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“Trouble, babe?”
Avah’s a little stiffer than she was moments before, and she utters a tiny laugh. “No. I just . . . I thought . . .”
Hell, she saw him too. But I give her space, ignoring my inclination to push. Giving space while watching is part of my job, and I know how to do it. With her? Yeah, it’s hard as fuck to do.
And I couldn’t begin to say why.
I’m attracted and want to protect her, sure, but there’s something deeper, that hides beneath the layers.
“I thought I saw someone from earlier on our photography walk, is all. I guess your talk of a stalker is making me a little jumpy.”
I want to soothe, but I don’t. “Jumpy’s good,Tesoro. Keeps you aware. But I’ll keep you safe.”
“I know.”
Her words are so soft they’re almost swallowed by the music and voices in the bar, but I catch them, and they slide slow and low inside me.
I have a lot of digging to do later tonight. My dive in normal channels showed up nothing, and my skim of the information available to the De Lucas gave me enough to know about her father.
But I’m getting the feeling I need to go deeper, and I will. But right now, as I take her through the moves of pool, I shift my focus on her and the dude who’s still there.
And I stake my claim.
There’s no fucking way anyone can look and not think she’s mine.
A redheaded girl comes up to ask Avah if she wants to play a game, and I glance over the top of Avah to the girl. She’s not a threat, and the guy she’s with is in the middle of a loud and drunken conversation with another dude.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Avah says with a shy smile.
Raising my hand to her hair, I slip my fingers through the soft silk of the golden blonde locks and whisper, “Go for it. I’m gonna get us a couple of drinks, and then we’ll play, and after, I’m gonna spin you around this dance floor.”
“You mean the middle of the bar?”
“Babe, what do you want? Some dumb thing with light-up squares?”
Avah turns to me. “Just you.”
“Keep that up, and we’re skipping the dancing completely.” I glance at the redhead. “She’d love to.”
I head for the guy, but he sees me and takes the fuck off like the coward he is.
Go after him and Avah’s alone. Even if she’s playing a bad game of pool with the redhead.
If he’s got a buddy in here . . .
Fuck.
I let him go and mosey on up to the bar, ordering two beers. A group of young guys have just arrived and are doing shots. They look like the entitled shits who attend college here, from their designer clothes and expensive haircuts and ability to take up space they don’t need just by spreading out.
One bumps into me. He’s about to say something when he looks up. And up.
I don’t say a word as I look him in the eye and make my way back to Avah.
Leaning against the wall next to the table, I kick back against it with one foot as I take a swallow from my beer.
Honestly, I don’t know which girl’s the worst player, my Avah or the redhead, but they’re having fun, and they’re cute as hell, though in a hotness battle, my sweet little morsel would win. A sweet morsel, I remind myself, I should keep my hands off for as long as possible.
Somehow, I think as she bends over, wiggling her fine, award-winning ass, it’s not gonna be fucking long before I’m up in her, fucking her brains out.
