scoffed back. “Do you really think anyone’s looking at the hired help in the back corner when they can just look to the center of the room to watch you swap spit with your fiancé while he walks around with his hand on your ass?”
Mike watched her jaw set and her eyes grow cold. “I said get out. Now. That means immediately, Mike. And if you don’t, I’ll have security escort you. Understood?”
If Mike would have been in a slightly more rational state of mind, he would have agreed. He would have curtly informed her exactly what he thought of the outlook of her future before riding a wave of self righteousness all the way to the airport.
The trouble was that he wasn’t thinking rationally. Thanks to Chloe his mind was already filled with the many ways he could change Rori’s anger into something else entirely. And now here she was in front of him, her asymmetrical off-the-shoulder dress giving him a clear view of her smooth, olive skin on one side while all but inviting him to bare the other side.
Looking into her eyes, he could see the possibility all too easily. The signs of arousal were already there in her dilated pupils and the rate of her breathing. And when Rori licked her lips before spinning on her heel to march away, Mike knew he had to try.
What did he have to lose?
Not a single thing.
Chapter 61
Rori had expected Mike to argue, maybe even yell. But she hadn’t expected him to drag her to a side hall like a cave man. Certainly someone had to be noticing the fact that she was being hauled away from her own event against her will. But if anyone saw, no one was coming to her rescue.
“Let go,” she hissed, trailing after him.
“Not until I explain,” he replied. She couldn’t help but note that even though his grip was unbreakable on her, it didn’t hurt. It was a stupid thing to notice. Useless, really, and while she was processing that, she lost her last chance to send out a desperate look to anyone who might come to her aid as he pulled them into the narrow hallway and led her around the corner that would give them privacy.
Well, good. Maybe now she could tell him what she really thought of him.
“Mike, let go. Now!” Rori warned, noting there was a door in the alcove. If she couldn’t get him to leave, maybe she could just lock him in there to deal with later.
Without hesitation, Mike pushed Rori against the wall and caged her in his arms. If she moved so much as an inch she would touch him. And given how territorial she was feeling at the moment, touching would be a really bad thing.
Calm down, she told herself. Before you make a stupid decision.
The problem was, she was already making stupid decisions, like being in the alcove in the first place. How easy it would be to just kiss him until he took over? Right here, with people sipping champagne and making small talk only a few yards away. No one would miss her. Anton would take advantage of her absence to hit on that blonde he’d been eyeing since he arrived, and her mom was much better at climbing the social ladder when she didn’t have to work around Rori.
“Chloe has a boyfriend,” Mike said, breaking into her thoughts, and reminding her of the events that had led them to where they presently stood. Chloe had been fawning all over him and he hadn’t even tried to stop her.
“Really? Could have fooled me!”
“She told me if I let her get handsy with me you would get jealous, but I didn’t believe her.” He brought a hand over to caress the shape of her jaw. Rori flinched away from the touch, not that it did any good. He kept right on touching. “But here you are. Pissed off and territorial, just like she said you would be. What am I supposed to do with that, Rori?”
“I already told you what you can do with that. You can pack up and get the hell out of my life.” She wished her voice had a little more oomph to it, but had to admit that her words sounded a little less than heartfelt, even to her own ears.
Mike nodded as if that made total sense. “Yeah. I wouldn’t want to get in to way of you marrying a man you don’t love just