Page 69 of Sugar Coated

I gave him a playful shove on the arm. “No, of course you don’t. You’re…” There were so many different ways I could’ve ended that sentence. Kieran was my Devil. My guard. My sometimes annoying and way too talkative step-uncle—although that one wouldn’t last long now.

Most of all, though, he was mine.

I settle with saying, “You’re Kieran.”

“I am, thanks for remembering. And you’re… Laurie?”

In spite of it all, I laughed at his stupid joke. “Yep. I’m Laurie. It’s good to see you again.”

“Say,” he went on, his usual sarcasm flooding each word, “you wouldn’t happen to be in a strange, atypical relationship with more than one guy, would you? Because, Laurie, I’m going to be honest, I don’t know if I’m okay with sharing. Call me selfish.”

I shrugged and said, “I guess that depends on you, because I’m not going to say goodbye to either of them. If you can’t handle that, then that’s a you problem, not a me problem.”

“Blunt. Straight to the point.” It was his turn to shrug. “I guess I can try. After all—” A wicked glint reflected in his black eyes as he stepped closer to me and boxed me in against the bar’s counter. His head bent, his lips grazing against my ear as he whispered, “You’re mine.” He sealed the statement with a quick kiss, and then he pulled away and grinned. “There are no take-backsies on that, just so you know.”

“No take-backsies on what?” Another voice to my right asked, and I glanced at the man who’d approached us. Fang. In the dim light, you couldn’t quite see them too well, but when those silver eyes of his met mine, he flashed those fangs all the same.

I almost said nothing important, but I stopped myself; it was important. It was perhaps the most important thing ever. So, instead I said to Kieran, “You know, Fang knew there was something off about you from the beginning. I just thought he sensed how stupidly jealous you got over me, but it turned out he was right after all.”

That got Kieran to glare at Fang, though the glare was half-hearted, at best. “You what now? Psh. As if. We’ve seen each other, what, like twice?”

Fang smirked. “A few times more than that, I think, but it doesn’t matter. I called it the first time I saw you.”

That got the other man to visibly pout. “Wow. And here I thought I was mysterious and cool—”

As Fang attempted to soothe him and make him feel better, I surveyed the club. Mike had gravitated toward his brother while Maddox and Lola danced; they stood on the edge of the dance floor, talking about something. He must’ve felt my stare, because he turned his head in my direction and did something he never, ever did.

He smiled.

Yeah, the big guysmiledat me from across the club, and that smile was enough to make the butterflies in my stomach go crazy.

Mike had a handsome smile. I didn’t know why he didn’t do it more often.

By himself, Harvey now sat on the bottom step of the stairs that led to the balcony area that overlooked the dance floor. He looked… sad, almost. Out of place. If he found clubs this miserable, I didn’t know why he even came.

And then I realized, as I continued to watch him: he was staring at Lola.

I took my cup of water and made a beeline toward him. I sat down beside him and said, “Hey.” From where we were, the music wasn’t so obscenely loud.

He brought his eyes to me, giving me a soft smile. “Hi.”

Turning my head, I glanced at Lola. “She is really pretty, isn’t she?”

Harvey coughed awkwardly. “Uh, yeah. I mean, sure, I guess, if you like that sort of thing—” He only stopped when I gave him a sly, incredulous look.

“Please. Anyone with eyes would think so. Hell, that woman has me questioning my sexuality every time I see her.” I leaned a little closer to him and whispered, “It’s okay to think she’s pretty. My question is, does she know you think she’s pretty?”

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, I think she does.”

“So what is this, then? You just pining after her from afar?”

The smile he gave me right then was an uneasy one. “I didn’t know I was making it that obvious.”

I didn’t know about obvious. What I did know was the look he was giving Lola across the room was the same look Mike had given me for a while. “Why don’t you make a move? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“She could spurn me, I could lose my job, fail to pay my bills on time and go into bankruptcy since driving is the only thing I’ve ever known,” he quickly rattled off. “Oh, and her current boyfriends could take turns beating the shit out of me, so, you know, typical stuff.”

Well, that escalated fast, didn’t it?

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