Page 95 of Only for Tonight
“No.” She shakes her head. “It’s nothing.” She tries to avoid even prolonging the conversation by looking around. Then she spots them coming closer to the table. “Can we not do or say anything? I swear I’m okay.” She looks at Kirby, nervously giving him a fake-ass fucking smile and then she reaches for my hand. “It’s okay, I’m fine. We should eat.” She looks around nervously. “Let’s go eat.” She then looks at Kirby. “Do you want to eat with us?” He just stares at her, then looks at me, then his look goes to the three girls.
Kirby pushes away from the table and I watch him with his eyes straight on Angela, who is now laughing with her friends as she makes her way over to us. Her face goes white when she sees Ariella sitting at the table and Kirby in front of us on his feet. She quickly puts on her mask, no doubt for the sake of her friends. “Hey, baby,” she coos, “are you going to get something to eat?”
“We’re leaving,” Kirby declares, staring at her. His glare is making it known that he’s fucking pissed, and he’s pissed at her. Angela looks at him as if she’s not bothered at all, but I can see the nervousness in her stance. Kirby breaks eye contact with her, turning to Ariella. “I’m sorry for whatever bullshit she said to you.”
“She didn’t say—” Ariella quickly tries to cover up for her and Kirby moves behind his chair and tucks it in.
“I promise you,” he vows to Ariella, “it will never happen again. I give you my word; it will never, ever happen again.”
“It better fucking not,” I cut into the conversation.
“Jaxon,” Ariella cries and I feel her hand on mine.
“No,” I quickly say, my eyes on Angela, who has turned her glare to me. “Fuck that. I’ve held my tongue for far too long.”
“You and me both,” Kirby seethes, walking to Angela. “Turn your ass around and walk out of here with me or”—his voice goes even lower and it’s filled with so much anger, it’s a surprise the room hasn’t iced over—“I’ll get fucking security to drag you and your posse out of here.”
“Kirby,” Angela defends, shaking her head, “you heard her. I didn’t say anything.” She points to her chest, trying to be all brave.
“Okay, well, I’m leaving,” he states, smiling, “and if you aren’t behind me, we know what decision you made.” He walks out of the room. I look over at Angela, my eyebrows going up and I secretly fucking hope she doesn’t follow him. It would be my absolute pleasure to get security to drag her ass out of here.
“This place is lame anyway.” She flips her hair off of her shoulder. “Let’s go back to my place and chill.” She looks at her girls, who look like they want the floor to open up and swallow them. They turn and walk away, and only when they are out of the room do I relax a bit.
“You going to tell me or do I have to call Kirby and ask him to ask her what she said?”
“You will not do that,” she scolds. “That’s just adding more fuel to the fire.”
“Baby.” I shake my head. “I don’t know if you saw what I saw, but that fire is already half burned to the ground and she”—I point to where Angela was sitting—“was the one adding more fucking fuel to it than needed to be added. So the ball is now in your court.” I raise my eyebrows and wait for a split second. “I’m waiting.”
“Why are you like this?” She rolls her eyes. “I said I was fine.”
“Wow,” I say, getting up, “you got on my ass about communicating with you, and now you are the one shutting me out.”
“Can we be more dramatic?” She reaches for my hand and pulls me back into the chair. “I’d rather talk about this at home. Can we do that?”
I shake my head. “No, because the minute I get you home, I’m dragging you to the bed and fucking you senseless,” I tell her. “Or maybe I’ll do you in the SUV; either way, I’m not wasting my alone time with you talking about them.”
“Wow, you forgot about my hot chocolate.” I roll my eyes. “And not for nothing, but I was really looking forward to that chocolate syrup.”
“Ariella,” I groan, my cock twitching in my jeans, “spill it.”
“Okay, fine, but just so you know, I handled it myself.” I just glare at her and she holds up her hands. “They didn’t know I was in there.” I sit up, putting my arm around the chair and pulling the chair to me. “They said things that bitches say.”
“Which are?”
“I don’t want to repeat it,” she says softly and she finally lets me see how much the words hurt her.
I get up. “Let’s go,” I urge her. She gets up, and with her head down, we walk out of here. Only when we are in the SUV do I look over at her. “I let you down,” I finally say and she whips her head toward me. “I brought you here and I didn’t protect you.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” she hisses at me. “Honestly, it’s nothing.”
“It was something,” I counter her. “It was something that made you look like that.” I point over my shoulder. “This was supposed to be a fun night. With you meeting the guys and their families. With us skating and just enjoying being out together.”
“It was that,” she says softly, leaning over the console. “It was all that. I’m not going to let what she said turn me away. I mean, let’s be honest, we all know there are the bitchy wives in the group.” I turn my head on the headrest and look at her. “We’ve met our share.” I can’t help but laugh at the way her nose scrunches up. “Even if she’s there the next time, I’m not going to let what she said turn me away. This is where my man works, and I’m going to come and support him.”
“Your man?” I raise my eyebrows.
“It sounded better than my baby daddy.” She moves back into her seat. “Now, you promised to give me anything I want, and I want a hot chocolate with whipped cream.” She gasps. “Whipped cream and chocolate syrup.” She nods her head like she just came up with the answer to the million-dollar question. “I don’t need hot chocolate.” She’s deflecting and I know she’s deflecting, and I’m going to let her have this.
