He would never be able to forget when she had looked up at him that night when he had ripped those men away from her. When Adrian had heard her scream, even with the noise surrounding them and the blood rushing to his ears as he faced off his opponent in the cage, every protective instinct inside of him had gone on high alert. Memories had assaulted him and tunnel vision had taken over his vision. He’d had one goal in mind. Get to her.
When Kash had joined in, the two cage fighters had made quick work of the drunken bystanders. It had been a very long time since he had felt anything remotely strong for a female. He didn’t mean fucking them either. The bone-deep protective instincts that had slammed into him as she had looked up at him, silently begging for his help, had broken something inside of him. The walls around his heart and mind that had taken him years to erect had cracked at that moment. Never had he had such a strong reaction to a woman, and never so instantaneously. She had been the gasoline on his fire. It had been weeks since that night, and despite his inner pep talks that he needed to stay away from her, he found himself frequenting the club she worked at on a nightly basis.
“Come on, baby.” The woman beside him rubbed her leg up and down his calf. “I’m aching for all that power you have to thrust between my thighs.” She giggled and ran her hand across his cock. “Every time I see you fight I get so wet.”
Adrian broke his stare from the waitress. The woman’s hand still rubbed long strokes up his jean-clad erection as she gazed up at him in almost awe. The fact that he fought other men illegally in a cage right below this very club should have disgusted every female that watched him bloody his opponent, but it had the opposite effect. Of course Adrian used that to his advantage. If they wanted to sleep with a man that didn’t care about hurting other people with his fists, then he wasn’t above burying his cock in their pussies. He took one last look at the waitress, saw her still watching him, and smirked. It was good she was seeing him for the dick he truly was. Maybe then she would get that look, a look he didn’t want to delve too deeply into, out of her eyes when she gazed upon him.
He spun on his heel, his “date’s” hand in his, and left the club without a backward glance. He needed to stay away from the waitress, but whatever it was about her, Adrian found the more he saw her, the more he wanted her. It was a dangerous combination, and one he had no plans on submitting to.
Chapter Two
Brea watched Adrian leave. Even after his massive body disappeared in the crowd, her heart still pounded wildly. Every night she saw him sitting on the same barstool, slamming back the whiskey like it was water and he was starved for it. He wasn’t like other men, though, not in the least. There was a threatening aura that surrounded him that had everyone instinctively moving away from him. She didn’t think he even realized the effect he had on people.
When she had been offered a chance to earn a hefty amount under the table working the floor during the illegal cage fights they held under the club, she had instantly been leery. She kept to herself for a reason, a good reason, but she also couldn’t deny the fact that the money that had been offered would go a long way in securing her release from her personal prison. Every little bit of money that she could save brought her closer to escaping the nightmare that had become her life. So, against her better judgment and all the internal warning bells that had gone off inside of her, Brea had accepted the one-night position.
It hadn’t been until she was crammed into the basement, sweaty, drunken bodies pressed far too close for her comfort, that the past assaulted her. She could have handled it, but when the numerous hands had started touching her, and then forcibly pulling at her, everything around Brea had gone black. She had been back in that room, his hands moving on her, in her. Every horrendous second had seemed like eternity, and then it had all stopped. She had found herself on the floor, staring into a face that was hauntingly attractive, but devastating all in the same breath. His sheer size should have had her cowering even further, but she found herself wanting to reach for him. It had been years since she had wanted to reach for a man. This man, this stranger who she had just seen fighting in the cage, had come to her rescue. He hadn’t known her, yet when she had screamed he had been there. He was dangerous. That much was clear. She didn’t want to feel anything for anyone. All she wanted was to earn whatever she could and then disappear.
“Earth to Brea.”
Brea tore her gaze from the sea of bodies that Adrian had walked into and looked at Shan. The redheaded bartender watched her curiously. Her tiny white top stretched over incredibly huge and clearly fake breasts, and it was painfully obvious she didn’t wear a bra, seeing as her nipples could have cut right through the shirt. Brea knew it got Shan a shitload of tips, though.