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Chapter Six
Donovan stared down at Ella, still unable to fully comprehend that she was really standing in front of him. She was every bit as beautiful as the last time he’d seen her. More, in fact. He noticed things about her now that he’d never seen before. Maybe, in his constant vigilance to keep his feelings under wraps, he’d blinded himself to the small details of her beauty. Maybe he’d just been too young and dumb to see anything more than the broad strokes, and now, with age and maturity, he was appreciating every aspect of her loveliness.
Whatever the reasons he’d missed it in the past, though, he saw everything clearly now. The tiny crinkles at the edges of her eyes when she smiled, the way her eyes sparked when something surprised her. The tilt of her chin and set of her shoulders that showed she was working hard to keep her emotions in check.
The bell over the front door chimed but he barely registered the sound. What he did notice was the way her eyes widened and her mouth formed a little “O” as her eyes darted over his shoulder. He turned and saw a man standing there, a broad smile covering his scraggly face.
The man brushed past him and wrapped Ella up in a familiar hug. This simple gesture inspired white-hot rage in Donovan. He knew it was unwarranted. He knew he had no right to be jealous—after all, it was his decision to stay away for five years, and his decision to pop back in with no notice. He had no reason to expect that she would’ve put her life on hold during that time.
But all that nice, even reasonableness existed in his head. That wasn’t the place that the volcano was building. That was in his gut. In his heart.
He took a deep breath to try to steady himself, but the air felt like sandpaper against a raw wound as he pulled it into his lungs.
Fuck, this feels like shit!
Hell, if this was what it was like to open up to “feeling” again, he was going to take a pass. And in fact, he’d go ahead and congratulate himself on the wisdom of putting this off and shoving it down for five years, because it was fucking hell.
He did take some satisfaction in seeing that Ella stiffened at the guy’s touch. Yeah. At least there was that.
Ella pulled away, her cheeks flaming and eyes wide. “Oh no, Jagger! I forgot we had a lunch today.”
Jagger. Damn it all to hell, the situation just kept getting worse and worse.
Jagger laughed good-naturedly, which should’ve made him more likeable, but really just made Donovan want to wrap his hands around the dude’s scruffy throat and cut off the grating sound at its source.
“No worries, Ells. Do you need a few minutes?”
Again. The laid-back affability that should’ve made him seem more likeable to Donovan only made him seem more punchable.
Ella’s eyes found Donovan and she sputtered a little, then said, “Um, actually, Jagger…I don’t know…I hate to bail on you, but my, um, friend Donovan just arrived from out of town unexpectedly…”
Jagger followed her eyes and looked at Donovan, as if seeing him for the first time. Even though he’d passed right by him on his way to Ella. Donovan balled his fingers into a fist, and it was all he could do not to punch this motherfucker right in his disingenuous grin.
“Oh, hey, man! Always great to meet a friend of Ella’s. I’m Jagger.”
Donovan’s face remained stony.
Jagger stuck his hand out toward Donovan to shake, his other arm casually slung around Ella’s shoulders. While his manner may have looked unposed, Donovan recognized it for what it was: the asshole was marking his territory. He was aligning himself with Ella as a unit, and the arm around her was possessive. This guy may have presented himself as some kind of Portland hipster beta male, but deep down, he was a prick. Donovan could smell it coming off him in waves.
But, again. Not my business.
It took everything within Donovan to force his fingers to slowly unfurl, one by one, so that he could take Jagger’s hand and shake it, no matter how much it turned his stomach.
“So, how do you know Ella?”
“We’ve been friends since we were kids,” Donovan grunted.
“It’s always great when an old friend comes to visit,” Jagger said. “It can make you feel like you’re a kid again. Even though you’re not.”
Bile rose in Donovan’s throat. It was true. He and Ella weren’t kids anymore. But he would never believe that the bond they’d shared had been juvenile and naive, and he hated the thought that this asshole was planting the seed of that idea in her head.
Ella shook her head and shrugged Jagger’s arm off her shoulder, stepping away to the shop’s checkout counter. Donovan’s lips twitched. Inwardly, though? He was grinning like an idiot.
“I’ll just grab my purse and then let’s just go eat. Okay?”
Jagger never even turned to look at her. He kept his eyes on Donovan, the challenge within them never wavering. A condescending smile touched his lips as he said, “Maybe your friend Don would like to join us.”
Ella’s head popped up from behind the counter like she was spring-loaded. A creamy-skinned, auburn-haired Jack in the Box. “I…I don’t think that would be…no, no…I…” she fumbled as her cheeks took on color.
At the same time, Donovan said, “Absolutely. Love to.” His voice was firm and cold, and he never broke eye contact with the kid, whose smile faltered when he heard the tone of Donovan’s voice. Donovan couldn’t blame him. His command presence was something he’d been born with, and it was also something he’d honed through years of training. Stronger men than this clown had been known to pee in their pants when Donovan leaned in close and explained, in calm but steely detail, exactly what would happen to them if they didn’t back away.
Yeah. This little asshole had invited Donovan along on his and Ella’s lunch date because he’d thought it would be fun to engage in a little dick measuring. He’d thought he could rub his relationship with Ella, whatever it was, in Donovan’s face.
He had no fucking clue who he was dealing with.
