Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men Book 9) (34 page)

“It’s just…” Strangely shy, I thrust it at him. “Sorry, it’s not much. Just…silly.”

He took the small silver dream catcher keychain along with a new bottle of breath spray and held it up to watch the tiny feathers dangle from the loom with what looked like awe on his face.

“And look.” I twisted the bottle so he could read the new label I’d printed out and stuck to it.

“Colton’s monster repellent,” he read before throwing back his head and laughing. “Holy shit.” Curling his fingers around the tiny bottle, he held it to his chest. “I love this. Thank you.”

He found his keys and made a production of removing his old, empty bottle of breath spray so he could attach the new one along with the dream catcher so they dangled with his rabbit’s foot. “Perfect,” he announced.

When he looked at me, I flushed, feeling strange. “I got me one too,” I blurted, even more embarrassed.

Cocking his head, he asked, “A dream catcher keychain?”

I nodded. “And breath spray and a rabbit’s foot.” I crawled off my bed. “Wait right here.” I raced naked from my room and hurried to the front door to snatch my keys from the key rack. When I hurried back in, Colton chuckled at me and reached out to help me back onto the bed, calling me a streaker.

Ignoring his tease, I held up my keys to show him the matching dream catcher and bottle of breath spray along with my very own rabbit’s foot. “See.”

“Holy shit,” he murmured, slowly reaching out so he could examine everything better. Then he lifted his gaze and announced, “We’re a matching set.”

C
OLTON’S
C
HAPTER
|
28

T
he ringing of a cell phone on the nightstand about a foot from my head woke me from a pleasant dream. Needing to shut it up as soon as possible, I blindly swiped out my hand and captured the bleating device. Somehow I was able to slide my thumb across the front and answer it without cracking open a single eye.

“’‘Lo,” I croaked.

A beat of silence followed before a hesitant voice asked, “
Colton
?”

Brandt.

“Yeah. What d’you want?” I mumbled, yawning as I tried to get my brain to function.

“I, uh.” He emitted an uneasy laugh that had me finally opening my eyes. Then he said, “Nothing. I mean, I wasn’t trying to call
you
. Sorry, I must’ve misdialed.”

With a grateful groan, I slurred, “Good.” Now I didn’t have to think and come up with a rational response to whatever he wanted. “I’m going back to bed.”

Clicking off the call, I started to put the phone back on the nightstand when I realized it had a completely different cover than my phone. I blinked at it a moment before determining it was a different size than my phone too.

Finally, I said, “This isn’t my phone.”

“What?”

I jumped. Next to me, the sheets rustled and I lifted my face to spot a dark arm creeping out from under white blankets. Those were not my blankets, and this was not my bed.

A second later, Julianna’s face appeared above the sheets, her head covered with that scarf thing and its adorable top knot. She blinked bleary eyes and yawned. “What’s wrong? Who was on the phone?”

I stared at her a moment before saying, “It was Brandt.”

She didn’t seem surprised or particularly guilty about that fact. After another hearty yawn, she wiped a hand over her face and said, “Okay. What’d he want?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “He didn’t call me.”

“Huh?” She dropped her hand, blinking at me as if I made no sense.

I waved the phone I was still holding. “He didn’t call me,” I repeated. “He called
this
phone. This isn’t my phone.” Her gaze dropped to the phone in my hand, and her mouth promptly fell open as shock filled her face.

So I slowly asked, “Why was my brother calling your phone?”

“I…” She shook her head immediately as her gaze darted beseechingly to me. “I have no idea. It has to be something work related.” When I just stared at her without responding, she insisted, “It
has
to be.”

The phone in my hand started to ring again. We both gazed at it as if it had grown ears and a tail. I didn’t have to look at the screen to see Brandt’s name. Setting my jaw, I extended Julianna’s phone to her. She reared back, gaping at me as if I were handing her a poisonous snake.

“Your
phone
,” I offered in a dry voice.

She sighed and took it from my hand, wincing when she saw the name on the screen. “He probably just wants me to take on a shift or something for him,” she explained as she crawled off the bed and turned her back to me so she could answer the call.

“Hello?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and watched her as she paced a few steps away and listened a moment before answering, “Yeah, it’s fine. No problems at all. Really, you don’t have to worry. It’s all good.” She glanced over her shoulder at me before turning away again and more quietly saying yes and no answers before blurting, “Look, I gotta go. I swear, everything is fine. We’ll talk later.” And then she hung up on him.

It took her a few seconds, but when she turned back to me, she was already wincing.

Seeing my expression, she let out a breath and said, “Don’t look at me like that,
please
don’t look at me like that. It’s not like that. I swear to you, whatever you’re thinking, it’s not like that.”

I shrugged. “What am I thinking?”

I wasn’t so sure myself. My chest felt oddly hollow and my heartbeat felt hard and slow, but other than that, I just…I wasn’t sure. I just knew my girlfriend had gotten a call from my brother, my brother she used to have a major crush on, my brother whose call had just prompted her to leave the bed with me and turn her back for privacy.

Striding toward me, she crawled onto the mattress and right into my lap until she was cupping my face in her hands. “Stop thinking something is there that isn’t,” she demanded softly. “You know better. I’m with you, and I
want
to be with you. And you should know him better too. He’s crazy about Sarah.
I’m
crazy about you. There is nothing to worry about.”

I heard her words and they made sense, but a part of me still fucking worried. “So he was just calling about work?” I had to ask…because I was being a stupid, insecure fucker and I couldn’t help myself.

Julianna paused dramatically as if she’d already been caught in a lie before she’d even answered me. Then slowly, she said, “No. Not really. I mean, something happened
at
work last night, and he wanted to talk about that, so technically—”

She was totally fucking keeping something from me. “What happened at work?”

With a groan, her shoulders collapsed. Then she sent me a small rebellious scowl before reluctantly mumbling, “Shaun showed up.”

“Shaun?” My eyebrows lifted. I wasn’t expecting that answer. “Ex-husband, Shaun, with the violent temper?”

Julianna nodded. “Yes. He...” She glanced away, clearly uncomfortable. “Well, I guess he knows about us…” Her eyes slashed to me. “You and me. And he wasn’t very happy about it.”

There was more. I could tell from the look on her face. “What did he do?”

“Nothing,” she immediately answered. When I narrowed my eyes, she lifted her hands. “I swear. He grabbed my wrist and—”

“He grabbed your wrist?” I caught her arm and immediately slid her wrist into my palm so I could examine it.

“See,” she offered, holding out both of them and turning them for my full examination. “He didn’t even leave a mark. Brandt caught him getting handsy and ran him off. The whole thing lasted ten, fifteen seconds, tops. No big deal.”

“No big deal?” I demanded, my mouth falling open. “The guy is stalking you enough to know who you’re seeing. We haven’t exactly made a big production of our relationship, you know. He’s got to be keeping close tabs on you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Or he heard about it from Theo, Tyla’s boyfriend. I think they’re friends.”

“I don’t care how he learned. He had no right to approach you about it and put his hands on you. You two are fucking over, and he’s not letting it go. He’s going to be a problem.”

When she started to sigh, I narrowed my eyes. “He’s going to be a serious problem, Julianna. Don’t brush this off as nothing. What he’s doing are beginning signs. It only gets worse from here. You need to report this.”

She squirmed on my lap, clearly uncomfortable. “Really, I don’t think it’s
that
bad. He wants us to get back together, not kill me. And he’s not too energetic about reconnecting with me either because he only comes around when he’s between women. I seriously think his attention will peter out completely over time.”

I only shook my head. “I don’t. He hasn’t stopped yet, so I doubt he’s going to. I’ve had you, I know how addictive you are.” Growling out my frustration, I gripped my hair. “Thank God you called me over. I don’t want you being home alone while he’s fucking stalking you.”

“Oh my God, Colton. It’s not that bad. I swear to you.” But I remembered her face the first night I’d stayed on her couch and he’d come knocking. A strong independent woman like her who’d hated me at the time had allowed me to sleep over. She knew just as much as I did that Shaun’s behavior was wrong.

“You should’ve called me from work,” I told her, “I would’ve come and followed you home.” When she cringed over that, I studied her more intently. “What?”

She let out a breath before glancing away and mumbling, “Brandt followed me home.”

I couldn’t control the instinctive jealousy that ripped through me. My brother had been there for her when I hadn’t.

I hated that.

But I nodded like the big, mature boy I was supposed to be. “Well…good. He better have walked you to your door and checked out your apartment too.”

“He walked me to my door,” she confessed, “but I wouldn’t let him inside.” Her brown eyes were worried and watchful as she studied my face.

I nodded again and repeated, “Good.” Feeling distinctly uncomfortable, I glanced around the room and cleared my throat. “We should probably put some clothes on. I’m sure the police department frowns upon naked people showing up and trying to file reports with them.”

Her lips parted before she shook her head. “Wait. What? Why would we go to the police department? We’re not going to the police department.”

“Yes, we are.” I stood and reached for my pants. “We’re getting a restraining order against your fucking ex.”

“
What
? No. No, we’re not. Why would we do that?”

I glanced at her before yanking up my sweats. “This is going to stop, baby doll. It’s going to stop
today
.”

She just stared at me. “Don’t you think that’s kind of drastic? And what would we even tell them? That he came and glared at me and told me he was very upset with my decisions lately? The police would laugh me out of their precinct.”

“He grabbed your arm,” I reminded her.

She was already shaking her head. “And it didn’t even leave a bruise. I don’t want to go to the police, Colton. Seriously. It seems so unnecessary.”

I paused after tugging on my shirt. Then I stepped to the edge of the bed and took her hands until she looked up into my eyes. “Your safety is more than
necessary
to me. Don’t ever say it’s not. Now, tell me why you really don’t want to do this. Are you afraid it’ll piss him off and he’ll come at you harder?”

“No.” Her eyes grew big with disbelief. “I think it’d freak him out and scare him off for good.”

I smiled. “Good. That’s exactly what we want. So let’s do it.” But the uncertainty in her eyes made me frown. “That is what we want, right?” I said slowly. “I mean, you
want
him to stop harassing you, don’t you? Don’t tell me you secretly like it and want to get back together with him.”

Shit. Maybe I’d been reading everything wrong, and Shaun’s
stalking
was some kind of kinky sex game to them, kind of like the way she and I got off on bickering.

She sent me an irritated frown. “Of course I want him to stop.”

“Are you sure?” I said slowly.

She slapped my arm. “Yes! I just…dammit.” She scowled at me harder before mumbling under her breath and admitting, “It’s fucking embarrassing. I don’t want to tell my personal business to a bunch of complete strangers only for them to look at me as if I’m some kind of drama queen making a big deal out of nothing.”

Oh Jesus. My girl and her issues with keeping up appearances. It irritated the hell out of me, and yet made me love her even more.

I sat next to her on the mattress and pulled her into a hug. “He’s been hounding you for almost two years, baby doll. Do you want him to stop or not?”

“Yes,” she admitted against my chest. “But—”

“There’s no buts about it. What everyone else thinks is
their
problem. The police will do their job regardless. I just want you to be happy and not worry about some dumbass and his inability to let go.”

She blew out a long breath and waited a second before finally looking up to catch my gaze. Then she murmured, “Okay.”

“Okay?” I repeated in surprise, straightening. “Really? You’ll actually go with me?”

Damn, that had been easier than I’d thought.

She rolled her eyes and shoved lightly at my arm. “I’m stubborn, not completely impossible.”

“You’re completely beautiful,” I corrected, then made her laugh when I tackled her onto the bed and began kissing her neck in an exaggerated manner.