Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
That’s when her friends saw me, and both converged on her.
It was like watching chickens squawking, but instead of running away, they stuck like glue to her.
“Miss Easter.”
She lifted her head up, her eyes glazed, and she stared at me for a moment. She was weaving on her seat, and I began to move in, wanting to steady her, but she grabbed onto the counter herself. Then she gave me a once-over, all the way down to my dick and back up.
Fuck’s sake.
I was already hard, at just that look.
This woman. A serious pain in my ass, in more ways than one. Good pain. Bad pain. Annoying pain. Sexual pain. All of it, and growing, the more interactions I was having with her.
I narrowed my eyes. “Molly.”
“You.” Her head tipped back, and she smiled.
I stifled a groan.
Her smile turned sexy, though I was sure she wasn’t intending for it to be that way. “Heya.”
Heya. That’s what she said to me.
“You didn’t stop drinking today, did you?”
She shook her head, her eyes drifting back to my dick. “Your thing.”
“My thing?” I didn’t want to ask her train of thought.
Her friends were alternating between watching us and sharing looks with each other. I was ignoring them.
I moved in closer. “How many drinks have you had?”
She held up her hand, all five fingers, and then closed it and opened it once more.
“Ten?”
She shook her hand. “Más o menos.”
Right. Jesus. She was obliterated.
I zeroed in on her workers, on the guy. Pialto. “You brought her here in this state?”
He shot upright, blood draining from his face. “I—”
The girl rushed in: “She’s upset about her dad.” Sophie. These people were important to Molly. I was making a note to have my PI look into them. Any information was always good information in my world.
Molly had no idea I was conversing with her employees. She went back to studying my dick. If she kept looking at me like that, I was going to do something about it. I began to reach for her arm, saying to Sophie, “I’m sure she often has ten drinks every day.”
“No. Today was weird. She—oh. I get your point.”
Pialto leaned forward. “Get off her back. It was a stressful day.”
I moved in, a part of me just needing to touch her. My chest brushed against her back, and she leaned against me. She looked up at me. “Pialto was there. We took his car.”
The dad. She’d been upset. She’d texted me about him, and I knew there’d be repercussions about having her send him on his way, to do what I wanted, but I hadn’t realized it would result in this. If I’d known, well; I would’ve handled her personally, maybe. But, this would’ve still happened.
Her drunk. And me being here.
I touched her arm, starting to draw her from the stool, when another voice cut in from behind.
“Hello, people.”
I knew she was coming in, but having Jess Montell interrupting wasn’t welcomed.
I shot her a look. “Go away, Montell.”
Her eyes went flat, and her mouth went firm. “Watch your wording toward me, Walden. You and I are still on shaky ground.”
I pulled Molly the rest of the way, just needing to touch more of her. Needing to make sure she wouldn’t fall off that stool. Her employees didn’t protest. Their eyes were enlarged, and their heads were bouncing between Montell and me.
“Jess!” Molly clued in on who was here. She tried throwing her arms up, but her purse got in the way. “What are you doing here? I came to see you.”
Jess’s eyebrows went low, taking in how I was touching Molly and taking in Molly’s state. She said, slowly, “You sent me a text saying you were coming to see me because your day sucked. Since you don’t know where Trace’s place is, I pinged your location and saw you heading here. Not liking what I’m seeing here. I love my friends.” She glared at me. “I protect my friends.”
The bartender came over then, gesturing to Jess. “Drink?”
She gave him a distracted glare, then shook her head. “What? No.” Her gaze lingered behind him. “You’re low on your bottles. You should keep it better stocked.” Her gaze went back to Molly before lifting to me. “Not her.”
“Yes.” A whole possessive need was pounding inside of me. Molly was mine. She was either my target, my mark, my woman, or my cross to bear. Any and all ways I split it, she was mine.
“No.” Her eyes narrowed into slits.
“Yes.” I pulled Molly’s barstool back and stood behind her. Sophie got off her stool and went around so she was standing behind Pialto. Both were a captive audience, watching every move and making sounds at every exchange. They were both sipping their drinks at the same time.
I moved my hand to Molly’s hip, and went lower, cementing her against my chest. She was fully sitting back, leaning against me.