Page 97 of Protector

“Said yes to what?” I frowned.

Something flashed in Slim’s eyes, and he glanced around before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and lowering his voice. “What we were talkin’ about upstairs. I told her she didn’t seem like the type, but she said she’d wanted to try it for a while now but wasn’t sure how you’d take it.”

I jerked away, narrowing my eyes at Celia. “She did, did she?”

“Yeah,” he stated proudly. “I told her it was your idea in the first place. Now, I thought it’d be better if we did it down by the beach. Away from all the strait-laced assholes. What do you say?”

I took in his shit-eating grin and the hopeful look in her eyes. My son-of-a-bitch best friend had just talked my wife into an orgy.

After I finished with Mikey, I was coming for him next.

“Over my dead body,” I said firmly, and Lou’s eyes widened in surprise.

“You’re really going to deny her this experience? Even John let me give it a go—how old was David then? Three? Four? It felt like we were teenagers again; sneaking around in the backyard, praying we didn’t get caught.”

I held up my hand. “What the fuck? You did it in the backyard while your son was sleeping inside? And now you wanna do it on the beach? You never considered doin’ it in a bedroom?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a good way to get kicked out of the hotel,” Louisa said with a frown. “Not to mention the smell it would leave behind. Pretty sure you’d be on the hook for replacing all the furniture in the room as well.”

“The smell?” I questioned, much louder than I’d meant to. “What the fuck are you guys doin’? I ain’t replaced shit at the clubhouse, and people do it there all the fuckin’ time. This is what you want to do, Celia?”

Slim fought to hold it together before leaning over, with his hands on his knees. “Jesus fuck, your face,” he said through a wheeze of laughter.

Celia looked between the two of us before asking, “Wait, what is it you two were talking about upstairs?”

“He thought—” Slim’s hand went to his throat as he forced out, “Thought we were gonna have an… orgy!” His chuckles turned to cackling, and he swiped at the tears on his cheeks.

Celia’s eyebrows disappeared under her hair. “You what?” she hissed at me. “I’m not doing that!”

“Damn right you’re not doin’ that,” I snapped back. “It’s why I said over my dead body!”

Lou brought a hand up over her mouth, shoulders shaking with laughter. “John, really? You’re too old to be acting like this!”

“Oh, too old?” He asked with a half shrug. “Not what you said to me this mornin’, Louisa. If I’m rememberin’ it right, you wanted to know how I had so much stamina. Ain’t that right, darlin’?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I grumbled when a flush crept up her throat. “Anyone care to tell me what it is we’re doin’ down here?”

Celia pushed past me and through the front doors. “We’re going down to the beach to get…” She glanced around before mouthing, “high.”

The tension left my body, and I followed her out with a relieved sigh. “Thank Christ, princess. Thought I was gonna have to take Slim out—”

“Fucker…” Slim slung his arm around my shoulders as we crossed the highway. “You name one time when you’ve bested me. One.”

Celia linked arms with Lou as they made their way down the seawall before looking back at me. “I can’t believe you thought I wanted to do… that.”

“I can’t believe you thought I’d be pissed about you wantin’ to smoke. Why the fuck would I care?”

Her gaze softened, and she let go of Lou to jog back to where I stood under the streetlight while they walked on ahead. “You just worked so hard to get clean, I didn’t want to trigger something by asking.”

Weed hadn’t ever been a drug that left me fucked up, but when I decided to get clean, I did it cold turkey and without a crutch to lessen the withdrawals.

“That explains your guilty smile in the elevator,” I said with a grin. “Don’t worry about me. Do what you want, and I’ll be right here to make sure you’re safe.”

She moved as if to kiss me before freezing. “Why do you smell like a cigar?”

Fuck.

In a perfect world, Mikey would’ve listened to reason, and I would’ve had time to run back to the room and gargle with mouthwash.

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