“Excuse me,” Nik growled.

“You heard me. She’s a lovely little thing, and I don’t want you gettin’ lazy.”

Nik growled again. Why his daddy insisted on pissing him the hell off, he would never know. Especially when he was trying so hard not to rip his throat out.

“Daddy, that’s not fair,” Ban cut in. “Nik’s takin’ great care of her.”

“And maybe you should mind your own business,” Alek added.

“This family and everything that happens in it, is my business.”

“What’s going on?” Nik’s mother stepped in front of her sons. As if they were still cubs, she continued to protect them.

Boris’ eyes dragged down Natalia’s body like he was checking out a stripper and not facing off against the mother of his children. What a horn dog!

“Just talkin’ to our boys, darlin’. Is there a problem with that? Somethin’ we should straighten out in private?” He wiggled his eyebrows and she growled in annoyance.

“I hate you.”

Before his parents could really get out of control, Kisa rushed up to them, Reena behind her.

“We’ve got a problem. Szervác is making a move on Angie.”

The entire family looked at where Angie was sitting. Next to her, Szervác had moved in close. Too close, Nik knew.

Ban snarled, “Let’s go kick his ass.”

“No one move.” They all looked at Nik and he shrugged. “I wanna see what she does.”

His mother turned on him, “Nikolai Vorislav, you can not be serious!”

“Fifty bucks says she takes him out.”

His mother glanced at Angie, then back at her son. “A hundred.”

***

Angie turned to look at the idiot invading her space. “I need you to back away.”

“Now, now, sweetheart. Don’t be so difficult.” He ran his index finger against the inside of her arm. “I can make it good.”

Angie shuddered in anger and disgust. It amazed her how much she hated non-requested physical contact. She knew she could call for Nik, but she’d grown up taking care of herself. True, she wished she had her bat, but she’d have to make do with what she had available.

She pulled her arm away from his touch, bent it, and slammed her elbow into the man’s face, breaking his nose.

Blood gushing, he let out a roar of pain.

Angie slid out of her folding chair, grasped it with both hands, turned, and swung. The metal slammed into the back of his head, knocking him into the table, which crashed into the floor.

Angie dropped the chair. Calmly, “Next time a woman tells you to get your hands off her, get your fuckin’ hands off her.”

She spun on her Ferragamos, but stopped when she found the entire Vorislav familystaring at her like the freak she suddenly realized she was. She didn’t mean to embarrass them. Actually, she felt almost a physical pain knowing she probably ruined Boris’ important evening.

Christ, can this night get any worse?

She decided to face the nightmare head on. No point in ducking and running. Besides, where the hell would she go?

She moved swiftly away from her prone admirer before he could get back to his feet. As she approached the Vorislavs, she realized that they were swapping money.

“Boris, I’m really…” she began.

Boris held up one finger, cutting her off. He glared down at Kisa. “I do not owe you a hundred.”

“You do, too, daddy. I told you she’d find a way to use that chair.”

“It was fifty.”

“Hundred.”

“You’d take money from your own daddy?”

“In a heartbeat.” She held her hand out. “Now give it over.”

He grumbled under his breath, but handed her a crisp hundred from the wad of money he held in his hand.

Angie turned to Nik. “You were betting on me?”

Nik nodded. “Yeah, the odds were too good to pass up.”

“Momma and Daddy underestimated you,” Ban counted his cash. He didn’t even look at her.

“But didn’t I embarrass you and ruin your evening?”

They stared at her, just before they burst out laughing.

“Oh, darlin’.” Nik’s mother put an arm around Angie’s shoulders, and Angie fought the desire to scramble away from her. The woman was being so nice, how could she tell her to get her cotton-pickin’ paws off her? “You’ve got to do much more to this family than that. Besides, Szervác only did that because you’re human. He’d never have the guts to try that with one of us.”

“Well, thanks for being so…nice?”

“My pleasure.” She winked, and then glanced at her son. “I think you need to take your houseguest home, son. Before things get difficult.”

Szervác’s family had picked him up off the ground, and were looking at the Vorislavs with a less-than-friendly glare.

“Good idea.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room.

Angie waved at Nik’s parents. “It was nice meeting you both!”

She let him hold onto her until they got outside and then she snatched her hand away. “You know, I can walk without your assistance.”

Nik moved on her so fast she stumbled back, slamming up against a limo. Again he braced both of his arms on either side of her and leaned in close, but not quite close enough to touch.

“So it’s okay for my father to touch you, but I can’t. Is that it?”