AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m just a guy who thinks she’s funny as hell, so damn smart, and Jesus Christ, her eyes. They’re so blue, they’re purple. They’re rare jewels like her, and I’m lucky just to have a chance.
The DJ’s playing “Santa Claus is Coming To Town,” and I smile, gently dodging the crowd, because yes, I’m coming real soon.
Black marble thuds under my steps as I find the hallway to the men’s room empty except for a large silhouette looming there.
I know him.
Millions do.
And I’m sucked into Redix’s gravity with my steps closing in on him while his eyes drop from my face, down to my hard-on and back up to my eyes.
That feeling of confrontation, I step right into it.
“Hey, man.” I’ll take the first word.
“She’s not a toy.” Redix has three inches on me, but damn, it’s freaky. He’s my mirror. “Don’t play with her like she is.”
“She ain’t anyone’s tragedy or a trophy either.”
Redix Dean may beat the shit out of me, but I’ll go down scoring pain too. I learned the hard way how to fight. But his fists don’t clench. His shoulders don’t lift, and his feet don’t shuffle into a fighting stance.
Something else storms his eyes. And yes, they take your goddamn breath away.
He doesn’t want to fight.
“Please don’t hurt her,” he says, and I know it hurt him like hell to beg that.
“I won’t hurt her.”
“You say that, but you don’t know”—his jaw clenches—“you don’t know why she really cries.”
And why he’s fighting it back, too, I see it, and suddenly, I want to hug him. What is it between him and Cade? Whatever it is, it’s a Mount Everest of magnificent love that can kill you if you take it on.
“Look, man.” I like Redix. Hell, I more than like him. Like anyone, I’m two feet from him and under his spell. He makes my chest warm and my mouth wet, and something sleeping inside me rouses awake. “I know a little about what happened between you two. And I’m sorry. It must be hell. But your love is obvious, and it’s breaking her heart not to have it anymore.”
What the fuck am I doing?
I got no clue.
But you gotta feel this. It’s overwhelming standing in front of him with thoughts of her in his eyes, of him fighting for her not to be hurt.
It’s an opiate. It’s love, and my mind knows the logic, but now my body and heart feel it for the first time, and it’s potent.
“I don’t have a choice.” Every muscle in his perfect jaw clenches. Damn, even his anguish is beautiful. “It’s about more than love.”
I could pry. I could insult him. I could tell him how stupid he was for letting her go. But he knows.
“Well,”—and I’m not going anywhere—“I’ll be there when she cries, I promise.”
I should’ve just punched him.
His face turns to the side, flinching.
Fuck, that was the worst thing to say.
He can’t bear the thought of me hugging Cade. So why won’t he do it? What the hell can be so bad between them?
“Just take care of her, please.” Redix doesn’t look at me. Some place else churns in his mind and it’s not this riverboat. “Just promise me that, man. Promise me you won’t hurt her, and I won’t get in your way.”
