Page 74 of Daddy's Wild Girl

He’d take on the behemoth himself, but this guy was not touching his Bebe.

“Corbin! This is my friend!” She attempted to get around him, but something inside him snapped.

She’d promised to obey.

And at the first hurdle, she was doing stuff like this. Half-turning, he glared down at her. “Didn’t you promise to obey me?”

“Us,” Hayes said.

“You need to let go of my Bebe-girl,” the behemoth thundered. “Before I rearrange both of your faces.”

“It’s all right, Shakespeare,” she said, holding up a hand to the bigger guy. “No need for any rearrangement of faces. Yet.”

Shakespeare? Seriously?

What the heck kind of name was that?

“Corbin, stop acting like this. I said I would follow the rules. If there’s a threat! But there’s no threat there. Shakespeare is a friend.”

Corbin took a deep breath in. “He’s your friend?”

She narrowed her gaze. “Yes. Why do you say it like that? Why couldn’t he be my friend?”

“Yeah,” Shakespeare rumbled. “Why couldn’t I be her friend?”

Shit.

He glanced over at Hayes, who was watching Shakespeare warily. But he shrugged at Corbin, giving him a wry look.

Fuck.

He’d overreacted.

“Uh, one moment,” he said awkwardly to Shakespeare. Then he turned fully to her, crowding her slightly back against the wall. “He’s your friend?”

She scowled up at him, crossing her arms over her chest. Damn, even when she was angry she was adorable.

“Yes, Corbin. Shakespeare is my friend.”

“You could have warned me.”

“Warned you? We’re going to a pub where I have a number of friends. Do you really need me to tell you every time I want to hug one of them?”

“When they’re the size of a bus and look like they wrestled alligators in a former life . . . kind of, yeah.”

She shook her head.

Yeah, he got it.

He’d really overreacted.

“Sorry?” he said.

“You shouldn’t say that to me. You should say it to Shakespeare. You’ve probably hurt his feelings.”

“He has feelings?”

She slapped his chest with her hand, and he frowned as she winced. “Of course he has feelings. Everyone has feelings. Well, unless they’re a psychopath, I guess.”