“Yeah, yeah, definitely,” Zach said.

“Get the f**k outta here,” Ren rumbled and let him go, but did this by jerking his hair back so Zach’s neck bent unnaturally and he went flying.

He righted himself and didn’t look back, but lifted his hand to his nose and scurried.

I stared after him until he disappeared then forced my eyes back to Ren, who I noted did all that without leaving his seat.

Without leaving his seat.

Holy.

Crap!

“You ready?” he asked, his voice rough, which meant he was still angry. Therefore I quickly nodded.

Ren got up and pulled my seat back for me to do the same, which I did. He grabbed his suit jacket and jerked his head toward the building which was silent pissed-off Italian American badass for Get moving.

I grabbed my bag off the table and got moving.

Ren shrugged on his jacket as we went, but caught my hand tight when he was done.

I noticed that most of the other diners were dining. Only a few were looking up, and only because we were moving and caught their attention. Other than that, it seemed everyone missed the action.

Thank God for that plant.

Ren kept hold of me until he opened my door and angled me into his Jag. He got in, started her purring, pulled out and headed home. Even though the air still weighed heavily making it hard to breathe, he drove like he normally drove which was casually, a little fast, but in total control.

I sat next to him while he did it, wondering how to handle this situation. I wasn’t certain silence was best. I also wasn’t certain, since clearly my “business” had interrupted our fabulous evening, if he was mad at Zach, or me, or both, and if both, which one more.

What I was certain of, and I did not care even a little bit what this said about me, was that what Ren did was all kinds of freaking hot.

So I also sat next to Ren fighting squirming because I was all kinds of turned on.

With all this on my mind, alas, we made it home in heavy silence without me saying a word, which I decided was good. Whatever we said would be in his house and everyone knew it was better to have it out in a house, not a car. A car was too confining and if tempers flared, that was bad if the one with the temper flaring was driving.

And as you know, Ren’s temper could totally flare.

Ren was at my door before I fully folded out of the car. He helped me the rest of the way, threw my door to, and guided me up to his house, beeping the locks on his car. He let my hand go when he opened his front door but put his to the small of my back to guide me in.

I went in and dropped my bag on the couch. I turned on a light on an end table and turned to face Ren to see he was tossing his jacket to a chair.

“Honey—” I started.

He lifted a hand to me.

Shit.

The Hand from Ren.

I didn’t like it, but I thought it prudent to shut my mouth.

He dropped his hand and spoke.

“In making the decision to take you as you take me, it was not lost on me that my concerns about you doin’ what you’re doing were valid. There are going to be times, like tonight, that your work will leak into our life. Therefore it was not lost on me that I’d have to deal with that. I dealt with it. It’s over. If it’s something we need to discuss, I’ll trust you to explain that to me. But that ass**le was not a threat, just a nuisance who, from the little he said, jacked up his own life but blames you. What I’m sayin’ is, he does not deserve our time to discuss it.”

This was all good.

Really good.

Still.

“Are you angry with me?” I asked quietly.

“No, I’m angry that we had a great night, that jackass tainted it and I got f**kin’ blood on my sleeve.”

I pressed my lips together, but I did this in order not to laugh.

I unpressed them to say, “I’ll get the Shout out.”

“Good idea,” he muttered irately.

“Can I say something?” I asked and his eyes grew intent on me.

“Any time, any place, anything we’re talkin’ about, you can say whatever the f**k you want, Ally.”

Loved my man.

Loved him.

“That was hot,” I declared and watched his body lock.

“What?”

“No. That’s not right,” I said. “That wasn’t hot. That was smokin’ hot, and I don’t care if that makes me a freak. It was hot. You were hot. Now I’m hot. So hot, I may have an orgasm, standing here remembering it.”

To that, instantly he ordered, “Take off your dress, Ally.”

Oh crap.

Totally about to have an orgasm.

It was then I noticed the air in the room had changed.

It was still heavy.

But now it was warm.

“Now,” he demanded.

Without further delay, I crossed my arms in front of me, curled my fingers into my skirt, and pulled my dress up and over my head.

I dropped it to the floor beside me so I was standing in front of him in nothing but lacy black panties and stiletto heels.

“Now come here, and baby, if you give me shit about comin’ to me, when I get to you, I’m turnin’ you over my knee.”

This was a conundrum.

But a spanking might delay getting him inside me and at that moment, that would not do.

So I went to him.

Once there, he crushed me in his arms, his mouth slammed down on mine and his tongue thrust into my mouth.

I whimpered into his, put my hands to his shoulders and held on.

His hands went to my ass, lifted up sliding down the backs of my thighs until my legs wrapped around his h*ps then they went back to my ass and he started walking.

He took me down to my back on the couch with him on me.

When his lips slid to my neck, I turned my head and begged in his ear, “Need you now, baby.”

He lifted his head, looked down at me and my legs clamped around his h*ps at the heat in his eyes even as he slid one hand from my ass and it plunged right into my panties.

I gasped.

Nice.

“You take it missionary, Ally.”

“Okay,” I breathed.

“’Cause I’m gonna f**k you hard, baby.”

Oh God.

Yes.

“Okay,” I repeated breathily.

His mouth came to mine and his eyes didn’t leave me when he murmured, “Panties, honey.”

I let him go with only one leg, shoving down my panties on that side, cocking a knee and sliding them over and down off my foot, so he had the access he needed in the least time with the least effort I could take to give it to him.

His hand was working between us and seconds later, the tip of his tongue slid over my lips as he slid slowly inside me.