needed my attention in a pair of jeans that were too tight around the crotch. It hurt to move; walking was excruciating.
And I loved every second of it.
Dinner had taken longer than expected because I’d spent more time kissing Lucy than I had actually eating. I couldn’t help myself. She tasted so much better than anything that had been on the menu. We hadn’t lingered over dessert. By then it had been past time to get to the club. I’d reluctantly handed my girl over to her bodyguard and her best friend before rushing off to get to work.
Now the place was packed to capacity, Tainted Knights was rocking the place, and my girl was out there front and center watching while I had to deal with one thing after another. I tried to hurry, wanting to get out there with her, hold her while our friend and his band performed. Maybe dance with her. Anything, as long as she was against me and I got to touch her.
Muttering a frustrated curse, I lifted a case of beer onto the VIP’s bar top and lifted a brow at Nate. “Anything else you need?”
Nate lifted a brow at my abrupt tone but shook his head as he continued to mix drinks for the three blondes in front of him. “Nope, we’re good, boss. Thanks.”
I nodded and pushed away from the bar, not wanting to think about what I might do to my best bartender if he mentioned Lucy. Nate had a crush on her, but he knew that if he made a move on my girl, that would be the end of him at First Bass. Didn’t matter that he was the best damn bartender in a two-state radius. He touched Lucy, he was as good as dead.
The guy who normally stocked the two bars when we started running low during opening hours was out sick tonight and with everyone else busy, I was the only one left to get Nate and the other bartenders what they needed. I was done now, though, and I only had one place I wanted to be.
As I turned away, the three blondes tried to call after me, wanting me to keep them company. I’d only vaguely recognized them as the trio on some new reality show, but I didn’t care. None of them were the chick I wanted to be with and I wasn’t about to give them so much as a second of my time when I could be spending it with Lucy.
I didn’t glance back at them as I headed for the stairs. At the bottom, I spoke to Tiny for a moment, making sure that everything was good with security. Thursdays got crazy at First Bass with everyone wanting in to see the band. Tainted Knights was good for business, but my security team had to be doubled to keep everyone in line.
“We’re all good, boss. How’s Miss Thornton’s hand?”
I raked my hands through my hair. “She says she feels okay. I can tell her hand is hurting, though. She’s too stubborn to take the meds they gave her.” Lucy had been cradling her sprained hand against her for most of the night. When I’d asked her if she wanted me to take her home instead of First Bass, she’d gotten that stubborn look on her beautiful face that told me to shut the hell up.
Selfish bastard that I was, I’d shut up and taken her to work with me. If I’d been a gentleman—like my stepmother had tried to beat into me to be—I would have taken her home. Unfortunately for Natalie, I was never going to be a gentleman. I wanted to spend as much time as humanly possible with Lucy.
Fuck, I was becoming obsessed.
Mentally shrugging, I left Tiny to his job as a few VIPs stopped behind me. The first floor was packed to capacity, meaning I was going to be making bank tonight, but I had to push through the crowd to reach the front. I saw Marcus’s wide shoulders before I saw her. The closer I got, the more I could make out the redhead standing beside her…
And a blonde with eighties-style teased hair and an outfit that I wasn’t sure was legally decent or not. Even from behind, I could tell that this chick was trying way too hard. When my gaze landed on Lucy, standing between Kin and the slutty-looking blonde, I forgot about everything other than my girl.
Her shoulders were stiff, but she was swaying to the music as Jace and the rest of the Tainted Knights finished up a slower song. Walking faster, pushing people out of my way when they didn’t move quickly enough for my tastes, I finally got to do what I’d been aching to do since I’d left Lucy with Kin and Marcus earlier.
Wrapping my arms around her small waist from behind, I buried my face in her neck and kissed her just below her left ear. She melted back against me and my jeans got even tighter when her still swaying hips rubbed back and forth across my hardness. My arms tightened around her waist. “Killing me, sweetness.”
I felt rather than heard her giggle and damned the band playing for drowning out the sweet sound of her musical laugh.
A well-manicured hand touched my arm, making me jerk back. Reluctantly, I lifted my head as Lucy went still in my arms. The slutty blonde was standing right beside me, her eyes raking over me like I was a piece of meat and she was a hungry lioness. Who the fuck was this chick? Didn’t she see that I was with my girl?
“You’re Harris Cutter.” She made it sound like I didn’t know who the hell I was. Great, she was one of those types of blondes. The type that gave all blondes a bad name because of her flaky, idiotic nonsense.
Lifting a brow, I glanced around, just to make sure she wasn’t speaking to someone behind me. When I caught Kin’s eye, I nearly took a step back. The redhead was obviously pissed. Her nose was flaring, her blue eyes bright with anger, and her hands were balled into fists. Yeah, pissed.
Glancing down at Lucy, I saw that she didn’t look much happier than her friend. She leaned into me, as if she were staking her claim and I pulled her against me, letting her know that she had me. Not this stupid bitch.
“Yup, that’s me,” I finally told her.
She gave me a big, toothy smile and fluttered her fake eyelashes at me. “I’m Georgia,” she said loudly enough to be heard over the band with enough flirt in her voice to grab the attention of half the guys standing around us.
I looked down at Lucy again, silently asking her who the fuck this chick was. She rolled her eyes at me and lifted onto her tiptoes. “Kin’s stepsister. Total bitch. Kin couldn’t drop her ass tonight and had to bring her. Her mom wants her on TMZ and with a guy who will make her famous.”
With Lucy leaning into me the way she was and her lower stomach brushing against my raging hard-on, I could barely concentrate on what she was saying. I caught hold of her hips and pulled her roughly against me, keeping her trapped against me where I wanted her most. I felt her shiver, but she didn’t pull away.
“So am I on her list of something?” I murmured at her ear.
“Yeah,” she breathed and my jeans zipper became public enemy number one for my aching body. “You, and I think she mentioned something about Jace about ten minutes ago. That’s when I had to get between her and Kin.”
“You mean I missed a cat fight?” I teased, moving my head back enough to wink down at her. She pinched my side, making me laugh and I finally glanced back at Georgia who was eye-fucking me in a way that made me want to vomit all over her. I didn’t know what her deal was, but she wasn’t getting a shot at me. I had everything that I wanted or would ever need, in my arms where she belonged. “What do you want me to do about that?” I whispered in Lucy’s ear.