Page 52 of Pucks and Coffee

Her lips tip up, her eyes devious as she whispers again, “Good, it’s number one on mine. Now, greet our new visitors.”

I hold back from saying fuck them to see Andrews’s girlfriend coming toward us, with Elliot McDavid not far behind her. I don’t know if my wife’s sister is heading for us, but Payton’s eyes are homed in on my wife and me, and she looks like she’s on a mission.

Yippee.

Before I can warn my wife who she is, Payton stops before us, her arms crossed over her chest. I meet her gaze as her blond hair flows in the wind. She’s a beautiful girl, Andrews is a lucky dude, but she has nothing on my wife. “Eliza, this is my linemate Kai Andrews’s girlfriend, Payton. Payton, this is my wife, Eliza.”

I watch as Payton looks down at my wife and then up to me. “So, it’s true. You got married?”

I go to answer, but my wife does it first. “Yes. Which is why he said, ‘my wife, Eliza.’ Hi, I’m the wife.”

She waves, and fuck if I don’t like the little jut of her chin. I want to bite it. I don’t, though, ’cause that would be weird. Payton meets her gaze. “Like truly married?”

My wife’s eyes narrow as she looks up at Payton. “Yes. Why are you questioning that?”

“Well, for one, Katz doesn’t know how to be with one woman,” she says, looking back to me, and boy do I want to call her out. It wouldn’t help my case to say how she was trying to sleep with me at the same party I was caught in the closet with her friend at. I haven’t said a word since she was very drunk and I don’t believe she truly wanted me. But now, I wonder. Not that it matters. But her snippiness is catching me off guard, and I don’t like it one bit.

“He is now,” Eliza says, snaking her arm around my waist and cuddling into my side.

Payton tsks. “You couldn’t get her a ring?”

Payton lifts Eliza’s bare left hand, and my stomach drops. Why haven’t I gotten her a ring? I haven’t even thought of it, but now, fuck, I wish I had. Before Payton can look at my wife’s bare hand, Eliza pulls it away. “They’re being designed, not that it’s any of your business. But since we got married quickly, we didn’t need rings to establish this marriage. We just needed each other. Right, babe?”

Babe.

She just called me babe.

And I haven’t put a ring on her finger.

My stomach clenches, and my cock strains against my slacks. “Right, Wife.”

Payton looks between us, and I know she wants to say more. But then Elliot approaches, pulling my wife away from me and into her arms. Her warmth is missed almost immediately, but I don’t miss the way her shoulders sag in relief as she hugs Elliot. A smile pulls at my lips. That is, until I feel Payton watching me.

I meet her gaze, and she shakes her head. “We’ll see how long it takes for you to fuck up this marriage just like you did the other.”

My eyes narrow, but once more, my wife is right there. Her eyes are wild, her shoulders back as she shoots daggers at Payton with her eyes. “Excuse you. Don’t speak to my husband that way.”

“Eliza,” Elliot warns. “Let it go.”

“No,” my wife says, stepping to Payton, which, on any other day, would be comical with their height difference. But not today. My wife is shaking mad. “I don’t care what your thoughts of him are. You will not speak to him like that. Do you understand me?”

“Excuse you, but you don’t have a leg to stand on. You don’t know him like I do.”

“Actually, I know him more than you ever will,” she fights back, and I’m in awe. No one has ever stood up for me like this. Not even my parents did anything close to this. I’d get called names, and my parents would be too involved with each other to care that people were tearing their child down.

My wife…well, she is different.

“You know of what he did. But you don’t know how hard he has worked to make up for his mistakes or how he has grown. Something you clearly don’t know how to do since you are living in the past.”

“He’s a?—”

My wife throws up her hand, stopping Payton’s words. “Before you finish that insult, know that while my husband only threw his shoulder into your boyfriend’s, I don’t have nearly as much restraint as he does. I may be small, but I’m not afraid to get dirty.”

Payton’s eyes widen, her mouth forms an O, and beside us, Elliot snorts. I’m so confused that Eliza knows about what I did to Andrews, but I can’t help flashing Elliot a look since she’s not helping in the least. But my wife’s sister only grins, obviously enjoying the show. I glance around and notice that people are watching, so I snake my arm around my wife’s waist, pulling her back into my chest. Against her ear, I say, “Let it go. She’s not worth it.”

My wife relaxes against me, but her eyes are still fierce as Payton mutters something and walks away toward where Andrews is watching with disdain in his eyes. Asshole. I tighten my arms around my wife and lean in against her ear. Her breath catches at the press of my hard cock against her ass, and I can’t contain my smirk. My lips move against the shell of her ear as I whisper, “My spicy little wife. You like driving me crazy, huh?”

She turns her head, our eyes locking. “I think it’s the other way around.”

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