Simeon didn’t appear to listen because Will had barely finished speaking when he surged forward and began to throw hard punches at Will’s head with brutal force.
Will defended himself, but struggled to find a way to thwart the man’s maniacal ferocity. He was vaguely aware of someone approaching them but daren’t lower his protective arms enough to see. Instead he stood still and prayed that salvation had arrived.
Georgiana stormed down the corridor obliterating the warning voice of conscience that worried her. She kept her gaze locked firmly on Simeon’s back she stomped straight up to the grappling men, lifted the vase she carried, and slammed it mercilessly down upon Simeon’s head. He crumpled sideways without a murmur.
“Thank God for that,” Will growled as he shoved the man’s heavy frame off him and moved away.
With studied the unconscious man and shook his head in disbelief. Every inch of him ached from the fierce pounding he had just received. It was only the sight of the dark patches beginning to appear on Simeon’s face that made his own bruising worthwhile.
“Will?” Georgiana cried tentatively.
It was obvious that she was deeply distressed both by what she had experienced in her bed chamber and witnessed of the brutal fight. He should comfort her, and would have done if he hadn’t been so furious with her.
To his later consternation, he began to speak before he considered the wisdom of what he was about to say and made his relationship with her a heck of a lot worse.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Just what in the Hades did you think you were doing having dinner with him?” he thundered as he rounded on her. “Do you have any idea how close you came to being raped?”
“Oh, don’t say thank you,” Georgiana snapped. “I just saved your life.”
“I saved you as well,” Will shouted. “Maybe I should have left you to him?”
“Maybe I should have left you to him too,” Georgiana countered.
“Get back into your room and stay there. I am going to fetch the manager,” Will ordered as he stepped around Simeon’s unconscious body and started to walk down the corridor.
Georgiana snapped. “I am not going to take orders from you.”
Will’s patience evaporated. Rather than going downstairs, he stopped before her and leaned forward until they were almost nose-to-nose.
“I warn you now that I am no mood for an argument with you. I have never known such foolhardy, selfish, and reckless behaviour in my entire life. I am ashamed to say that I was foolish to let you stay with Ruth. It is clear she has no idea what you get up to when her back is turned. Neither of you can be trusted,” Will snapped.
With each word she listened to Georgiana’s heart wept. The scorn on his face said it all. In fact, so strong was the affect it had on her that her head bent backward beneath the force of his words and the pain they brought her. Tears gathered in her eyes to the point that the world blurred. She stared at him blankly, unsure what to say that had not already been said to try to get him to see her as a woman. She was saved from having to reply when Simeon suddenly lunged to his feet and staggered toward her, his hand outstretched.
Will grabbed his arm before he reached her, and threw it away and then landed a solid punch on the man’s chin that was so fierce Simeon spun around in a circle and fell limply against the wall. This time he didn’t get up.
“Touch her again and I will tear your black heart out,” Will said, his voice full of menace.
Georgiana barely saw this renewed altercation. She was still struggling with the way Will had looked her up and down so distastefully she knew her association with him was damaged beyond repair. The disgust in his gaze was something she had never seen before, and was so similar to Simeon’s disparaging glare that Georgiana began to doubt herself. In deference to her mild worry at being the recipient of Simeon’s scorn, Will’s disgust cut deep.
“I am sorry,” she whispered.
Deep inside she still wasn’t sure she should be apologising, but she did anyway. Maybe she had been foolish, but her slight fall from grace didn’t warrant this kind of scorn, did it?
“You are sorry.” The derision in Will’s voice interrupted her thoughts and drew her attention back to him. “Do you have any idea what you have done tonight?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she whispered, now openly crying. “How can you be so unfair?”
“Unfair?” Will thundered. “He was practically crawling down your throat! You were kissing him, Georgiana!”
Unfortunately, because of Will’s shouting, several of the hotel’s guests had come out of their rooms to see what all the commotion was. Georgiana’s cheeks were aflame.
“We need to go somewhere a little more private,” she whispered.
“Don’t you think you have had enough men in your room for one night?” Will snapped.