band, and immediately started chatting her up. Regina’s signature bitch stance
took over as she leaned on her hip and rested her hand over it. I couldn’t tell what
they were discussing, but given that Regina’s movements were jerky and sharp, she
was not being pleasant, yet Jaden remained unfazed and well composed. In fact, she
had a sly smirk lurking at the corner of her lips the entire time until she finally
burst out laughing. I could see Regina’s face heat up for a moment before she
suddenly lifted her fist and snapped it out towards Jaden’s face. Jaden merely
sidestepped Regina’s attack, causing her fist to collide right into the side of the
house that had been at Jaden’s back. Regina’s screech could be heard over the
entire crowd, even as the band played on.
“Damn it,” I whispered under my breath.
“Oh, shit!” Dominic immediately started laughing. “Did you just see that?”
“Ice,” I said to the bartender, holding my hand out. He placed a large glass filled
with ice on the bar and I emptied a few of the cubes into several napkins and
bundled them up.
“Excuse me,” I said to Dom, immediately standing and heading over to the
spectacle.
Clive and Owen were already separating Jaden from Regina, Regina clutching her
now bleeding hand to her stomach and panting like she was going to bleed to death.
If only she’d do us all a favor.
Jaden was smirking from a far as I took Regina’s hand and placed the iced filled
napkins over her knuckles. She whimpered and sniffled as I held the ice in place. It
wasn’t even broken and she was crying like it was the end of the world.
“Thank you, Darren. That’s so nice of you,” she said, sniffling back tears. But
the moment her eyes flashed a look of victory towards Jaden, I flashed a smile of
my own.
Increasing the pressure of the ice against her hand, Regina gasped as I regained
her attention. “Ouch! What are you-“
“You ever make a swing at Jaden like that again and I won’t hesitate to let her
beat the ever-living shit out of you. You understand? Matt’s cousin or not, I won’t
stand for it.”
“Ow, ow! You’re hurting me!” she cried.
“Do you understand?” I reiterated through gritted teeth, pushing down on her
injured hand.
“Ow! Yes!”
Upon her words, I instantly removed the pressure of the ice, took her other hand
and placed it on top of the ice to keep it still and released her.
“You should learn to play nice, Regina. It will suit you better.”
Her only response was to bite her quivering lip as she looked up at me in
disbelief. I shook my head and turned away from her to take Jaden by the arm and
lead her away.
“Well played, Jaden, now let’s get the hell out of here,” I said.
“Ugh, now? But things were just starting to get interesting!” she whined
sarcastically.
“You can brawl with Regina another time, but right now I’m looking to cash in
on a debt.”
“Ha!”
As we headed for the door, Matt came walking towards us, obviously unaware of
his cousin’s obnoxiousness.
“What happened?” he asked, his eyes looming over toward Regina still standing
by the house with the ice on her hand.
“Control your cousin, Matt. Apparently, she likes to throw punches and miss.”
“Ah, shit,” he sighed. “I’ll take care of it.”
As Matt headed off to Regina, I waved goodbye to Dan and Katherine and
escorted Jaden out to the front of the house, Clive and Owen not far behind us. Once
the valet had brought the cars around, I ushered Jaden into the passenger seat
before buckling myself in. I couldn’t have pulled out of the driveway fast enough.
“First things first. What did Regina say to you to cause that fiasco?” I asked.
Jaden chuckled. “She wanted to know what my intentions were.”
I snorted. Even I couldn’t deny the hilarity in that.
“What did you tell her?”
“I took a page from your book and told her my intentions were none of her
business.”
I smirked.
Brat.
“I imagine she took a page from your book and hated that answer?”
Jaden nodded. “So much so that she felt the need to call me a gold-digging
whore who’d better watch her back because apparently Regina is capable of
anything.”
I snorted again. “That was when you busted out laughing, right?”
“The exact moment.”
I shook my head and laughed.
“At least I now know she’s capable of punching walls,” she said with a shrug.
“You won’t have to worry about her anymore. I told her you’ll get full reign to
knock her out if it gets to that point.”
“Excellent,” Jaden said, an evil little smirk peering across her lips.
When we were finally on the highway, I pulled down the zipper of my pants to
free the straining erection that had been building since we left. “Alright, time to
pay up, princess,” I said.
