Page 3 of Finding Redemption

She gave me a small smile.“Yeah,” she choked out as the driver slowed to a stop in front of the mansion.

Several sports cars, a limo, and three SUVs were already parked off to the side.I had been told the party wouldn’t start until four, which meant I still had over an hour to spend some time with Bella and do her hair before her friends were due to arrive.

Getting out, I reached back in for the goodies we’d stopped to buy on our way, my excitement for this party climbing.Every other one, I’d been half dreading, but they paid my bills, and I was good at being a pretend princess.But this time, I was going to have fun.

I was gathering the second bag when I heard a growl behind me.A shiver went through me, goose bumps pebbling on my skin.Holy shiitake!How could a growl be so sexy?

“Why the fuck didn’t you wait for my driver?”

Spine snapping straight, I turned.Sexy or not, no one talked to my friend like that.My temper was already starting to boil, but he kept snarling at her.

“You got into some stranger’s car dressed like that?Jesus Christ.”Sariah cringed, lowering her head as a man dressed in black slacks with a black dress shirt stretched over his shoulders yelled at her.I got a brief peek of dark ink on his chest since the top few buttons were undone, as well as tattoos on both his hands, but I was too angry to focus on them.“What the fuck am I going to do with you?”

I gently grasped Sariah’s arm, tugging her out of the way so I could deal with the jerkwad.“You do not talk to her like that.Ever.”My bags hit the ground as I slapped a hand against his chest.

Ouch.It was like smacking a concrete wall.

Tipping my head back, I glared up, up, up.And up some more.At five foot one, I was used to having to crane my neck to meet people’s eyes.But for Pete’s sake, the man in front of me was a literal giant.With muscles.Hard, perfectly sculpted muscles.That I had a sudden urge to lick.

Holy hotcakes.How could a man be both pretty and masculine at the same time?It made zero sense to my brain, yet there I was, looking up into a face that was exactly that.He was the kind of good-looking that only got better with age, proof of which was the light sprinkle of gray in his dark-brown hair, the longer locks on top pushed back from his face.I would have guessed he was closer to forty than thirty, but I had no idea if I was even close.He could have been a movie star with a face that gorgeous.

I had to blink a few times to break the spell I suddenly felt drawn into.

This asshole had just yelled at my friend.He might have been pretty to look at, but it was obviously only skin-deep.I smacked at his chest again, just for being a dickhead.“Sariah is a grown woman.She doesn’t need you to play daddy and boss her around like she can’t make a simple logistics decision on her own.News flash, she’s a big girl.She can get from Point A to Point B without a big, strong man holding her hand.”

From beside me, I heard Sariah make a choking sound, but I was so caught up in my lecture of Mr.Muscles to see if she was upset or amused.

“And why the heck does it even matter what she’s wearing?Hello, women can go outside dressed however they want without needing a man’s permission.”

“Brooke,” Sariah murmured.“It’s okay.Really—”

“No, it is not okay,” I growled.“This overgrown baboon’s butt is going to stop snarling and apologize.Right now.”

Hazel eyes narrowed on me.“Excuse me?”

“There is no excuse for you.”I crossed my arms over my chest, tapping my foot.“We’re waiting.”

He ran his gaze over me, twice.My entire body felt as if he had physically touched me, and I was thankful my dress hid my hard nipples.One side of his mouth ticked up.“Sariah, is this your new roommate?”

“Paxton…”

I threw up my hands in disgust.“You are Paxton?As in Bella the birthday girl’s father?”He slowly nodded.“You have an impressionable six-year-old running around, and yet you act like…like…like…”

There were a hundred different names I wanted to call him, but every one of them would have made my momma wash my mouth out with soap when I was a kid.

“Ah, so she’s an idiot.”He nodded to himself.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I stabbed my finger into the center of his chest.“You’re nothing but a misogynistic asshole, high off his own chauvinism.And we are still waiting for that apology.”

His lip twitched upward again.“I sent a car to collect the both of you.Instead, you show up here in a fucking Uber.Do you know how dangerous it is for any woman, but especially ones who are as beautiful as the two of you, to get into a stranger’s car?”

“Stop cursing at us,” I chastised.“Taking an Uber is perfectly safe.I use them all the time and have never had an issue.”

A rumbling sound came from his chest.“That will be stopping as of now.”

“Sure thing, Daddy.Let me get right on making you happy.”Rolling my eyes, I went back to tapping my foot impatiently.“You’re wasting my time, Mr.Foster.The birthday girl is waiting.”

His gaze shot from Sariah to me and back again.“She’s serious?”

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