Page 179 of The First Taste
“Kaia Walker. It’s very nice to meet you.”
I manage to wrest my hand from his grasp, stepping back into the shelter of Calum’s big body. It had never occurred to me until right this moment to think of Calum as a kind of protection. But now I raise a hand to rest on Calum’s back.
Calum clears his throat. “Mr. Schwartz — can I call you Jack?”
Jack is busy looking me over, his gaze seeming calculating. His lips twitch and drags his eyes away toward Calum. Calum extends his hand and Jack takes it, favoring Calum with a look.
“Do I know you already?”
Calum’s smile turns hard. “I’m Calum Fordham. I own IndicaTech.”
Jack’s expression pinches. “Indica… oh, oh. You’re with Lucas.”
Calum drops Jack’s hand, his expression going flat. “Lucas is with me.”
He slides his hand around the back of my waist, pulling me closer. It’s my first glimpse of Calum being territorial. Actually I’m not sure whether he’s more put off by Jack’s lack of interest in him or the fact that the other man doesn’t know Calum’s position.
“Right, right,” Jack says, looking back and forth between Calum and me. He rubs his hands together a few times and the purple-gowned woman steps forward and squirts a dab of liquid onto his hands.
Jack smiles, a glint in his eyes. “Did you come here to bring me lovely Kaia as a gift?”
The breath in my lungs freezes. Calum’s fingers on my waist tighten. “Very funny,” he says, expression growing stony. “I came to meet you face to face because it’s been so difficult to set a meeting with you.”
Jack looks at me, arching a brow. “You want a meeting with me?”
Calum tilts his head and narrows his eyes. “Yes.”
Jack steps forward and runs his finger down my bare shoulder. I don’t even know what to do, so I take a half step back. Jack laughs.
“You’re fun,” he challenges me. “I like them feisty.”
“Don’t touch her.” Calum sounds more serious than I’ve ever heard him sound before. “I’m interested in purchasing your company, not in sharing my date.”
Jack laughs, sticking both of his hand in his pockets and rocking back on his heels. “If she’s just your date, that’s even better. I thought I was going to have to do some serious haggling to get this little sweetheart in my bed.”
“Don’t fucking talk to her like that,” Calum says, enunciating every syllable perfectly.
I grip Calum’s hand, tugging him back. “I think we should go.”
“Ah, don’t be so uptight,” Jack says, waving away Calum’s black glare. “I’m just playing around. Unless your little blonde minx wants to fuck in the coat closet?”
Before I even realize what’s happening, Calum’s fist is flying towards Jack’s face. The rest of the ballroom goes still as questioning glances turn toward us.
The distinct crunch of bone breaking makes my stomach flutter. Jack’s face seems to explode, blood streaming everywhere. Then he hits Jack over and over again, in the face and in the stomach, until Calum’s fists are red with blood. Jack seems too stunned to fight back, struggling weakly against Calum’s onslaught.
“Please! Calum, please stop!” I beg. “Calum!”
At some point, my begging seems to work, because Calum just stops cold. He leans down over Jack, spitting on him.
“I told you not to talk to her like that,” Calum hisses through clenched teeth. I scurry forward and pull at his arm.
When he looks down at me, his pupils are as big as dinner plates. He shudders for just a second. I wrap my hands around one of his bloodied fists and tug him back. He falters for a second, then relents.
He turns away, half dragged by me.
Jack is blotting at his nose, which is bleeding profusely. He manages to leverage himself to his feet and shout after us.
“I’m never selling my company to you fucking bastards!”
