Make her mine.
She’s fucking mine. This is happening. Tonight.
When I reach the bar, the guy’s back is to me, and Sophie’s eyes are bouncing around the room as if she’s looking for a way out of her current situation.
At your goddamn service, baby.
I toss the girls a quick glare for not noticing Sophie needed an out before I turn to the matter at hand, covering the space between Sophie and me in two seconds flat.
“Get your fucking hands off her before I break your goddamn fingers,” I growl, stepping up behind the guy. If I wasn’t so angry at the idea of another man touching Sophie, I would clock the way Maddy laughs and Sarah practically cheers. The smug smile on Maya’s face and Emmy’s beaming grin. Caitlin’s look that givesIt’s about fucking time, and my dad and Gabe’s enthusiastic thumbs ups from behind the bar and mydad’s gleeful “Finally.” And I would wonder whether I was the absolute last person on earth to know I was head over heels in love with my best friend.
But I don’t notice any of that because my hands are too busy clenching into fists to keep from punching this guy in his smug, stupid face and knocking out his way too-bright veneers.
“What are you doing?” Sophie demands, narrowing her eyes in that grumpy way of hers that has lust arrowing through me. Fuck, I love grumpy Sophie.
“Can I help you?” the guy asks with a bored expression on his face.
I cross my arms over my chest, straightening to my full height ofway taller than this asshole. “As a matter of fact, you can help me by taking your hands off her.”
“And you are?” he asks, turning his back to Sophie to face me, which enrages me for no good reason but for the fact that Sophie shines way too brightly to have anything less than anyone’s full and undivided attention. She definitely has mine.
“Hers,” I say, eyes pinned to Sophie’s.
“What the fuck, Tyler?” Sophie hisses, looking at me like I’ve lost my damn mind, and it’s entirely possible I have. None of this feels wrong, though. Not one single part of it.
“What did you say?” the guy asks cooly, taking a step backwards either to get away from me or to get closer to Sophie. My money is on door number one. Eat a bag of dicks, asshole.
“I said, I’m hers. Hers,” I say again, pointing to Sophie to make sure he gets the message. And that she does too. “And she’s mine, so I’ll be needing you not to touch her ever again, and to go somewhere far, far away because she’s not interested. Not tonight. Not ever.”
This time Sarah literally cheers, and Emmy lets out an impressively low whistle, but I don’t notice how anyone else reacts because my eyes are glued to Sophie, who is now staring at me like she’s never seen me before.
And she hasn’t. Not this way. Because figuring out I’m in lovewith her has rearranged my damn cells. Changed me right down to my deepest depths.
Fuckhead has the audacity to laugh, and my anger rises like a geyser, ready to explode. “I’ll leave when she tells me to leave. Until then, I suggest you leave us the hell alone.”
I open my mouth to speak, but Sophie beats me to it, pushing off the bar and shoving the asshole aside. “I suggest youbothleave me the hell alone. I don’t know what’s going on right now, but I don’t like it. I’m not a goddamn prize.” Sophie pins me with a searing glare before pushing past me and storming away.
“Shit,” I mutter, elbowing my way through the gathered crowd to follow her, Maya calling, “Go get your girl!” behind me.
I see her the second I turn down the hallway to the bathrooms. She’s muttering to herself, hands on her hips and toe tapping on the concrete floor. Her face is flushed, eyes flashing with irritation.
I need her like air.
I must make some sort of noise because she whirls on me, curls flying wildly behind her. “What the actual fuck? Like seriously, did you have a personality transplant in the twelve hours since I last saw you? Whatever made you think you could swing your dick around out there like you own me or something? I’m all set, Tyler, so you can back right the fuck off.”
I take one step towards her. Then another. I’m careful not to get too close because if I can reach her, I’ll be kissing her, and I feel like maybe we need to have a conversation first. “I can’t back off. He was touching you.”
Sophie rolls her eyes. “So the fuck what? A lot of people touch me, and some of them are men. In fact…” she starts, voice calculated, eyes narrowing just a touch, something that isn’t anger sparking behind the whiskey brown. “If I’m not mistaken, you have been touching me quite a lot lately.”
I take another step towards her, my body drawn directly to hers. There is nothing on earth that would make me leave thismoment. This place. Not with her looking at me like that—like she might finally understand. “I have.”
She tilts her head, studying me. “Why?”
I run my hand through my hair, smirking when her face immediately flushes. “Because you’re mine.”
“Yours?” Sophie scoffs incredulously. “I’m not yours.”
I chuckle because she can’t possibly be serious right now. And then I take one more step towards her. “You.”
