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“No, we can’t talk,” I responded as I stepped around Romero and walked up to my daughter. I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “You’re my daughter and I love you, I always will. If you really dislike Isobel so much, then so be it. I won’t ask you to come around her, and I’ll always come to you instead. But she means a great deal to me, and I want her in my life. It’s sad that you don’t feel the same way, but I don’t care. I deserve happiness in my life as well, and I’m finally brave enough to go for it. Don’t take that away from me. I’d never do such a thing to you.”
I stepped away from her, and my chest ached painfully at the sight of tears in her eyes, but I refused to take any of my words back. They were all true.
Her lower lip trembled as I turned away from her. Quinton blocked my path, and I wasn’t surprised in the slightest to see him standing in my way. If there was one person in the whole world who possibly loved my daughter more than me, it was easily this man.
Normally I loved Quinton Alexander as if he were my son, and he was, without a doubt, my favorite out of my daughter’s husbands. But today I wasn’t in the mood for either him or his bullshit.
“You know damn well she didn’t mean to hurt her,” he growled at me. “Now you’ve both got things that need to be fixed.”
Maybe he was right, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to punch him right in his know-it-all face.
He must have seen it on my face, because he got out of my way in a hurry. I didn’t have to look to know he went straight to Ariel. He was drawn to her like a moth to a flame and was never very far from her side.
Now that I was allowing myself to love again, I wanted that for myself, and my woman had just left in despair—and I’d stupidly let her.
I got the fuck out of there and stood on the sidewalk as I attempted to rein my emotions back in before I exploded. I wasn’t used to feeling like this. I usually had a firm handle on my feelings, when I actually had feelings, but now with all these people in my life to give a shit about, I felt out of control.
Trenton and Simon both walked past me, and they were smart enough to leave me alone and headed straight into the tattoo shop. Smart boys, I knew I liked them for a reason.
Romero wasn’t as smart.
He came up behind me and placed the palm of his hand on my lower back. “Rain, I’m—”
I whirled around and backed him up against the brick wall. My hand went to his throat, and I squeezed lightly, not cutting off his air but applying just enough pressure for him to know I wasn’t fucking around. “I cannot believe you fucking kissed him before you ever kissed me.”
Christ, of all the shit we had going on that needed my attention, I couldn’t believe this was what I chose to focus on. It wasn’t fucking important, but I couldn’t get my mind off of it.
He was right, I was insanely jealous, and it pissed me off.
He laughed as he lunged for me, pressing his mouth to mine. I tightened my grip on his throat as he nipped my bottom lip. He shoved his tongue into my mouth, and I greedily sucked on it, making him moan.
Fuck, I was standing on the sidewalk, making out with this man like a damn teenager who couldn’t fucking control himself. My cock was starting to get hard.
Romero grabbed my hips and pulled our fronts together. Fuck, he had a bulge in his pants too.
Our goddamn kids were inside the building, and they could come out and catch us at any second. Judging from their reactions inside, they weren’t ready to witness this yet, and wasn’t that a sobering thought.
I shoved him back and released his throat. “You don’t want to play games with me, Rome. I don’t have the patience for it, and I’m not opposed to punishing you to keep your ass in line. I can’t always promise you’re going to like it, but I sure as fuck will.”
The crazy son of a bitch just laughed in the face of my threats.
“Promises, promises,” he jovially sang as he sprinted away from me and toward his car.
I was willing to bet he drove his ass straight to my cabin to check on both Isobel and Finn. I couldn’t blame him and wished I could run home too.
I only hoped like hell he kept his fucking mouth shut and didn’t tell them that I kissed him. It wasn’t anyone else’s business, and I didn’t want Isobel to have a similar reaction to mine when I found out about Romero’s shared kiss with Finn. She was perfectly okay with their kiss, but she’d been in my life the longest, so I probably should have kissed her first.
Fuck, this was the problem with being in a relationship with multiple people. You had to please all of them.
They just better not expect me to kiss Finn, because it wasn’t fucking happening. I had to draw the line somewhere.
Me and my semi-hard dick went back to work. Trenton and Simon eyeballed me like they thought I was a ticking time bomb, so it didn’t take long to make my erection disappear entirely.
It was going to be a long day, and I was already over it.
17
Relax, Bella
