Page 37 of Test the Ice
“What? You can’t believe that she’d find someone better than you or…?” I let my words linger, and I hope they leave a sting behind.
Benedict abruptly stands from sitting on the hood of Reese’s car. She attempts to take a step back as he heads for us, but I refuse to let her do so.
He isn’t going to intimidate her with me standing here.
The moment his fingers wrap around her delicate wrist, a touch of anger skims my skin.
“I don’t see a ring,” he snarls.
She doesn’t bat an eye. “It’s being sized.”
Damn, she’s good.
I eye the crowd. Their cell phones are already being pointed in our direction. I lean toward Benedict and lower my voice. “Take your hand of my fiancée before these cameras catch something you’d be embarrassed about later.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Reese glances at me, but I hold Benedict’s stare until he releases her wrist. She quickly grabs my hand again, her palm sweaty with nerves. Benedict smooths his pressed shirt and sits back down on the hood of her car, apparently with more to say.
Get a clue, bro. She isn’t that into you.
“Has Charleigh met him?”
Reese’s fingers clamp onto mine.
Fuck, I really need to find out who this Charlie person is.
She scoffs. “Of course she has!”
She?
Charleigh is a she?
“Hey! Are you Malaki Young?” I turn toward a group of guys standing outside the club with none other than my Uber partner lingering behind them with his glasses perched on the end of his nose.
Benedict pops up from Reese’s hood. “Well, then… I guess you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.” Before he makes it to the curb, he turns and winks at Reese. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, sweetheart.”
A lawyer?
What the hell did I just get myself into?
The subtlest gasp from Reese hits my ears, pulling my attention to her face. Her eyes are glassy, that lip of hers white with the force that her teeth are putting into it.
I’m not one to waste time when I’m a spectacle, so I pull her over to the passenger side of her car and open the door. She looks up at me, a million and one emotions flickering across her face. My hands find her hips, and I slowly guide her to sit. Her hands are shaking, so I pull on the seatbelt and strap her in before jogging over to the driver’s side.
I may not know everything about my mystery Uber driver, but now that we’re engaged, I suppose we have plenty of time to get to know one another.
Fourteen
REESE
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,”I mutter quietly. “What am I going to do?”
I bounce my eyes back and forth, moving them from the windshield, to the dashboard, then back to the windshield.
My lip hurts from the incessant chewing, and all I can hear is Benedict’s voice in my head on repeat:You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.
A tremble wracks my body. “Fuck,” I say again.
Malaki is quiet. We’ve been driving around Chicago for at least thirty minutes, going nowhere. He hasn’t asked a single question as I sit here mumbling under my breath like a psych patient.
