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He grabs for my face, to cup it in a twisted charade of a sweet kiss, and I pull back and punch him in the stomach as hard as I can.
He doubles over in pain, the wind knocked right out of him.
I lean over him. “I said don’t fucking touch me.”
“Gonna,” he wheezes in a breath, “sue you.”
Nowthatmakes me laugh. “You go right ahead,sweetie.”
Eric straightens, and the anger shooting from his eyes tells me that I might be in for a fight—aphysicalfight, which is fine by me.
“Go ahead,” I urge. “You want to put your hands where they don’t belong again, Eric? Go ahead, and see what that gets you.”
He looks like he wants to tear me apart, but instead, he throws out, “Fuck you, bitch,” before stomping off to his rental car and peeling out of the parking lot.
I let out a long breath, shake my head, and turn to my truck, freezing when I see Apollo standing on the other side of it. His jaw is tight, every muscle in his face set in angry lines, and his body looks like he was poised and ready to come save me from that asshole.
Then he relaxes and just watches me with those dark eyes.
Shit.
“Were you going to save the damsel in distress?”
“I don’t see one of those.” He looks around and then back at me. Anger still hovers in his eyes. “You handled yourself very well.”
“No city boy is ever going to get one over on me. What a prick.”
“Yeah. He’s a prick. You okay?”
“Mostly, I’m pissed off. He didn’t hurt me physically. Jesus, I didn’t even have time to order a drink before he pissed me off so badly that I got up and left. He thought that was an invitation to come with me.”
“Sounds like he’s an idiot.”
“Yeah.” I blow out a deep sigh. “I guess I’ll go home and wash off this war paint.”
Apollo frowns. “Seems like a waste to me. Why don’t you and I go inside and have dinner? I’m starving, and you have to have worked up an appetite with that right jab to the gut.”
My lips twitch. “Yeah, I guess I did. Iwaslooking forward to Mira’s meatloaf.”
“And I’d say you’ve earned it. Come on, Juniper, let’s eat.”
I walk around the truck, and when Apollo holds his hand out for mine, I eye it warily.
“Truce, for tonight. No funny stuff,” he says, still holding out his hand.
“Truce.” I take it, and he gives mine a little reassuring squeeze. “I can do that.”
When we walk inside, Darla looks a little startled and then worried. “June, are you okay? I saw you hurry out, but—”
“I’m great,” I say, offering her a reassuring smile. “We’d like a table for two, please. Not the same one from before.”
“You got it.” She winks at me and leads us to a table on the opposite wall. “Just water?”
“No, I want a dirty martini with three blue-cheese-stuffed olives, please.”
Darla laughs. “You got it, babe. How about you, Apollo?”
“I think I’ll be the one to stick with water for now.”
