Page 33 of Crave: A Reverse Harem Romance

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the man who was dragging me was being punched in the face. He let go of me, so I backed up immediately, got out of his reach, and ran back into the club.

I was immediately full of relief. Just a moment ago, I felt that I was in a life or death situation. And now… I was out of it. It was so surreal.

I stumbled, which reminded me that I only had one shoe on. I looked around the floor by the door to find it, but it must have landed outside. I was a little hesitant to go out there… it felt safer in the club. But then again, that guy had taken care of the creeper. He wasn’t going to let him drag me off again. So I stepped out tentatively to look for it.

To my horror, the men were still fighting and they were now grappling on the ground. My savior was underneath the creep, who was throwing punch after punch at him.

Oh, hell no. Not today, you fucking asshole. Not to the man who helped me.

I looked around on the ground and saw a pipe lying there—one that was probably used to prop the door of the club open. I grabbed it immediately and walked up behind the creeper who didn’t even hear me over the sound of his own heavy breathing. He had gotten hold of a nearby beer bottle and was about to crack my savior over the head with it.

Without a word of warning, I took that pipe and hit him over the head first.

He crumbled like a sack of potatoes, knocked out cold. Served him fucking right for the way he went after me.

My own breathing was a little heavy as the man who had punched him began to get up. This was my first good glimpse of him, everything before this was a blur. He was a little bloody, a little swollen, but oddly still handsome underneath all that.

“Oh my God, thank you!” I said, as I extended my hand to him so he could grab it and help himself off the ground. “You might have just saved my life. I have no idea what that man would’ve done to me if he was able to take me where he wanted to go.”

He grabbed my hand and I got a good look at him for the first time. It was Axel!

Except… no. It wasn’t.

“Looks like you might’ve saved my life, too.” He smiled. His face was nearly identical to Axel’s, but his hair was different and so was his voice. “Maybe the others were right about you. You are special.”

I raised an eyebrow. The others? Was my mind playing tricks on me? Had someone spiked my drink again?

“I think you’d better do some explaining,” I said, my eyes darting toward the pipe I’d just discarded. “Before I start screaming.”

Chapter 11 - Diesel

Harlow looked frozen at my words for a moment. It took me a while to realize why. Didn’t she recognize me?

But then I realized I probably looked like a goddamn mess. I knew my hair was mussed up with dirt from the ground, and I could taste some blood on my lips. I was probably a sight.

“I’m Diesel, majority owner of Crave. Axel’s twin brother.”

Her eyes widened with understanding and she appeared to relax. “Oh, right! We danced together a week ago, didn’t we?”

I smiled at the thought that she finally seemed to recognize me. “Yes, we absolutely did.”

I put my hand on the small of her back. “Here, let’s go inside. I need to call the cops on this one and alert my security team.”

“Right, of course.” She looked at the creep, who was crumpled on the ground.

I propped the door open with the same pipe that she’d used to bang him over the head before pulling my walkie-talkie out of my jeans.

“I need all security to meet me at the bar immediately,” I said into it. “And whoever is on security cameras tonight, please call the police. Tell them we had an attempted sexual assault and we’ve apprehended him.”

She was staring at me, wide-eyed. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking… but I hoped they were good things. At the very least, I hoped she wasn’t scared anymore.

“Here, take a seat.” I pulled out a stool for her as my security team began to make their way to me.

“Steve, I want you to stay here with Harlow,” I told one of my guards. “Do not leave her side. She just had a very stressful incident. Make sure she’s safe and okay until I return. Everyone else, come with me outside.”

Steve nodded and it looked like Harlow was comforted by this. So I led the rest of my team outside to collect the guy who was beginning to stir and cuff him as we waited for the police to arrive.

When I returned, Harlow was sipping slowly on a glass of water.

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