Page 8 of Protect

“You’re fucking filthy, bro.” I take my final sip of beer.

“I got a shower at home. If she wants it, she’ll wait. A wise man once told me, ‘gotta plant the seed, King, plant the seed,’” he says with a menacing grin, using my own words against me from when I was a rookie and balls deep in women just wanting to spend a night with a hotshot. In those days, I didn’t say no very often either.

“Wanna join us, ladies?” Roycie asks, offering them an award-winning grin. “Could really use some company after the ferocious fire we just had to tame. Only been around these goons for almost a month straight.” He smirks. He’s sitting between me and Caleb and extends his arms out to grip each of our shoulders as he says it, then looks at me and waggles his eyebrows.

I chuckle.Fuckin’ manwhore.

All four women nod and stand immediately, moving to come join us.

Cal doesn’t even look up from his phone when the girls sit, Xander mutters something like “I’m getting too old for this shit,” and even though one of the women keeps smiling at me. I’m just not feeling it tonight either. I learned a few years ago that mixing one-night-stands with locals is never a good idea. Roycie will learn that too in time.

I give the woman looking at me a tight-lipped attempt at a friendly smile. Friendly because that’s all I’ve got for her. I’m fucking shook after coming face to face with Violette Taylor. I never thought I’d see her back in town.

Roycie plays the fake modest act with his audience. I half listen to him tell the girls that fighting wildfires is “all in a day’s work,” and that we’re “just extreme landscapers.” You’d think this fucker had been peddling this act for years instead of a few months.

I shake my head and laugh at our rookie, catching a glimpse of Violette through the crowd at the bar. It’s been five years since I laid eyes on her last, back at Jacob’s funeral. We didn’t talk, she was with her boyfriend at the time and way too upset for that. Her face was the last thing I expected to see when I walked through those doors tonight, and seeing her when I’m in this shape?

Fucking humiliating.

I watch as she smiles at a local guy now—Matt. He’s a medic who works with Cal’s girlfriend. Violette laughs at something he says and passes him a beer from the cooler. The jeans she’s wearing hug every curve she offers… and what she offers is perfection. Full tits filling out herShifty’stank top, which I’ve never found attractive on anyone in here until today. A toned waist that leads to soft round hips. Hips I could imagine rocking back and forth over me with my hands gripping them tight. And that smile, it curves up over her straight, white teeth as she tucks her thick hair behind an ear. Although she’s too far away for me to see it, I know that glimmery sort of light she gets in her eyes whenever she smiles is there. I just really don’t like that Matt is the one getting it right now. I scrub my hand over the base of my jaw.

Glimmery light?Christ, I need some fuckin’ sleep, and apparently a cold shower, since I’m sporting a goddamn semi just from looking at Violette.

I pick at the soggy label on my near empty beer bottle, watching Violette while the guys chatter on about the line we cut in yesterday and how pretty it was. Roycie is showing photos to the girls at our table, one of them is already sitting on his lap.

I wonder why Violette’s here and what happened with her husband as I continue to watch her. Her hair is longer than I remember, but still that same deep, honey sort of brown it’s always been, hanging in shiny waves almost to her waist.

I watch her wipe down the bar in graceful swipes as she sings along to a country hit and I get lost in her again. She’s still got the most incredible body. Curvy, but petite. That ass?—

“We keeping you awake?” Cal chuckles nodding toward Violette. “Are you surprised to see her? Brings him back even more, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I say, clearing my throat.

I contemplate asking about her for a few more minutes as the guys all talk.

Fuck it, I’m asking.

“So, is Violette, uh…her marriage—is she…you know, is it?—”

“Over?” Sup asks, cutting me off, leaning forward, propping his thick forearms onto the table. “Yeah, it is, and she’s doing her best to adjust, for her andher daughter. Jack says she’s finally getting past some of those old demons,” he adds. “In other words, you’re gonna give her some space.”

I scoff and look away. “Obviously,” I say to my boss, annoyed he knows me so well.

Cal backs his chair out; it scrapes against the wood floor as he readies to stand. “Another round?” he asks the table.

I take my chance without thought, fully rising faster than he does. “Gotta stretch my legs anyway, Cap. I got it.” I look around the table as I clap him on the shoulder. “Who wants?”

Dixon and Caleb ask me to bring them another, and Sup shoots me a look of warning, shaking his head.

“What?” I ask. “Just trying to give my hardworking bosses a break.” I grin in defense, backing away from the table with my hands raised.

“Uh-huh, what part ofspacedon’t you get?” Sup’s voice fades as I turn and make my way through the crowd.

I know Violette probably doesn’t want to see me, and I can’t say I blame her. In my defense, I was still a kid when I hurt her, and I had my reasons for both hurting herandnot telling her why.

Now, it seems she’s homeandsingle. And that changes everything.It also makes me hope she might be willing to forgive and forget.

Memories, coupled with regret and the loss of Jacob, threaten to steal the breath from my lungs as I eat up the space between us with steady strides.

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