Page 61 of Marrying the Billionaire Single Dad
Spotting Isla, I head for her, Arpad right behind. "Jesus, man, cut me a break," I snap.
"Trust me, where you’re headed, you need a wing man."
"Go fuck yourself."
"Not interested." He chuckles.
"I forget you have a woman you are too much of a pussy to seal the deal with."
He grabs my shoulder, turns me around, "Shut the fuck up."
"You want a fight, you motherfucker?" I growl.
"I want you to take back what you said."
"No," I bare my teeth.
He throws a punch. I duck. "Hold on, I need to first take care of something else."
I stalk toward Isla. "Julia," I jerk my chin in the direction of the house, "she needs your help."
"What happened?" She frowns.
"She’s, uh, up in the bathroom."
"What did you do to her?
"Nothing she didn’t want done," I insist.
"I don’t believe you." She frowns. "Did you hurt her?"
I stare at her, then look away.
"Motherfucker," she snarls. "Why the hell are you toying with her?"
"I’m not." I slide a finger under my collar. "Look, it’s complicated, okay?"
"You bet your ass it is, buddy." She folds her arms over her chest. "I swear, sometimes I can’t thank my stars enough that I’m not entangled with a man."
"Is that right?" Liam prowls over to stand next to her. "You sure about that?"
She flinches, then glances at him sideways. "Hello, Mr. Not-one-of-the-Seven.”
"Liam," he says through gritted teeth. "My name is Liam."
"Goodbye Mr. Whatever-your-name-is." She flounces off. "And newsflash, I'm not interested."
"What the fuck?" He stares after her.
"What the fuck?" I frown at him. "You sweet on her or something, man?"
"I don’t do sweet anything." He turns those cold eyes on me and I bloody believe him. The Seven of us are ruthless and have seen enough to know that life’s not easy, and each of us have our ways, albeit unorthodox, to cope with that, but this man…? He was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth and has had a privileged existence, by all counts, so why the hell do I get the impression that he’s as tortured as us, if not more?
"Not that I care," I growl, "Except Isla is Amelie and Summer’s friend, both of whom married into the circle, which means she comes under the protection of the Seven, so you better not mess with her, man."
"And Julia?" He scratches his jaw, "What about her?"
"Don’t talk about her." I widen my stance, "If I were you, I’d stay the fuck away from her."
