around here,” Grinch says as he pulls the dickhead from my grasp. “Go check on your girl.”
Jinx is at my back as I follow Simone into the narrow hallway leading to the kitchen area.
“What?” she snaps when I touch her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” She glares at me, but her hand is rubbing at the wrist the guy had a hold of. “Let me see.”
“I’m fucking fine, Rocker.” She jerks her arm away, hiding it behind her back with a wince of pain so I can’t get to it.
“He hurt you,” Jinx says, barely keeping his anger from overflowing.
“I can handle myself.” She glares up at me in challenge, and all I can picture is cupping her jaw and reminding her that she doesn’t have to tolerate jerks like the one who just grabbed her.
I want to confess my urge to protect her from every bad thing in the world, but I know it won’t go over very well.
“She’s good,” Jinx says, clamping his hand on my shoulder when I advance a few steps closer to her without realizing I even moved. “Let her get back to work.”
I hate the look of appreciation in her eyes when she glances at him. I want her to look at me that way. I want to be the only man she looks at period, but I also know how psychotic that sounds.
“Give us a minute,” I urge Jinx, and it takes a long minute and a shared look between the two of them that I don’t fully understand before he walks away with a sigh.
“I can’t help wanting to protect you.” My eyes, unbidden, dart down to her flat stomach. “Tell me you understand.”
“The baby is fine,” she assures me, but she can’t seem to meet my eyes. “I just need some damn space. The two of you are smothering me.”
“It’s not our intention. We just want to keep you safe.”
“I’m—”
I growl, knowing what she’s fixing to say, and she must understand my own irritation with the words I’m fine. She’s said it more than one single person should have to over the last week.
“I need to work,” she amends. “Go back to your friends and let me do it, please.”
She walks around me, leaving me staring at cases of beer piled along the wall and wondering when in the hell I become so damn possessive of her.
When I finally gain the ability to walk back out into the main area of the bar, I can’t even look in her direction. If I see another man looking at her the wrong way or trying to hit on her, I may end up locked in a cell. Wouldn’t Matthews just fucking love that?
I glance to the table the guys are at, noticing at least three of them are keeping an eye on her and I walk out of the bar. I can’t guarantee I’ll give her space for long. I don’t think that ability is in my DNA, but I can walk away right now knowing that the guys will protect her as if she’s their own.
On the way back to her apartment—I’m not fool enough to stay away from her for long—I have to consider the fact that it’s more than just the baby that keeps drawing me to her.
Wanting to press my mouth to hers isn’t because she’s pregnant.
Sneaking into her room just to lie beside her a couple hours each night even though we don’t touch isn’t because of the baby.
Wanting to junk punch my best friend each time he presses his lips to her temple when he says good morning isn’t due to the baby.
It used to be when I saw her, I’d think about all of the ways I could bend her body and tease her until she begged me to let her orgasm. Now, my thoughts lean more toward wanting her to rest her head on my lap while we watch television just so I can run my fingers though her hair and smell her bodywash.
Of course I want to fuck her. She’s beyond fuckable, but I just want more. Then again, Jinx watches her, too.
Is my best friend considering what he denied he’d do if the baby is his? Is she growing on him as much as she’s growing on me?
This can’t end well. There’s no way, regardless of the outcome that all three of us will be okay when the dust settles.
Chapter 12
Simone
I didn’t even bother to tell the two guys left in the bar to get