Is she leaving?
Then I hear her car door shut, and she comes back, computer in hand, taking up a position on the couch. I sit next to her as she begins inputting information, asking me questions here and there. I watch her work, fascinated with the speed and complexity with which she works. Her lashes are long, which fits perfectly with her devil eyes. Her hands move fast, long delicate fingers I could have wrapped around my…
“You’re staring again.”
“You’re beautiful to stare at.”
Her head lifts at the compliment, and she turns to face me. “Thank you.” She spins back to the laptop. “For that, I won’t charge you, even though now I know you can afford to pay me.” She’s not wrong. The advance I received from the contracts is amazing. I didn’t think it was possible to do something I love and make so much money out of it.
But here I am.
She continues to work away on her computer, makes a few phone calls, and all the while I watch her intently.
“Look how far you’ve come,” she says, shutting the computer after having set me up in business, it seems. “You should be proud of yourself, August Trouble. Because I am.”
I have no response to those words.
Not once has anyone ever said they were proud of me. That’s something someone like me never hears uttered.
“August.” She touches my arm.
Maybe it’s her words, maybe it is just her.
But what I do next, I told myself I would never do again.
But for some reason, I can’t help myself.
I’m a starving man, and she has served up my three-course meal.
Chapter 19
Rylee
I should be pushing him away. I know this. But when August’s lips touch mine, and he pushes me backward on the couch, I’m a helpless woman. Besides, it wasn’t my idea to keep things platonic between us. That was all him.
So when his hand slides up my skirt I know, I just know, we’re more than friends.
Maybe friends with benefits?
August’s lips capture mine.
And in that moment, nothing is more important than keeping that kiss going, even when his fingers slide past my panties and straight to where I want them. I pause only for a second, my lips frozen in pleasure before I bite down on his bottom lip. His fingers start pumping inside of me while he makes these amazing noises with his mouth.
Just as I go to reach between us to touch him, something bangs on the door, loudly. It’s as if it’s being kicked. August stops abruptly, then is off me in the next second before he moves to the door with a bat in his hand, freezing mid-step as the door is kicked in. Two men stand there, facing me, both wearing black balaclavas. I can’t see their eyes, but I feel them all over my skin as I remain immobile on the couch, for some reason just blinking.
“Look what we got,” one of them says, as the other attempts to move forward in my direction. August swings the bat, knocking the one closest to him in the backs of his knees, forcing him to the floor with a loud scream.
I shiver, covering my ears at the crack the bat made when it connected with his bones.
“What the…” Before the other can do anything, I open my eyes to see August do the same thing with him, but the crack isn’t as loud as the guy jumps, getting whacked in only one leg instead of both.
“August.” I say his name, but he doesn’t hear me as he rushes over to the closest one, tears the mask off, and bends down, his hand gripping the intruder’s shirt, and he pulls him up, making him whine out in pain.
“You are either brave or stupid to try to enter my house. Which is it?” August growls.
I stand on shaky legs and stare at August. I’ve never seen this side of him.
He’s so… dark.
His fists move fast as he punches the dude’s face. I hear the crack of bone and flinch at the sound.
“August.” I say his name again, but he doesn’t seem to hear me.
“You stepped into the wrong house, fucker.” He hits again, knocking the guy unconscious. The one whose leg he hit pulls something from his pocket. I freeze, and a scream rips out of my mouth when I realize it’s a gun.
August pauses but only for a split second, which is enough time for the guy to shoot, but because he’s on the floor and August is fast, it only hits August’s shoulder. August barely registers the bullet, not even recoiling when it strikes him. He keeps moving and knocks the gun from the guy’s hand. Then, in one fast movement that I’ve only seen in the movies, he knocks that guy unconscious as well.
August stands, touches his shoulder, then looks over at me. “You should leave.”