Page 12 of Crave: A Reverse Harem Romance

That would have both been disappointing to me because I wanted to talk to her, but also comforting because I didn’t want her to get into trouble.

I decided to go downstairs to try to look for her… just to put my mind at ease. But when I stepped out of the security office and into the hall, I saw Ryker’s door open. It wasn’t Ryker that stepped out, though.

It was the brunette.

What the hell?

This floor was for employees only. We didn’t bring guests—certainly not women from the club—up here. And even if we did, Ryker would have been the last one to do so. Hooking up with anyone here—especially in his office—just wasn’t his style.

But then… what was she doing up here?

“Hey, it’s you,” I said without thinking.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “It’s… me? Sorry, do we know each other?”

Fuck.

Way to sound like a creeper, Axel.

“Oh, no, sorry… I was just downstairs and saw you. I’m Axel, part owner of the club.” I extended my hand to her.

“Nice to meet you,” she responded, still giving me a look that was a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.

“What were you, uh—” I stopped, reminding myself that even though I might have felt protective over this woman, we were still strangers. She probably wouldn’t appreciate it if I went all caveman jealous asshole. “I mean, I was just a little surprised to see you up here. We don’t have… guests… in this part of the club.”

She sighed. “Right, it’s kind of a weird story… but basically Ryker saw that someone spiked my drink. He came down to get me and had me come up here. I actually think he’s down with the police right now… I was just coming out to look for a bathroom.”

I was immediately infuriated. “Are you okay? Did Ryker call the paramedics or anything?”

“No, n-no—” she began to explain quickly. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t actually drink any of it. Ryker saved me just in time, thank God.”

Yes. Thank God.

Ryker took the safety of clubgoers as seriously as I did. I was very grateful for that.

I was still fucking pissed, though. It enraged me that men like that drink-spiking asshole got into our clubs. This was supposed to be a fun, safe place, and I wanted to destroy each and every low-life predator that threatened the women at our clubs.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her eyes darting back to the open door of Ryker’s office. “I hope I didn’t, um—”

“I’m totally fine,” I said, interrupting. “You didn’t do anything wrong here.” I swallowed hard. I really needed to get it together before I freaked her out. She had already been through enough crazy shit tonight. “I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable at all. It just really infuriates me to hear stories like that. That’s not what our club is about, you know? It shouldn’t be something a woman has to deal with anywhere. It’s despicable. Guys like that disgust me.”

She smiled softly. “Yeah, Ryker was telling me the same thing—that you guys do a lot to keep people safe around here.”

“We take many precautions,” I said, nodding. It was the absolute truth, and I was glad to see that she still had that impression even after her less-than-great experience tonight.

“Well, it’s super sweet of you guys to care this much. I genuinely feel safer, thank you.”

I thought for a moment. “Hey, can I walk you down to your car? I’m sure you’d just like to get home by now. You don’t have to wait until Ryker gets back up here, I’ll make sure you get there safely.”

“After the weird turn this night has taken, yeah, I really would like to go home,” she replied. “The thing is, I can’t really do that. My friend ordered an Uber, that’s how we got here. So I don’t have a car waiting for me or anything.”

“I see. Well, if you’d like, I can just drive you home.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Uh, you would do that? For just one customer?”

“Of course,” I said, shrugging. “Especially when that customer had to deal with something as awful as almost getting drugged. It’s really no problem at all.”

She still looked leery, though—not that I could blame her. She was questioning my intentions.

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