Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,111

at her. You don’t approach her like you think you have the fucking right to ask her shit that isn’t a thousand percent respectful. Hell, you take the long way to avoid her from now on. You’re not a bad guy, Reed, but you are stupid. Now get up. You broke the rules, now you pay the price.”

Pushing to his feet, Reed glared at Jake. “You’re a real asshole, you know that?”

Jake cracked a smile at that. “Should have figured that part out a lot sooner.”

“Man,” Darrin murmured from where he’d fallen in next to me. “Stupid never hurt me so much. Dude is not a bad guy…”

Yeah, I didn’t disagree. Fuck, Jake didn’t disagree. Normally, Reed was all right. But he crossed a line he should have known better than to cross.

The others had circled the ring. No referee, but that was what I was here for. I’d keep Jake from killing him. I wasn’t too worried about Reed. If he made it to five minutes, I’d be impressed. Even with Jake’s gloves on.

Reed made it four and a half minutes before Jake dropped him. Again.

Only instead of staying down, Reed lunged to his feet and charged at Jake. The savage grin on Jake’s face only grew as he dodged the next two wild hits and landed a one-two series of jabs to Reed’s kidneys. The gloves would spread out the force of the hit, the gloves cushioning against the force of bone hitting bone.

But what Reed didn’t get was how much he’d be hurting the next day, and the day after that.

Light as hell on his feet, Jake danced around him, and I sighed. When he cut into him again and his gaze met mine, I made a slicing motion with my hand. Time to end this. He lifted his chin and then stepped into Reed’s hit, and I winced. Reed got cocky, exactly what Jake wanted.

“Fuck,” Darrin said with a laugh. “Nice knowing you, Reed.”

Three swift punches later, Reed hit the mat and he didn’t get back up. Rolling his head from side to side, Jake swung a look around the room.

“Anyone else need a reminder?”

“No, man,” Chris said, holding up his hands. “We’re good. Reed just got brave, but we got it. Doesn’t matter what the rumors say, she’s still off limits and we’ll make sure everyone knows.”

Which was the final point of this exercise.

Reed still hadn’t gotten up, and I ducked into the ring as Jake stalked away. Flushed and sweaty, he was too wound up to be the one to deal with whatever Reed popped off with next. The guy had a mouth on him and apparently zero common sense filter.

Crouching, I checked his pulse. Not dead. That was good. The guy let out a groan and squinted one eye open. “How fucking hard did he hit me?”

“Hopefully, hard enough you learned your lesson,” I said as I stood and offered him a hand. He clasped it, and then I hauled him upright. Reed swayed a little on his feet. His jaw was swollen, and there were red marks on his cheeks, jaw, and around his eye that were already puffing. Blood trickled from his mouth.

There were worse marks on his torso. If he iced that shit, he’d probably be fine, but it would still hurt.

Good.

With a wince, Reed glanced down at his hands and then over to where Jake was pulling off his gloves. “Look…can you tell him I get it?”

“Do you though?” Because if Jake had to deliver this message again, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as a pleasant.

“Yeah, I get it. In fact, probably better not to mention anything about her or whatever the deal is you guys have.”

“How about you don’t try to scare any girl, much less her again?”

“How the hell was I scaring her?” He frowned. “Chicks like to feel important, and I had been wanting to ask her out.”

Closing the gap between us, I gripped his shoulder. The guys had already begun dispersing and heading out the doors. “You’re a hard guy to get alone,” I mentioned in a quiet voice, and Reed’s eyes widened. It took a second, but I caught the moment reality sunk in. It was just me and Jake left. “Think about how you feel right now…” I let him go. “Then remember she’s shorter than you are, and Mitch already attacked her, you idiot.”

The other guy had the grace to wince.

“But just in case I haven’t made the point…” I punched him