I have half an hour left, actually, but if Dahlia notices, she doesn’t voice it.
“Do you want to stay and have lunch with us?” Darby asks innocently.
I swallow hard, forcing the emotion in my throat back down. Deep, deep down. I raise my head, faking a smile. “I actually have a date tonight that I need to go get ready for.”
“A date? Really?” That’s August’s voice, but I refuse to meet his gaze. His tone is cold and accusatory. The sound of it makes me bristle, but I hope he’s feeling even one-tenth the way I am right now, even if I’m lying through my goddamn teeth.
“I hope it’s not the filthy, derogatory orgasm guy from a few weeks ago,” Everett murmurs under his breath.
“Nope. He was a total douche, actually. Won’t ever go near that mess again.” I finally cut my gaze to August, and he’s seething. Nostrils flaring, there’s a simmering rage in his eyes that I’m certain matches my own. “In fact…” I flash my teeth at him. “I’m probably going to have even filthier, more derogatory, need-to-seek-a-priest-afterward orgasms with this new guy.”
“I am standing right here,” my mother mutters.
August looks at me with a clenched jaw and eyes blazing bright enough to set the building on fire. The rest of my family looks at me like I should be committed.
I hitch my thumb over my shoulder, in the direction of the back door. “Well, I better get going.”
“We have to go too,” Everett drawls, watching me with concern. “Everyone tell my girlfriend happy birthday.”
“Happy birthday, girlfriend,” we all mumble in alarming unison.
Leo kisses my head, and my mother hugs me before following the rest of my family out the door—Everett and Dahlia to their weekend away, my mom and Darby off to lunch, and Leo back to the surf shop.
August stays, watching me with that scorching stare. I ignore him, stalking through the doors to the back of the bakery andgrabbing my purse. When I return, he’s still there, arms crossed, waiting.
I shove past him and out the front door, taking a right on the boardwalk. He follows, reaching me in a few quick steps. “The fuck was all that about?”
“Don’t you have an appointment to get to?”
He pauses, barking a laugh before catching up to me again. “You’re fucking jealous.”
“I’m not jealous, but I find it appalling that you’d be…” I trail off, unsure of how to describe whatever the hell has been happening between August and me since I moved in with him two months ago.
“What, Elena?” August stops on the boardwalk, grabbing my arm and halting me too. “What claim do you so desperately want to have on me that the mere mention of another woman’s name next to mine sends you into such a spiral?”
My teeth grind, skin heating where he holds my wrist. The world warps around us—people passing by, the squeal of seagulls above our head, the sea breeze floating through my hair and the distant crash of waves against the shore—but all I can focus on is his flaming emerald eyes and the pressure of his touch.
“Are you…dating another woman and then coming home and holding me in the middle of the night?” I ask. “Toying with me the way you have been, while entertaining someone else at the same time?”
August bursts out an unhumorous laugh, jaw tight as he glances at our surroundings. Only now do I realize we’re standing directly in front of Heathen’s, and he must notice it too, tightening his grip on my wrist and dragging me around the side of the building.
Before we make it to the parking lot behind the boardwalk, August spins abruptly, pushing me against the wall of mybrothers’ surf shop. His chest is heaving, brushing against mine with every angry inhale. Green eyes blazing behind his dark-rimmed glasses, his nostrils flare as he studies my face.
“You are… You are delirious, woman.” He slides his hand up my arm, leaving goosebumps in his wake. “So frustratingly blind.” His long, strong fingers wrap around the back of my neck, tightening in my hair. “Impulsive. Reckless.” He inches into me. “But fuck are you beautiful when you’re envious.” His eyes linger on my lips before they snap to mine, blazing and breathtaking. “For you to think I’ve ever seen anyone but you—it is endlessly infuriating.” He huffs another flat laugh, nodding toward the parking lot. “Go get in the truck. I’m taking you home.”
“What about your appointment with Maggie?” I snap back.
“If you want to act like a brat, I’m going to treat you like one. If you want to throw a fit, I’m going to punish you for it. Now get your ass inside my fucking truck. Wait for me while I go cancel with her.”
All of the heat radiating across my skin floods right to my core at his insinuation, and I can’t hide the triumphant smile that spreads across my face.
I have an irrational, intense, ruthless hatred for whoever the fuck this girl Maggie is, and I don’t care how crazy that makes me. I’m dripping at the thought of him walking inside his shop right now to tell her that he can’t work with her today because he’ll be busy with me instead.
We are so fucking toxic.
“Yes, Daddy,” I whisper into his neck as I press off the wall, not missing the way he shivers. He damn near growls as he watches me walk away.
His Bronco’s top and doors are taken off, so I’m able to climb in easily, warm spring air breezing over my heated skin as I wait. It only takes a few minutes before the back door to BoardwalkTattoo opens and August slips out. His features are hard and rough, and I’m concerned about what it does to me to see him angry like this.
