I snorted.

I did indeed.

That was the last thing I wanted to hear about, though.

I twisted off the cap and lifted the beer to my mouth before taking a swig.

However, a flash of familiar long brown hair caught my eye, and the beer froze halfway down to the table.

That was because my Rue was sitting next to a man who had his arms around her shoulders.

She was in the back of the room, in the furthest booth.

Across from her was Cody and another man, who I a.s.sumed was his partner. However, all of my attention was focused on the man that was about to have his face introduced to the table.

"The last time you had that look on your face, you sent your sister's ex-husband to the hospital for hitting her. What's going on?" Loki asked as he followed my line of sight. "Oh, s.h.i.t."

I was up and moving before I'd decided that I wanted to be.

My large strides ate up the ground on my way across the room boots smacking hard on the stained concrete.

Smack-smack-smack.

The crowd parted as I walked purposefully towards the woman that was intent on driving me insane.

I knew exactly the moment she realized what was about to happen, because her eyes went wide, and she slipped down underneath the table.

She popped back out on the other side and she started walking resolutely away from the table in the opposite direction.

She must've a.s.sumed that I was going to follow her, but I went to the table with a single-minded determination.

"Hey, Cleo. Thanks for helping Rue the other day. You just missed her, she went to the bathroom I think," Cody said as I stepped up to the table.

I offered him my hand first, and then quickly followed, offering it to the man sitting next to him.

"Mikhail Caruso. You can call me Cleo," I said.

The man took my hand. He was a hoss, plain and simple. Jacked and lethal, and I could tell that in a single glance.

"Cleo," he nodded. "My name's Dooley. Nice to finally meet you. This is Dante Hail. He owns Hail Auto Recovery in Shreveport."

My eyes turned to the man in the opposite seat, and my eyes zeroed in on the man's tattoo when I shook his hand. "You're a PJ?"

He nodded. "Was. Had a bad turn a few years back. Now I'm in repossession."

I smiled.

"Huh," I said and pointed to the seat. "Do you mind if I sit?"

He looked at the limited s.p.a.ce beside him and shrugged. "Sure."

I sat, leaving one foot hanging out of the side to give me more room.

"What brings you in tonight?" I asked.

Dooley sat back and ran his hand over his face. "Dante called me when he repossessed a little car. He found one of my teenage parolees in the backseat where he'd been sleeping for the past six months."

I lifted my eyebrows at him. "You do Juvenile? I thought Rue said you were a public speaker?"

He nodded. "I do both."

Huh. That's surprising. I figured him to be the kind of man who tried to shove his bulls.h.i.t down your throat, but he seemed fairly approachable and open.

"What do you speak about?" I asked as I took a pull of my beer and kept my eye on the bathroom where Rue had disappeared.

"I just go around to all the public and private schools in the area and tell my story. What I do. How I do it. Every once in a while I bring in a few people to show what the kids can accomplish if they set their mind to it," he explained, and then looked at me critically. "You wouldn't by chance volunteer to come up and speak, would you?"

I would've answered with a resounding 'f.u.c.k no' but Rue's annoyed voice interrupted me. "You're in my spot. And you were supposed to follow me, not sit here and talk."

"Sorry, Rue La La. You looked in a hurry to head to the bathroom so I decided to wait here and meet your new friend. Your skin's got a much healthier glow than it did when you were sick the other night."

n.o.body at the table misunderstood my intentions.

Rue was mine.

She narrowed her eyes at me, and placed her hands on her hips. "Thank you for staying with me," she said grudgingly.

I smiled at her. "Anything for my girl."

"I'm not your girl," she snapped, causing Dante to snort as he rolled his eyes.

We all knew that was a lie.

Even her.

"Move over," she sighed in resignation.

I looked over at the man I was shoulder to shoulder with and smirked.

Patting my lap, I said, "Take a seat."

She did, reluctantly, putting as little of her a.s.s as possible on top of my leg.

Knowing that wouldn't last long, I ignored her and spoke to Dante. "Are you part of the group they call Hail's Monsters?"

He cracked a smile. "Yep. We earned that a few years ago when we repossessed the entire fleet of limousines that Barbie's Bounty used to shuttle their clients around with."

I blinked at him for a few seconds before I burst out laughing. "The high profile clients happened to be in those limos at the time, weren't they?"

He nodded with a grin on his face.

"The police arrested them for solicitation, and then arrested the prost.i.tutes on top of that. It was a f.u.c.king glorious night," he said with a wink.

I laughed.

That had been a high profile encounter in our small town that had inflamed until it became national news.

"A few of the Dixie Wardens thought you guys were heroes. They even hung up the newspaper articles on the wall. In fact, I think a few of them are still up there," I informed the table.

Cody and Dooley were smiling, obviously remembering the incident fondly.

Rue just looked confused.

"What happened?" Rue asked as she shifted uncomfortably.

As Dante explained, I focused on the smell of Rue's hair and the feel of her body as I moved her further up in my lap so her plump a.s.s was resting in the cradle of my hips.

The palm of my hand found its way under her shirt, and I rested it there on her belly, while the pad of my thumb played with the little ring that pierced her belly b.u.t.ton.

I felt the goose b.u.mps break out over her belly as the tip of my pinky finger dipped down underneath the band of her blue jeans.

What I didn't notice her doing was denying the move. In fact, she facilitated it by sucking in her stomach, allowing my hand an unenc.u.mbered descent down, until it came to a rest on the top of her mound.

My d.i.c.k started to rise, and I knew she could feel it. Her a.s.s was directly on top of it. She shifted her a.s.s minutely, rearranging our positions until the length of my c.o.c.k came to a rest in the crack of her a.s.s.

All the while we did this, the others spoke around us.

Occasionally I'd throw a word in here or there, but my mind was focused on one thing.

Rue.

My hand was on fire with the heat of her p.u.s.s.y, and it took all that I had to keep myself from shoving her panties aside and shoving my fingers deep into her hot, wet p.u.s.s.y.

I had some manners, after all.

"We're going to head out, then. Our sixteen year old neighbor is watching Marie, but she has to go to school tomorrow; we can't stay out too much longer," Cody said as he stood from the booth.

His eyes went to the hand I had under Rue's shirt, but quickly skidded away.

Not before giving me a sly look as he stood and threw his jacket around his shoulders.

Reluctantly, I removed my hand from her pants and let her stand.

She gave Cody and Dooley hugs while I stood to let Dante out of his seat.

He stood, and I offered my hand to him again. "Nice to meet you."

He took it. "Our grandmothers are in the same nursing home. There's nothing between us. I have a wife."

I acknowledged that with a thankful nod. "Thanks."

"You got a good girl, my man," he said with a back slap.

He left after that, giving Rue a squeeze on the shoulder.

My vision blurred as my hands clenched into fists.

I, of course, didn't care that it was an innocent touch. Nor about the fact that he had a wife.

What saved him were Rue's eyes.

They were on me the whole time.

Her expression never wavered.

An expression that I couldn't quite read.

"What?" I asked.

She blinked.

Once.

Twice.

Then she threw herself into my arms.

In front of the entire bar.

I caught her, my hands going to her a.s.s, before she pressed her mouth to mine.

Her tongue slipped into my mouth, and I sucked it, wrapping my tongue around hers.

My c.o.c.k rose, filling with so much blood so fast, that it started to throb.

One of my hands let go of her a.s.s enabling me to tangle it into the long brown locks of her hair.

Her arms encircled my neck, pulling me as close as we could be without us being naked.

"Take me home," she gasped against my mouth.

"I've been waiting for you to say that for a year now," I growled into her mouth.

"This doesn't mean anything," she tried.

"It means f.u.c.king everything," I said as I started walking with her out the door.

I could hear the crowd around me hooting and hollering.