Weirdly, we’d started messaging about six months ago. Now, most people would say there was nothing weird about that at all; people messaged, right? Except I wasn’t that type. Messaging resulted in forming connections, and that wasn’t me. However, we’d been friends for years, and I enjoyed her immensely, and I didn’t just mean her ass.
Dark, sultry eyes locked with mine, and a feeling hit me deep in the chest.
My stare dipped to her full, pouty lips, and I watched them curve into a small, knowing smile. Something in the tiny gesture hit me again, but that time in the dick.
Damn.
“No!” Atlas suddenly snapped.
My confused stare sliced toward him, my eyebrows pulling together in question. “Huh?”
He swept his hand between me and the woman. “This. You two. That look. No!”
Every eye came to me.
“What two?” Cash asked.
My gaze returned to the woman, and I gave her The Smirk. “Hey, Rosie.”
She flashed her straight, perfect white teeth in a broad smile, replying, “Hey, Donovan. Long time no see.”
“It was you who left town,” I reminded her. “If I hadn’t shot you a message here and there, you’d have forgotten all about me.”
Her smile widened even more, and she lifted one shoulder in a little shrug. “Oh, I’m sure you’ve kept yourself occupied just fine without me.”
I barked a laugh.
Another thing about Rosie: she was full of lip.
“Dance later? Catch up?” I asked.
Her eyes flicked over my face. “I’ll see how full my card is.”
I clutched my hand to my heart and muttered, “She wounds me.”
Rosie rolled her eyes again, but that time, at me. “You’ll live.” Then she turned her back on me and said something to Cara, who glanced over and smirked before she linked arms with Ro and pulled her toward the bar.
“What the hell was that about?” Bowie asked, glancing at a retreating Rosie’s back.
“Nothing,” I replied, taking a pull of my beer.
“Looked like somethin’ to me,” Cash insisted. “Do you two have a thing goin’ on?”
“Not yet,” I drawled, my eyes resting on their new favorite spot, that being Rosie’s ass. “Is it me, or has she gotten even more beautiful?”
“Did I fuckin’ stutter?” Atlas demanded, throwing me some major side-eye. “I saidno.”
“She’s a grown woman who’s divorced with two teenage kids,” Breaker pointed out. “You can hardly vet her men.”
“What do you mean,men?” I asked.
Carbine jerked a thumb toward the bar where Rosie was laughing with one of the bartenders. “Have you seen her? She’s a fuckin’ eleven outta ten. Iceman calls her the pocket rocket for a reason.”
“Iceman can bite me,” I muttered, my eyes narrowing on the fuckhead behind the bar. “He ceased to be a factor the minute he fucked off to Virginia.” My stare slid to the Speed Demons’ SAA, who I noted was staring at me like he wanted to bury me alive. “Breaker’s right, though, Atlas. Rosie’s old enough to make her own decisions about who she dates.”
Atlas folded his arms across his chest. “Ro’s my sister, so if we’re splittin’ hairs, it means she’s my property, and so are DJ and little Gabby. You’re what Dagger would affectionately call a dog’s dick, so fuck off. She’s had her fill of shitty men with her ex-husband. The last thing my sister needs is to be added to your harem. And the last thing my niece and nephew need is another deadbeat motherfucker in their lives.”
A flicker of heat burned in my belly. “Deadbeat? I help run the family bar and own a gym. Hardly a deadbeat.”
