“Oh you are, bunny, you are,” he flirted,
winking at her.
Bunny? That was why she
’
d once told me she didn
’
t want me calling her that – because this douchebag did.
“Grow up, Josh! Seriously, what
’
s your excuse this time at being caught out?
You
’
re supposed to be working
today, so what
’
s it to be? A fire
drill and you had to evacuate, a dirty bomb went off outside your building, a
case of cholera going around your work and they sent you all here to wait why
they try to find the cause of it?” she asked sarcastically, her voice acidic.
He smiled at her, a lopsided smile that
told me he
’
d been here a while and
was already half drunk. “You
’
re
funny,” he told her, looking her over again.
“And you
’
re a jerk,” she countered, crossing her arms over her chest, making
his eyes drift down to that region.
Oh yeah, I need to kill him. Where the
fuck is my rifle when I need it?
He sighed.
“I was
working all day. I was supposed to be on until ten, but they let me out early.
I finished about an hour ago, and I figured it was too late to call you to come
pick him up,” he replied, shrugging as if it was no big deal.
She eyed him curiously. “You were actually
workin
g
?”
He nodded and bent down, putting his face
to her level. “Of course I was, bunny. I told you, didn
’
t I?” he cocked his head to the side and gave her the innocent
little boy face that DJ seemed to have inherited. Funny how I found it cute
when DJ did it, but when Josh did it I wanted to shove my fist through his
face.
“Stop calling me that, Josh, it
’
s beyond inappropriate,” Rosie snapped
angrily.
He laughed and rolled his eyes. “Whatever
you say… bunny.”
I shifted on my feet. I could almost taste
the anger in my mouth. This was the guy that hurt my girlfriend over and over;
this was the guy that made his son cry this morning because he let them down
again.
His eyes snapped to me, and he stiffened,
his face hardening. “Who
’
s that?”
he asked her, nodding in my direction over her shoulder, his eyes not leaving
mine.
Rosie turned to look at me and smiled
apologetically. “Josh, this is Nate Peters. Nate, this is DJ
’
s dad, Josh Brody,
” she
introduced, waving a hand between us.
His jaw tightened as I slipped my arm
around her shoulder and held out my other hand to him. He shook my hand, his
eyes boring into mine and I could see that he was fighting with the urge to rip
my arm off, the same as I was his.
Josh was the complete opposite of me. His
hair was dark brown, almost black, his eyes a deep brown, his skin had a
natural tan. He was well built, almost the same height as me, so probably about
six foot one. He was a good looking guy though, I had to give him that.
“Hey. I
’
ve heard a lot about you,” I greeted, shrugging casually. I couldn
’
t help but smirk at him. Practically
everything I had heard about this guy was bad, but yet he still thought he had
a chance with Rosie. Fat chance, that was all he had.
Josh didn
’
t look too impressed as his eyes finally left mine, and dragged down
my body as if assessing what type of threat I was. There was a sneer on his
face that I wanted to punch off for him.
“Wish I could say the same, but neither of
them have mentioned you.” He shrugged, smiling wickedly, obviously pleased with
his little dig. He turned to Rosie and smiled
.
“This
the new boy toy?” He jerked his chin in my direction.
“He
’
s not a boy toy!” she snapped, glaring at him.
He laughed. “Fuck buddy then, whatever.” He
waved his hand dismissively as he
smirked
at me again, obviously thinking he was annoying me with his
macho
show
. In reality, it kind of made me want to laugh. Sure, I
wanted to smack the life out of him, but he was only doing it because he was
jealous that I was with her and he wasn
’
t. Anna said that he wanted things he couldn
’
t have, this looked to a prime example of that.
“
Josh, just
…” Rosie groaned in frustration before she continued, “…you annoy
the shit outta me, you know that?” she cried, throwing her hands up in
exasperation.
He smiled,
playing innocent
again. “I
’
m sorry,
bunny. I
’
ll stop now, okay? Can I
buy you a drink?” he asked, looking at her curiously. He turned to face me with
a wicked smirk. “Boy toy, want a drink?” he asked, laughing quietly as she slapped
his arm again.
Rosie shook her head at him. “I take it
that you
’
re feeling flush tonight
then, Josh. Does that mean you won
’
t be late with my child support this month?” she asked, clearly
annoyed with him still.
“Definitely won
’
t be late,” he promised, crossing his heart with one finger. “Hey,
wait, if you
’
re here, then who
’
s watching DJ?”
Rosie laughed bitterly.
“You
’
re such a good dad
sometimes. It
’
s taken you all of,”
she grabbed my arm, looking at my watch, “four minutes, for you to finally
realise that I don
’
t have our son
with me,” she stated. She gave him a sarcastic little round of applause. “You
should be proud of yourself for that.”
He smiled. “You
’
re definitely sexy when you
’
re mad.”
She sighed in defeat. “He
’
s staying with Anna for the night.”
He frowned and nodded. “Great, the
Taylors,” he muttered, sneering lightly. I got the distinct impression that he
didn
’
t like Anna and Ashton –
probably because Anna wasn
’
t
afraid to speak her mind, and Ashton had thrown him out of his apartment.
“Whatever,” Rosie answered, rolling her
eyes.
He sighed and bent down to talk in her face
again. “I honestly was working, bunny. I swear to you I was. Don
’
t be mad at me, please? I hate it when you
’
re all mad at me
.
”
He
reach
ed
out and touching her hip,
and I fought with my urge to grip his hand and break every single one of his
fingers for touching my girl.
She nodded. “Okay, fine. But just try not
to keep breaking your prom-” she started but, at that exact moment, one of the
guys Josh was with was pushed from behind and tipped almost a whole pint of
beer down her arm and side, making her squeal and jump from shock. “What the
hell?” she cried, obviously shocked.
Josh laughed, and his friend looked at her
apologetically.
“Sorry, darlin
’
,” he apologised, slurring drunkenly.
Rosie frowned and shook her hand, flicking
a few drops of beer from her fingertips as she looked at me. “I just need to go
dry this off, I
’
ll be right back,
okay?”
I nodded and bent my head to hers, kissing
her, loving how she instantly kissed me back. I pulled back and smiled. “Sure,
I
’
ll wait right here for you,” I
suggested, shrugging easily. She smiled and walked off through the crowd,
towards the back of the bar. When I turned back to look at Josh, I realised
that all five of us: me, Josh and his three friends, had all watched Rosie
’
s ass as she walked off.
Josh
’
s eyes met mine.
“So you
’
re the flavour of the month are you?” he asked, looking me over
again, not bothering to try and disguise his loathing this time because Rosie
wasn
’
t here.
I laughed humourlessly.
“Flavour of the month, that
’
s funny. Yeah, I guess I am,” I agreed, nodding along with his
little game of trying to piss me off.
“She
’
ll be bored of you soon and move onto the next. She always does. You
assholes never last longer than a few weeks with her,” he warned.
I raised one eyebrow. Was he seriously
expecting me to buy that about Rosie? Did he actually think I was stupid? “That
’
s a good one, Josh. I
’
m here to stay though, so I guess we
’
d better get used to each other, huh?” I offered, trying to go for
the friendly approach and be the bigger man, ignore the fact that he
’
d just called me an asshole.
He stepped closer to me, his expression was
clearly annoyed and jealous. “She
’
ll
come back to me when she
’
s done
screwing with you.”
I tried desperately not to slam my fist
into his smug face. “No chance of that happening,” I answered, trying not to
show he was getting to me. “You and her are done.”
“Me and her will never be done,” he
retorted, his nostrils flaring as he glared at me.
“She wouldn
’
t come near you again even if her life depended on it,” I informed
him, my voice harder and more menacing than I intended it to be.
He smiled at me confidently. “What
’
s up, boy toy, scared of a little
competition?”
Boy toy? Is he seriously going to keep
that up? Dickhead!
“There is no competition!” I almost growled,
my hands itching to choke the life out of him.
“See, that
’
s where you
’
re wrong,
boy toy. Rosie and I will always be connected; we have a past, and there
’
s nothing you can do about it. She
’
ll be crawling back to me soon enough.”
I forced a smile and nodded. “You
’
re right, you two
do
have a past, but
the thing is, Rosie and I have a future.”
“We
’
ll see about that then, huh? Game on, boy toy. Game on.” He laughed
and chinked his glass against one of his friends before taking a swig of his
drink, his amused eyes watching me over the rim of his glass.
My stomach dip
ped at
his words, but I worked hard to keep the horror from my face. Was Josh going
after my girl?
My hand balled into a fist. I was going
to kill him. There was no way he was getting anywhere near my girl again, not a
chance in hell that I was losing her to this waste of space. I tightened my
jaw; I didn’t want to say anything that would make me look bad in front of
Rosie, after all, if I killed the father of her child I’m pretty sure that
would constitute the end of our relationship.
He smiled smugly, probably seeing how his
words affected me. The way I saw it, I had two options. One, smile, nod and
wish him good luck, and then do everything in my power to make sure I won the ‘
competition’
. Two, drop Rosie home, follow this
guy back to his apartment, slip a bag over his head, drive him out to some dirt
track and execute him. Then all I would have to worry about was where to bury
the body.
Both options had their pros and cons.
I was still weighing my options when he
spoke, “So then, Neil, why don
’
t
you just run along and find yourself someone with less baggage. I
’
ll take care of Bunny and see that she gets to
bed safely
.
”
I hated the fact that he still used a pet
name for her; it didn
’
t matter
that she obviously hated it, it bugged the life out of me. “It
’
s Nate
.
And I can take
my girlfriend home and make sure she gets to bed, but thanks for the offer.”
His eyes narrowed as he took in what I
said. It obviously really bothered him that she was with someone else. He was
probably used to her being single. A guy like Josh probably always thought of
her as his fall back, like he
’
d
get back with her at some point down the line after he
’
d had his fill of screwing anything that moved.
“Just back off!” he warned, stepping closer
to me, his face angry.
My body desperately wanted to respond, I
wanted to grab the nearest chair and smash it over his head.
I opened my mouth to say something, but I
spotted Rosie from the corner of my eye. She was walking back towards me, a
nervous expression on her face. I smiled reassuringly and stepped back, putting
some space between me and Josh, pretending that we were getting along.
“Hey, Stripes,” I greeted her with a forced
smile as she stepped to my side. She smelt strongly of beer and I couldn
’
t help but laugh. “You smell great,” I teased
.
She chuckled and scrunched up her nose as
she pressed herself to me. “I know, every guy
’
s wet dream, a girl who reeks of beer,” she agreed, playing along.
I leaned in closer to her. “Definitely
my
wet dream.
” I was only half joking.
She grinned and bumped her hip on mine as
she turned back to Josh; I noticed with some small measure of satisfaction that
he wasn
’
t hiding his jealousy very
well. He was glaring at me, his posture ridged and angry. I smirked at him as I
pulled her closer to my side again.
Take that, you little bitch!
“How
’
s your mom? I haven
’
t
seen her in a while. She doing okay?” Rosie asked him, her voice light and
friendly, she was obviously fond of his mom.
He smiled. “Yeah, she
’
s good. She asks about you all the time.”
“I
’
ll have to give her a call, see if she wants to meet up for coffee or
something. I haven
’
t had any new
recipes for a while. DJ and I are getting bored of eating the same old food.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Why don
’
t you both come around for dinner tomorrow? I
’
ll call her in the morning and tell her to
cook for two extras. I
’
m sure she
’
d love that.”
My jaw tightened at his offer. There was
definitely an ulterior motive behind it, he clearly just wanted to spend more
time with her and try and steal her off me.
The fucking nerve
.
I mentally crossed my fingers and prayed she would decline, after
all, she had agreed that we would spend the day together tomorrow. Anna had
insisted that we weren
’
t to pick
up DJ before three, so we had practically the whole day to ourselves.
Rosie
smiled and shook
her head. “I have plans tomorrow. Besides, I thought you were working,” she
replied, watching him, as if waiting for him to admit that he
’
d lied to her.
He slapped his forehead. “Yeah, I forgot. I
’
m working at twelve. Damn stupid shift hours.
I hate this new rosta thing, it means I can get called up to work my reserve
hours at any time.” He shrugged, not looking too happy about it, but for some
reason, I didn
’
t believe him when
he said he was working.
Rosie turned to me. “Josh
’
s mom is an amazing cook. She
’
s part Italian and, I swear, she makes the
best spaghetti sauce in the world,” she said, smiling
fondly.
“She
’
s tried to teach me, but I just can
’
t get it right.”
I nodded. It was nice that she had someone
that she could be close to on Josh
’
s side of the family but, for some reason, I was even jealous of
that too. She hadn
’
t even met my
mom yet.
“Want to dance?” I asked, nodding towards
the dance floor. In reality, I just wanted to put some space between her and
Josh. The predatory looks he was shooting her were making my stomach shake with
anger, and I wasn
’
t sure how long
I could stand it for.
She nodded. “Sure. Talk to you in the week,
Josh.”
“I
’
ll speak to you in a bit. Maybe we could grab a drink or a dance. We
hardly ever get to be out at the same time and behave like normal adults
.
”
She shrugged in response, looking a little
uncomfortable as her eyes flicked to me as she gripped my hand and led me to
the dance floor. I wrapped my arms around her possessively. All I wanted to do
was leave, but I didn
’
t want to
look like I was punking out in front of Josh and running away from competition
or anything. Not that there was any fucking competition, she was mine, end of
story.
An hour later and I was all but pulling
my hair out. After we’d danced and got a couple of drinks, fooling around and laughing
together, Josh had made another appearance. He’d planted himself next to Rosie
at the bar and was currently doing everything in his power to get into her
pants, seeming to be completely oblivious to the fact that she came here with
me.
They were talking about old times and laughing,
talking about family and friends that I hadn
’
t met, places they
’
d
been. Although I felt uncomfortable and wanted to drag her away from him, she
included me in everything that went on. Explaining the stories, who people
were, things like that. The whole time, she was holding my hand, playing with
my fingers, or leaning back into me. So, although I felt pissed off by his
presence, I didn
’
t actually feel
too threatened by him.
Rihanna
’
s ‘
C
omplicated
’
came on, and Josh laughed, leaning in closer to Rosie. “You always
said this was our song. You remember?” he asked drunkenly.
She frowned slightly and nodded. “I
remember.”
He nodded his head back towards the dance
floor. “Want to dance?”
She laughed and shook her head. “I
’
ll pass.”
My body relaxed at her knockback. I wasn
’
t actually sure if I could allow her to walk
off with him, so I was glad she refused so I didn
’
t have to find out if my body would possessively forbid her to leave
my side. That probably wouldn
’
t go
down well at all, me telling her she wasn
’
t allowed to dance with someone. I was pretty sure that was against
the boyfriend rules. I really needed to read up on this subject and find out
what I was and wasn
’
t allowed to
do with regards to having a girlfriend; it was all so freaking new to me!
He stepped closer to her, which made my
back tense up. “Aww, come on, bunny. I
’
ll sing it to you,” he smiled, trying to convince her as he brushed
his hand against hers.
Jealousy rose in my chest and I barely
resisted the urge to grab her, pull her behind my back and bark ‘Mine!
’
at the top of my voice.
She shook her head, smiling a little now,
so he carried on trying to convince her. “Come on, I
’
ll sing the nice bits to you and you can sing the mean bits to me if
you want,” he offered.
She grinned and shook her head. “Like the
‘I want to punch you in the face
’
line?”
she replied.
“Yeah, I know that was always your
favourite.” He winked at her, and I shifted on my feet, wanting nothing more
than to throw her over my shoulder and carry her home, caveman style.
“
I don’
t sing,” she protested, folding her arms over her chest. She
obviously had no idea the effect that little move had on a man – Josh
’
s eyes dropped down to her cleavage, and I
actually let a little groan of frustration escape before I realised.
He stepped even closer to her, a suggestive
smirk on his face. “We both know that
’
s not true. From what I remember, you sing my name beautifully,” he
teased. I cleared my throat, wanting this painful conversation to be over, but
unfortunately that didn
’
t stop him
from carrying on. “You remember all the things we used to do to this song,
Rosie? The challenge you used to set me?” he asked.
She gulped, shifting on her feet nervously
as her gaze flicked to me. “Josh, I think you should go and talk to your
friends now. They
’
re probably
wondering where you are,” she suggested, nodding in the direction that his
friends were standing chatting to a group of girls.
Josh didn
’
t even glance in their direction as he waved his hand dismissively.
“Remember when you used to bet me that I couldn
’
t make you come by the end of the song?” he purred, leaning in way
too close to her for my sanity.
I did not like this conversation at all!
Seriously, was I allowed to tell him to fuck off? What where the damn boyfriend
rules?
“
Shut up, Josh,
” she said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
I couldn
’
t help but jump into the conversation. “Yeah, shut up, Josh!” I
warned.
Rosie shot me a sideways glance, she didn
’
t look too annoyed with me though, so I
obviously hadn
’
t crossed the
invisible line that would change me from thoughtful, sweet boyfriend, into
possessive creeper guy. I breathed a sigh of relief and took a mouthful of my
drink, trying to calm my stressed body.
Unfortunately, Josh didn
’
t take my warning into consideration.
“I
’
d love to slam your ass to the beat of this song,” he stated
casually, his eyes twinkling as he looked at her suggestively.
The drink I
’
d just swallowed got stuck half way down, and I choked for the
second time tonight, almost spraying it everywhere.
Rosie didn
’
t seem fazed in the slightest; she didn
’
t even blush as she looked him right in the eye. “You kiss your
mother with that mouth, Josh?” Her voice was teasing and light. I was still
gasping for breath, choking to death on my drink as Rosie patted my back, not
looking at me. Had I not been choking, I would have thought this an acceptable
moment for me to tell him to fuck right off.
Josh laughed and shook his head. “No, but I
’
d happily kiss the mother of my child with it
though.”
She gasped, putting her hand over her
heart, faking shock. “You have another child? You mean DJ has a little brother
or sister?”