Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,48

me, and for a brief moment, I thought I saw relief in her face. The expression passed and was replaced by a look like she was about to throw up, but I knew what I’d seen, and that was all it took to make my decision clear.

“I’ll take her from here,” I said.

“Like hell you will,” Max said. “I know all about you. Miranda told me what an asshole you are. About how you are always leading her on. Besides,” he said, shooting a curious look toward Miranda. He’d apparently decided she was drunk enough that he could speak freely. “I’m the one who spent all night getting her drunk. You think I’m just going to hand her over to you?”

“Set her in the golf cart,” I said in a cold, barely controlled voice.

“No.”

“You can either put her down carefully and walk away, or I’m going to make you. If I have to make you, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure the news station you work for knows what a fucking creep you are too. It’s your choice.”

He stared at me, jaw flexing and unflexing. I sensed what he was about to do just before he did it, lunging forward to catch Miranda as he roughly let her go.

As she slipped from his arms, she drunkenly whooped like she was on a thrill ride. When I dipped to my knees and caught her, she fist pumped and cheered, eyes rolling back in her head. “And Nick steals the home run!” she whisper-yelled. “The crowd goes wild!” She made a hissing noise and did some strange gesture with her hands.

I really had never been the fighting type, but I knew if I hadn’t had to worry about Miranda’s safety, I would’ve already gone off on the man. I wanted nothing more than to hurt him. The intensity of my anger scared me, though. Burying my feelings for Miranda to do what was best for her career had seemed like the right choice, but I don’t think I realized she could stir up emotions this strong in me. It made me wonder if keeping these kinds of feelings from her was really the right thing to do.

“Happy?” Max asked.

“Every second I have to look at you pisses me off more.”

“Try closing your eyes,” Max suggested.

“Walk. Away,” I warned.

Max sniffed dismissively. “Having money doesn’t make you invincible, you know. This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me, and you’re going to wish you hadn’t fucked with me.” He spit on the ground before stalking off.

I picked her up carefully and sat her down in the golf cart. I wasn’t afraid of his threats. He was just trying to save face. I was almost certain.

As much as I wanted to go after him and start a fight, I wasn’t willing to leave Miranda alone for long enough to do it. So I turned the wheel on the cart and headed back to our cabins.

When I took the first turn to the right, Miranda slumped into my shoulder and made no sign of wanting to straighten back up.

“You schmell yummy,” she slurred in a drunken approximation of Sean Connery’s accent.

I pressed my lips together. Do not engage. She was beyond drunk, and, unlike Max, my plan was to take her to her room, set her on the bed, and leave.

“I’ve always wanted to take a nibble out of you,” she said, clamping her teeth together a few times for emphasis. “Did you know that? Nope. You didn’t, ’cause you asked out the wrong girl.”

I swallowed hard. Ignore all of this. I had to resist the overwhelming urge to tell her the truth, even if she was hardly likely to remember any of this tomorrow.

I stopped the golf cart in front of our cabins and unbuckled her carefully. I had to tug her black dress down her thighs to avoid getting a pervert’s view as I did so, and I couldn’t help picturing the image she’d sent me on her phone a little while ago. The image I knew I had no plans of deleting.

I offered her my hand, but she shook her head, closed her eyes, and leaned back against the seat. “Sorry. This one is all out of walksies. You’ll have to carry me with those big, strong, juicy muscles.” She opened her eyes then and tried to give me what I took for a seductive look, except one eye was squinting far more than the other, and her smile was