Page 26 of Dirty Puck

“Let me finish this first,” he said to the women. Only then did they back out of the camera view.

The guy thanked him profusely and mumbled under his breath, “My wife will be sorry she stayed home.” And I had to laugh because, yeah, I bet she would.

The women swarmed Reece.

“Can you take our picture, too?” the blondest blonde asked and I tipped my chin graciously, stepping up to take her phone, but when she posed with her hand on his chest, dropping the other to his back low, too close to his derriere for my liking, I felt like I owed it to him to defend his personal body space or something like that.

“Excuse me…” I found myself speaking up. “How would you feel if a man put his hands on you like that? He’s a human being.”

She jerked her head back then glared at me. “Who are you to tell me anything, skank?”

“Okay, no photo,” Reece snapped. The woman looked at him like he had spikes sprouting out of his head.

“Excuse me?” she asked him, all haughty and affronted. “You’re gonna side with the skank?”

“She’s my girlfriend,nota skank, and she was kind enough to take a photo for you, until you decided to get rude. I get it, you’re embarrassed because she called you out, but you had no right to put your hands on me without my consent.”

Blondie flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Yeah, well… Antonov is hotter.” She stormed off in a huff.

Good God, if this was the dating pool now, no wonder he came to me for help. Puck bunnies were the worst.

When I stepped up to Reece to say something supportive, he stopped me. “Thank you”—he gestured with his chin— “for that. When you’re a public figure, people think that they own your time and your body. It’s a job hazard.” He grabbed my hand to get us walking again.

His honesty once again surprised me.

We made it to the shopping carts before I leaned in to tell him, “Antonov isnothotter, by the way.”

Reece threw his head back laughing. “I’ll let him know you said that.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“You like me, you know it.” He winked at me, showing off that adorable dimple that made me want to simultaneously screw his brains out and punch him in the gut.

“Let’s just get the car seat.”

“You can’t say it, can you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He lifted his hand to my chin, using his thumb to tug down on the skin below my lip to make it look as if my mouth was moving, but instead, doing the talking for me in a high-pitched voice, “I like Baker Reece. He’s so sexy. He has the best dick in the world.”

Okay, so this time I did punch him in the gut, but I did it laughing. “I will neither confirm nor deny the veracity of your statements.”

“Oh, you are so hot for me. It’s written all over your face.”

I took off walking back toward the car seats rather than respond. The man already had a big enough ego. He certainly didn’t need me fueling it by admitting that he absolutely rocked my world in the bedroom. And okay, I guess it was fair to say I liked him now on a more personable level.

Reaching the aisle I wanted, I walked over to the model seat Benny already had.

“This the one you want?” Reece asked.

“It’s the same one he has now. I think it’ll make him more comfortable to have something familiar.”

“Done,” he said, hefting the large box onto one shoulder while taking my hand with the other, walking us up to the self-checkout. He scanned the barcode and pulled his wallet from his front pocket to retrieve his card, tapping it to pay for his purchase.

“This is really cool of you,” I said as we left the store, making our way back to his truck.

He shrugged as he held the car door open for me. “If we’re going to make this work, I’ll be carting you and Benny around a lot.”

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