He couldn’t argue with that. It was, in fact, why he was so bothered by the whole situation. Not because he thought her legs were hot.
“Fair enough.”
Suddenly, one of the guys took a swing at the other one, and a ripple of unease washed through the dance floor as everybody tried to move away from what was about to become a brawl.
He let go of his dance partner, and looked over at Rue, who was standing there with a shocked and horrified expression on her face. Guy Number One—who had just been hit—jumped up and tackled the other guy, and they were kicking and rolling around on the floor, when one of them hit Rue, causing her to stumble and fall onto her rear.
He was off like a shot.
He ran over to where she was and picked her up, holding her face in his hands. “Are you okay?”
Her eyes were wide as saucers, her lips parted slightly. “Yes,” she said.
“Good.”
He moved over to where the two jackasses were still brawling, completely unaware that they’d knocked Rue over.
Justice reached down and grabbed them both by their shirt collars, lifting them up. “Now that’s enough,” he said, holding them both back. He was bigger than both of them, but wrangling two idiots was definitely being powered by adrenaline.
“Stay out of it,” one guy said.
“Yeah. This had nothing to do with you.”
“Actually, she’s mine. So it has everything to do with me.”
He saw a look of absolute terror filter through the other man’s eyes.Good.
“Well, hell,” he said. “She left easily enough when you guys were playing pool over there.”
“You made a mistake,” Justice said. “That’s all right. I’m going to let you off with a warning. But you see, you knocked her down to the ground. You could’ve hurt her. I don’t care if you smash your own dumb faces in. But you hurt my lady and we have a problem.”
“Sorry, ma’am,” the one guy said, practically tripping over himself to make amends to Rue.
Justice growled, “Go on about your business. Stay the hell away from her.”
Then he released his hold on the two chuckleheads before moving back toward Rue. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her up to his side.
Rue looked at him, her eyes bright, her cheeks pink.“Hey,” she said, her words slurred. “Now how am I going to have sex if you scare off the... the penis?”
He felt like he had been socked in the gut. “You’renothaving sex with either of those guys.”
His rage was beyond irritation. It was a bone-deep, possessive rejection that he had never felt for any woman ever. Even still, he recognized it.
It wasn’t about what he thought she deserved or what he thought might put her in danger or anything half so gallant.
She washis.
And he wanted her.
Hell. Damn. Shit. All of it. All. Of. It.
“You’re not the boss of me,” she said. “I can have sex with whoever I want. I could have sex with both of them if I felt like it.” Both of them stopped and turned to look at her.
“You fucking can’t,” he growled, taking her by the hand and dragging her through the dance floor.
“You’re making a scene!”
“You’remaking a scene,” he shot back.
