Page 108 of Breaking Point
“Why?”
“They want a fight.”
Grayson now points at someone behind me. “Do your fucking job and kick them out!”
Following his line of sight, I find a sheepish security guard hurrying down the steps. When I turn back to Grayson, his eyes are locked on mine.
Are you okay?he mouths.
Nodding, I mouth back,Pissed off.
I’m not sure why but it makes him smile, the tension from earlier leaving him. Despite how much the fierce protectiveness that was pouring off him turned me on, this is the version of Grayson I look forward to.
The sweet man with kind blue eyes.
The drunk and all his stupid friends start swearing at the security guard, the group making a scene that requires several more guards to rush into the area and pull them up and out of the arena kicking and screaming.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Grayson winks before turning to a camera off to the side and calling out, “She’s mine!” Using his hockey stick, he points directly to me.
Cindy’s hand slaps down on my wrist as she squeals, and all I can do is laugh as Grayson continues to tap the plexiglass with his stick in my direction. “Don’t pan to me, pan to her. I want everyone to know Bella Stratford is my girlfriend!”
The camera suddenly wooshes toward me, my face filling the Jumbotron once again as the crowd coos and awes around me.
It picks up on every microdetail. The flush to my cheeks, my slightly widened eyes, and the smile that I can’t stop from blooming. I shake my head with laughter at Grayson as he stands on the other side of the plexiglass, looking smug.
“You’re a menace!” I call out.
He winks. “I may be a menace but I’m all yours, Blaze.”
And suddenly, that is the statement that catches in my mind as it screams at me to make it true.
But I can’t…for a plethora of reasons. Ones which I spend the rest of the game reminding myself of.
A chant forms in my mind.
This is all fake.
You are doing this to save your mom.
Men always leave. You can’t trust them.
Except with every chant, there’s a smaller voice rising to the occasion, filling my mind with his sweet words, heated gazes, and most of all, the name he’s suddenly decided to bestow upon me.
Blaze.
Cindy and I are nestled into a booth at the back ofO’Malley’s, giggling our tipsy heads off as we relay the highlight of the night and the moment that apparently is circulating around the internet.
Layla was right, there was bound to be something that would go viral. I probably have a thousand text messages burning a hole in my pocket from her. I wish she didn’t have to pack tonight and could have been with me to see it all firsthand. Her little romantic heart would have exploded.
Cindy’s blonde hair flares out as she throws her head back on a deep belly laugh. “He claimed you like a caveman.”
“More like a gorilla! Have you ever seen the memes of the gorillas pointing at their food?”
“No.”
“Well, you don’t need to. Just picture Grayson in a monkey suit and it’s identical.”
