Page 43 of Loving Smoke

My first reaction was to jump out of my chair and drive my fist into Blood’s smug mouth, but instead I glared at my VP.

Tense silence surrounded us. Two pissed off alphas with a decision to make.

“I screwed up in San Diego, I get it, but I’m still your prez and you better not fuckin’ forget it.”

“Right, and I’m your VP. I’m the one who’s supposed to call you out when I see shit goin’ bad. Maybe if I had done that back in San Diego we wouldn’t be in this shithole, but I didn’t and that’s on me.” Blood leaned his palms on the table. “But I’m doin’ it now, cause I don’t wanna see you make the same mistake on my watch again.”

Blood was serious cause he rarely pulled rank or said that many sentences in a row.

“You got nothing to worry about.”

Blood waved his hand over the table. “Kinda looks like I do.”

I stabbed my cig out in my half-eaten food, refilled my wine glass and took a healthy swig. It actually wasn’t half bad and maybe it would ease the edginess jumping through me.

Blood took Marisol’s chair then looked around the room. “Where is she?”

“No fuckin’ clue.” I nudged another cig out of the pack and lit up. “We were sitting here eating and all of a sudden she jumps up and says she’s gotta leave.”

“What did you do to her?”

“Nothing.” I rolled my eyes. “Why do you just assume it was something I did?”

Blood shot me the side-eye. “Cause she obviously ran off and that’s the usual with you. You say something or do something. You got a million ways to piss off these chicks.”

“Very fuckin’ funny, but you’re dead wrong. The only thing I did was compliment her cooking. I always thought that was a good thing.”

Blood cocked his head. “Right, and did you do all this complimenting before or after you fucked her?”

“What do you think?” I wasn’t gonna let Blood get one inch on me. If he wanted info then damn it he was gonna work for it.

“I think you fucked her a few times, she decided to play house by cooking for you and then you dropped the ‘I don’t do commitment’ bomb. You made her feel like a cheap piece of ass. She got pissed and stormed out.” Blood rubbed at his stubbled jaw. “I guess you should be glad she didn’t throw her pasta at you.” He ended his sentence with annoying laughter.

“Nothing you just said is even remotely true.”

“So, you didn’t fuck her?”

“Well, yeah.”

“More than once?”

“Yeah, but she was totally into it, and it was her idea to cook for me.”

“Of course it was. That’s your problem you don’t see the warning signs. You turn on the charm and make them believe you’re a good guy, then they ultimately see your true colors.” Blood grabbed a clean glass and filled it with wine. “If it was me I would’ve said straight up. ‘Babe, I love fuckin’ you but I ain’t doin’ any long-term shit.’”

“Explains a lot. Like why you gotta pay to get your dick wet.”

“Fuck you. I ain’t never had to pay for pussy and you know it.”

“Whatever.”

Better she left anyway, cause I was thinking shit I never thought about with a woman and as Blood pointed out I was in no position to get balls deep in any woman, no less one who could easily rip my heart out.

“I guess the big question is do I have to hire another bartender?”

“Hard to say. I know she needs the work, but swear to fuck something was off with her before.”

“I guess we’ll find out tomorrow night.” Blood pointed to the plates. “Looks pretty good. Anymore left?”

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