18
Korrie
Several months later
“Pyper, you know where Bishop went?” I called out to where she was behind the bar.
“Ran in the back real quick.” She came over and handed me the Bloody Mary, gin and tonic, and vodka twist. I set them on my tray and went to the table to deposit them. I wove my way through the bar, cleaning up, taking orders, and went back to the bar.
Over the last few months, a lot of things had changed. Some for the better, some that were just part of struggling through life.
Things hadn’t been the best all the time, not with my father recovering, not with the crazy hours of work and the bills we still had, but overall, things were better than they had been. And I knew it was because I had Bishop in my corner.
“Hey there,” came a deep voice from beside me as I waited for Pyper to make my new batch of drinks.
I glanced to my left and gave a polite smile but promptly faced forward.
“Can I buy you a drink?” His voice was thick and slurred, and I looked at him again.
“No thank you.” I focused ahead again. It wasn’t unusual to have drunk men hitting on me at Lyrics, not that I was tooting my own horn, but for some reason they thought a female at a bar was free game. What they didn’t know was I had tough skin and had experienced enough unwanted attention in my life that I paid no mind to people like him.
The guy stared at me with glossy eyes, the smell of the scotch he’d been drinking surrounding him. But he wasn’t a young asshole who thought he was God’s gift to women, at least not the inexperienced, cocky kind. It was clear whatever tactic he was using right now had gotten him enough positive results that he kept pushing.
“Come on. Let me buy you a drink.” He reached out to touch my hand, but I moved out of the way just as I felt someone step up behind me.
“Pretty sure the lady isn’t interested. So for your well-being, might I suggest fucking off.”
It wasn’t phrased like a question, and I couldn’t help but feel that ever-present warmth bloom in me at the sound of Bishop’s baritone voice.
When the guy took the not so subtle hint and left, that's when I turned around and faced Bishop. I craned my head back to look into his face, a very feminine sigh leaving me at all the male perfection standing before me.
“Hey,” he said in an already aroused voice.
“Hey back.”
He took a step closer, not touching me but definitely caging me in. Then he glanced at where the guy had moved off to—thankfully the other end of the bar, but for how territorial and possessive Bishop was over me, the drunk should have just left. Bishop ground his jaw, the aggression toward the guy pretty loud and clear.
“Hey,” I said softly and reached up to cup his cheek. He glanced at me, and all that male-fueled hostility left as his expression softened. “Let’s not worry about him or anyone else.”
“Oh yeah?” He took another step closer, not even caring about me being his employee and showing some serious PDA in the next couple of seconds. “And why’s that? Seems like I should put his ass in its place for not taking the hint when a woman says she’s not interested.”
I couldn't help the little smile of appreciation that covered my lips. “You shouldn't worry about him or anyone else because you’re the one I love. You’re the one I’ll always be with.”
He growled low and placed his hands on the bar on either side of my arms, fully caging me in then, leaning his massive upper body forward and running the tip of his nose along the side of my neck. It took everything in me not to sigh and just let him have his way with me right here—screw who watched.
“Good. Because I would have gone all gladiator on his ass to prove the point that you're mine.” Bishop wrapped his hand around my waist, pulled me toward his tall, muscular body, and used his other hand to cup the back of my head.
And everything else faded away. The sound of the bar, the fact that there were bodies packed all around us… that we were in public.
Nothing else mattered but letting this man do whatever he wanted to me.
The only warning I got was the low growl that erupted from him before he slammed his mouth down on mine, speared his tongue between my lips, and mouth-fucked me in front of anyone who happened to be watching.
Bishop staked his claim. He marked his territory. And like every time Bishop touched me, I got lost in the moment. I was a slave to my desires—to this man and all the emotions he brought out in me.