Chapter 21
Speaking of puck bunnies
Harley
Istroll around, taking in the grandeur of The Hudson Lounge.
I needed to distance myself from the force of nature that is Kazimir Lindstrom more than I needed a bathroom break.
I twist my lips to the side, guilt resurging.
I shouldn’t have snapped at him after walking the red carpet, but his ‘my girl’ comment threw me off.
I’ve never been any man’s girl. I’ve been a booty call, a hookup, a fling, a good time, and a friend with benefits.
The few men I’ve been with who said they were interested in dating, omitted to be forthcoming about the fact they were interested in dating more than one woman at the same time.
Lowlifes.
I head toward the floor-to-ceiling windows adjacent to the glass door leading to the waterfront-facing outdoor terrace.
Even if it wasn’t this late in the day and I wanted to catch a peek of the infamous 360 degree sweeping view, it would be impossible to see the Hudson River considering how packed the deck is.
Well-to-do gala attendees are toasting one another, laughing, engaged in animated conversation––all looking like they belong. Unlike me.
I bet the view is something else.
I’ll have to come back—
Ha. Unless there’s another event where Kaz needs a fake girlfriend, there’s no way I’m coming back here. I have no business rubbing elbows with these people.
After a few minutes of me standing there as the outsider I am, it dawns on me.
Kaz is going to think I ditched him.
I set my stride toward the blue bar, but freeze.
I’ll go to the bathroom after all.
After taking care of business, washing my hands, touching up my makeup, and reapplying my red lipstick, I head back outside.
My phone vibrates in my clutch.
I pull it out.
SDILF
Did you walk back to my carriage house in Brooklyn Heights to go to the bathroom?
Harley
Har. Har. Funny. I got sidetracked by the terrace.
SDILF
Are you going to hang out up there? If so, I can come and join you. It’s a beautiful view at night.
Harley
Nah. I just stepped out of the bathroom and I was on my way to the blue bar.
SDILF
Do you remember how to get here? If not, I can come and get you. This is a massive space with four different event rooms.
I wiggle my nose.
Should I, shouldn’t I?
Fuck it.
Harley
I’m a big girl, Daddy. I can figure my way back to the blue bar. If I get lost, I can ask an adult.
Three dots bounce.
Then, nothing.
Three more dots.
Shit, did I push things too far?
SDILF
Stranger danger, little girl. You know Daddy doesn’t want you to talk to any other adults. Send me your location. That way, if I don’t see you in the next five minutes, I’ll track you down.
Playing along, I send him my location.
Harley
There you go, Daddy.
SDILF
Good girl.
Those two words shoot a zing of excitement through me.
SDILF
Get here before I come for you.
Harley
Yes, sir. I mean, yes, Daddy.
SDILF
Smart ass.
Harley
See you soon.
SDILF
See you soon.
I can’t help my grin.
Would any of the guys I’ve been with before have cared had I gone missing for longer than I should’ve?
Nope.
I reread the message, my grin widening.
That wasn’t sexting, but it was hot enough to rival the heat of the sun.
Kazimir Lindstrom, you’re a man of many talents.
Still high on that saucy exchange, I tuck my phone inside my clutch.
“I’m surprised your date isn’t glued to you.”
My head snaps up and I whirl around, my eyes colliding into a pair of calculating hazel-green ones.
Chett?
I recover from my shock. “Funny. I could say the same about you and your date.”
“At least she’s not my mom’s reject.” He smirks.
I fight the urge to round on him, causing a scene would look bad on Kaz.
“You have an uncanny ability to muddle the truth.” I tip my head to the side and stare at him through narrowed eyes.
“I think the story goes something like… your ex-stepdad divorced your cheating mom after catching her in the act in his own Hamptons cottage on the day he threw a birthday party for her and for you. Someone needed to tell your mother that a birthday shag means you actually shag the man you’re with. ” I purse my lips.
“Wow.” He fake claps. “You and Stepdaddy are real close if he’s willing to share that kind of intimate detail.”
“He was simply telling the truth.”
“Kazimir Lindstrom didn’t have anything more to offer, so my mom moved on.”
“By cheating on her husband? Real classy.”
“What do you hope to get out of Kaz? I doubt his restaurants are the types of businesses that would require your corporate floral services.”
He’s wrong.
Number 22 Grill is a high-end restaurant, complete with white tablecloths and spectacular floral arrangements. Kaz would’ve been the perfect client for my former life.
Chett snaps his fingers. “Wait a minute. Didn’t you move onto another business?” He squints. “You partnered with a couple. Isn’t the wife from small town Bumfuck, California?” He snorts.
Bummerville, California, you moron. “Why don’t you go bother your date?”
He gives me a onceover. “She doesn’t look nearly as good as you.”
“I’m sure your mother approves of her, so that trumps everything.”
“That’s the problem with the women my mother wants me to date. They’re not as interesting as you. You’re different.”
My eyebrows lift, hanging out somewhere near my hairline.
“Being with you was like a breath of fresh air because you don’t eat, breathe, and live hockey.” He runs a hand through his dark blond hair. “When I’m off the ice, I’d like to talk about something other than the game.”
Boo-hoo-hoo. “Your mother made her position clear.”
He takes a step closer.
I take one back.
“I didn’t agree with Mom’s decision.”
I don’t know what kind of stupid game he’s playing, but I’ve had enough.
“I saw you arrive at this event, and nothing about your demeanor––including the stunning redhead hanging from your arm––would indicate you were still heartbroken over me.” He never gave a fuck about me and I’m certain he still doesn’t.
“Hear me out, Harley—”
I lift a hand. “If your mother thought we weren’t a match made in heaven, you should’ve had the balls to look me in the face and tell me it was over. But that’s not what you did. You took the coward’s way out by hiding behind your mommy’s skirt. What kind of man are you?”
His nostrils flare. “So, you’re going to punish me by dating the man my mom was married to?”
He’s so conceited, he thinks everything is about him. “It’s called divorce, Chett. Once the ink dries, it’s fair game. Kaz is allowed to move on as much as your mother has.”
He grabs my arm.
I gasp. “Let go.” Anger surges through me in a furious rush. “Get your hands off me.”
“Don’t you have any self-respect? I was inside you, and now my ex-stepfather is inside you. It’s practically incest.”
I stare at him, praying God will give me the superpower to burn a hole in between Chett’s eyes. “You moron. You aren’t even related by blood.”
His eyes narrow to slivers. “It’s the principle of it, Harley.”
A tall, black man with deep brown skin wearing a blue linen suit, sporting fades and a half-moon part that looks fresh from the barber walking by, stops. The stranger’s dark brown eyes are lasered on me. “Is everything okay here?”
“Yes,” Chett says at the same time as I say, “No.”
The man frowns and shifts his attention to the man child holding me captive. “No means no, bro.”
I look over my shoulder.
“You don’t get to call me bro,” Chett says. “Do you even know who the fuck I am?”
Conceited asshole.
“You could be Elvis or Neil Armstrong reincarnated, and I’d still insist you take your hands off the lady,” my Samaritan says.
“Playing savior?” Chett scoffs. “The lady and I have history, so mind your fucking business.”
The man’s head jerks back and he frowns.
I can’t believe this idiot. “We hooked up for one month, Chett. Don’t make this out to be more than it was—”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let go of my girlfriend right the fuck now.”
Kaz’s words give me goosebumps.
The kindhearted man who came to my rescue scurries off to the side.
Even he knows a storm is brewing.
“I didn’t think you were into my sloppy seconds, old man.” Chett snorts. “If you want, I can give you the number for the girl I came here with. You might want to do her next.”
Chett is a handsome, professional athlete with a multimillion-dollar contract and a promising career.
He has a charismatic smile that could light up a room and he’s wearing the hell out of his head-to-toe white suit, which he paired with all white designer monogram sneakers with gold laces.
He looks like a man who has it all. Once you get past the veneer, you see him for who he really is––a privileged fool with the attitude of a five-year-old brat.
“Let. Her. Go.”
More goosebumps.
Kaz’s eyes are sending a clear message. He’d strangle his ex-stepson if he could get away with it without ending up in a six-by-eight cell.
“Harley and I are catching up… for old times’ sake,” Chett says.
“You give new meaning to dumb jock, Chett. Which part of let her go do you not understand?”
Chett smirks at Kaz.
“If I have to repeat myself another time, I’ll rip your arm from your body.” Kaz’s left eye twitches.
The man is terrifying right now.
Until my Samaritan came to my rescue, people were walking by us, minding their own business, but now a crowd has gathered. And some people have their cameras out.
Oh, fuck.
Tonight was about image rehab.
If Kaz punches Chett’s lights out, the footage will go viral and the press will have a field day.
My heart grabs tight in my chest as panic zips through me.
I have to do something to prevent this from happening. “We’re done catching up, Chett. Let go.”
A slow smirk stretches his lips.
Instead of letting go, Chett digs his fingers further into my flesh.
“Ouch. You stupid jerk, you’re hurting me.”
Kaz growls. He actually growls like a grizzly bear.
I’ve never in my life heard a man growl.
Kaz cracks his neck. “Now you’re asking for it, asshole.”
The shit’s about to hit the fan.
I may be the underdog here, but I’m not powerless.
I kick Chett’s shin with all my might, angling my foot so my pointy heel strikes his leg hard, praying it was the one that was previously injured and had him benched for half a season.
He lets out a strangled shout. My douchey ex lets go of my arm and folds over.
As he wails in pain, I whack the side of his head with my clutch. “How dare you touch me like you own me?” For good measure, I whack him again.
“Harley, come here,” Kaz says.
I brush past Chett and run to Kaz. He cradles me under his arm, pulling me into his warmth.
I blow out a breath and let the fright go with it.
Chett straightens up and glares at me. “You stupid whore, you ruined my pants and you hurt me.”
A few gasps of horror come from the crowd.
Kaz’s body stiffens. “What did you call her?”
“I called her by her fucking name.”
I want to slap the condescending expression off my ex’s stupid face.
“She’s the definition of a puck bunny.” The evil glint flashing from Chett’s eyes should come as a precursor. “She can’t resist bouncing from one professional athlete to another–– Oops, in your case, your glory days are behind you, old man.”
Guests murmur around us. More people are filming this circus now.
Not good.
Kaz tips his chin down and glowers at Chett. “Keep talking shit about my girlfriend and I’ll––”
“Speaking of puck bunnies, your new girlfriend is as proficient as your mother was in the art of fucking––”
Kaz lunges at Chett.
I try to hold him back, but the man has the strength of a superhero. My efforts are as futile as a kitten pulling at a lion’s leg.
This isn’t going to end well.
I need to make him see reason. “He’s provoking you. Let it go, Kaz. Please, ignore him.”
“I can’t.” Kaz wiggles out of my hold and gets up in Chett’s face.
Shit, shit, shit.
I rush after him.
“This is how you get your kicks?” Kaz stares down at Chett from over his nose, his jaw working. “You can talk shit about me all you want, asshole, but call my girlfriend a puck bunny again, and I’ll make sure you consume your meals from a straw for the foreseeable future.”
Chett studies Kaz long and hard before taking a step back, sticking his hands in his pants pockets, and turning on his heel.
I’m not sure what Chett saw in Kaz’s eyes, but it was enough for him to know his ex-stepdad meant business.
“That’s right, bro, you can intimidate a woman half your size, but you can’t stand up to a man.” The guy who came to my rescue shouts that at Chett’s retreating back. “You’re a coward. Run away with your tail between your legs, pussy.”