“I was only saying that high-quality women are hard to find in this day and age,” Paul offers as an excuse, gesturing to me. “Case and point.”
Lemmy’s brows shoot upward, my glare deepens, and Boston Black completely snaps. He steps in between Lemmy and Paul, reaches down, and buries his fists in the fabric of his shirt. He hauls Paul out of his chair and up to his feet with embarrassing ease.
All the colour drains from Paul’s face.
“Get your wallet out of your fucking pocket and pay for dinner,” Boston demands in a quiet, lethal tone. Little, pussy Paul doesn’t have to be asked twice. He fishes for his wallet andpulls out some cash. Boston snatches it from him, but doesn’t let him go. “Now, apologize to the lady.”
I smirk, leaning back a bit arrogantly in my seat. I’m trying not to think about the fact that Boston showed up here with Lemmy when he’s making my body react in a way that typically only happens once a man is actually touching me.
Paul swallows, slowly turning his head to look at me.
I arch a brow, waiting patiently, but he never gets the chance to say it.
He is ripped from Boston’s hands so fast that it takes a second for me to realize what’s happening. He’s thrown over his own chair and is slammed against the wall hard enough to bring the building to the ground.
By my brother.
Always so dramatic.
A collective gasp echoes through the restaurant. I glance around at the other patrons with an apologetic smile. Just another day at the office, folks. Nothing to see here.
Arden walks up behind my brother, eyes wide and face flushed. She looks at me, scanning me from head to toe, offering me an ‘I’m sorry, I had to tell him,’ type of look when I meet her eyes with a pointed glare. She was supposed to come here as my sister, not bring The Beast with her.
“What the fuck is going on?” Carter snaps, his face as feral with rage as ever. “Who is this?Who are you?”
Boston sighs, running a hand over his face. “Start asking questionsfirst,Fork.”
“Carter,” Arden pleads, but he’s too busy glaring at my date.
“Put him down,” Lemmy orders, her tone every bit the lawyer she is. Carter pauses, as if he hadn’t even noticed she was here when he came in, guns blazing. She’s his lawyer, and she’s preemptively defending him. He’d be stupid to ignore her. “Hewas just about to apologize to your sister and go on his merry way to build himself a girlfriend in a lab.”
I burst out laughing. Beautiful, filler-less,andfunny.
The sound seems to ease Carter’s rage.
He frowns, gently lowering my date to the ground. He is just about to let him go, but then Paul whirls toward me, and Carter slams his hand back onto his chest to prevent him from returning to the table.
“Hissister?”Paul balks. “You didn’t tell me you werehissister!”
Am I worthy now, insurance boy? Can we forgive the botox if I have a famous brother?
I shrug. “It didn’t come up.”
“What the fuck?” he breathes, running a hand over his thin hair. He’s having a bit of a mental breakdown and I don’t blame him. Idoblame him for getting himself into this situation, though. I don’t know what he sees when he looks in the mirror or at his bank account, but nothing warrants treating people like this.
“Time’s ticking, asshole. Get on with it,” Boston grumbles.
Paul’s eyes snap to him, and then back to my brother. He gauges his options before he realizes that there is truly only one way out of this, and it’s through the apology that Boston ordered.
He glances at me, face full of one hundred different regrets, none of them related to offending me. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say, waving him off. “Have a good night.”
Boston tosses his two hundred dollars onto the table and Carter, miraculously, lets my date go. Paul is out of here before I can blink.
Two big hockey players, one lawyer, and my future sister-in-law slowly turn their attention to me. I smile like a guilty toddler.
“That man was a certified nightmare,” Lemmy tells me. She isn’t wrong. “What were you doing with him?”
