She straightened, pushed her shoulders back, and met Phillips’s gaze head-on. “Don’t do this. Not here. Not tonight.”
“I knew you’d come around, sugar tits,” Phillips said, his voice a deep baritone. “Took you long enough. But the stubborn ones are always worth the extra trouble.”
He ambled closer, and Julia put up her hand in a clear “stop” gesture. “Don’t touch me, or I will hurt you, Dirk.”
Noah started forward but got cut off by two tipsy women crossing the entrance to the hallway on their way toward a nearby bar.
Phillips laughed at Julia. “You think all hundred pounds of you could hurt me, bitch? Leave a scratch on me, and I’ll sue your tight little ass off. You lost your job and your reputation last time you dissed me. Do it again, and you’ll lose everything. I’ve got enough money and enough lawyers to bankrupt you a hundred times over. Now treat Dee Daddy right.”
Noah started down the hallway just as Julia took a step back and Phillips wrapped his meaty hand around her tiny wrist. He swung her around and slammed her back against the wall. A cry ebbed from Julia’s throat, and Noah rushed forward.
“Hey,” he said, coming up on Phillips. Julia’s attention swung his way, but Phillips was oblivious, leaning in to kiss her. “Back off.” Noah curled his hand around Phillips’s bicep and jerked it,only managing to garner a half glance.
“Get lost,” Phillips said. “This is private.”
Julia’s shoulders rocked with quick breaths. Her face was the same milky shade it had been on the plane when they’d taken off. “Noah, don’t—”
This time, Noah fisted Phillips’s jacket, making sure to get the shirt underneath, and hauled the guy backward. “I said, back the fuck off.”
Phillips stumbled a step, releasing Julia’s arm and swiveling on Noah with murder in his eyes. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Don’t you know who I am?”
“A sorry sonofabitch whose got to get his women by force, that’s who you are.”
“No, Noah,” Julia ordered. “Don’t. You’ll hurt your—”
Phillips responded just like every other bully Noah had ever met—and he’d met his share
growing up in the streets of Spokane. Phillips’s fist shot out in a right cross. Noah ducked, plowed his shoulder into Phillips’s sternum, and slammed the guy against the wall. Then planted his own fist in an upward thrust straight to Phillips’s balls.
Phillips grunted, doubled over, and dropped to his ass.
Noah reached for Julia, pulling her into step beside him as he walked her through the hallway, where a handful of guests looked on in alarm. “Go up front and wait by the door. I’ll be—”
One of the women on the sidelines asked, “What happened. Is he hurt?”
“He collapsed,” Noah said. “Go get security.”
She immediately obeyed his forceful direction. Phillips was recovering from the shock and started spitting out curses and threats. Noah gripped Julia’s arms and bent to look into her eyes, big and dark with shock. “Did you hear me? Front door. Have the valets call for the car. I’ll be right there.”
“Why?” Her brain was breaking through the shock, and now she looked both pissed and concerned. “Noah, I swear to God, if you hurt your leg—”
“I’ve got this.” Noah pushed her toward the front of the club. She hesitated, her face a mixture of anger and residual fear. “Go.”
She finally slipped into the crowd.
“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are,” Phillips rasped. “But your ass is mine.”
Noah gritted his teeth and turned back to Phillips where he was pushing himself up into a sitting position, clearly still in pain. Noah stopped five feet away. “You got that backwards, asshole. You attacked her. You threatened her. And you struck out at me first.” He crouched and lowered his voice. “The name’s Noah Hunt, and I’ve got just as much money and just as many lawyers as you’ve got. Plus, I’ve got witnesses. So, if you ever come within a hundred feet of her again, your ass is mine.”
Julia couldn’t control the shaking—a combination of fear, rage, and raw adrenaline.
The driver stood outside the car, waiting to open the door for Noah, and she took the moment alone to breathe deep and focus her mind, the way she used to before a competition. It helped, but not nearly as much as she’d hoped. The tremors still rattled through her.
She couldn’t keep her mind drifting to the sick look in Phillips’s eyes when he had her pinned against that wall, and she was pissed, so damn pissed, she’d frozen when she should have slammed her knee into his balls. At the same time, his sheer size and strength made her second-guess her ability to ever make a dent in a man that big, let alone get away after she’d pissed him off.
Then she thought of Noah confronting him… Fear and fury battled in her heart. Her hands clenched; her muscles quivered with tension.
The door opened, and Noah slid in. His hair was falling out of its style, his face was flushed, his jaw tight. He turned toward her, his hands gripping her forearms. “Are you all right?”