James stormed across the room and gathered her in his arms while Aidan grabbed his cellphone and made a call. Within seconds, she realized he was calling the cops, and though she wanted this to be over, and didn’t want to press charges, she knew there was no convincing Aidan or James otherwise.
With a sigh, she sagged into James’ strength. “Thank you for coming but he didn’t do anything. The cops aren’t necessary,” she whispered into his chest. A cocktail of emotions was battering her. Relief that he was here—that both of them were here. Astonishment that Mark hadn’t stopped when she’d demanded it of him.
Would he have taken it as far as forcing her to sleep with him?
From the confines of James’ strong embrace, she peered down at the man she’d been living with for the past eighteen months.
She couldn’t believe that of him, but he hadn’t stopped when she’d asked. That meant something. Nothing good.
“Just you let us handle this,” James told her softly, nuzzling his chin against her temple. With a sigh, she pressed herself deeper into James' arms, but she barely had time to settle there before Aidan was grabbing a hold of her and hugging her tightly. There must have been some silent man-speak going on overhead because after the transfer of her from one set of arms to the other was complete, James strode the few steps to Mark, bent down, and to her amazement, picked him up by his collar.
Was that even possible? Then, she ignored her own stupid question because she’d just seen it with her own eyes. It was very possible. And her lover, the father of her child, was more than capable of protecting her from idiots who didn’t understand that no meant no.
A small part of her was smugly satisfied when she saw Mark’s reaction to James’ strength—sheer terror.
“You piece of shit,” he snapped, punching Mark square in the nose.
“James, no!” she cried out, struggling from Aidan’s taut clasp around her when she realized how far James was going to take this—she knew from Aidan how James felt about men who assaulted women. James' father was a control freak who had his wife close to a nervous breakdown with all his demands.
This was classic transference, and it totally wasn’t necessary.
“Aidan! Dammit! Stop him,” she demanded when she realized James' rage was only growing. “I handled it. He wouldn’t have raped me.” At least, she didn’t think Mark would have. “And I had it under control.”
“He scared you,” James growled out. “You were shivering in my arms.”
“Of course, I was! It came as a shock,” she argued.
“James,” Aidan bit off begrudgingly.
“What?” came the snarled retort.
“Leave him alone.” Aidan breathed heavily.
Her brother’s words had her relaxing a little, but James, as if not hearing them snapped, “He was going to rape you, Hailey!”
“You think I failed to spot that?” she snapped back. “I was there. You weren’t. Look, let’s just leave this… Let’s just go.”
“We can’t. I called the cops,” Aidan pointed out.
She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands. “How has this grown so complicated?”
Aidan snapped, “You should never have come to his room.”
“Why the fuck not?” she snarled back, her weariness disappearing in the face of her brother’s arrogant assertion. “I had no intention of sleeping with him, but if I’d wanted to, I would have. I’m an adult, Aidan. I don’t need your approval to do a damn thing.”
He glowered at her. “How can you be so goddamn ‘in my face’ over this after what nearly happened?”
“It didn’t happen, did it? You two arrived after he was on the floor. I’d protected myself, defended myself, because that’s what I had to do, and I’d do it again and again.” She clenched her teeth. “Don’t come in here all high and mighty thinking I’m in the wrong. The man deserved closure. He deserved for me to tell him we were over in private. Not in some damn bar where the waitstaff could hear him getting dumped.” She let out a hissed breath. “I am not in the wrong here. And you making out that I am isn’t improving my mood.”
Aidan glared at her, but James was the one who spoke. He was still panting from the exertion of containing his temper, and it probably made her a Neanderthal to admit that that turned her on so badly, she could have jumped on him. Brother and ex be damned.
“She’s right, Aidan,” he said, breaking into her lusty thoughts with words that stunned the shit out of her because she’d expected him to be firmly on her brother’s side. “It’s not our place to make comment,” James said as he released Mark.
“How can you say that?” Aidan demanded. “She put herself in needless danger.”
“She was doing the right thing, and it backfired on her, but she handled herself well.” He met Hailey’s stormy gaze. “You did, Hailey.”
She nodded at him. “I know I damn well did,” she snapped, firming her chin and lifting it high in the air. Her annoyance wasn’t aimed at him though. If anything, she still wanted to crawl all over him, and maybe he saw that because a fire began to burn in his eyes.