Chapter 13
Thirteen
MALAKI
It doesn’t take a genius to know that the man standing outside Reese’s car isn’t a stranger. The energy shifts, a hot sticky feeling of panic filling the gap between us.
“Is that Charlie?” I ask.
Fuck. It definitely is.
He may punch me.
Am I ready to take a hit for this girl?
I run my tongue along my bottom lip, tasting her. Yeah, no question about it.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” The curse words fly from her mouth.
There's another tap, tap on the window, and she exhales.
Instead of opening her door and climbing out of it, her shaky finger presses down on the window button. It rolls down slowly, squeaking as it lowers. The man leans into the car, and his sharp gaze skips her to land on me.
“Get out of the car, Reese.”
My eye twitches. Where are his manners?
Reese straightens, seemingly sitting taller in her seat. “Do you need something, Benedict?”
Benedict? So this isn’t Charlie?
I relax some, but I’m still strung tight. He puts her on edge, and I want to know why.
Reese is a mystery, and I think it’s making me crazy.
What am I doing in her car right now? After playing the game I just played, I should be a walking dead man from exhaustion alone, but all it took was one glance at her car pulling into the arena parking lot, and I was summoned like a damn vampire.
“Do I need something?” Benedict repeats her question in a condescending tone. He chuckles, shaking his head. Not a hair moves out of place–there’s too much fucking gel to do that.
“I don’t need anything…” his voice lingers. “But you’re going to need something real soon, sweetheart. Especially being out here, late at night, making out with some guy.”
I drop my attention to Reese’s lap where she moves her fingers to pinch her thigh, like she needs something to keep her in line.
“Get out of the car. Your fuck buddy can stay in there.” He rounds the front of her car and sits along the hood without any worry that she’ll take off with him on top.
Reese scrambles to roll her window up.
“Who the hell is that–”
She cuts my sentence off with a sharp look. “Just…stay here.”
“No fucking wa–”
Her door shuts in my face. I unclick my seatbelt. I’m not leaving her out there to deal with this douchebag on her own. Plus, he’s wrong. I’m not her fuck buddy. I wish I were, but I’m not.
Reese’s eyes shoot to mine briefly as I climb out of her car.
I remain casual as I walk toward them. Benedict continues to throw insults at her without paying any attention to me. She chews on her bottom lip nervously–the poor thing is going to be raw by the end of this ordeal.
“Out here whoring around–”
I stop dead in my tracks, my feet scuffing along the pavement.
“I know you did not just insinuate that Reese is whoring around.” The pitch of my voice is as neutral as always, but my shoulders tense with irritation.
I haven’t known Reese for long, and according to her, I don't know her at all, but what kind of man would I be if I stood here and let him talk to her like that?
Benedict glares at me briefly before turning back toward Reese. “This doesn’t concern you, so if you’re going to be our audience, do me a favor and shut the hell up.”
I step off the curb and stand beside Reese.
“This absolutely concerns him!” she argues.
It does?
“Oh, does it now?” Benedict rolls his eyes. “How does this concern your fuck buddy, Reese?”
“He isn’t my fuck buddy!” she seethes.
I wish.
Benedict raises an eyebrow. “So what? He’s your…boyfriend?” He chuckles sarcastically.
Irritation races up my spine like a chill. I put my arm around Reese and tug her to my side. It’s almost as good as sticking a knife in his chest. “Boyfriend…” I repeat, playing with the words.
I can act like her boyfriend.
No skin off my back.
“No.” Reese intertwines her fingers in my hand hanging off her shoulder. “He’s my fiancé.”
I blink. Did she just say that I’m her fiancé?
Her fingers squeeze mine, and I quickly smooth my face.
Benedict snorts before he throws his head back with a laugh. “Bullshit.”
I don’t have to look at Reese to know she’s worked up. Her entire body trembles with nerves.
Or is it fear?
Either way, I’m in.
Fuck this asshole.
I chuckle, and it pulls Benedict's sharp gaze to me. A crowd is beginning to form, and I have no doubt that the guy I shared an Uber with showed everyone my autograph inside that club, and they’re all out here to get their own.
“What? You can’t believe that she’d find someone better than you or…?” I let my words linger, and I hope they leave a sting behind.
Benedict abruptly stands from sitting on the hood of Reese’s car. She attempts to take a step back as he heads for us, but I refuse to let her do so.
He isn’t going to intimidate her with me standing here.
The moment his fingers wrap around her delicate wrist, a touch of anger skims my skin.
“I don’t see a ring,” he snarls.
She doesn’t bat an eye. “It’s being sized.”
Damn, she’s good.
I eye the crowd. Their cell phones are already being pointed in our direction. I lean toward Benedict and lower my voice. “Take your hand of my fiancée before these cameras catch something you’d be embarrassed about later.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Reese glances at me, but I hold Benedict’s stare until he releases her wrist. She quickly grabs my hand again, her palm sweaty with nerves. Benedict smooths his pressed shirt and sits back down on the hood of her car, apparently with more to say.
Get a clue, bro. She isn’t that into you.
“Has Charleigh met him?”
Reese’s fingers clamp onto mine.
Fuck, I really need to find out who this Charlie person is.
She scoffs. “Of course she has!”
She?
Charleigh is a she?
“Hey! Are you Malaki Young?” I turn toward a group of guys standing outside the club with none other than my Uber partner lingering behind them with his glasses perched on the end of his nose.
Benedict pops up from Reese’s hood. “Well, then… I guess you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.” Before he makes it to the curb, he turns and winks at Reese. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, sweetheart.”
A lawyer?
What the hell did I just get myself into?
The subtlest gasp from Reese hits my ears, pulling my attention to her face. Her eyes are glassy, that lip of hers white with the force that her teeth are putting into it.
I’m not one to waste time when I’m a spectacle, so I pull her over to the passenger side of her car and open the door.
She looks up at me, a million and one emotions flickering across her face.
My hands find her hips, and I slowly guide her to sit.
Her hands are shaking, so I pull on the seatbelt and strap her in before jogging over to the driver’s side.
I may not know everything about my mystery Uber driver, but now that we’re engaged, I suppose we have plenty of time to get to know one another.