“Goddammit,” I muttered as I made my way across the bar.
“Now don’t you dally, Naomi,” Wylie was saying. “The boys and I sure like lookin’ at your face.”
“Among other things,” one of his idiotic friends said, sending the table into spasms of laughter.
I’d expected her to be clawing her way free, but Naomi was smiling. “I knew you boys were going to be trouble,” she teased lightly.
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“There a problem?” I snapped.
Wylie’s hand fell away from Naomi’s wrist, and I didn’t miss the fact that she immediately took a step back.
“Problem?” Wylie said. “I don’t see no problem.”
“Wylie and his friends were introducing themselves,” Naomi said. “I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
With a parting glare in my direction, she sauntered back to the bar.
I stepped into Wylie’s line of sight, ruining his view of her departing ass.
“You know the rules, Ogden.”
“Boy, I was running this town when you were nothing but a spark in your daddy’s eyes.”
“Don’t run shit now, do you?” I said. “But this place? This is mine. And if you wanna be able to drink here, you’ll keep your goddamn hands to yourself.”
“I don’t appreciate the insinuations, boy.”
“And I don’t appreciate having to serve your crooked ass. Guess we’re even.”
I left him and his cronies and went in search of Naomi. I found her at the POS by the bar.
Chewing on her lower lip, she didn’t bother glancing up from the screen where she carefully entered an order. From the Sex on the Beach and Flaming Orgasm, I guessed it was Wylie’s table of morons.
“You hit me with a fucking tray for talkin’ shit, but you let that sweaty asshole put his hand on you?”
“I don’t have time to point out the fact that you told me if I upset one table you were firing me, so you’ll have to settle for this,” she said, holding up her middle finger in my face.
Hinkel McCord and Tallulah burst out laughing.
“Y’all aren’t gettin’ dinner and a show,” I warned before turning back to Naomi.
“Dammit. Where’s the substitute button?” she muttered.
I reached around her and paged through the options to the right one. Having her caged between me and the screen was making my libido malfunction.
To be contrary, I didn’t step back while she keyed in the rest of the order. When she was finished, Naomi turned to look at me. “You sent me over there on purpose, knowing what would happen. I didn’t react the way you wanted me to. Get over it.”
“I sent you over there so you’d be creeped out by Wylie, not so he could put his fucking hands on you. If he does it again, I wanna know.”
She laughed. Right in my face. “Yeah. Sure, Viking. I’ll come running.”
“Drinks up, Nay,” Silver called.
“Gotta go, boss,” Naomi said with the kind of fake, bright politeness she’d used on Wylie. It made me want to punch a hole in the wall.
Ten minutes later, I was still thinking about punching something when my brother strolled through the door. His gaze went directly to Naomi, who was delivering a second round of drinks to the St. Johns.