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My stomach growled hungrily, but I shook my head. “How about we just have dinner with Jordan? I feel really bad about abandoning him when he flew out to spend time with me for my birthday. When I left him this morning, it was only to shower and change clothes.”
“Fine. A drink at Jameson’s and then we can either go to dinner or pick up takeout and go back to our place.” After kissing me again, he stood, looking for his discarded shorts.
Shamelessly, I watched him bend and then pull the shorts up his legs. When he caught me gaping at him, he smirked. “Stop drooling, firecracker.”
“I really wish you had something else to wear,” I complained. Walking over to my closet, I started pulling things out. Spotting one of his shirts that Braxton had packed for me by accident, I laughed triumphantly and tossed it at him.
He caught it easily and pulled it over his head. “Better?”
I looked down at his lower body. His erection was tenting his shorts, and if he turned around, I knew his ass would be molded against the material. “Not even a little,” I grumbled, turning back to look through the rest of the closet for something to wear to the bar.
“I like when you get jealous,” he confessed as he came up behind me. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he bent his head to kiss my neck. “But you don’t ever have to worry. You have my heart, Mia. No one else matters.”
“Still don’t like other chicks looking at what’s mine.”
“Fuck yeah, it’s yours. Every part of me.” He cupped my sex, pressing his hardness into my hip. “All yours and only yours.”
Even though we’d made love countless times all day long, and I couldn’t even remember how many orgasms he’d pulled from me, I was ready for him then and there. But with a groan, he stroked his thumb over my clit one more time and stepped back. “If I don’t go now, neither of us will be leaving this room tonight.”
Kissing the back of my head, he stepped around me, grabbed my largest case and carried it over to the bed. Two trips to and from the closet left me with even fewer options to wear for the night. Next, he walked over to the dresser and started emptying out my underwear drawer.
“Wait!” I cried, grabbing a bra and a pair of matching panties before he left me with nothing.
“Jeans,” he said as he zipped up the case. “And a hoodie. Preferably one down past your knees.”
Rolling my eyes at him, I pulled out a pair of jeans. But instead of the hoodie, I grabbed a crop top and a jacket. Seeing my selection, he tensed his jaw. “I’ll be back in an hour. Do not go anywhere without me.”
Sighing, I pulled the shirt over my head then walked up to him. “Listen, Barrick. We have to get something straight right now. You are my boyfriend, not—I repeat—not my bodyguard. I will go anywhere I want, when I want. With or without you.”
He dropped the case on the floor with a thump and grabbed my hips. “Let me clarify something for you, firecracker. I am the man who loves you more than anything or anyone else on earth. You are not only the woman I love and want to spend forever with, but also the most precious and valuable thing that I can say is mine. If something happened to you, it would kill me. If someone touched you or tried to harm you, I would most likely spend the rest of my life in prison. So, for my sanity and the safety of the public in general, do not push me on this shit.”
The irritation I’d felt at his ordering me around like my bodyguards had in the past dissolved, leaving me a gooey, melted mess leaning against him. “Okay,” I breathed, tilting my head back to accept his kiss.
His brow pinched skeptically. “Okay? No arguing?”
“Who could argue with that? I think I fell a little more in love with you just now.”
???
Jordan was already at the bar when we got there. I made a quick introduction between him, Barrick, and Braxton. Braxton was a little stiff at first, but he quickly lightened up when I told him that Jordan had talked me into staying before Barrick and I even had made up.
The bar was crowded given it was Saturday night. While they talked and got to know each other at a table on the second floor, I went down to the bar to get a glass of ginger ale.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite redhead,” Eddie greeted when he saw me. “What will it be tonight, darlin’?”
“The usual, please.” He grabbed a tall glass, filled it with ice and soda, then handed it over. I took it with a smile, knowing better than to offer to pay. Every time I had in the past, he would get grumpy about it. Even when I tried to tip him, he would scowl at me until I’d eventually given up.
Leaning his elbows on the bar top, Eddie grinned. “Glad to see you here with the boys, girly. Barrick came in one night earlier in the week, and I thought for sure he was going to take on every guy in the bar. He was in a pissy-ass mood. Someone said you two broke up. Doesn’t look like much of a break
up to me.”
I took a sip of my drink while I contemplated what he said. Was it really only a week that Barrick and I had been broken up? It felt like much, much longer. A lifetime, really. Every day without him had been miserable, even with him following me around.
“We had a fight,” I finally told the bartender. “But we’re good now.”
“That’s good. Didn’t like the thought of you hurting because of that boy.” Someone at the other end of the bar called out to get his attention, and Eddie gave me a nod before heading over to see what they wanted to drink.
Thirstily, I finished up my drink and set down the glass. Looking up at the second floor, I spotted Barrick, and our eyes locked. I gave him a flirty little wave then pointed at the bathroom to let him know that was where I was going. When he nodded in acknowledgment, I blew him a kiss, making him grin, and moved through the crowd toward the ladies’ room.
