Page 54 of Handle Me

“Raincheck!” I called to the bartender. Striding back across the crowded room, I caught sight of an increasingly agitated Lola through the crowd.

Dark-haired dickhead was talking. I didn’t have time for small talk and smaller dicks. “Well, if you’d asked me to go to—”

“Hey, boss,” I cut him off, grabbed Lola, and kissed her roughly on the mouth. She went limp in my arms, completely surrendering. When I drew back, her eyes were bright, and her lips swollen. I glanced over at the dickhead, acting like I’d just seen him. “Oh, sorry, were you saying something?”

“Just…just catching up,” he said, making an admirable recovery.

At the table, Beatrice held a hand over her smile, but Lucy looked confused.

“Are you—” she started to ask, but then she yelped. “Ouch!”

“What Lucy was wondering was, are you two leaving?” Beatrice asked me sweetly. She turned toward dickhead. “These two can’t keep their hands off each other. It’s gross, really.”

“It’s true.” I reached down and squeezed Lola’s ass. “This dress doesn’t help.”

It was like I’d found her mute button. She just kept staring at me like she couldn’t process what I’d just done.

“Lola?” I prompted gently. “Do you want to introduce your friend?”

That snapped her out of it. “Actually, this is my ex, Chad.”

Chad? Fucking Chad? I forced a smile and reached out to shake his hand.

“Anders.”

“Yeah,” he said, slowly shaking it. “I know who you are. Wait…you two are…”

“Scandalous, right? But I’d have to be a goddamn fool to let her get away.” I looked at him and laughed like I’d slipped up. “Oops. No offense.”

“None taken,” he said sourly.

Oh, Chad was offended. Chad was very offended.

“Now, as Beatrice was saying.” I turned to Lola. “I would like to get you home and discuss the terms of that agreement we were debating.”

“Agreement,” she said in a daze. Then her eyes flew open. Her tongue darted over her lower lip as she realized what I meant. Maybe she was going to let me spank her after all. “Oh, that. Yeah, we need to run.”

“So soon?” Beatrice said innocently.

Chad shuffled his feet, still looking between us like we might be playing a joke on him. “It was good to see you.”

Lola lifted her chin and smiled at him. “I’m sure it was.”

That’s my girl.

I threw an arm around her waist, tucking her against me. “Let’s go, boss.”

“Lead the way.”

I wasn’t stupid enough to believe I was getting away with this, but if I was already in trouble, I wanted it to be worth it. Sliding my palm down, I cupped her ass as we walked out the door.

As soon as the night air hit us, Lola sped up until we were around the corner and away from the line of people waiting to get in.

“Anders, do you know how many people saw that?” she demanded. I stepped closer, but she pressed a palm to my chest to stop me.

“I think what you meant to say was ‘thank you.’”

“Someone will have seen us.” She began to pace, which looked a bit dangerous in the heels she was wearing.