Unexpected Rush (Play-By-Play #11)(73)

Now Harmony felt awful. “Oh, don’t do that on my account.”

Lydia put her arm around Harmony. “It’s not on your account. We will never accept a man putting his hands on a woman like that. It’s unacceptable behavior for the club. He’s gone, honey.”

Harmony nodded. “All right.”

She felt awful for being the cause of this disturbance.

Barrett and Drake came back inside. Drake came over to her. “Are you all right?”

She directed her irritation to her brother, though in a very restrained fashion. “I’m fine. I was fine, and I can handle myself without you constantly treating me like I’m some kind of idiot who doesn’t know her way around men.”

Drake grasped her shoulders. “He put his hands on you.”

She shrugged off his grasp. “Lots of men have put their hands on me. Some I accept, some I don’t. Stop treating me like a child you have to monitor, Drake.”

She turned and walked away from him, stepping outside on the terrace. She wished she could go home right now.

She was tired of men—all men. Every single one of the men in her life pissed her off.

Barrett walked out and he was the last damn man she needed to see right now.

He leaned against the wall with her, but didn’t say anything.

Finally, she did. “Okay. I get it. My brother is a ridiculous hothead and I understand why you don’t want him to know about us.”

Barrett pushed off the wall, moving in front of her. “Harmony, you realize that’s not why I came out here. I wanted to go over there and beat the shit out of that guy for putting his hands on you. So I’m no better than your brother, I guess.”

That made her feel marginally better. “But you didn’t. And your reaction came from a different place. So you were jealous?”

“Hell yes I was jealous, Harmony. I don’t want anyone’s hands on you but mine.”

She rubbed her temple where a headache was forming. “Well, isn’t this just the shit?”

“Yeah.”

“Would you take me back to the hotel? I have a killer headache.”

“Yup. Let me tell my parents—and your brother.”

“Thanks.”

She didn’t want to be rude, so she found Lydia and Easton and thanked them for an amazing evening and said she had a headache and wanted to go back to the hotel.

“I’m so sorry about this,” Lydia said, grasping her hands. “We’ll see you back at the ranch tomorrow morning for breakfast.”

She hugged Lydia. “Thank you so much for today and for tonight. I really had a wonderful time.”

She also found her mother, who was sitting at the table having an in-depth chat with Elijah. Fortunately, Mama had missed the chaos between her and Drake.

“Are you all right, baby?”

“Just a dustup, Mama. Nothing more. And Drake being a hothead.”

Her mother shook her head. “That boy. I’ll talk to him.”

“No. Don’t. I dealt with it already.”

Her mother hugged her, then Barrett came to claim her. They got into a car and headed over to the hotel. She was quiet and looked out the window, reflecting on what had happened. She was a mix of emotions—embarrassment, anger and frustration.

“You can just drop me off,” she said once they reached the hotel.

He grabbed her hand, forcing her to look at him. “Not a chance in hell of that happening.”

He helped her out of the car, then inside the hotel.

Barrett walked her to the elevators and she pushed the button, then turned to him. “I’ve got this.”

He gave her a look. “I’m taking you upstairs.”

She really just wanted to be alone, but Barrett was currently glued to her side, his hand at her back, and he appeared to be going nowhere, which, okay, was a comfort to her hurt feelings.

So maybe she didn’t want to be alone as much as she thought.

When he pushed the button that was not her floor, she gave him a look.

“I’m taking you to my room. I already texted Flynn and told him to take a hike tonight. He’ll get another room.”

“Great. Someone else I’ve inconvenienced tonight.”

He laughed. “First, you didn’t inconvenience anyone. Second, Flynn’s a big boy. He can handle it.”

She sighed, and her head pounded even worse.

When they got to the room, he got out his key card, slipped it in the door lock, then pushed the door open, holding it so she could walk in. She flipped the light on and Barrett closed the door behind them.

The room was really nice. It had a living room and a bedroom with two beds and a nice, oversized balcony.

Barrett came up behind her, laying his fingers on her shoulders. “Tell me what you need.”

She took a deep breath and let it out. “Right now all I want is to put on my pajamas, crawl into bed and eat ice cream.”

Not a romantic thing to say, but it was how she felt.

“Sure. Let’s do that.”

She swiveled to face him. “You brought your jammies?”

His lips curved. “No. But I could go for some ice cream. You order up what you want. Give me your key and tell me what you want from your room.”

She couldn’t believe he’d be down for that, but she couldn’t deny the idea appealed. “Okay.”