Page 14 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

“I’ve got it just fine, thanks,” I said through clenched teeth. The fact that Dre hadn’t offered to help hadn’t gone unnoticed by someone other than me, I was sure of it. It made me want to knock his ass off the chair, then beat him with it.

As if sensing the vibes fuming off me, Dre said, “Oh, hey, babe. Need some help down there?”

I looked up and smiled sweetly. “No, thank you.” I would have preferred him to help without asking, but I’d take it.

“Nice necklace. Where’d you get it? ”

When I moved my eyes from Dre to Thor, I closed mine tightly for a moment and breathed deeply. The grin on his face showed how pleased he was. I snatched it back and stuffed it in my purse.

“This dollar store piece of junk?”

He laughed as I quickly shoved the rest of my shit back into my bag. What was I thinking bringing something akin to a suitcase when I could’ve just used a tiny clutch? Not only that, why did I carry around this ridiculous shamrock necklace? The guy must think I careabout it or something. I just hoped Dre wouldn’t notice the one item that was missing amongst all the crap—his truck emblem. If he did mention it, I could say that it was holding a place of honor on my bedroom dresser. The only reason it wasn’t—

Yeah, right. No reason to worry—he wasn’t paying attention to anything I was doing. But he was staring at the unwanted visitor by our table, who in turn was looking intently at the object in his hand.

It didn’t take long before I realized what he was holding.Shit. It was the last thing to go back into my purse and the one thing I didn’t want him to see.

Blue eyes’ expression was unreadable until his face almost cracked in two. I swore those fucking irises twinkled as he extended his arm, handing the badge to me.

My work badge. My employee identification that I needed to carry with me at all times in order to gain access to the building.Shit.

“It was a pleasure seeing you again, Perry Sommers. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

I didn’t respond as I slid it into my purse. My throat was too tight to do anything except watch him walk back to his table and rejoin the woman waiting there for him. I forced down a swallow.

That smug fucker now knew my full name and where I worked.

“Did you ever fuck him?”

I gaped at Dre, my throat going to the other extreme and feeling too wide. Too bad he wouldn’t be taking advantage of that tonight.

“What? No.”

“You sure?”

“Of course, I’m fucking sure. How can you even ask me that?”

He shrugged. “Because that was just…. I don’t know. The way he looked at you. Maybe he’s someone you don’t remember?”

“No, I’m pretty sure I’d remember him.”

Dre frowned in a way that told me he wasn’t crazy about my answer, but what the hell? And I was just all-around pissed off. And confused. By what exactly, I wasn’t sure yet. Hence the confusion.

I glared at him, not caring if I started a fight that lasted the rest of the night. “And what do you care if I did sleep with him? He’s notoff-limits.”

My tone dared him to challenge me because he had no right. None whatsoever. I never once gave him shit for anyone he’d done during our off periods.

He pulled me into his arms, but I remained stiff. “Baby, I don’t care if it happened before. I care if he wants it to happen again.”

I pushed back on his chest. Part of me knew I was being unreasonable, but I just had an edge about me. Something sharp was chiseling away at my outer layers and it was getting dangerously close to my insides. It was annoying as hell.

“Why would you worry about that? Just because he wants to have sex with me again, that automatically means I’m too weak to say no?”

“That’s not what I’m saying, Perry.”

“Then why care if he wants it to happen again?”

“I thought you said it never happened at all.”

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