LOL: Laugh Out Loud (After Oscar, #2)(51)

“That was a long time ago. You need someone to look after you.” His voice was deliciously deep, and his warm eyes searched mine.

“I can look after myself,” I told him. But the moment the words left my mouth, I realized that they weren’t necessarily true. After all, the whole reason I was here in Vermont was because I’d lost my job and was too broke to afford to take care of my own horse. Which I’d then had to sell so I could send my mother money. I dropped my eyes, not wanting him to see the truth of his words there.

He ducked until he was in my line of sight. “Of course you can, Scotty,” he said. “I never doubted that. But you wouldn’t have to all the time if you had someone. That’s what I’m saying. You have so much to give. I don’t like the idea of you alone, without someone to give back.”

Before I could respond, before the words had even found their way into the corners of my brain and settled, we were interrupted by a loud banging noise that came from the direction of the front door. It broke the moment between us, and Roman blinked, pulling back.

“Christ, what now?” he murmured. “Do you mind keeping an eye on the chicken while I get that? I think it’s close to being done,” he asked. I nodded and he kissed me on the forehead before striding toward the door like he owned the place. I was starting to realize there were moments when Roman flicked on the switch to his star power. One minute he was regular Roman, the next he was Roman Burke, Superstar.

I checked the chicken, keeping my ear tuned toward the direction of the entry hall. I was not disappointed.

“Where is he?” a male voice screeched from the front door. “Oscar, get out here you home-wrecking cocksucker!”

I made sure the chicken was cooked through before pulling the pan off the heat and turning off the stove. The low rumble of Roman’s voice was interspersed with more screeching.

“I know he’s in here, motherfucker. Oscar! Oscar!”

I rounded the corner to the entry hall and nearly tripped over my feet at the sight of the tall, beautiful man standing just inside the front door. He was honestly one of the most striking men I’d ever seen in real life. He looked like a cross between an elegant swan and a ballerina, but the male version. He was so lovely, I almost didn’t realize there was a little toad next to him. And the toad was clearly the screecher.

Swan Man placed a slender-fingered hand on the screecher’s shoulder.

The screecher shook off the hand with a violent shake of his shoulder. “Don’t touch me, Lolo. There’s nothing you can say to stop me from punching that fucker in the face. How dare he touch you! How dare he touch my sweet Dilly Bar.”

Swan Man, or Lolo, rolled his eyes and looked at Roman. “My apologies. My partner seems to be forgetting we were on a break when Oscar and I—”

“Fiancé!” Screecher said. “Partner? What the fuck?”

Lolo didn’t even blink, just turned slowly toward the toad and sighed as if completely put out. “Honey, we’ve talked about this. Stop reaching for the stars.” He patted the toad on the cheek and then wiped his palm against his leg as he turned back to us.

“Forgive him. We aren’t actually engaged,” he explained. “It’s more of a… well, never mind. That’s information you don’t need. Did you say Oscar was here?”

Roman noticed me standing next to him and moved to put himself between me and the screecher. “No. Oscar isn’t here. Sorry.”

Lolo turned to speak to his screecher when the toad launched himself at Roman. Everything happened so fast, I barely had a chance to push Roman out of the way. Unfortunately, when I did, the short man barreled into me and sent both of us staggering back into the circular table in the large entryway. My back hit the table and took my feet out from under me. I heard shouting and the sound of things falling to the floor, but I realized belatedly, I wasn’t one of them. I was on my back on the table covered in a screeching toad.

I shoved him off and scrambled to follow him, prepared to beat the shit out of the asshole for coming at Roman like that. Before I could throw the first punch, strong arms wrapped around my middle and yanked me back against an even firmer body. A familiar body.

“Let me go,” I growled. “Roman, let me go. That fucker tried to—”

Warm lips landed on the shell of my ear, and a low rumble of laughter snuck down my ear canal. I tried to fight the gooey feeling threatening to pull me back from the brink of violence. First, I needed to teach that toad a lesson.

“Why are you laughing?” I asked, fighting Roman’s hold on me. It was impossible. He was way bigger than I was and in prime shape. “Let go.”

I noticed Lolo standing tall by the front door, inspecting his fingernails. I’d never in my life met such a cool cat. He sniffed. “Larry, are you done?”

I joined in. If I couldn’t hit him with my fists, I could hit him with my smack talk. “Yeah, Larry, are you done?”

Larry feinted toward me like he was going to hit me, and an arm shot out so quickly from behind me, I simply stared as Larry took the punch to the jaw and went down.

“Ow,” Roman muttered, pulling his fist back and shaking his hand out. “That man has bricks for teeth.”

Lolo rolled his eyes again and toed Larry’s shoulder. The man groaned. “Oh. Still alive then. Hmm.” He stood contemplating his companion for a moment before shrugging and stepping over him, “accidentally” tripping over Larry’s nuts in the process, and making the guy cry out and curl into a ball in pain.