The corner of his mouth pulled up, and his cool blue eyes flashed with victory. "I don't."
I scowled. His implication was clear... that I was willing.
Motherfucker.
With a furious, frustrated growl, I wrenched myself out of his grip and wobbled as my heels hit the floor once more. "You're barking up the wrong fucking tree, husband," I hissed, reminding him—and me—of the honking big elephant in the room with us. "If you're looking for willing, then you'd be better off just fucking yourself. You've had plenty of practice with that lately, haven't you?"
His glare darkened, his amusement turning to a threatening scowl, but I'd run out of fucks to give. I'd also run right out of willpower and mental fortitude, and I badly didn't want to be one of those girls who lost all backbone the second her cunt got wet.
"Are we done?" I asked Nicky, spinning around and giving Archer my back. If he was wise, he'd use the cover to sort himself out. Otherwise this "ultra sexy" photo-shoot was about to turn into soft-core porn.
Nicky's brows shot up, her camera held in one hand as she hesitated. "Uh... not really..." she started to say, but quickly changed her mind. "Actually, come to think of it, I can work with what I've got."
I was halfway across the bar before she’d even finished talking. Kody was over near the main door talking to Jase, and when I stormed past him, he cut out of the conversation to follow me.
"What happened?" he asked in a worried voice as I shoved through the heavy doors and out into the frosty air outside.
"Seriously?" I demanded, whirling around to glare at him. The look on his face was pure confusion, though, and it only took me a second to realize he hadn't seen the kiss between Archer and me.
Kody's brow furrowed, and he shot a look back toward the warehouse bar we'd just left. "Do you need me to punch him again? I'm sure he deserves it."
I barked a sharp laugh and shook my head. My irritation flowed out with the crisp air I was inhaling. "Again? You've made a habit of punching him?"
Kody gave me a cocky grin, closing the gap between us. He draped his leather jacket over my trembling shoulders. "Baby girl. You shoulda seen the mess Steele and I left him in that week you took off to Aspen. Let's just say fight training stepped up a notch."
I grinned, letting all my anger and frustration at Archer fade away as Kody's hands slipped under his jacket and rested on my waist.
"Damn, I kinda wish I could have seen that," I muttered, picturing the boys smacking the shit out of Archer and him just fucking taking it because he knew he deserved it. Douche-canoe.
"Say the word, babe," Kody told me with total seriousness, "I'll happily reenact it for you. It's about damn time he woke the fuck up before we lose you for real."
My eyes narrowed as I glared back in the general direction of the bar. "To lose me, he'd first need to have me. Which he doesn't." My words were firm, but they lacked conviction.
Kody wasn't calling me on my denial bullshit though. "But... do I?"
Fucking Christ, he was all hopeful, pleading puppy-dog eyes. How the hell was it legal for a guy as hot as Kody to pull a move like that?
Linking my hands behind his neck, I tipped my head back to kiss him. Even with the stiletto heels on, there was a significant enough height difference that I still needed him to bend slightly. It was hot as hell.
"I'm still mad, Kody," I told him on a whisper after our kiss ended, "but yeah. You have me. Don't fuck it up again, or I'll castrate you with a pair of rusty scissors."
He groaned, pulling me closer and claiming my mouth in another kiss, this time loaded with naked desire and desperate craving.
"I fucking love when you get all stabby, babe," he told me in a rough whisper, dipping his head to claim my mouth in another searing kiss. The sort of kiss that could very easily lead into more... And given we were standing outside in a parking lot in the middle of the damn day while I shivered my ass off in lingerie, heels, and Kody's jacket? Maybe not the best time or place.
With a sigh, I took a small step back in an attempt to remind my body that we couldn't actually fuck while standing up in a public space. But movement caught my attention over Kody's shoulder, and my gaze shot to the front door of the warehouse-bar. It stood open now, and a shirtless, ink-covered, infuriating piece of shit stood there with a deep scowl on his face and his thick arms folded.
Something about him just made me constantly want to raise his blood pressure, and after that stunt he’d pulled in there, kissing me like that? Yeah, I wanted to poke the hornet's nest. With a flamethrower.
Dragging my tongue across my lower lip, I closed that small gap between Kody and I again, molding my body to his as I shot Archer a deliberate wink. I tipped my face back, seeking out Kody's lips again, but a slamming car door startled me.
"Maddie!" Scott's irate shout shocked through me, and I pulled back from Kody's embrace in confusion. "Are you okay? Hey, asshole, get your hands off my girl!" He grabbed Kody by his shirt, hauling him away from me in a move rough enough that it almost sent me sprawling onto my ass in the middle of the damn parking lot.
I kept my balance, though, which was more than I could say for Scott as he swung a terrible punch at Kody, missed, and pitched himself face forward into the gravel.
"Fuck’s sake," I hissed under my breath.
Just what I needed. Another posturing fool acting like a goddamn caveman around me.
13
Scott meant well, I knew he did. But his execution seriously lacked finesse. Picking a fight with a UFC trainer? Not his smartest move. Not by a long shot.
As he sprawled in the gravel, I sent a lightning-quick mental plea that he'd smarten the fuck up and recognize he was severely outmatched. But nope, he scrambled back up to his feet and launched back at Kody again, swinging his fists like he had a damn death wish.
Fucking idiot.
My lips parted to shout at him, to tell him to stop before he ended up learning exactly why Kody was training the hottest new face on the UFC circuit. But then something stopped me. I don't know what it was—maybe the fact that he'd shown up at this location totally uninvited like some kind of...
Shit.
...like some kind of stalker.
I stood there, frozen immobile as that thought took root in my mind. Kody must have taken my lack of protest as permission because a second later, the warm, wet splatter of blood from Scott's breaking nose hit me in the face.
Three seconds later, Scott was face down in the gravel. Blood flowed freely from his nose, and the muscles of his shoulder and neck strained painfully against Kody's arm bar.
"Maddie!" Scott shouted at me, and I swallowed a sigh. "Maddie, what the fuck? Are you going to just let him do this?"
Kody snorted a laugh, giving me a look that seemed to say, What the fuck are you doing with this asshole? Twisting Scott’s hand until the weaker man screamed in pain, he ordered, "Quit calling her that. She hates being called that."
My brows shot up. How the fuck did he know that?
Regardless, I sighed and crouched down to look at Scott. I was still in my lingerie from the shoot, my designer shoes with their spoked heels wobbling slightly on the uneven ground. Thank fuck for Kody's jacket or I'd be turning hypothermic.