Page 117 of Hard to Hold
With a sigh, I decided to leave it alone for a bit.
After all, I did have a job to do.
More importantly, I needed to stay busy. That way, the day would go by quickly. It wasn’t usual for me, but these days, I had something else to look forward to. Something that would put a smile on my face after we locked up the shop.
Didn’t mean we would leave.
Amy
I welcomed the opportunity to go to work at Reagan’s. After spending all day tucked in my office, staring at a computer screen, I was grateful to be able to move around. Didn’t even matter that Wolfe was watching me from the far corner of the bar like he did on nearly every night I worked. He claimed he just wanted to be close. I wasn’t sure that was the case, but since I felt safer with him, I didn’t argue.
It was Thursday, but, oddly enough, the place was relatively busy. Most of the tables were occupied, along with several seats at the bar. Nothing seemed to be happening, but the conversation was going nonstop. And as would be expected in a small town, there was a lot of gossip taking place.
“Ol’ Billy’s got him a new girl. Did you see that?”
“Sure did. Not sure what to think about that one, though. Her eyes are shifty.”
I had to fight the urge to laugh.
I wasn’t sure who Billy had hooked up with, or whether the woman had shifty eyes, but I knew for a fact that these people were protective of Reagan. By the end of the night, this new mystery woman would likely end up having a third boob and maybe a sexually transmitted disease. The first would be made up, of course. The second … well, it could go either way.
Not that I cared.
Nor did it seem that Reagan gave a shit, either.
I hadn’t seen the woman smile as much as I had these past couple of weeks. She seemed less stressed, more relaxed. Genuinely happier.
Well, that was usually the case until Lynx Caine showed up. As soon as he stepped into the bar, Reagan always tensed up.
There had to be something going on there that I didn’t know about. From what I could remember, I'd never heard any rumors about Lynx and Reagan, but the way the two acted around each other said enough. I wasn’t sure whether they secretly liked each other or if they hated each other. Maybe a little of both. Whatever it was, I hoped they worked it out. I liked them both too much to see them at odds.
“Hey, sweet thang. How ’bout a beer over here?”
I stopped wiping the bar and nodded to a group of men sitting at a table against the wall. They’d been there for about an hour and so far hadn’t gotten too rowdy, despite the fact that their voices continued to rise as the minutes ticked by.
At the bar, I requested three Bud Lights from Reagan, then stood waiting for her to deliver. While I was standing there, Wolfe came over, his eyes hard.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, concerned.
Leaning down so that his mouth was close to my ear, Wolfe whispered, “You know how hard it is not to beat a man for callin’ you sweet thang?”
I chuckled, my eyes dropping to the bar. “He didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Maybe not, but I bet if I kissed you right here, he wouldn’t dream about sayin’ it again.”
Lifting my face to his, my lips twitched with the urge to smile. “Feel the need to mark your territory?”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, a strange feeling stirred inside me. One I didn’t like all that much. I hadn’t given much thought to how much time I was spending with Wolfe and Rhys, but the idea of being their possession was something I hadn’t considered. I'd endured being someone’s property for so long, I had no desire to ever go back to that.
Then again, when I was with Rhys and Wolfe, I felt whole for the first time in my life. I felt … well, protected. They allowed me to be who I really was, and they made sure I knew how much they wanted me. It was a good feeling.
Which meant it was nothing like my previous experience. In fact, it was the opposite, and perhaps that was why I liked that Wolfe got all dominant and possessive.
“Damn straight, darlin’.”
I had spent the better part of five years “belonging” to someone. However, I'd been a prisoner, unable to make decisions for myself. That wasn’t the case with Wolfe and Rhys, I knew. They didn’t make me feel smothered, trapped. Plus, I actually liked people knowing that I was with Wolfe. We’d kept things on the down low, mostly because I wasn’t just with Wolfe. I didn’t think Wolfe or Rhys cared what people thought, but I still worried what people would think if they knew I was with both men. More so because I didn’t want it to cause problems for Rhys. If it were up to me, I would shout it from the rooftops.
It wasn’t up to me though.
