She got me. I’m man enough to admit that. She’s got beauty and a sharp sense of humor. I like that. A lot. I’m also betting that she can run pretty hot for the right man.
I am that man. I will be that man. Tonight, if I can help it.
She can sit there with her back to me all she wants, sipping her martini while congratulating herself on her cleverness. Let her enjoy her brief victory. The poor thing doesn’t know that she just took my smoldering fire for her and poured a million gallons of gasoline on it.
But she’ll learn.
“Want me to show you how it’s done?” says my thirty-year-old youngest brother, Ryker, jerking his head in her direction and starting to stand. Just like that, a haze of red filters my vision, and it has nothing to do with the ambience here at Bemelmans.
“Sure,” I say, reaching up to push him back down again with all the force I can muster. “As long as you’re cool with that being your last act on earth.”
This kicks off another round of raucous laughter between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, but a bigger problem materializes in the form of a corporate titan wannabe who sidles up to her table with his cheesy grin firmly in place. I watch and wait to see how she greets him, the tinge of jealousy I just felt with my brother now escalating into a wave of bloodlust.
It’s probably her date. A woman who looks like that doesn’t spent her Friday nights alone.
But she stiffens when he steps into her range of vision. Shakes her head when he leans in and says something to her. Speaks loudly and clearly when he persists:
“Fuck off.”
I register the throaty sound of her voice and the British accent even as my inner caveman takes the lead and propels me to my feet. Pretty ironic, considering I would’ve sworn as recently as ten seconds ago that I’m not the jealous type.
A murmur of dissent rises from my brothers as I head in her direction without another word.
“Keep it cool,” Ryker calls after me. “We’d rather not have to bail you out of jail tonight.”
But I’m on a mission and don’t have the time or inclination to reassure him. I’m not sitting idly by while some SOB in a shiny suit harasses my ice princess right in front of me. Can’t do it.
“Sorry I’m late,” I say, putting a protective arm around the back of her chair and startling them both. Shiny Suit shoots me a glare, but I only have eyes for her and the flare of relief in her expression as she tips her face up to look at me. “Everything okay over here?”