Sea Breeze 04 - Just for Now

of here and get her alone. But that wasn’t going to happen until I faced one big hurdle.
    “I’m gonna have to talk to Marcus about this.”
    Her smile fell. “I know.”
    I wanted to kiss her and reassure her, but I’d pushed it far enough. There was a good chance Marcus, me, or both of us could end up in the emergency room if I gave in to that urge.
    “He’s gonna be upset,” she said.
    I laughed. “No, baby. He’s gonna be pissed. So damn pissed he’s gonna go for my throat.”
    Her hands fisted in my hair. What was she going to do, try to hold me here?
    “Maybe we don’t have to tell him. I can learn to deal with the girls.”
    No, she couldn’t, and I sure as hell couldn’t deal with the guys. There was no hiding that. When that dickwad had stepped in front of her, I’d been one-track-minded. I didn’t care who saw me or what they thought. I just wanted him to move. If he’d touched her, it would have been a lot worse.
    “I want guys to know you’re with me. I don’t like them getting close.”
    She giggled and pressed against me again. “Well, at least no one was hanging all over me. You had a girl making out with your back.”
    I eased both my hands down over her butt and squeezed it gently, causing her to laugh louder. “If he’d touched you, things would have gone down a lot differently.”
    “Oh, really? How so?”
    She was teasing me. It was easy to forget we weren’t alone when she looked up at me like that.
    “I’d have beat. His. Ass.”
    A hand gripped my shoulder. It was too big to be a female’s, and the hold it had on me meant Marcus had finally come after me. Amanda’s eyes went wide, and she started shaking her head at him.
    “I got this. It’ll be okay,” I assured her. She dropped her hands from my neck and grabbed on to my arm tightly.
    “Outside. Now,” Marcus said in a loud, angry snarl. Oh yeah. He was pissed. “Let him go, Amanda,” Marcus snapped at her.
    “Don’t talk to her that way.” I raised my voice and got right back in his face. I understood he was mad, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to take it out on her.
    “Outside. Now,” he repeated.
    I looked back at Amanda as Marcus stalked toward the door. She was holding on to me so tight her fingernails were digging into my arm. “Stay here,” I told her, and she shook her head.
    “No way,” she yelled over the crowd. I started moving over the crowd with her holding on to my arm. She was going to have to let me go. Marcus was only going to get more furious if she kept holding on to me like this.
    “Ah, fuck. What the hell have you done?” Rock said as he stepped in front of us just before we reached the door.
    “Move, Rock,” I said, pushing past him.
    “Please, God, tell me you didn’t”—he paused and looked over at Amanda—“do what I think you did,” he finished.
    “This isn’t your business. Just let me go talk to Marcus,” I replied.
    Rock let out a hard laugh. “He ain’t planning on talking to you. He’s planning on whooping your ass and then locking his sister up in her bedroom for the rest of her life. I just hope he ain’t got a gun on him.”
    Amanda’s grip on me tightened. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was worried about Marcus hurting me or keeping us apart. I’d never fought with Marcus before, so I wasn’t real sure who was gonna come out of this one on top, but I sure as hell wasn’t gonna let him keep Amanda from me.
    “Manda, girl, you need to stay inside with Trisha,” Rock said, reaching out to get Amanda’s arm. “Ain’t no reason for you to go out there. Let go of Preston before Marcus sees you clinging to him and blows up.”
    “Don’t. Touch. Her.” I clipped out, trying real hard not to jerk her away from him.
    “Chill the fuck out. I’m trying to keep her from seeing you and Marcus beat each other’s heads in. Ain’t something she needs to see.”
    I took a deep breath and looked down at her. “You want to go with Trisha, Manda?”
    She shook her head and squeezed me tighter.
    “I’m not making her leave me. Besides, neither one of us will let her get hurt.”
    Rock shook his head and sighed. “What were you thinking ?” he asked. “She’s Marcus’s little sister. You could screw around with anyone else. Why did you mess with his sister?”
    I didn’t care that Rock was the size of a bear and built like a brick wall. He wasn’t going to lump Amanda in with any other girl I’d ever slept with. I stepped up until