Page 75 of Jump

I shove away from the table, knowing I’m playing into their hands exactly the way they’d hoped. But Viv is dying inside, and I’m the only one who can put an end to it.

I blow past Axel’s guests and draw eyes with every step I take.

But not Vivian’s. And not Drake’s. Because they’re too fuckin’ busy looking at each other.

“What are you doing?” Soph faux-panics as I round the end of the table and get closer. “Oh my gosh, big scary man with a bad attitude. Please don’t flatten the villagers!”

“You’re an asshole.” I point in her face, and snarl when she only smiles.

Then I stop behind Vivian, slam my palm to the side of Drake’s head, and shove him out of her space. Grabbing her jaw and jerking her head back until we’re eye to eye, even though she’s upside down, I study her crimson blush. “You’re a pain in my ass, Ana.”

Finally, dropping my mouth to hers and swallowing down her cry of surprise—which immediately turns to a hum of pleasure—I slip my tongue past her lips and make damn sure that she, and everyone else at this table, knows what the fuck is up.

“Hear hear!” Ellie lifts her wineglass in my peripherals, while further along the table, Nicole covers her daughter’s eyes, and battles when the seven-year-old is eager to watch something she shouldn’t.

Point made, considering Viv’s hands are latched on to the back of my head for an anchor, and Axel’s attention is squarely on the side of my face, I break our kiss and rest my forehead on Viv’s.

Her breath races and her chest heaves for fresh oxygen. Her lips are plumper because of mine, her blush, redder because of my actions.

“Don’t play with fire, Anarchy.” I drop another fast kiss, and smirk when she trembles. “I told you, I jump in every single time.”

Pulling back, I peer to Drake and raise a single, challenging brow. “Move to the empty seat over there. You’re sitting in mine.”

Chuckling, he rises to do as I say. But when he tries to take his plate with him, I swing my arm out and knock it from his hand. “Leave the turkey leg.”

“What. The. Fuuuuuuck?” Axel’s eyes, wide like saucers, search every unsurprised face in his crowd.

Not even Drake seems all that bothered by my interference—which is more proof that I was set up.

“Ruiz is kissing… h-he’s…” Axel looks to Hannah, pleading. “Babe?”

“Not just kissing,” she exclaims. “Banging. I mean, not right this very minute. But most days, he and Viv… yep.”

“But I don’t… I’m not…”

While he flounders, I smile down at Viv.

“You wanted a reaction,” I murmur. Leaning closer, I feather another kiss to her lips. “You forgot I don’t back down. So now he knows.”

Releasing her face and plopping down beside her, I grab her hand beneath the table and slide our fingers together. “Don’t make it weird,” I command Axel, picking up Drake’s turkey leg with my free hand and taking a bite. “We prefer privacy.”

Speaking of…

I turn to Hannah and lift a brow. “You think you’re funny, but you made your best friend uncomfortable by bringing a fuckin’ escort in here to annoy me.”

“An escort?” Drake laughs. But then he sobers and looks to little Juniper, of all people. “What kinda money do those folks make, you reckon?”

“I dunno.” She shrugs comically big, then slides her finger into the mashed potatoes and scoops some out. “I don’t even know what that is.”

“And we’re gonna keep it that way,” her mother grits out. “Now let’s eat before Hannah’s hard work goes to waste.”

“But he just…” Poor, dumb-ass, cocky Axel continues to flounder. Searching his guests’ faces, a man out to sea, drowning and searching for a floaty. “Ruiz. He’s—”

“Done talking about it with anyone except her,” I say firmly.

As everyone returns to their meal, the tension in the room being mostly resolved, I drag mine and Viv’s joined hands to my lap, tugging her closer to my side. Turning my head, I press a gentle kiss to her temple.

“I’ll make you pay for this,” I whisper. “In one hour. For now, we eat, we chill… then we’re going home, and you’re paying up.”

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