Justice by Piper Davenport Page A

we can stop and reevaluate.”
    Macey nodded. “Thanks, Jax. That would be great.”
    Jaxon smiled and headed back to his group
    “I don’t like this,” Dallas said.
    “I know you don’t.” She squeezed his hand. “You don’t have to. Now, kiss me and go do your thing.”
    He frowned, pausing for a few seconds, before leaning down and kissing her quickly. “You want to stop, we stop.”
    “Got it,” she said.
    Dallas stepped away, giving Bailey and Payton the opening to descend upon her.
    “Are you okay?” Payton asked.
    “I’m fine, Pay. Thanks for the water, Bailey.”
    “No problem,” she said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    “I will be.”
    Payton gave her a quick hug and Macey headed back to her group.
    Macey stood back and watched during the rest of the class, making mental notes of the moves she wanted to work on when the room cleared out.
    After the class dismissed, Brock, Bailey, and Payton stayed behind, and Macey wasn’t sure how she felt about their presence. Although she was thankful for their support, she wasn’t thrilled about having an audience.
    “Ready, Mase?” Dallas asked.
    “Jaxon has to do this, honey,” she argued.
    “No.”
    She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of earshot of their friends. “I want someone other than you to do this.”
    “And I’m not comfortable with that,” he said.
    “I don’t want my brain to associate you with being flat on the floor, Dallas.”
    A hiss escaped through his teeth. “Damn it,” he whispered, and dragged his hands through his hair.
    “Please, baby. Let me do this with Jaxon. I trust him. I really do.”
    He stared down at her for a few, very tense seconds, before he slipped his hand to the back of her neck and lowered his forehead to hers. “You’re killing me.”
    “I love you,” she said.
    “I love you too.” Dallas kissed her forehead before releasing her.
    The rest of the night went without incident and Dallas seemed a little less like he wanted to kill one of his closest friends. Macey felt exceedingly more relaxed, especially since she’d managed to defend herself after a few tough starts and stops with Jaxon over her.
    In the end, despite Dallas’s efforts to stop everything, Macey kicked, hit, and twisted her way out of the attack, using her fear as the catalyst to do so. She forced herself to calm her emotions, and her friends hooted and hollered and celebrated the hard-won success with her, forcing Dallas to grudgingly acknowledge that this might have been a good idea.
    “My place tonight?” he asked as they headed to his car.
    “I have to shower first.”
    “You could throw some clothes in a bag and shower at my place.”
    Macey smiled. “Oh, really?”
    He gave her a sexy smile. “Alone. I promise I won’t bug you… unless you want me to.”
    “Or, I could soak. You do have that great tub.”
    “The one you picked out, yes.”
    “What do you mean? I think I would have remembered picking out such a cool tub.”
    He nodded. “Remember when we went to that salvage place? The one on Hawthorne?”
    “Like three or four years ago? You were looking for doorknobs or something like that.”
    “Yeah. You kept dragging me back to that damn claw-foot tub like it was the second coming or something.”
    Macey gasped. “That’s what’s in your bathroom? It doesn’t even look the same.”
    “I know. Had to have it totally restored.”
    They arrived at his car and she faced him. “Are you saying you did that for me? We weren’t even dating.”
    “Oh, I’m aware. You were going through your ‘I’ve sworn off men phase.’”
    She giggled. “Yeah, I’m sure you were really bothered by that, especially banging Bimbo number sixty-three… oh, and sixty-four.”
    “A bit of exaggeration, don’t you think?” he countered.
    “In my mind, there have been a million.”
    “Babe, I’m good, but that’s probably impossible, not to mention, if it was possible, my dick might have fallen off by