Everyone in our group fell quiet. Which should have been a dead giveaway that something was wrong. But Jeff just kept smirking at me, either too drunk or too stupid to pick up on anything else.
I’d warned him to shut up for a very good reason—I’d noticed a certain someone heading to our table. And now that certain someone stood behind Jeff.
Totally done with this evening, I smiled at the newcomer. “Hey, Dane.”
Jeff froze. I thought he’d laugh and accuse me of trying to call his bluff, but as his gaze swept over the people sitting either side of me—all of whom were no doubt staring at their boss—the color drained from his face.
He twisted in his seat and blinked up at Dane. That easily, the idiot’s level of machoism bottomed out in a rush. Understandable. Dane stood unnaturally still, tension coiled in every muscle … making me think of a viper poised to strike. His bold, unblinking stare was wholly focused on Jeff, who was hopefully coming to the self-realization that he was one seriously stupid prick.
“Dane. I, um …” Jeff rose and offered him the chair. “Sit down. I didn’t know you were coming. Can I buy you a drink?”
Taller by at least a foot and a half, Dane stared him down. There was a lethal glint in the depths of those dark eyes that made my scalp prickle. “I couldn’t help but hear you brand my wife a gold-digger,” he said, his voice steady and dripping with caution. “Why would you go and do a thing like that, Jeff?”
Jeff’s mouth bopped open and closed. “It was just banter. I was … you know … just joking.”
“Yeah? I didn’t find it funny. More importantly, neither did she.”
Jeff forced an easy smile. “I was fooling around, Dane. Really. It was just supposed to be a bit of harmless banter. Right, Vienna?”
“Don’t look at her,” Dane said to him. “Look at me.”
Jeff’s gaze flew back to his. “Dane, man, it was just—”
“A joke, banter—yeah, I heard you. The thing is … I know you’re lying to me. But I don’t think you truly believe my Vienna’s a gold-digger. You just wanted to hurt her. Why would that be, Jeff? Were you one of the ones who singled her out when she first came to work for me? One of the ones who crashed and burned?”
“I wasn’t trying to hurt her—”
“You’re still lying to me.” Dane tipped his chin toward the exit. “Why don’t you come outside with me, Jeff?”
Uh-oh. I gripped the table, ready to push to my feet if necessary. “Dane.”
Jeff shook his head. “I’m not going to fight with my boss.”
“I’m not your boss anymore,” Dane told him. “As of two minutes ago, you no longer work for me. Now get outside.”
I stood. “Dane, he’s not worth it.”
“No, he’s not. But you are.”
Jeff stood his ground, the dumb bastard. “Why go outside? Why not just take care of this in here?” He cast a quick glance at our group, and I realized he expected one of them to intervene and stop the fight before it could start. But no one said a word or made a single move, as if striving to remain off Dane’s radar.
“Because if we do it in here, I’ll have to make sure it’s over with quickly—the management will overlook a sucker-punch, but it doesn’t like brawls.” Dane took a fluid step toward him, so tightly controlled yet so alive with menace. “Outside.”
“Nah,” said Jeff. “I say we just—”
Dane slammed his fist into the prick’s jaw like a fucking pro. Jeff’s head snapped to the side with the force of the blow, and his eyes went out of focus. Lights out. Jeff dropped to the carpet, almost knocking down his chair. It all happened so damn fast … and I wasn’t as progressive as I’d like to believe, apparently, because all that strength and power affected me on a very primal, viciously sexual level.
God, I needed help.
I rounded the table and touched Dane’s arm. “We should go.” The spectacle hadn’t gone unnoticed, and I didn’t fancy watching my fake husband get arrested. “Hanna, thanks for inviting me.” I promised to call her soon and then exited the bar with Dane.
Outside, I took a long breath. I didn’t know who I was angrier with—Jeff for being a sack of shit, Dane for coming here to pick me up like it was past my curfew, or myself for finding that little display of violence something of a turn-on.
“Well that was fucking fun.” I sighed. “Why did you come here?”
“It would have looked rather strange if I hadn’t, since I’m a man who wouldn’t like even the thought of my wife sitting in a bar without me right beside her. You should have called me the second things got ugly in there.”