Page 32 of Love Thy Brother
I didn’t.
Jealousy, man. What a cunt.
River spun around and stormed towards the front door his mechanics had locked on the way out.
I jogged ahead and blocked him again.
He hit out, shoving me out of his way.
“Riv.”
He kept walking.
“Riv.”
Fuck me, he stopped.
Didn’t turn round, though.
I found my footing and got in his face again. “Wherever you go, I’m gonna follow, so you might as well tell me.”
River curled his lip. “And spoil the surprise? Where’s the fun in that?”
“You having fun, sweetheart?”
“Are you?”
I stepped closer, breathing him in, oil, sweat, and fury. “Course I am. I’m with you.”
River’s glare expanded into nuclear territory. His jaw ticked, hands twitching to thump me one. But he wouldn’t do it. Bar a couple of hardcore shoves over the years, he never had.
“We could go somewhere, you know.” I let my hands land on his tense shoulders. “Get some dinner. Talk a bit. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“How does getting a fucking pizza change the fact that you’re in my life when I don’t want you to be?”
“It doesn’t. But you’d be fed and angry instead of hangry.”
“Fangry?”
“If you like.”
I swear to God, he almost smiled.
Almost. Then his glare snapped back into place and he pushed me away again. “I’m not having dinner with you. I’m gonna go get fucked up. If you want to follow me around like a pound-shop stalker, that’s up to you.”
8
RIVER
Of course he followed me. If there was one thing I knew about Rubi Matherson, it was that once I had his undivided attention, it would take more than my bitter temper to scare him away.
He trailed me all the way to the Joker, oblivious to the hot stares his mere presence provoked. To the fact that he was stop-traffic beautiful and as weak at the knees as he left me, I needed him to be anywhere but here.
A sentiment I shared with the grouchy northerner behind the bar.
Skylar Buchanan scowled up a storm. “What are you doing here, Matherson?”
“Having a beer. What’s your excuse? Moonlighting from the hospital again?”
