CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
AUBREY
“SHAKING FROM WHAT?” Rome asked a little too casually as he ambled down my hallway and took a seat at my kitchen island. He must have seen my questioning look because he returned it with one of his own and then shrugged. “Stopped over to eat, babe. My cabinets are empty.”
“Okay,” I mumbled.
I heard a low grumble from Jax.
Being in the same room with the only two people I’d ever had relations with made me feel like a little prairie dog wanting to duck into a hole. Then maybe after a couple minutes, peek my head out to see how everyone was doing.
“Rome, um, Jax was just stopping in for some water.” I cleared my throat. “There may also be some paparazzi outside.”
Rome’s back stiffened. I didn’t have to turn around to know that Jax stiffened behind me too. Glares were being thrown over my head between the two of them. When Rome turned in his stool, I figured if I was a prairie dog, I probably just would have stayed in the hole.
Rome’s dark eyes filled with anger. “Why the fuck would you steer paparazzi back to her place?”
“Rome …” I started but Jax cut me off.
“Would you rather me let her run home with paparazzi on her tail alone?”
“You could have taken her anywhere. Now they know where she lives.”
“Yes, because that woman is so easy to persuade when she’s hyperventilating.”
Rome’s eyes snapped to me. “He’s exaggerating. I wasn’t hyperventilating.”
Both Jax and Rome glared at me.
I moved fast toward the cupboards. “You want something to drink, Rome?”
He didn’t answer. So, I grabbed another water bottle.
When I went to hand it to him, I noticed both men were in some sort of staring contest. Rome didn’t even glance over as he mumbled a thank you and took the bottle from me.
“That run was brutal.” I opened the freezer door wide like I was in a Broadway play, trying to get both men’s attention.
They looked ready to kill each other and when their gazes lasered in on me, I almost fell into the freezer from the sheer anger they unleashed in just their stares.
I fanned my face and slumped in front of the freezer, keeping the theatrics going. “I seriously might stand in the freezer door all day.”
Relief washed over me when Rome finally cracked a smile as he stepped into the kitchen. He moved closer to me and said, “Looks like you worked up a sweat.”
I laughed a little. “More like I worked out a bucketful of sweat.”
Rome studied me for a second. Then, without the slightest bit of hesitation, he slid between me and the freezer, spread his hand over my bare stomach and nudged my back to his front. I let out a little gasp as I glanced up at him over my shoulder, but he was smirking directly at Jax.
He leaned down and dragged his tongue across the most sensitive part of my neck. “Mmm, a Brey-sicle, just what I wanted. I could lick your sweat all day. I’ll text you and Vick later to see if you want to hit a few bars.”
With that, he smacked my ass and I yelped.
He made his way to the door, nodding toward Jax. “Jax,” he said curtly.
Jax and I stood there, taking one another in after the front door slammed.
The only movement in the room was the clock ticking.
His glacial eyes bored into me so much that the freezer seemed to warm my back. It was the stare people talked about, the one no one could read, the one where you knew, deep down in your core, that he either didn’t give a crap about you or cared so much he might rip your head off.