Page 32 of Knotting Hill
Josh
“Excuse me?”I blurt out, marching around the counter and grabbing Russ’s elbow to drag him further away from the nosey customers.
He came racing in here a few seconds ago, red in the face and spitting feathers.
He hisses. “You heard me.”
“I heard you say that Storm is going on a date with the guy from the coffee shop.”
Russ growls.
“Wow, okay.” It hits me in the gut. I guess the kiss meant more to me than it did to her. Although, in all fairness, she has no idea what we feel for her and was taken completely by surprise by my lips on hers.
It didn’t stop her from kissing me back, though.
But this stings.
I narrow my eyes. “Are you sure that’s what you heard?”
“I saw it with my own eyes, all the flirting. He’s a shark, and I told her so.”
“You spoke to her? What did you say?” This isn’t good. He would’ve reacted like a jealous prick and probably pushed her even further away from us.
“I told her he was after all the hot omegas, and she should be careful.”
I groan and rub my hand over my face. “You fucking wanker.”
“What? I wasn’t going to let her swan off with him.”
“So she said she wouldn’t go?” I’m getting confused now.
“No, she’s still going. I think.” He sighs. “But so are we. We are going to thatcute little bar,” he says in a terrible Italian accent, “to stop whatever ideas that arsehole has.”
I stop to think about this for a moment. Rationally. How can we turn up on her date to ruin it and still have her give us a chance? But on the other hand, what if she goes and ends up in bed with Franco? I mean, I’ve seen this guy at work. He is super smooth, extremely hot andItalian,and the women love him. The chances that she falls onto his cock are not that slim. Or maybe I’m being too harsh, and she will see right through him.
I sigh.
“We need to tell JP.”
“Not it,” Russ says quickly, almost as if he was waiting for me to say it.
“You’re a dick, you know that?”
He grins and shrugs. “Look, all I know is that we have our plans for Storm, and we can’t let her go out with this knobber until we see them through. If we seriously can’t get her to love us, then we will have to let her go, and she can bounce up and down on Franco all she likes. But until then…” He pauses, a stricken look on his face.
“What?”
“It just suddenly struck me that she might not love us.”
“You’re only realising thatnow?” I baulk. He is such a dumbfuck.
“Not that I’m not realising it, but it’s hitting home that we might lose her before we’ve even got her. We need to act quicker. Two weeks is too long.”
I consider his words. He’s not wrong. But turning up on her date might only push her straight into Franco.
“Okay, we need to speak to JP.” This at least gives me some time to figure out what we can possibly do about this predicament that won’t end badly for us.
“We will have to wait. He went into the city at the arsecrack of dawn to see his dad. Something about his thirtieth trust.”
