I pinched his side instead, and Dereck glared down at me. I gave him one right back, which I assumed he thought was cute, because his glare turned into a smile, amusement lighting up his eyes.
“Asshole,” I muttered to myself, shooting him one last disgruntled look before looking back at Jerimiah.
“Lily, what’s going on?”
“So, uh, you know Dereck, right?”
“I do,” he answered, and he looked like he had just tasted something nasty.
Okay, so we were off to a good start then… not.
“Well, uh, he’s, you know.”
“No, Lily, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me what this bastard is doing with his arm around you?”
“He’s my boyfriend,” I blurted out. Easier to just rip off the Band-Aid.
Before Jerimiah could react to my outburst, a startled gasp sounded from somewhere to my left. I looked over and found the woman with the overwhelming perfume looking over at us, her mouth gaping open in surprise.
I felt Dereck tense beside me as he let out a soft curse, so low I knew I was the only who’d heard it.
Before I could say or do anything, she seemed to have recovered before my eyes, and plastering on a flirtatious smile, she looked at Dereck and stood up from her seat.
“Do you know her?” I asked.
His shoulders fell in resignation, and I didn’t like the look on his face one bit.
The woman walked over to us, and I got a closer look at her. My earlier assessment of her had been correct. She was beautiful and sophisticated… and mean.
I hated her on sight, but it mostly had to do with the way she was looking at Dereck.
There was this knowing glint in her eyes as she took him in that didn’t fare well with me. It was the same look I was sure was on my face whenever I looked at him. It spoke of intimacy. The kind of intimacy that could only be achieved with knowing what that person looked like naked.
Whoever she was, she knew Dereck well.
And she’d come here to see him.
I didn’t know how she’d known he was going to be here, and frankly, I didn’t care. I pushed Dereck behind me and scowled at her. “Can we help you with something?”
I knew I was being rude, which was so unlike me, but she was here ogling my man, and I didn’t like that one bit. The woman turned to me, her scowled matching mine.
She flicked her long hair over her shoulder, and I hated how the move came off as both catty and flirtatious. “I don’t need any help from you.”
She turned her attention to Dereck, and I felt him put his hands on my shoulders. Showing me support. Not that I cared.
“Did you get my messages? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I missed you, Dereck. And I know you miss me too.”
Wow.
The level of delusion it must take to say something like that was staggering. I turned back a little and looked at Dereck. His green eyes offered me an apology, but I wasn’t feeling very forgiving just then. The whole point of this meeting was to let Jerimiah see how different Dereck was with me, and now that was probably ruined. Jerimiah would never be able to see Dereck as anything other than a dirty player.
I looked over at my brother. He had been quiet throughout this whole exchange, and it didn’t look like he was going to interfere. He leaned against the bar top, his arms crossed over his broad chest, and his face was expressionless.
I turned back to the woman, and Dereck tightened his grip on my shoulders. Not too tight that it would pain me, but firm enough that I knew I couldn’t escape his grasp even if I tried.
“No, Katy. I don’t miss you. We haven’t talk in months, and I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish by coming here.”
“We haven’t talked because I got engaged to Robert. But that’s over now.” She pouted a little and made a move to step closer to him. I pushed Dereck back, away from her, and glared at the woman.
Dereck sighed, a loud, tired sigh. “No, that wasn’t the reason. I told you before, there’s no future for us.” He paused for a moment, and I felt him tense behind me. I didn’t need to look back to know he was frowning. “How did you know I would be here tonight?”
Katy offered a coy smile then, and I didn’t like the look in her eyes one bit. “I didn’t. I figured you would be here because of her.” She pointed a long acrylic nail at me, and pursed her lips a little, as if I were something dirty. I wanted to rip out her fake hair extensions, which was surprising because I wasn’t a violent person.
Jerimiah spoke up then. “I recognize you. You’ve been in my bar for the past three weeks now.”
About the same length of time that Dereck and I had been seeing each other.
“How did you know about Lily?” Dereck asked.
“I saw you with her.”
“You saw me with her where?” His voice was pitched low. I knew if Katy said the wrong thing, Dereck would explode. I didn’t blame him. This wasn’t normal. It sounded like Katy had been stalking us… or him.
“At your house. You never bring anyone to your house.” She pouted at that, as if she hadn’t just confessed to a crime.
“What? How the fuck do you even know where I live? And more importantly, how did you get past the gate into the neighborhood? You need either a keycard or code.”
“I stole it from your neighbor.”
I looked over at Jerimiah and was surprised to see him looking angry, though I shouldn’t be. Stalking was a serious issue, and this was probably bringing out all of his protective instincts, especially when I was inadvertently affected by it.
“Don’t worry. He doesn’t even
