“You can’t tell anyone. Promise me,” I begged.
“I promise,” he said, but his tone was not convincing.
I glared at him for a moment. “I mean it, Blondie. You can’t tell anyone.”
“Are they felons? On the run from the Feds? Come on, Mak. Now, you have to tell me about them.”
I didn’t answer, keeping my eyes on the road.
“Fine. Fine. I promise I won’t tell anyone, and if I do, you can cut off my nads and shove them down my throat.”
I winced, picturing the entire scene. “That’s a little much, but I would beat the shit out of you.”
“Like to see you try. Now, talk.”
“Bossy fucker,” I muttered. “Why do I always surround myself with impossible men?”
“You need the strength around you to calm the chaos.”
“I wasn’t asking your opinion,” I told him, rolling my eyes after being called chaos for a second time today.
“Then don’t ask the question out loud.”
I groaned, hating him for a minute for being impossible like almost everyone else in my life.
“Helloooo,” Blondie said. “Tell me about your parents.”
“Tell me about yours first,” I shot back, wanting to know about his life before I told him about mine.
“My mom is an elementary art teacher, and my dad is a farmer. Corn, remember?”
I nodded, liking that his parents led normal lives. I was actually jealous he never had to worry about his parents dying on the job. “Sounds like a nice life.”
“It was boring, and I don’t plan to end up like them.”
“There’re worse things to be.”
“Maybe, Mak, maybe. Now spill the beans on beauty and the beast?”
“Beauty and the beast?” I smirked.
“Your mom and pop. Who are they?”
“Fine.” I sighed. “My mom worked for the CIA, and her dad used to be the head of the entire agency. Dad, well, he was a SEAL before he started working at Cole Security Forces.” There was not a word from Blondie after I finished speaking, and I turned, wondering if he was still alive. “What?” I asked when I saw the pinched expression on his face.
“CIA and SEAL? Seriously?”
I nodded and shrugged. “Uh, yeah. Seriously.”
“Jesus. Wow.”
“Not Jesus. Just soldiers.”
Blondie laughed, slapping his legs. “Your mom was G.I. Jane and your dad was G.I. Joe, and you’re saying they were just soldiers.”
“G.I. Jane wasn’t in the CIA.”
“There it is.” Blondie pointed out the window, and my eyes followed. There was row after row of motorcycles outside the dive bar.
“You want to go there?”
“You a pussy now?” he teased.
I lifted my chin. “Never been a pussy a day in my life.”
“Of course not, G.I. Junior.”
I pulled into an empty parking spot and glared at him as I put the Jeep in park. “I am not G.I. Junior.”
An easy, playful smile spread across his face. “You so are.”
“Whatever.”
Blondie climbed down from the Jeep, stretching like we’d driven for longer than five minutes. “I’m ready to get a little wild. How about you?”
“I was born wild,” I told him, throwing him a wink.
“I have no doubt.” He stalked toward the front doors, cracking his neck. “Once we’re inside, we’re going separate ways.”
I gawked at him and stopped walking. “You’re ditching me?”
“Well, yeah. How am I supposed to get laid with a girl next to me? I came here to get laid, not hang out.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do?”
Blondie ticked his head toward the run-down building. “I don’t know… Maybe find someone and get yourself laid too.”
I wrinkled my nose and threw my arm out toward the place. “At a biker bar?”
“There’s no better place to find a piece of ass.”
My lip curled as I strode past him and headed to the door. “We’re not friends anymore.”
He ran up next to me, slowing when our shoulders were side by side. “But you won’t because you love me.”
I looked him up and down, snarling. “You can go fuck yourself. I’m hungry. I’m grabbing a burger and a soda and heading back. Find your own way back.”
“I wasn’t planning on going back with you. I’m going to get my dick sucked at the very least, maybe twice if it’s a good night.”
“You’re disgusting.”
He shrugged, grabbing the door handle before I could as if he was a gentleman. “I’m a man.”
“You’re an idiot,” I told him before walking inside and heading straight to an empty chair at the bar.
“Later, Mak,” Blondie called out somewhere behind me, but I barely heard him over the chatter and music.
“Fucker,” I muttered, sliding onto a stool.
“What’ll it be?” a man with the biggest beer belly I’ve ever seen asked me.
“A menu and a Coke.”
“A Coke?” He blinked, his bushy white eyebrows twitching.
“A Coke,” I growled.
He threw his hands up and backed away.
“Fuckin’ right,” I said to myself. “You better move along.”
A man laughed. “That was one of the funniest damn things I’ve ever seen.”
I ignored him, not knowing if he was talking to me and not caring even if he was. I just kept tapping my fingers against the sticky bar top, hating Blondie and men in general.
“Put whatever she wants on my tab,” the man next to me said to the bartender as he slid the glass of Coke in front of me, followed by a menu.
“I’m perfectly fine paying for my own drink,” I told the guy, not glancing at him but glaring at the bartender who looked at me like I was vicious and bitchy.
“Whatever she wants, she gets,” the bartender replied.
“It takes a lot to rattle Clive, but somehow, you did it. All five foot three inches of you.”
“Five four,” I corrected him, eyeing the appetizer section as soon as I flipped open the menu.
I could feel the weight of his stare, even with my eyes glued to the endless list of things I wanted to eat. After eating military food for months, every time I was able to eat at a real restaurant, even a dive bar, it was a treat.
“You got a problem?” I asked, annoyed by the way he was staring.
“No problem at all, darlin’. Just trying to figure out how you stay upright with that giant chip you’re carrying on your shoulder.”
I set the menu down, placing my hand on top of the greasy plastic before I swiveled around on my stool, coming eye-to-eye with the man who felt the need to speak to me. “Excuse me?” I asked, my voice filled with venom.
The corner of his lip tipped up. “You heard me,” he said, looking all adorable with his cropped dark hair, strong jaw, and icy blue eyes. “Doesn’t it get exhausting acting so tough all the time?”
I twisted my lips and curled my hand into a ball as I did everything I could to hold myself from socking him in his handsome face. “How hard is it for you to be a constant asshole all the time? I mean, eventually you have to get sick of your own shit.”