Pippa eagerly jumps up and down as we wait in a small line to get in. “We need to get you a cowboy hat!” she declares.
I groan, shaking my head violently. “I draw the line at a cowboy hat.”
She sticks out her bottom lip in a pout. “You can’t go to Slopes without a cowboy hat.”
“Sure you can. I’ve done it before. Plus, I don’t see you wearing one.”
She rolls her eyes, smiling at someone in front of us who says her name.
The cowboy hat argument is dropped for a moment as we’re let inside. It’s busy, but not as busy as it was when I came for Beck’s bachelor party.
Beck can never find out I came back. He’d never let me hear the end of it. This will be a secret I take to my grave.
The smile on Pippa’s face as she leads me deeper into the bustle of the night makes me forget how much I hate this place. If she’s happy, then I’m happy. Even if it smells way too much like BO and cheap beer. I’d much rather be back at one of our houses with my face buried between her thighs.
She spins to look at me, eagerness on her face. “Okay, I’m going to go to the bar. In five minutes, you’re going to pretend we’re strangers and ask to get me a drink.”
“If another man tries to talk to you in that time frame, I’ll kill them.”
She pushes against my chest, rolling her eyes dramatically. “No one’s going to come up to me, Camden. Just you.”
I let out a low growl, but I don’t know if she hears it. I don’t think she realizes how stunning she is. Of course a man is going to try and speak to her. Just look at her.
She leaves me standing there alone, watching her shimmy her way to the bar. I stand against the wall, not taking my eyes off her. She’s too sexy for her own good. She’s far too dressed up for the bar tonight—we both are—which brings even more attention to her. I eye everyone around, and my fist clenches at my side when I notice a man staring her down from across the bar. He’s paying far too much attention to my girl for my liking. I try to ignore it because when I look back at her, she hasn’t noticed him. She’s lost in her own world, chatting with the bartender. They look friendly, but the man behind the bar she speaks to looks safe. He looks at her with fondness, not attraction.
I peek at my watch, finding it’s only been one minute since she went to the bar. How the hell am I supposed to stand here for four more minutes? Maybe I can go there now. Surely she doesn’t know the exact time I’m supposed to meet her at the bar.
I’m telling myself I’ll give it two more minutes when a man slides in next to her.
Oh, hell no. This man doesn’t look safe. He lets his hand brush down her back, pulling her into a hug that’s way too fucking friendly for my liking. I push myself off the wall, heading in their direction. Fuck the five minutes.
I force myself in between them, leaning over the bar in both of their views.
“What do we have here?” I growl, my eyes boring into Pippa’s.
“Hey, man, we’re busy,” the asshat trying to talk to Pippa says.
I let out a disapproving hum, not looking away from Pippa. “She’s not interested.”
The guy gawks, a weird sound coming from his throat. “Do you know this guy, Pip?”
Does she know me? “I’d say so. She was coming around my co—”
“No, Chase, I don’t know him,” Pippa interrupts, giving the guy an apologetic smile.
You’ve got to be kidding me. My blood boils with jealous rage. She’d told me she wanted to play this little game and pretend we didn’t know each other, but that was before some country prick started looking at her like he was imagining her naked.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” the guy—Chase, apparently—offers, brave enough to put his hand over Pippa’s.
I see red. Wrapping my hand around her middle, I pull her closer to me. “Let me buy you a beer,” I growl. The words are angry, sending a shiver down Pippa’s back.
“What the hell,” Chase calls, trying to wrap his fingers around Pippa once again. She drops her hand from his, fighting his attempts.
Good girl.
“Who are you?” I bite.
“Her ex. Who are you?”
My eyebrows rise as I look back at Pippa. “Ex?” My words come out cool and full of venom.
This just got a lot more interesting.
42
PIPPA
“Funny. She never really mentioned her exes. Except for the fact they couldn’t make her c—”