He grinned. He’d gotten to the asshole.
Perfect.
Now to find Lara and get out of here. He walked into the main reception area, only to find everyone silent. They were all staring toward the other side of the room where Lara stood . . .
With Geoffrey on his knees in front of her.
Fuck. What was going on?
He rushed forward, toward her. She had a panicked, shocked look on her face. If that asshole said anything to hurt her . . .
The rush of protectiveness made him feel light-headed.
“Please, Lara,” Geoffrey cried, tears dripping down his face along with snot.
Wow. This guy was a mess. His shirt was half-untucked, his fly was down, and his face was red and blotchy.
“I made a horrible mistake. I never should have left you for her. Please, let me come back. Forgive me.”
He reached for Lara as she stood there, seemingly frozen in place.
Butch tugged her gently back behind him. Then he stared down at the guy crying pathetically.
“Stay away from her. She’s taken. And you were the one that cheated on her.” He wanted to shake the guy. What the fuck was he thinking? But he was so downtrodden already that it seemed he’d already been punished enough.
“Geoffrey!” Emily screamed, storming across the room.
“Oh, God.” Lara wrapped her hands up in the back of his shirt. “We need to go.”
“What are you doing? Get up, you pathetic idiot!” Emily reached for Geoffrey while Lara pressed herself against Butch’s back.
“What’s going on here?” Chandler called out, joining them.
Yep, time to leave.
Turning, he wrapped his arm around Lara, steering her away as everything went to shit behind them. Emily was screeching so loudly that it made his ears hurt.
“What’s going on? What happened?” she asked him. “Where were you?”
“Chandler called me into a private meeting.”
She stopped and he paused with her.
“What? You’re kidding? What did he want?”
“I’ll tell you in the truck. But we’re leaving now.”
“I want to know what he said.” She frowned. “Tell me.”
He sighed. “He threatened to ruin me if I didn’t end things with you. Oh, but he offered to reimburse me for the cost of my suit. A whole four hundred dollars.”
“He. Did. What? That bastard!” She turned to walk back into the reception room, but he grabbed her around the waist.
“Let me go!” Her fists were swinging in the air.
“You’re not going back in there, little fighter.”
“Yes, I am. I’m going to pound his ass. I can do it. I can!”
“I have no doubt that you’ve got some mad fighting skills, but you’re not going back in there. Your ex, who just married your sister, begged you to take him back. And your stepfather just threatened me. I do not want you around any of these people.”
She tried to lunge forward, but he lifted her up, throwing her over his shoulder.
“Hey! Let me down!” She tried to push off his shoulder as he walked outside and toward the parking lot.
He slapped her ass. Hard.
She froze.
“Stay still. You’re not getting down. And you’re definitely not going back in there. You’re coming with me.”
“You smacked my ass.”
“Yep.” He headed toward his truck.
“Butch, put me down.”
“Nope.”
“You can’t carry me around like this!”
“If you make one remark about being too heavy for me, I am going to bend you over my knee right now. Got me? And I don’t care who might see.”
“Okay, I got you,” she said in a high-pitched voice.
When he reached his truck, he let her down slowly so she was pressed up to his front.
“How dare he threaten you? That asshole. Bastard. Jerk. He—”
He kissed her, stopping her mid-tirade. When he drew back, they were both breathing heavily. “No one is going to tell me I can’t date you.”
“You do remember I’m your fake girlfriend,” she whispered.
“Yes, but that’s only between the two of us. None of them know that. And that bastard won’t scare me away.”
She smiled up at him, trying to hide her pang of longing. Why couldn’t he be her actual boyfriend? It felt amazing to have someone on her side, willing to stand up to her family. Geoffrey never had. And though he’d never met them, she was willing to bet Axel wouldn’t have either.
Nobody told Chandler Devout where he could stick it.
Except for this man.
“You’re coming with me, and I’m going to fuck you until you forget your own name. Objections?”
“Nope. None. Not from me. Nuh-uh. Na-da.”
Stop it, Lara.
But his lips just twitched, and she swore she saw a hint of tenderness.
That’s what she’d tell herself, anyway.
Butch was still fuming as he drove them to Freestown.
“Are we getting something before we go to your place?” Lara spoke up for the first time in ages. He looked over to see her clutching her fingers together nervously.
Shit. Had he said nothing to her this entire time? She probably thought that he’d changed his mind.