Page 18 of King
Chapter 6
King/Dante
“If you’re trying to pretend this afternoon never happened, sugar, you need to know that I’m not gonna let that happen. We may be finished for now, but believe me, we aren’t even close to being done yet.”
I pressed a kiss against the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her shampoo. My dick perked up, and I fought the urge to grind into the lush curve of her ass. Only the thought of her kids upstairs stopped me. I dipped my head to drop a soft kiss on her temple, and Ella shivered slightly as my breath skated over her skin.
I cursed under my breath when my cell phone rang, although by the way Ella’s body sagged in relief, she was grateful as hell for the reprieve. I could almost feel her building walls between us – walls built on guilt and regret, if I had to guess. No way was I going to let that shit happen.
The ring tone was the one I had set for my club brothers. I had another for club business, meaning someone connected to La Famiglia Rossi or one of the other MC’s we were friendly with. I had a separate one for family, and another one for all other callers, so I would know which calls to answer, and which could likely just go to voice mail if I was busy. I handed the cookie tin to Ella and took a reluctant step back while apologizing for the interruption.
“I need to take this,” I said, fishing my phone out of the inside pocket of my cut and seeing Bodhi’s name flashing on the screen. He was Ace’s assistant manager at Fallen Angels. If he was calling instead of sending me a quick text, it probably wasn’t a good sign. I walked into the living room so that Ella wouldn’t overhear the conversation.
“What?” I greeted him gruffly, not worried in the least about offending the man currently cockblocking me.
“We’ve had some trouble, Prez. I tried to reach Ace, but he didn’t answer. One of the customers got a little too handsy with one of the servers, and managed to drag her onto his lap and get his hand under her skirt before she could get anyone’s attention. She ended up smacking him upside the head with her serving tray to get away from him.”
“Which server? Is she all right?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
“It was Mandy. Her skirt is torn, and she’s got a few marks on her inner thigh that are already starting to bruise. She’s mostly pissed as hell, but OK otherwise. She’s taking a break in the back, but she says she wants to get back out there and finish her shift.”
“Does she want to press charges against him?” If she did, that was fine with me. We’d let law enforcement handle it for now. We could always track him down later to give him a taste of club justice.
“Nope, she doesn’t care too much for cops. She’s happy to let us handle it.”
Mandy had worked for us for a couple of years and was probably the best server we had. She was tough and knew how to keep the booze flowing and handle the flirty customers who on occasion mistook her for a stripper and pressed her for a lapdance. It didn’t surprise me that she was pretty much taking this in her stride, but it pissed me the fuck off that she even had to.
“How the fuck did this happen? Where were the goddamned bouncers who were supposed to be working the floor?”
“They were trying to de-escalate a situation with a table full of drunks so they could escort them out without a fight breaking out in the middle of the damned club. I think the other bastard saw that going down and decided to take advantage of the distraction.”
“Where is he now?” I asked through gritted teeth. Not much pissed me off more than a man trying to take advantage of a woman.
“We’ve got him cooling his heels in the back office with Skid. Trick’s on his way,” Bodhi grunted, and the anger in his voice matched mine.
“I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. If Trick gets there before I do, tell him to wait on me before he starts. I’d like to have a little chat with the shitstain myself.”
“Will do, Prez.”
Dammit, it wasn’t often that I regretted my role leading the MC, but this was one time that I wished I could hand the president’s patch off to someone else for the night. and I cursed the strip club, the asshole customer, and Ace for not responding to Bodhi’s call.
We ended the call moments later, and I sighed deeply as I slid my phone back inside my cut. Goddammit, this is not how I wanted my evening to end.
I stalked back into the kitchen as Ella closed the lid on the now-filled tin. I smiled as I realized it was setting in the onlyclear spot on the island – the very spot I’d placed her on top of a short time ago.
“The lasagna will need to bake for about an hour,” she said, drawing me out of the memories of our kiss. I ran my eyes over her, taking in the full tits that stretched the front of her shirt in all the best ways, down over the thick curve of her hips and thighs, landing on the tips of her toes peeking out from her sandals, their nails painted a deep, dark red that matched her fingertips. I cursed Ace and the lousy bastard who’d fucked with one of our girls all over again as I thought about how this evening could have gone.
“I’m sorry, sugar, I’m going to have to take a raincheck on dinner. We’ve got an issue at one of our businesses that I need to take care of.” I didn’t know jack-shit about dealing with a lady like Ella, but something told me it would be better not to mention that the business in question was a strip club.
I hid my satisfaction at the brief look of disappointment that flitted across her face at my news. Maybe she wasn’t building those walls quite as high as I’d thought.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it’s nothing serious.”
I flashed her a reassuring smile. “No, but it is something that needs my attention, and unfortunately, it can’t wait. Believe me, I’d much rather spend the evening having dinner with you.”
Ella smiled back, and I saw a tiny dimple in her cheek that I hadn’t noticed before. I was tempted to call Trick and have him deal with it, but I wasn’t the kind of president who delegated that shit.
She gestured to the cookie tin. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so there is an assortment of muffins – blueberry, apple cinnamon, and banana – along with both kinds of cookies.”
