Page 19 of Worship
“There isn’t,” Luca says, bringing his drink to his lips with a cocky smirk, still not taking his eyes off me. What the fuck is happening?
Josh leans down and whispers in my ear, “I’m going. Grab your purse, babe.”
Ten minutes ago, I may have gone, but now he just feels like another entitled asshole that won’t be coming home with me.
“I’m going to stay. I don’t want to leave my friend.”
I eye Lyla and smile, hoping he takes the hint. I chance a glance in Luca’s direction and see that he and Josh are glaring at each other.
Josh doesn’t back down from the staring contest, while barking orders to Phillip.
“Get your girl—we’re leaving.”
He takes my elbow to lead me out; my brows shoot up, and I look at him like he’s crazy.
“Take your hand off her elbow, or I’ll feed you your tongue.”
Luca’s deep gravel is calm and fucking scary as he places his drink down on the table and takes a deep breath. He brings a palm to his cheek and rubs his stubbled face. My eyes grow wide, and Lyla’s mouth drops open. It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.
He stands and takes off his jacket.
“The problem with boys like you is that you haven’t learned how to be men.” Unbuttoning his shirtsleeves, he rolls each side up his muscular arms. “You assume that the more you bulldoze, the stronger you are. But that’s not how life works, Josh.”
Luca’s hand comes to my waist and he pulls me gently to the side and places me behind him. He walks closer to Josh’s puffed-out chest and leans in to him, jaw tensed.
“Have you ever gotten the wind knocked out of you, Josh?” Josh’s eyes search Luca’s, but he doesn’t answer. “You know that feeling? The one you have for just a moment when you think you won’t be able to breathe again? The fear that you won’t ever feel the air pull into your body?”
Josh nods, his Adam’s apple bobbing slowly as he swallows.
“That’s what it’ll feel like, Josh. What I’ll do. Forget about choking on the blood—it’s the inability to breathe that scares you to death. Maybe even before you actually suffocate.”
“What the fuck, man?” Josh breathes out.
Luca reaches up and pats Josh’s ashen face.
“Don’t force my hand, Josh. I’m a scary guy. The kind that doesn’t believe in right and wrong. Do you understand?”
Luca grips the back of Josh’s neck and pulls his ear closer, and I swear I hear him whisper, “You can’t have her.”
Josh just nods at a rapid pace as he backs up. Lyla looks at me in shock but motions her head for me to follow her as Phil pulls her away from the table. I shake mine in the negative.
I don’t know if I’m completely insane or not, but I sit down and pick up the drink Josh fetched for me.
“Well, you really know how to clear the room, Luca.”
He turns to look at me, then takes my hand, his eyes still lost in the moment.
“Dance with me.”
Luca leads me out to the dance floor just as our jazzy crooner starts a slow and sweet rendition of a Nina Simone song. He takes one of my hands and joins them together, placing them near his heart, and wraps the other around my waist to pull us flush. My cheek presses against his chest, and we sway to the music as if this was the most natural end to the night.
I push every thought, every question, out of my mind. I don’t know what’s happening or why, but in this moment, I could die and be complete.
IDON’T KNOW WHAT THEfuck got into me. I lost my goddamn patience, then my composure, but sure as hell, Gretchen is still here. She isn’t predictable from what I’ve seen from her, except that no matter what I throw at her, she seems unfazed.
This woman is part supermodel and full badass wrapped around a wicked sense of humor and the truth.My truth.It’s strange to think someone I barely know understands me deeper than a woman I’ve spent the last year and half with.
The most fucked-up part is that I’m pissed Shelby lied about her intentions, not that she fucked someone else. But I couldn’t watch Gretchen walk out of this bar with anyone that wasn’t me, even though I can’t take her home.
