Page 56 of Forbidden You

“You’re becoming a dad?”

“What? No,” he blurts as if I’m asking him to eat dirt. “I’m not ready for diapers.”

“You kissed and made up with your mother?”That’s never gonna happen.

“Now you just make me want to kill myself.”

I let out a laugh, shaking my head as I turn off the engine. “What is it, then?”

“Finn’s got a friend in Atlanta. Said he has a spare room. He’s willing to take Kayla off your hands.”

My brows spring together in a painful frown while the muscles in my neck seem to tense like steel.

“What friend?” I grit out, more aggravated than I planned.

“Some guy he went to college with.” There is a nonchalance in his voice that ticks me off and a possessive feeling settles inside. It falls like an anchor to the bottom of the ocean, and although I want to bring it back up, it seems too heavy to lift. I stay quiet, trying to keep an indifferent stance as I take a deep breath.

“Is he single?”

“I don’t know?” he replies with clear confusion in his tone.

“I’m not going to ship her off to some guy who wants to get in her pants.”

A chuckle comes through the line, and I pinch the bridge of my nose.

Shit,I just showed him all my cards.

“Like you?” he says, amused.

“Not what I meant.”

“Whatexactlydid you mean, then, Bodi?” I imagine my best friend with his arms crossed and a smug grin sitting on his face.

Hell, I don’t even know.

When she arrived on my doorstep, all I knew was that I needed to get rid of her. She is a distraction I’m not allowed to have, and as dick-ish as it is, I didn’t think she was capable of doing a job that would meet my expectations.

I was wrong. So fucking wrong. She has been killing it. And even though the desire to feel her lips against mine hasn’t left, I forgot I even asked Rae to find somewhere else for her to stay.

I should be happy he found something, giving me a better chance to keep this professional with her. But the thought of her living with some other guy ties knots in my stomach. It’sunbearable.

“That we can’t let her stay with some guy she doesn’t know. At least I’m not a stranger.” It’s a complete bluff and fucking bullshit, but it’s the first thing that pops into my head.

“I’m pretty sure Finn wouldn’t give me his friend’s address if he didn’t think he was a good guy,” Jensen argues.

“Good guy or not, she’s nineteen, living in a city she doesn’t know. Sending her off to some guy feels like throwing her for the wolves.”

“Right, and this has nothing to do with you wanting to be the Big Bad Wolf instead?” He jokes, but it still annoys the living shit out of me.

Because I don’t want it to be a joke. I want her. And I can’t have her. But I’ll be damned if someone else gets her.

“Shut up. She’s staying with me.”

“But you said—”

“Forget what I said,” I cut him off.

He stays quiet before I hear his taunting voice again. “Anything you want to tell me, McKay?”

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