forget you’re in Vegas. You’re far away from your cop friends, and you’re in my city. On this matter, and where Ella is involved, heed my warning. Do not push me.”

Chapter Nineteen

Heading toward the kitchen to grab more desserts, Ella smiled at the laughter spreading out in her living room. It’d been years since she’d had such happiness in a house that belonged to her. The pasta dinner Cora had brought had been fabulous, as were Kenzie’s salad and Presley’s homemade rolls, though no one drank wine because of the plans to attend Club Sin tonight.

She glanced over her shoulder, and Kyler sat on the couch with Porter, Dmitri, and Aidan smiling at something they were discussing. Presley, Kenzie, and Cora were talking to Sawyer near the reading nook by the glass windows. Ella thought this group of friends made friendship look easy.

They were all so comfortable with one another. Conversation never halted, nor did laughter, among them. She wondered if seeing one another have sex produced that comfort level, but there seemed to be more to it.

They respected and loved one another.

&nbs

p; She felt grateful to be a part of it.

After she grabbed the tray out of the fridge, she placed it on the counter and her gaze drifted back to Kyler. God, this man, he overwhelmed her. Everything should feel perfect: She had some new great friends, she and Aidan had worked everything out to the point she didn’t feel at all awkward, and she was having the best sex of her life.

But things didn’t feel perfect.

She felt … unsteady.

Kyler seemed at ease, simply taking in the moment. She wanted to know that side of him, the real Master Kyler. She wanted him to be the Dom who played without worry of a woman suffering from abuse. And the Dom that she saw when he interacted with his friends—the laid-back man she’d first met at Aidan’s wedding.

The man who took her to his bed, all because passion led him there. The sexy-as-sin man who smiled that charming grin and did what he wanted with a dominant edge that first attracted her. Sighing to herself, she took off the plastic wrapping from the squares she’d made earlier.

She knew Kyler wanted her to share what had happened that night with Rory, and perhaps that’s what kept him at a distance. But how would he react if he knew how hard it’d been for her? If he knew how broken she’d been after that night with Rory? How long she’d cried? How long she had suffered day after day before she pulled herself back together again?

What started out between them as casual and fun had suddenly become messy. When had things turned so intense? Become so emotional? Feeling tension rise in her chest, she shut the thoughts down, refusing to go there. Her past made complicated look simple. She wasn’t that scared-and-lonely woman anymore. She’d left those parts of her behind in Savannah with the rest of her pain.

This woman was who he liked.

She didn’t intend to change his view of her anytime soon.

Suddenly, warm arms slid around her, and she snapped out of her thoughts. Smiling, she leaned into Kyler’s warm body at her back. “What is going on in that pretty mind of yours?” he asked.

She turned in his arms and smiled. “Just thinking about you.”