“Don’t bother trying to deny it; this place stinks of sex.”

I laugh. “I wasn’t going to deny it.”

“How desperate, having sex with your bodyguard. So D list, dahlink.”

My arm is moving before I can consider whether it’s a good idea. I hit him square across the face. “At least he can make a woman come, you pathetic limp dick.”

A look I’ve never seen before crosses Joseph’s face, and I take a step back, but not before he’s hit me in return.

The back of his palm slices across my face like a blade. The pain is immediate. My cheek is on fire. I stumble, and more pain hits me, my leg screaming as I knock into the table, sending it over. The heavy vase on it crashes to the floor. I grab the curtain and try to balance.

As the door bursts open, my ass hits the floor, and I stay there, dazed.

Samuel storms into the room like a tornado. He takes one look at me and grabs Joseph by the neck. He walks him backward until Joe’s back hits the wall. Samuel doesn’t let go, and Joe’s eyes begin to bulge.

Shit. Samuel is savage when it comes to defending me.

He claws at the hands wrapped firmly around his throat.

“You hit her? You fucking hit her?” Samuel shakes Joseph like a ragdoll and then lifts him clean in the air.

He’s going to kill him. Then he’ll go to prison, and the best thing to happen to me in years will be gone.

“Let him go,” I shout as I pull myself to stand.

“I’m going to fucking end you,” Samuel seethes. He drops Joseph but then punches him in the gut. Joe bends double, gasping, and Samuel hits him with an uppercut to his jaw, sending Joseph crashing back, over the chair, to land sprawled on the wooden floor.

“Stop it, for God’s sake,” I scream as I grab hold of Samuel.

He whirls on me, eyes ablaze. “You still care what happens to this piece of shit?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I care what happens to you. If you go to prison for killing him, what will I do then? You can’t come into my life like this, bursting in and upending it all, showing me fucking heaven, and then get yourself thrown in prison.”

“Heaven?” His breathing calms as his gaze focuses on me more intently, and the fire raging there tamps down.

“Yes. You great big idiot. These days with you have been the most exciting of … well, my entire life. Don’t waste it on him. He’s not worth it.”

“How touching.” Joseph stands, rubbing his stomach and wincing. “He’s still going to rot in prison because I’m filing assault charges.”