“Wow.” My eyebrows spiked, impressed. “And he’s still having a hard time getting over you?” She must be pure magic in the sheets. I mean, the sample I’d tasted had been nice, and I’d been messed up since then, craving her, but to pine after her for damn near two years after having her… Maybe it’d been a good thing we’d never gone all the way. I wouldn’t want to miss her that much.
On the other hand, now I was really curious to know what it was like to get inside her if she left that kind of effect on a guy.
“I know. Thank you.” She sent me a grateful glance, and it took me a second to realize she was thanking me for being incredulous over her stalker ex’s persistence and not over the fact that I wanted to fuck her really bad. “And we were only married five months too, so why, why, why hasn’t he gotten a clue and moved on yet?”
“Whoa! Married?” I slowed to a stop, gaping at her. “Did you—hold up a second there. You just said married. You were married? He’s an ex-husband?”
When she tried to tug me back into gear but met with resistance, she sighed and sent me a harassed scowl. “Unfortunately, yes. I was married when I was twenty. It was a big, stupid mistake, but it happened, and I can’t erase it…as much as I’d like to.”
“Twenty,” I repeated blankly. Then I shook my head, too discombobulated by this entire information bomb to think straight. “You realize I’m still a year and a half away from twenty, and you’re throwing the number around like it was eons ago. Holy shit, how old are you?”
She scowled. “Not that it’s any of your business because it’s totally rude to ask a woman her age, but I’m almost twenty-two.”
I calculated in my head. “So you must’ve started working at Forbidden as soon as you hit twenty-one. Because your one year there is coming up in, what...March?”
“That’s right.” She blinked at me strangely. “How do you remember that?”
“Hmm?” I glanced at her before shrugging. “I’m a genius. So why, again, are you having me run away from your ex with you? I seriously doubt he gives a fuck about me.”
“Oh.” Startled by my question, she let go of my arm. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. You can totally go.”
“What the fuck ever.” I grabbed her hand. “I’m not abandoning you when you’re acting like this.”
“Like what?” She paused to scan the crowd. “I’m not acting unusual.” Then she must’ve spotted him, I guess, because her entire body gave a little twitch and her eyes filled with…what was that emotion? Fear? Tightening her fingers around me, she set off again, tugging me along with her.
“You’re acting completely unusual,” I argued, frowning as I glanced back. When I caught some dude scanning the crowd, I figured that was probably him.
The ex-husband.
He started to look our way, so I moved to block her. And he kept scanning his gaze past. Blowing out a relieved breath, I returned my attention to the woman weaving us through people.
“You’re the Julianna Radcliffe,” I said. “You make grown men cry at your feet when all they want to do is worship your beauty.”
“I do not!”
“You totally do. You’re a ball breaker to the extreme. Cool and unaffected by pretty much everything, except really annoying pests like me. But I bring out the scrapper in you and make you want to fight. I do not send you running and hiding, so…what the fuck did this guy do to you? Jesus, baby doll, did he hurt you?”
We reached the edge of the crowd, so she came to a halt as if afraid to step into the open night air and expose herself.
Spinning to me, she stared wildly into my eyes and shook her head. “I can’t talk about this here.”
I nodded and set my hand against the side of her throat, where I could feel her pulse beating violently against my hand. I didn’t like seeing her scared.
“I’ll get you to your car.”
She began to nod, only to wince and shake her head, gulping. “No, I didn’t drive. I rode with Tyla and Sasha. Shit, they’re still here somewhere.” She began to look around for them, but I squeezed her fingers, regaining her attention.
“Let them know you’ve got another ride home. My truck is this way.”
“Okay. Okay, thank you.” She nodded without a fight, which told me exactly how rattled she was. She’d never not-argued with me. And the fact that she actually accepted a ride from me…yeah, she was wigging out big time.
As she pulled a cell phone from the pocket of her tight jeans, I slipped off my jacket. “Here, put this on.”
Julianna glanced up from the screen where she was typing frantically and immediately shook her head. “You’ll get cold.”
“I still have two layers on.” I tugged up the hem of the hoodie I was wearing, so she could see the T-shirt under it. “I’ll be fine.” When she just stared at me stubbornly, I sighed. “Do you want him to catch sight of you, or not?”
She put the jacket on.