Page 6 of Forbidden King (Magnolia Falls)

“Sorry about that,” I said, trying to hide my smile when he pulled back. “I didn’t realize that was, er, you know.”

“My dick?”

“I thought it was a flashlight at first,” I said over a fit of laughter before turning around to look at him.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He ran his hand over his jaw. “I’m assuming you’re referencing a verylargeflashlight?”

I smacked his shoulder. “Stop. You’re ridiculous. You better not tell Nash that I grazed your junk like Mrs. Brighton did.”

His gaze moved to my mouth. “Trust me. Those are two very different things. And there isn’t a man on the planet that wouldn’t react to your ass rubbing against him.”

My cheeks burned, and I tried to play it off. “Okay. So what do we do with the wood?” He raised a brow, and I realized how that had sounded and threw my hands in the air. “You know what I meant.”

He laughed. “Come on, let’s take this inside and get the base built.”

When we walked back into the bookstore, my eyes widened at the sight of Coach Hotty holding a bouquet of flowers and smiling at me.

This day just kept getting better.

two

Kingston

I setthe panels down and took the moldings out of Saylor’s hands and followed her gaze to the douchedick standing there gaping at her.

“Jalen, hey, what are you doing here?” Saylor’s voice was all light and flirtatious.

The girl was like sunshine on a cloudy day. Always had been.

I set the wood down on the floor but listened intently because I was a nosy dude, especially when it came to Saylor Woodson.

She was my best friend’s little sister. It was my job to protect her.

“I knew today was a big day for you, so I thought I’d stop by and give you these flowers and let you know that I had a great time last night,” he said.

I glanced over my shoulder to see him hand her the bouquet, and my eyes widened when I took in his baby blue shorts that were far too short to be worn by a man. Sure, he was all chiseled muscle, but the dude should consider wearing shorts that were made for men.Am I right?

I turned around and brushed my hands back and forth loud enough to make a clapping sound, which startled Saylor and had her turning in my direction.

“Oh. I’m so sorry. Do you two know each other? I assumed you do because Jalen just started working at Knockout Gym with Romeo a few days ago.”

“Yep. We’ve met.” I raised a brow and crossed my arms over my chest. “You two went out last night, huh?”

“Yeah, mate. We had a great time.”

Mate? He wasn’t from down fucking under. Romeo had told us that the dude was from New Jersey.

“Nice.” It was all I could say. I didn’t know she had gone out with him, not that she told me everything, but we were close. She had been on a few dates since she’d moved back to Magnolia Falls, but she’d yet to meet anyone she wanted to go out with again.

And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I liked that.

Saylor was special. Different. I cared about her. She deserved the best, and I was fairly certain this dude was not that.

He was too tan. His teeth were blindingly white. And his wavy blond hair was a little too perfect.

“It was so sweet of you to bring me these. They’re gorgeous,” Saylor said, shooting me a confused look because I was normally a friendly guy.

I turned around and got back to building the frame for the counter. Normally, we would do most of this at the shop, but with the space being more like a warehouse inside and having access to the large parking lot behind the building, we could work here, and we wouldn’t need to transport all the pieces once they were built. I tried to focus on the project at hand while I turned my head just enough to hear everything they were saying.

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