She was rattled, I could tell that straight away. When she looked at me with eyes that begged me to help her, I didn’t hesitate. “What the fuck’s going on here?” I demanded while moving in between them, putting Velvet behind me.

The guy glared at me. “This is none of your business so I suggest you leave us to it.” He looked me up and down with a ‘you’re a piece of worthless shit’ look.

“Not fuckin’ likely,” I growled.

“Velvet, kindly tell your friend that we’re just concluding a business deal and that there’s no need for his help.”

“No need, Velvet. But what you can tell me is who the hell he is to you.”

She moved so that she was standing next to me. I didn’t fail to notice that she positioned herself right next to me so that our bodies were touching; she didn’t feel safe with this dickhead. “James is my ex-husband.” She supplied the information I was after.

Shit. I wouldn’t have picked that; they seemed so different. “You do business deals with all your ex-wives?” I asked him.

“Just the ones who are a little unpredictable.”

I’d heard enough. Turning to Velvet, I asked, “What do you want to happen here, babe? You want to finish your discussion with me present or do you want him to leave?”

“I want him to leave.” It was almost like she was begging me to get rid of him the way she said it; damn, he’d really shaken her up.

I nodded, and then directed at him, “You heard the lady.”

He was fuming; his face was a wild mess of anger, and I didn’t want to think about what had gone on between these two during their marriage. I could see what kind of man he was just from five minutes with him. “This isn’t finished, Velvet. Not by a long shot. I want that agreement signed and I want it signed in the next week.”

I stepped closer to him, and snarled, “That’ll be the last time you threaten Velvet. You come near her again and you’ll have me to deal with, and that’s the last fuckin’ thing you want. We clear?”

He played a good game but I didn’t miss the flicker of hesitation before he said, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with here. Your threats mean nothing to me.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck who I’m dealing with here. All I care about is Velvet, and I’d suggest you take in what I just told you. I don’t fuck around and I don’t think twice before I look after those who are mine.”

He gave Velvet one last menacing look and then he took my advice and left. I watched him go and after I heard the front door slam shut, I gave my attention back to Velvet. She looked like she was about to break down so I pulled her to me and wrapped her in my arms. A moment later, her body shuddered and she began sobbing. Christ, I’d never seen her like this. Velvet was a tough bitch; nothing ever seemed to get to her, and she didn’t take shit from anyone.

I smoothed my hand over her hair and held her tight, letting her get it out. Eventually, she let me go and wiped the tears off her face. “I’m sorry,” she stuttered.

“Fuck, you’ve got nothing to be sorry about, sweet thing.”

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this.”

“I’m not.”

“Well you might be once I tell you who he is and what he’s capable of.”

“Nope. Like I said to him, I don’t give a shit who he is.”

“Nash, James has family high up in politics and can make your life hell with the connections he has. He really isn’t someone you want on your wrong side.”

“Babe, do I strike you as a man who is scared of anyone?”

She took a moment to think about it and then blessed me with a beautiful smile. “No, you don’t.”

I nodded. “Exactly. And I certainly don’t let motherfuckers like him scare me. I don’t want you worrying about him anymore; you let me do the worrying.”

Her shoulders sagged, and she took a long breath. Then she hit me with a piercing look; one that I knew meant something important was coming. “Nash, what’s with the turn around in attitude towards me. Until two days ago, you didn’t want anything to do with me, and now you’re offering to take on my problems.”

Moment of truth. “Madison sorted me out.”

“What does that mean?”

Fuck, I hated talking about this shit. But she wasn’t the kind of woman to let it go. “I talked to Madison about you; about us, and how badly I treated you. She told me to get my shit together and apologise to you. Seems to be something I’m doing a lot of lately.”

“You told Madison we slept together?”

“Yes, and that I fucked it all up by being a bastard to you when I couldn’t work out what the hell to do with our friendship after it.”

She fell silent so I continued. “Velvet, I don’t have a lot of friends like you. It was uncomplicated before we had sex and then it just felt all screwed up. Do you know where I’m coming from with this?”

“Yeah, I felt it too, Nash. But I was happy to forget the sex and just stay friends.”

I blew out a long breath and went with complete honesty. “I don’t know how to do that when all I can think about now is fucking you again.”

Her eyes widened. “Yeah, but you think the same thing about all women. You want to have sex with every woman you meet.”

“Not like this; this is something new for me, and I don’t know what to do with it.” My skin itched with irritation at every word I was uttering; laying yourself out like this was hard to do.