“No. I’m having fun and I’m not leaving. Humans are welcome at this party and I was invited.”

His eyes narrowed and his fingers flexed on her hips. “I won’t tell you again. Go home.”

Her anger stirred. “Look, if you want to dance, ask me and we’ll do that. Otherwise release me so I can have some fun. That’s all I’m doing. I came with Breeze and I’m leaving with her.” Her voice lowered. “There’s no need for this chest-beating routine, so knock it off. It’s not as though I’m allowing any of the men to run their hands all over my body the way you let Kit do to yours. None of them are grinding their h*ps against my ass.”

He jerked his hands away from her body as if she’d burned him, backed up and his eyes widened with shock at her refusal to obey or her blatantly calling him out about the previous night. Jessie turned away, presented him with her back and stepped closer to Breeze. It didn’t surprise her in the least that he’d refused to dance with her. It was too public, people would see him with his arms around her and that wasn’t something he’d do. At least not with a human. She wondered if Kit was around again, to paw him and rub her body against his.

She reached Breeze, frowned and shot her a dirty look. The Species smiled in response but her gaze lifted to stare at something behind Jessie. All the color drained from her face and she nearly stumbled into another dancer in her haste to put space between them.

What the hell? Jessie spun around to see what had obviously frightened Breeze and slammed into a solid body draped in an expensive, soft suit. She glanced down at his hands clenched at his sides, her chin jerked up, and on the journey to peer at his face she noticed his extremely tense stance. Rage showed in his eyes as their gazes met, his lips parted and he flashed the sharp points of his teeth.

“I said go home.”

“Stand up for yourself,” Breeze called out just loud enough to be heard over the beat of the song. “Don’t bully her, Justice.”

Yeah . Stand up for yourself. This is bullshit and while he’s my boss, I’m off the clock. She straightened her shoulders and didn’t look away from his hostile glare.

“Thank you for your concern but I’m safe and having fun with my friends. With your busy schedule, I’m sure you should be doing something besides harassing me.

This is a dance floor so dance or leave it. I already know the answer to that so good night, Mr. North.”

“Jessie,” he snarled, “go home.”

Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She flicked her gaze to the right, inwardly winced when she realized that not only were the other people keeping a wide berth but they’d stopped dancing to openly watch her and Justice. She turned her head to the left and found more people staring at them from the bar area.

Jessie stared up at Justice, hated him a little for doing this and realized he wasn’t going to stop until she left. It would definitely be as embarrassing as the last time, perhaps even worse, and she felt her temper slipping. She closed her eyes, took deep breaths and counted slowly to ten. One. Two. Three. Four. Fi—

“Jessie? Move your ass out the door and go home. Don’t come to this bar ever again.”

That was it. Jessie’s eyes snapped open and she gave up on trying to keep it cool. “I work for you but this is my time off. I know everyone is afraid of you because you’re Justice North but guess what? You’re not my leader. I quit if this is how you’re going to treat me every time I go somewhere. Will that make you happy? I’ll go home and pack right now. I don’t need this, Mr. North. I’ll be off Homeland within the hour and you won’t have to watch out for me ever again.”

Jessie spun and stomped across the dance floor toward the door. New Species moved far out of her way, making her feel as if she’d suddenly contracted leprosy, the way they cleared a wide path to avoid getting within ten feet of her. She was so enraged that tears threatened to spill but she held them back. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how deeply he’d affected her.

Son of a bitch! I just quit my job. I loved working with the women and living in that house.

No more soaking in that glorious tub but that’s fine. I’ll get another job and Justice can go screw himself. He―

“Jessie?” Justice snarled.

She jerked to a halt, shocked at the loudness of his voice and turned. The last bit of her restraint snapped. Anger burned brightly and she was done dealing with his temper tantrum. She loved him but he was being a complete ass. She wasn’t taking that shit from any man, even him.

“What?”

He’d followed her and only feet separated them when he paused to glare, seemingly oblivious to the people who gawked. She wished she could forget that probably two hundred Species and dozens of humans were witnessing this argument.

The music cut off and the room grew as quiet as a church all of a sudden. Shit .

“Come here.”

She stared, stunned. “Excuse me?”

“Come here.” He pointed to the floor in front of him.

Oh, hell no . She spun and headed for the door again. If he wanted to yell, he could do it without an audience. Maybe it was a Species thing to verbally ream someone’s ass in public when they were angry but she wasn’t going to walk over to him to take that kind of treatment.

Someone moved into her path and she winced. Tim Oberto looked thunderous as she met his furious gaze, certain he’d shout at her once they were outside for mouthing off to the precious NSO leader. He blocked the door and there wouldn’t be a way to avoid him.