Page 87 of Maximum
“Ah, so ye’re one of the helpers on her farm?”
Clearly, she hadn’t told them about me. My eyes swung to her, before I turned my whole body to face him. “No, I’m not one of her helpers. I’m the man she’ll marry.”
The guy had the nerve to chuckle. He was drunk and made the mistake of placing his hand around Fleur’s shoulders. “This one is a cutie. She just needs to learn about soccer…”
“Get your hands off her.” I sneered in warning while Fleur gave him a patient smile and shrugged out of his hold.
When he grabbed on to her shoulder for the second time, I pushed him back hard, making him stumble into a table behind him. “I said, don’t fucking touch her.”
The shift in atmosphere was instant. He pushed out his chest and his friends stepped closer.
“Maximum, don’t. It’s not what you think.”
I was so fired up with blinding jealousy that I was ready to fight, but Fleur stepped between us and this time she looked pissed. “Outside,now!”
With a glaring stare at the guys, I followed Fleur when she pulled me by my hand. She didn’t stop until we were outside and across the street from the pub.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Haveyou?” I couldn’t stand still with the adrenaline pumping through me. My hands went to my hips as I glared at her.
Fleur met my anger head on. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You were wearing their clothes?” My jealousy had formed a wall of defensive rage around me, making me hard and unkind.
“One of them placed a hat on my head to make me fit in. I wasn’t kissing with any of them, was I?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“Maximum, this is ridiculous. I’m allowed to have a fun night out without you making me feel guilty.”
“Fine, then go back to your new friends.” I pointed across the street.
“Why are you acting like this?”
“Why? Because I fucking just walked into a bar and saw you flirting with four other guys. I heard you danced all night. Did any of them touch you? Rub against you?” I could hear the venom in my tone, but it was like a stranger had possessed my body and I couldn’t reason with him.
“You can’t blame other men for showing an interest in me.”
“You told them about the farm but not about me. Why? Are you embarrassed by me?” I snarled.
“Nooo, of course not. You’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I? Or could it be that these past months awoke the part of you who wanted love and romance? You were pretty eager to go out tonight when Jolene suggested it. For all I know, you’re thinking about exchanging me for someone with safer dad genes, or does he only have to be older than me?”
“That’s crazy talk, Max. I’m not looking to replace you, but I’m not going to apologize for having fun in a pub and dancing with other men. I told you my biggest fear in a relationship was losing autonomy. If you’re going to shout at me for having innocent fun, then we have a problem. You need to trust me.”
“I want to trust you, but…” I was boiling over with frustration and fear that this was it. Fleur was going to do what every serious girlfriend of mine had done before her. She was going to cheat on me or leave me.
“What’s going on?” Jolene came from the side as Fleur and I stood facing each other in the middle of our fight.
“Maximum is being unreasonable. He saw me talking to four other men and now he’s convinced I took them all for a spin in the women’s bathroom.”
I growled and ran my hands through my hair. “That’s not fucking funny.”
“Fleur, stop taunting the poor man when you know he suffers from severe jealousy. He admitted that much.”
Fleur’s hands swung through the air. “I’m not going to let him ruin a fun night just because he’s seeing ghosts. He came here to spy on me.”
