“Since when have you been able to just let yourself into my grandmother’s house?” Jada asked as she came in from the balcony. Her face did little to hide the disgust and anger she felt for the man standing before her in a flawless, modern suit. Dark and crisp. Sharp like he seemed. All edges and no curves.
Dax stepped away from her with his face an emotionless mask, which was the complete opposite of the flirty, smiling man I’d come to know over the last few hours.
My heart was beating at a pace I was unaccustomed to for multiple reasons. Dawson had almost kissed me. He would have. Our lips would have finally been mingled together if this man, the one darkening the entire mood of the room just by being in it, hadn’t interrupted us.
I could almost hate him just for that, but my friend’s face made me hate him more.
Ken’Ichi Matsuda.
How could he want her when it was clear she had nothing but distaste for him?
“Your father and I agreed it would be a good idea for me to stay here whenever I’m in New York,” he replied, but the tone was how dare you challenge me? He walked over to the panel near the door controlling everything in the house from lights to music to security. There was a similar panel in almost every room. He turned off the music and lifted the lights while silence settled over the space.
Jada stormed over to the panel, pushing his hand aside and attempting to turn the music back on. He caught her by the wrist and forcibly moved her away from the panel. “Tell your friends goodnight.” A clear warning.
My body filled with adrenaline at the scene. I started toward my friend, but Dawson grasped me around the waist, halting me. I frowned. He’d gone all He-Man when he’d simply thought Silas had been hurting me, and yet he had nothing to say about this man Jada hated actually mistreating her.
I felt like I was missing twenty pieces to a twenty-five-piece puzzle.
Dax shot Dawson a look. Dawson shrugged ever so slightly, almost carelessly, and it pissed me off. I struggled against his grip, but it tightened, and he dropped his mouth to my ear and whispered, “Don’t.”
Another warning. But tangled in his voice was a plea I didn’t understand.
“My time’s up. I’ll be in touch with the dinner details,” Dax said, sauntering toward the door. When he got close enough to Jada and Ken’Ichi, he stilled. “She may be your fiancée, but if you continue to manhandle her, I can guarantee you, there will be consequences.”
Dawson’s body went tight up against mine, as if he might have to fight a fight he didn’t want to engage in, and it just baffled me more.
Jada’s face turned from uptight anger to bored in a flash. Her body relaxed into Ken’Ichi, and she flung out a purr I knew was fake. “Armaud, the kinky stuff may not be for you, but don’t stop the rest of us from having our fun.”
Dax looked like she’d hit him, and Ken’Ichi’s face turned even darker. She’d somehow shot them both with one blow.
Dax didn’t say another word as he left, but the slamming of the front door spoke for him. The penthouse echoed with more than the noise.
Jada stepped away from Ken’Ichi, and only the slight tremor of the lighter she held in her hand gave away her emotions. She looked in my direction. “Coming, Vi? We can huddle together in my bed and talk bugs and boys, like the old days.”
At least I could follow this. She needed me in her room. A friend. A shield. My bag had been left in one of the many guest rooms, but that was easily fixed. If Dawson wouldn’t stand up for her, I certainly would. There was no way this man would kick me out of her bed.
I pulled myself from Dawson’s hands, and when I looked back, his expression was full of worry, and it pissed me off. How many times had he abandoned her while they’d been traveling the world together? It seemed so contrary to everything I knew of him.
Then, I reminded myself I hadn’t really been around Dawson in five years. Holidays with family didn’t count. That was a place where it was easy to be smiling and loving, where it was easy to laugh with Nell while