Tame the Beast : Small Beach Town, Single Mom Romance

Matteo

“Never lie, steal, cheat or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.” – Alex Hitchens, Hitch

“Linsey, for the last fucking time, I. Am. Not. Interested.” Jesus, I don’t know how many times I have repeated that sentence tonight.

It was like all hell broke loose when I came to work by myself tonight, and I think the whole of Loverly Cave female population has descended into LPs.

Everywhere I look, there are eyes on me, eyeing me like a piece of delicious candy, as if they’ve been on a diet for years. Was it always this annoying? How I didn’t notice this before is beyond me.

No, I haven’t because I lived for this shit. I thought this was as good as it got. The holy grail.

Well, I was an idiot. A bloody fool.

But worst of them all is Linsey. The same good-ole Linsey.

And I have tried to be nice. I have tried to be polite just wanting to get this shift over with so I could go home to my girls as soon as possible, but she is making it fucking impossible and I am one second from blowing up.

I noticed Fanny, Nina and Jenny walking in here earlier, going straight to my mom and you’d think they help me with this, seeing as they have been so invested in my relationship with Zoe…but noooo. The four of them are just standing there, watching my misery with amused faces.

Well, apart from Fanny. That scary grandma just looks like a child in timeout but still no help from her.

You all just watch me the next time you want some time with my daughter. That payback will be sweet as honey.

“Matty baby, come on, let’s go have some fun. You must be so tired from being stuck in that house with crazy Zoe and her wailing baby. I get it, you were so sweet to help her when she has no oneeeee, but it’s enough already.”

My spine shoots up at the nasal sounds coming from her fucking mouth. Head snapping to her face, I try to count to ten and then ten more because she did not just say that.

She did not just call my Zoe crazy and my daughter a wailing baby.

I lower my face to hers, so the words don’t have to travel too far to hit that pea-sized brain. “You will never say that again.” My tone is low and threatening. “You will get your ass out of this chair this second and if I ever see you here again, I will call the town meeting and have you banished from Loverly Cave forever.”

I am fuming with anger, my nostrils flaring as I try to rein myself in when the bitch lets out a high-pitched laugh. “Oh, Matty baby, you just forgot about the fun side of life. But I’m here to remind you.” She bites her lip and the next thing I know her claws are fisted in my shirt, dragging me toward her mouth.

That’s it. I’ll have to hit a girl. Fuck!

It all happens too fast. One second, I’m raising my hands to push Linsey away and the next, a wave of sunshine hits me and a hand wraps around the fool’s wrist, making her yelp and let go of my shirt.

“Excuse me.” I look up to find a very angry—and so fucking hot—Zoe standing in front of us, Linsey’s wrist going white with how hard she is grabbing it, and razor-sharp panic sets in the bottom of my stomach.

She’s always beautiful. The most beautiful woman in any room, but tonight? Fuck, tonight she’s pulled out all the cards I didn’t even know existed. Those red lips, mesmerizing me and calling out for me to wipe that lipstick off with my mouth and my cock. Her shirt, clinging so fucking tight to her perfect curves, and I want to gouge everyone’s eyes out for catching a single glimpse of what belongs to me. I won’t even let my eyes to dart lower to her ass in those jeans because I know how good she looks in them.

God, please don’t let her think I had anything to do with this. We just got to a good place. She just started to let me in, and I might lose it all because of the lifestyle I led before.

I look into Zoe’s eyes, trying to come up with ideas how I’ll be groveling my way back into her good graces, but she’s still fixated on Linsey, who at least has enough brain cells to look terrified. I’ve never seen Zoe this furious.

Fuck.

“Beastie, there is nothing going on here. I don’t want her, I swear. I tried to push her away. I was telling her to leave me alone the whole evening.” The words just rush out of me in mad urgency. Needing her to know I would never do anything to threaten our family.

Because that’s what we are.

“Look, I even buttoned my shirt today, see?” I point to my shirt that usually would always be half-way open, showcasing my skin and tattoos and the chain my father passed on to me. But now it seems wrong to have anyone else see me like that. It feels dirty to have their eyes on me.

“Good boy.” Zoe throws me a quick glance, and I won’t even mention what that praise just did to me. All I have to say is I’m about to stick out my tongue, rub against her leg and bark to be scratched behind my ears. And then she turns her lethal eyes back to Linsey and my jaw hits the ground.

“It seems you’re lost. Can I help you find something on my boyfriend’s body?” she says slowly, never wavering her gaze from the handsy-Nancy. “Because everything here belongs to me, and I don’t appreciate you touching any of it. In fact, I might be pretty mad about it.”

Fuck, again, but did Zoe just claim me as her boyfriend in front of the whole bar? Did that just happen?