Page 82 of Love Lies Bleeding

“Yeah, she’s great. They all are but don’t tell Hunter I said so. He has a big head. He needs me to keep him level-headed.”

“And who keeps you level-headed when you get too big for your boots?”

“I have you for that.”

“Maybe.”

“Always. Even when you weren’t around, I tried to live my life in a way that would make you proud. I didn’t always succeed but I always tried. You were my North Star, Blossom. Always will be.”

The slack, soft look on her face makes me want to turn the car around, forget about my responsibilities, and spend the night making love to her in a way that would imprint on her the truth of my words. The other part wants every man in the state, no, the country, to know she’s mine and see her on my arm.

We enter the ballroom after walking the red carpet, which I hadn’t warned her about, and her gasp is audible.

“Oh, Jake, this is stunning. It almost makes up for you not warning me there’d be paparazzi and a red carpet.”

“How else was I going to make sure Eddie fucking Crowe knows you’re off the market?”

Cherry stops and glances up at me with a furrow between her brows. “You did not set that up just for Eddie.”

I bloody well had. That asshole needs to know that Cherry isn’t his and never will be. “Maybe.”

Her hand slides to her hip and I face down her wrath as my dick hardens in my tuxedo pants. Cherry in a snit is the hottest thing on the planet.

“You know we’re just friends right? And who says I’m off the market?”

“I say so, but if I have to fight every man who looks at you to prove it, then so be it.”

“Jake, you’re being ridiculous.”

“No, I’m protecting what’s mine, and you’re mine, Blossom. You always have been.”

“Well, let’s agree to disagree.”

She makes to walk off, and I grab her hand and tuck her into my side. “If I’m fucking you, and I will be by the end of tonight, then I’m the only one fucking you.”

“So confident, Jake.”

My hand skims the exposed skin of her spine and dips beneath the lace, making her shiver, and making every cent of the twenty-five grand I spent on it worth it. I’ll happily buy her an entire wardrobe full of these if it means I get to enjoy her in them.

“Jake, Cherry. Oh, don’t you two look adorable together.”

“Vivian, Hank.” We greet my pseudo-adopted family with hugs and kisses and I listen as Vivian gushes over Cherry’s dress, telling her how stunning she is and I wholeheartedly agree. She’s the most beautiful woman in the room, in any room ever as far as I’m concerned.

“Have you got a second, Jake?”

Awareness runs down my spine at the tone Hank uses, but I nod.

“I’ll grab us drinks,” I whisper to Cherry as I drop a kiss on her shoulder, and she nods as if this interaction is perfectly normal for us, and it should be. If I hadn’t allowed fear to control me, I have no doubt we’d be married and living a blissful life together.

I step away as Hank indicates but stay close enough that I can keep an eye on Cherry.

“I spoke with Hunter.”

My spine stiffens at Hank’s words, expecting him to fire me for putting the company at risk by contacting the Mancini family or at least tell me how disappointed he was in me. I don’t regret it but I’ll forever mourn the loss of these people if they choose to cut ties with me. “And?”

“I’m sorry, son.”

I glance at him in shock as I grab two flutes of Champagne from a passing waiter and step back to hand one to Cherry who smiles in appreciation, before going back to her conversation with Vivian and Cassie and allowing me the space to speak with Hank.

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