Page 62 of Amor Prohibido

I chuckled. “Yeah, your sweet kitty.” With a smack to her ass, I sent her in Lozza’s direction.

* * *

We arrived at the private upstairs function room atThe Verban hour later—a popular local restaurant. The set up was incredible; tables covered in white linen and hundreds of black and gold 21st balloons clung to the low ceiling. A huge drinks table hosted an array of wines and large bowls of punch. The server staff stood alert and ready to jump into action, and the band was setting up at the far end of the room conducting various sound tests.

The entire place had an awesome vibe already, and we hadn’t even officially kicked off the party yet. I made my way over to Darren at the bar after giving Jax and Callie a kiss on the cheek and leaving them to their girl chat. Darren greeted me casually as I slid onto the barstool next to him. He was already halfway through his first beer but signalled to the barman without asking what I wanted. A Coruba arrived in front of me, quick as a flash; Daz knew me too well.

“How’s that sister of mine treating you?” he snickered.

Mate, you do not want to know the answer to that question.

I grinned and raised my brow, clinking our bottles together before taking a swig. “Hot tempered as always,” I joked. “She looks good, ay?”

Darren pursed his lips tightly as he looked over his shoulder. “You guys taking shit seriously?” he asked without looking away from Jax.

I stalled for a moment, taking another casual swig. “Yeah, we are.”

“Good. Your proposal wasn’t all talk, then.”

My chest constricted around the words I was about to say. Daz and I hadn’t had this conversation yet, but it needed to be said before the night progressed. Taking another sip of rum for courage, I said, “Mate,” then waited for him to look me square in the eye.

“I love her, Darren.”

His brows hit his hairline. “Like,loveher?”

I ran a hand over my shit-eating grin. “Yeah, man. Hard. I feel like I’m one lucky son of a bitch.”

Darren twisted in his seat to follow my line of sight again. “Yeah, you are. She looks happy—veryhappy. I’m… I’m fucking stoked for you, brother. Gotta say, I’m a little surprised too, to be honest.”

I agreed through a laugh. “Same here, man. Same here.”

A devilish glint entered in his eyes, and he grinned into his beer. “I never told you how hard she yelled at me for meddling in her personal life. Her switch was set to kill, and she actually scared me a little. I’ve never seen her so fucked off; it was surprisingly frightening. I thought I was going to end up with another bloody nose!” He chuckled at the memory while I snorted.

“She’s a little spitfire when she needs to be. Although, I knew what I was getting into; I saw her savage side often enough when we were kids. And you totally deserved a second bloody nose, by the way.”

His laugh grew louder, and he pointed his bottle at me. “Don’t I know it? Like the time you drew moustaches and mono-brows on her fuckin’ barbie dolls. Damn, she was ragin’!”

“Who was raging?” Jax’s inquisitive voice cut through our laughter.

Darren leaned down and hugged her, kissing her cheeks as he did so. “You were. Happy birthday, little sis. You look beautiful as ever. Simplemente hermosa [Simply beautiful].”

J’s eyes that had been narrowed at his first comment, softened and she beamed a megawatt smile. “Gracias, hermano. You don’t scrub up too bad yourself.”

My hand automatically found the small of her back, and Darren’s expression blazed at the sight. It was going to take him some time to get used to the idea of us being together. Knowing it and seeing it were entirely two different things. At this stage, his big brother instincts were still in full swing.

“What would you like to drink, sweetheart?”

“Well, I would say a vodka and V, buuuut I’ll have a lemon, lime, and bitters instead.”

“You realise that bitters is actually alcoholic?” Darren chipped in, not bothering to hide his amusement.

“Bullshit,” Jax challenged.

“I promise you. Read the bottle if you don’t believe me.”

My woman scoffed and pulled out her phone, then typedIs bitters alcoholic?Her gasp said it all. “Well, that’s a fucking let-down.”

Chuckling, Darren dug into his inner jacket pocket and his cheeky smirk pulled wider. “You wanna know what else is a let-down? This!” he exclaimed and pulled out a fat cigar with a flourish, then waved it in Jax’s face.

---