Page 12 of Jacob

No response. Which was fine. He didn’t expect one. The two men were deep in business talks. Dash outranked Jacob in the club, which meant he was the one to handle club business on the road. Jacob was merely backup.

Sparrow leaned over the bar as she waited for Bowie’s drink. The tiny shorts she wore rode up, but they weren’t small enough to reveal the naked bottoms of her ass. Damn shame he hadn’t had more time to really appreciate that ass.

“I know,” Bowie grunted and drew Jacob back into the conversation.Shit, had he caught him again? “We’re prospecting more to replace what we have to shed.”

Nope. Coast was clear. Thankfully, the tube top remained at the bar, right near where Sparrow waited for the drink.

As though on cue, to demonstrate Bowie’s words, which Jacob only half paid attention to, a man in a leather cut with a bottom rocker reading “Prospect” sidled up to Sparrow. Narrowing his eyes, Jacob watched the man slip an arm around her waist in familiarity.

Fuck that shit.

Putting the beer bottle down, he ran a hand over his fist and cracked his knuckles. He witnessed the chaste kiss she allowed the man to give her on her cheek before he handed her a lollipop.Maybe her brother, he lied to himself.

Graciously, she accepted it, unwrapped it, and put it in her mouth. His tongue ran along his bottom lip. If he had just pressed a little bit harder, he would still have the flavor of the lollipop she had earlier on his lips. Maybe. Okay, probably not. That beer he’d just had lingered in his mouth and there wasn’t a lollipop in the world that would counteract that horse shit. Grinding his teeth, Jacob watched as she took the whiskey from the bartender and put it on her tray.

She and the prospect shared a few words before she turned and her eyes met Jacob’s and he couldn’t miss that stutter step. Body language spoke volumes. Apparently, the little bird didn’t expect him to be watching.

The conversation beside him shifted to a murmur, as it was no longer his focus. She was his focus. Nothing else mattered. He mouthed the words to the song she’d sang on the picnic table the day he met her.

As she made her way back to their table, her movements lacked the grace and ease she’d used earlier. She bumped into a guy in plaid, causing the drink to slosh. She sidestepped a dancing woman she would have easily seen earlier. Her attention flicked back and forth between watching where she went and to Jacob. It was as though she’d lost some confidence under the scrutiny of his gaze.

The look on his face must have been murderous. Hefeltmurderous. There was nothing he could do to soften it though, even if he wanted to. Boyfriend, he could deal with. Easy enough to manage. A potential brother—that was another story. That complicated things. Jacob wasn’t particularly fond of complicated.

A prospect couldn’t give her the things she needed. A fucking prospect didn’t have fucking time to have a woman in his life. His life should be the club—proving himself to his brothers. She shouldn’t have to come second to the club. Sparrow was a woman worthy of being first.

Running his tongue along his teeth, he wouldn’t break his gaze on her. He should. It wasn’t fair to stare at her this hard. She didn’t deserve it. She wasn’t his. Hell, he hadn’t even fucking seen her in seven goddamn years. Yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

The Prospect was an insult to her. She shouldn’t be settling for a goddamn prospect. She could have a fucking officer.

The tension grew tighter in his neck, down his arms, and through his hand. His fingers pressed against the glass beer bottle. He wasn’t an officer either.

What the fuck did she see in a prospect?

He wanted to ask her, but now wasn’t the time. She was at work and he was supposed to be focused on this club business. How he was supposed to focus on club business knowing Sparrow was prancing around in those short ass shorts was beyond him.

When she got to the table, he finally broke the gaze and tried to drink the beer again. This time he gagged, which drew everyone at the table’s attention to him.

Slamming the bottle down, he glared at Dash. “It’s fucking piss,” he barked, realizing it would appear as an irrational response to them.

Confused faces watched him as he took a napkin and wiped his face. “Jameson,” he ordered with the assumption Sparrow would serve it to him.

“Okay,” she said in bewilderment around the lollipop. “You want me to take that?” She gestured toward his beer.

“If you don’t, I’m pouring it over that fucker’s head.” He pointed to Dash, who only laughed before doing a double-take at Sparrow.

Yep. There she is, up close and personal, he thought as he stared at his sponsor, who shifted his gaze from Jacob to Sparrow’s ass as she walked away. Jacob’s deadpan expression told his brother he needed to stop. That ass was offfuckinglimits.

Slamming his flat hand on the table, Bowie got their attention. “Now, I’m willing to bend over and take my licks to put my club in the right way and running the way it should with the Fury’s help, but I need to tell you two chuckleheads now, that girlain’tclub ass.” He pointed a calloused finger first at Dash, and then he let it linger on Jacob. “Soquiteye fuckin’ her. She’s practically my daughter.”

Chapter 8

Sparrow

When Sparrow collided with the third person on her way back to the bar from Bowie’s table, she internally cursed Jacob. Mumbling an apology to the woman wearing a mini skirt and a sports bra for a top, she ducked her head and shuffled her feet on her way. This hyperawareness of his gaze clinging to her like the body glitter she put on in the late nineties would cost her tips.

As she lifted a few empty bottles off the table in front of her, she offered a polite smile seeing they already had refills and glanced over her shoulder. Bowie looked pissed. The bald guy looked like the cat that caught the canary, and Jacob just stared at her. Diverting her eyes, she licked her bottom lip.

What the hell had she been thinking? He’d almost kissed her. She just about let him. Their lips touched. That was essentially a kiss. In the fucking Spoke.

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