Page 72 of Live for Me

“Is he bothering you?” he asked Memphis before he looked back at me.

“The only person bothering her isyou. Come on, Memphis,” I said and held out a hand to her. I could feel the moment that my heart tried to go into cardiac arrest when she glanced down at my hand rather than just taking it.

“Maybe I’m not ready to leave yet,” she said quietly.

This motherfucker got bold after that and put his body squarely between her and me while crossing his arms over his chest.

“Hear that? She says she’s staying with me,” he said and smirked.

I watched the tiny girl behind him start chewing on her lip to try to hide a smirk.

She was enjoying this now that I was standing here. Now that she knew I was still watching, and she was still safe.

And she was pitting him against me?

I made myself look back at this asshole. “I don’t think that’s what she said.”

“Are you deaf or stupid then?” he asked. “If she’s leaving, it’s with me.”

I smiled when I looked at Memphis that time. “You’re about to get a young man killed tonight, sugar. Are you ready to live with that?”

“You want to try saying that again?” he threatened.

The smile that Memphis had been chewing on disappeared entirely.

“Come over here, angel,” I said as calmly as I was able. She moved immediately that time to step around this man. He grabbed her by the wrist before she made it all the way to me, and my body reacted again. I stepped right at him to push the shoulder closest to Memphis and simultaneously slammed my fist down on the wrist of the hand that he was using to hold her. He squealed and stumbled backward, looking down at his own wrist like he was afraid I’d broken it. Memphis took that opportunity to put herself fully behind me.

“You’ll lose that hand if you touch her again,” I warned.

“Motherfucker,” he hissed at me. Then he shifted his gaze to Memphis. “What are you doing? You don’t have to go anywhere with him.”

My whole body tensed when he stepped toward me again, but Memphis wrapped herself around my arm. Her fingernails bit into the skin of my forearm while she held the full length of my arm against the front of her body.

“Let’s just go,” she said quietly.

When she started to pull on my arm, I backed away a couple steps to make sure this asshole didn’t think he was going to be the hero tonight by following us, and then I turned to follow her out to the parking lot.

She made it to the truck in record time, and the second that she nearly had her door open, I quickly slammed it shut.

“Utah,” she hissed.

Likeshewas the one who had a right to be pissed.

“Care to explain yourself?” I asked.

“Not particularly, no.”

I grabbed her arm to spin her, so she was facing me, and I stepped all the way against her to pin her between me and the truck.

“Let me rephrase that,” I whispered. “Explain. Yourself. Now. Memphis.”

Something between a sigh and a moan came from her mouth. Just barely loud enough for me to hear it. And instead of keeping her caged against the truck just by being close to her, I took the opportunity to put my foot directly between hers so I could lean forward until the front of my thigh was pressed directly between her legs just to find out what might happen. Her hands came up to my hips and I could feel her fingernails digging in again when she tried desperately to just breathe.

“Utah,” she whimpered.

Her bottom lip even shook when she said it and holy fucking hell, the kind of restraint that it took to not just chew on it for her.

“As much as I love hearing my name from this mouth,” I said and dragged my thumb across that shaking lip. “It’s not the explanation that I asked for, angel.”

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