Chapter 27
Javier
“Damn, güey. Check out that woman walking over here.” Trilch catches my attention as I finish hammering a nail into the wood in front of me and look over my shoulder to where his gaze is focused.
Sydney is striding toward us in a bright red skirt, a black top that flares at her hips, and white high heels. She looks fucking amazing and my heart stutters for a moment at the sight of her. The faint breeze in the air catches her long, chocolate curls and blows her hair around her as her smile stretches wide across her lips. She looks like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality when she emerges from the airplane hangar after her beauty transformation—except Sydney would never need an intervention like that. She’s too fucking perfect as she is.
“Keep your eyes to yourself, Trilch,” I grate as I place my hammer back in the holder on my tool belt and my legs carry me over to her.
“Is that the girl from Russo’s?”
I nod. “Yeah. Except now she’s my girlfriend, so fucking behave.” I take pleasure in verifying our relationship to him as the two of us close in on each other.
“Damn,” he claims as he tries to catch up to me. “How the fuck did you land a woman like that?”
Shaking my head back and forth, I reply, “I have no fucking clue.”
“Hey, Javi.” Sydney stops in front of me, bright and beautiful as always. “I brought you lunch.”
My hand grips her hip as I pull her in closer to me, planting a kiss on her cheek. “Thank you, Princess.”
“What about me?” Trilch interjects as Sydney and I part slightly.
“Sorry, Trilch. This delivery was for my boyfriend only. Perks of the title.”
“Damn. I knew I should have hit on you first.”
The glare of warning I shoot at him causes him to back up slightly. “You’d better get back to work before you don’t have a job any more, fucker.”
Throwing his hands up in the air, he relents. “Fine, fine! Don’t maul each other for too long, boss. We have work to do.”
Sydney chuckles as I watch him walk away and then fixate back on her. “Thank you for this. You didn’t have to.”
She smooths my hair from my face while studying my eyes. “I know. I just wanted to see you.”
“You know I was going to see you in a few hours though, right?”
She shrugs. “Yeah. But it had been a few days and I missed you.” She juts out her bottom lip as a low growl crawls up my throat. It has been a few days since we’ve seen each other. I’ve been working late finishing up a house to stay on our deadline, and Sydney has been battling a custody case that has been taking up a lot of her free time. Over the past few weeks we’ve made the most of the time we could get together, but it’s been crazy with our jobs, which is part of the reason we’re going out tonight to let loose and have some fun.
Well, I wouldn’t call going to The Jameson fun, but that’s what my girl wanted to do, and I wanted to see that sparkle in her eye that develops when she’s truly happy. Ally and her husband and Selena and Andre are joining us too. It should be a good time, regardless of where we’re going.
Last weekend I met Ally and Collin at Sydney’s request and am pleased to say I actually felt comfortable as hell with them. Of course, Sydney’s friends know her better than anyone and I could tell how secure she was in their presence, which in turn, made me more comfortable.
The evening didn’t come without the best friend inquisition from Ally though, which I think I passed with flying colors once she mentioned how appreciative she is of me for fucking her best friend the way she deserves. Not sure of how to respond to that, I told her it was no problem, and that was the end of the conversation.
“I missed you too, baby. Just a few more hours and then we’ll have the entire weekend to spend next to each other.” I encircle her waist with my palms and press our bodies together, showing her how hard she makes me just by standing there but being careful not to dirty up her outfit with mine. “I say we spend all day tomorrow wrapped up in each other in my bed.”
“Hmmm,” she moans and then lines her lips up to my ear, making my dick twitch. “I think that sounds perfect.”
“Then you’d better get out of here before I find a spot in that vacant house behind me to fuck you senseless instead of saving all of my pent up aggression for tonight.”
She giggles and then kisses me, lingering on my lips for just long enough for me to want to keep her here for the rest of the day. “I can’t wait.”
“Me neither, Princess.”
“Okay. I have to get back to the courthouse. Hopefully, this will be the last meeting with the judge on this custody case.” She holds up her crossed fingers in the air as she begins to back away from me.
“Good luck. You got this, baby.”
She winks at me over her shoulder as she turns to trek back to her Mustang. “Thanks, Javi. See you tonight.”
My eyes trail her as she leaves and takes a sliver of my heart along with her. It happened so unexpectedly, but this woman has changed me, weaseled her way into my life and wrapped herself around the black organ in my chest I thought would forever stay that way.
I wasn’t looking for love. I had no intention of letting a woman derail me from getting my life back on track—but Sydney Matthews broke every well-thought-out plan I concocted. The only thing holding me back is being completely honest
