to her mistake?
A man stood in the doorway, a look of anger on his handsome face. He was large, muscular and had the presence of someone who was not to be messed with under any circumstance.
And he was magnificent.
Cherish felt her heart quicken. Not with fear, but with something else entirely. This was the Club member she made eye contact with when she first came in.
Oh, my, she thought.
The large man took in the scene, first glancing at Cherish, which caused her to catch her breath, then at the two Lloyds.
"The hell is going on here?" said the living Man-God. His voice was deep, and his tone was that of great annoyance.
Big Lloyd had stood up when the other man had entered, and was still holding Little Lloyd in his hand. Both Lloyds were wilting under the intense gaze of the man in the doorway.
"I... uh, was just..." Lloyd looked to Cherish, as if she would offer some sort of support.
"Don't look at me," Cherish managed to say. Damned if she would give this sleaze a way out of this.
The large man strode into the room, with the ease of a commanding general, and walked over to Lloyd.
Lloyd cringed, and spun away off the desk in a lame effort to hide somewhere. He was too terrified to even do up his pants.
The large man was on him, and with an open hand, slapped Lloyd across the face. Lloyd went ass over teakettle into the corner of the room, Little Lloyd flapping about.
Just then, another man entered the room. This one was considerably larger than the first, with thick jet black hair. He looked over at the first man and Lloyd, then over at Cherish. He offered her a slight nod of the head and a mischievous grin.
"You causing problems for us?" the first man said to Lloyd. "You think screwing around with these girls is good for the Club?"
Lloyd was beside himself with fear. No, more than that. Pure terror. Here was a man who fully expected to die in the next few moments.
And Cherish was shocked to learn she was actually enjoying seeing him like this.
"No... no, Caine, not at all. I was just having a little fun, was all. I didn't mean any harm."
Cherish's ears perked up. So, this incredible hunk's name was Caine? Caine. She couldn't think of anything that sounded sexier.
"Harm? You twit. What if one of these girls called the cops because of your dumb ass antics? You think we want that kind of attention here?"
Lloyd was beyond petrified. The mention of him bringing cops must of sounded like a death sentence to his ears.
"I'm sorry. I..." Lloyd started to say but then Caine slapped him again. And again.
"You think this is funny? You think this is a game?" Caine said, punctuating each sentence with a slap.
What followed could best described as a biker beat down. Both Cherish and the black haired man watched, one in shock, the other with mild boredom.
After a few moments, Caine stopped. He glared down at the quivering, weeping manager.
"Think he got the point?" the black haired man asked.
Caine shrugged, nonchalantly, stepping away from Lloyd and came around the desk again. "I think I made it pretty clear." You looked over at Cherish. Instantly, his look of anger was gone replaced by one of genuine concern. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
Cherish was a little dumb founded. Here was a man who stopped something awful from happening to her. He had come to her rescue. Yes, it came in the form of a little Club discipline, but she'll take it. "Yeah," she managed. Was that her talking? "I'm fine. Thank you."
"Did he touch you?" Caine asked.
With that Lloyd mewled in terror He knew if she said yes the beating would continue, and get much worse.
Caine ignored him, waiting for her answer.
"No," she said, finally. "Not at all." She didn't want to say anything further, more out of pity than mercy.
The black haired man said, "Now that you've invoked a little employee training, can we go eat?