The Men with the Golden Cuffs (Masters and Mercenaries #2)(81)

Her fantasies were harmless. Why was she being punished for them? Why would any woman be punished for them?

Bridget took her other hand. “Hon, I know I can be a bit much, but even I can see you’re miserable and it isn’t all about the * who’s sending you nasty messages.”

“And a snake,” Serena mentioned. God, she couldn’t get that out of her head.

Bridget’s eyes got wide. “A snake? In your car? Like Sweetheart in Chains?”

Chris turned a bright red. “He’s pulling stuff out of your books and using it against you?”

Serena nodded. “Yep. Makes me wish I hadn’t written all that creepy stuff. I think I’ll give up the romantic suspense. The next time I write a stalker, he’s going to leave fluffy bunnies behind. Living fluffy bunnies. I hope he hasn’t read Missing in Joy.” What she’d done to her former FBI profiler character had been really awful.

Chris stood up and stalked to the next table, his hands clenched into fists. He stared down at Jake and Adam. “You tell me you’re going to kill this guy. You better kill him, or I swear to god, I will.”

When Chris went into protective mode, he went all out.

Jake looked up calmly. “I promise. I don’t promise I’ll do it quickly.”

“We’re going to take care of her,” Adam said, finally looking at her. There was a hollow look in his eyes that she was pretty sure matched her own. “We’ll take care of her whether she likes it or not.”

Chris sat down at the table with her bodyguards and started asking all kinds of pointed questions.

Bridget poured Serena another drink. “They don’t seem like men who are happy with the day’s outcome. I hate that. I sound so reasonable, but Chris is in protect-his-women mode. So now I have to be the voice of reason. Yuck.”

Serena felt a faint smile tilt her lips up. She loved Bridget. Reasonable or not. “I think they would have preferred to keep me in line with sex, and now they can’t do that.”

Bridget frowned. “Really? So they’ve been completely in control?”

Jake hadn’t been. He’d lost it the night before. He’d taken her when he’d known he shouldn’t. And Adam hadn’t reacted like a man who’d gotten a woman under his thumb. He’d fought with his best friend because he hadn’t been included in their deeply passionate time together. He’d demanded time of his own.

“No. It doesn’t seem that way. I guess they could be playing a game with me, but I don’t think so. It didn’t feel like it at the time. It felt real, but this morning felt real, too.” This morning had damn near killed her.

“I know. But that was inevitable. People in love fight.” Yep. Bridget was being way too reasonable.

“They’re not in love.” They hadn’t said anything beyond they would like to try a relationship. It was far too early to think about love.

“You are.” Bridget let the words drop like a potential mine waiting to go off and blow up in her face.

Serena decided to defuse that bomb the only way she knew how. A little bit of truth and a whole lot of optimistic lying. “Maybe, but I can fall out, too. Hey, I thought I was in love with Doyle. I’m cured of that, and I was actually married to him.”

She stood, stretching a little. She was sore in a way that reminded her just how well they had used her body the night before. It had been years since she’d had sex, and she’d never had it the way they had given it to her. Hard and rough with an edge of real promise. Or she was just really good at making up fiction in her head and it had been simple sex, the act of two bodies coming together out of need and biology.

“I’m going to run to the bathroom.” She needed a minute of quiet. She needed to get her head together. She wasn’t going to cry in the middle of the restaurant.

Jake and Adam were already standing.

“I can surely go to the restroom alone,” Serena said. Had she gotten to the point that she couldn’t even have a single private moment?

Adam walked off, he and Jake exchanging glances.

“He’ll check it out,” Jake explained. “Bridget, would you mind coming with us? Is the bathroom completely interior? No windows?”

Bridget nodded, following as Jake started to walk toward the bathroom, Serena’s elbow firmly in his hand. “It’s small. Just two stalls. No windows. I’ll go in with her.”

Jake smiled back at her. “Thank you.”

They got to the bathroom as Adam was exiting.

“It seems safe enough. No one is in there. Do you want me to stand outside the stall?” Adam asked, his jacket moving just enough to show a hint of dark metal at his side. His SIG Sauer.

“No,” Serena said quickly. She couldn’t think of anything worse than having to go into that bathroom with one of the men listening in. “No one’s in there. No one can get in. I’ll take Bridget.”

“I’ve listened to her pee many times,” Bridget said, still staring at that place where his gun had flashed.

Serena threw her a look, but Bridget just shrugged and opened the door.

The minute the door closed, she took a deep breath. Just being around them was hard.

“Holy crap, Serena. He has a gun.” Bridget was staring at the door.

“He’s a bodyguard. It’s kind of part of his uniform.” Serena looked down and found her hands were shaking. She wanted to walk right back out and beg one of them to hold her. She wanted to sink into their strength and let them surround her. She wanted to feel Adam’s hands in her hair, hear his voice promising her that he would take care of everything. She wanted Jake to kiss her. When Jake dominated her mouth, she didn’t think about anything but them.