AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re not going to fucking yell at her! If you have a problem, you can take it up with me, but don’t you dare speak to her that way.”
SJ’s stern but deadly calm response causes goosebumps to raise along my arms and makes my core clench. Holy hell, it was hot when he dropped the f-bomb. SJ rarely cusses, and I don’t know him well enough to know what it means when he does. I can venture to guess it only happens when he’s extremely pissed or on guard.
I don’t need a pissing contest right here in my dressing room, and that’s exactly where this is going with Alex squaring up to SJ. I would laugh if this wasn’t my life. Watching a five-eight, slightly pudgy man square up to a six-four behemoth of a man is comical.
Alex wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against SJ.
It doesn’t matter either way, however, because there’s no way in hell they’re doing this here.
“Alex, go get your nose checked out by the on-staff doc. I think it might be broken, and you need to set that before you have a hideously crooked nose.” I turned to SJ. “I’d like to go out with my friends tonight to celebrate. Can you make sure we’re set?”
“Nora…”
“You can’t go out…”
I hold up my hand to quiet them, which works perfectly. “I can, and I will. Go get your nose set, Alex. We can talk in the morning.”
I raise a challenging eyebrow at SJ, but he gives in quickly and nods. “I’ll get it set up. Where are we going?”
I give him the details Derik sent in a text I received when these two were in a standoff like they were in the wild west.
Alex heads for the door but stops before leaving, his demeanor quickly changing from defensive to contemplative. “Nora, please be safe.”
In that moment, I forget the last twenty minutes of him being stubborn and yelling at me. He’s my friend, and I know he cares about me. I immediately soften at that reminder.
“I will. I promise.”
He moves to stand before me and leans down to give me a hug. When he does, he whispers in my ear. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for tonight to go this way.”
His apology helps put me at ease as I shoo him off with a gentle shove toward the door. “Go, we can talk later once everyone has calmed down.”
Once he’s gone, the air in the room changes to something sharper. The intensity radiating off SJ prickles across my skin in a tantalizing way. I turn toward him and slowly approach. It’s just the two of us, and his beautiful eyes are bright with something I can’t read.
“What’s wrong?”
He closes them before taking a step toward me. It’s close enough that I can feel his warm breath. My heart rate kicks up, and my breathing quickens.
“My heart damn near stopped when I saw you running down the hallway. I thought he was chasing you, and I wanted nothing more than to catch him and rip him limb from limb.”
His confession takes me by surprise, and the squeak that leaves my lips must catch him off guard.
A timid smile curves the corners of my lips before falling again as I speak. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I panicked because I couldn’t find you.” I can’t seem to recover from the shock of what he just admitted to me.
He closes the distance between us and reaches up to run his fingertips lightly over my cheek. It tingles where his touch skates over my skin. His furrowed brows pull in even further.
“I don’t ever want to feel like that again, cupcake.” His words hit me in my chest like a punch, and I whisper out a confession of my own.
“I don’t either.” I don’t ever want to feel the panic of him not being there again. His presence is quickly becoming one of my favorite things.
Chapter 14
SJ
“I think we need to be mindful of what we say with other people around. I want to keep details betweenusfornow,” I say as I turn left onto the highway, heading north toward the club Nora’s friends chose tonight. I should have just enough time to check the place out when we get there before her friends show up.
Nora was adamant she wants to keep this as quiet as possible, and I agree with her. Which I hope will soften what I just said because I don’t only mean the people we’re meeting tonight. I mean the people she’s closest to. Alex, to be specific.
After today, I don’t trust him. Something doesn’t add up with his story. He never mentioned he made eye contact with the guy, and he had an opportunity to when I was heading back to get to Nora.
