Dante wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear. “Don’t worry, you already know Griffin, and Caleb is pretty harmless. Besides, you have me right here next to you so I’ll protect you against their craziness.”
She stole a peek at Dante from the corner of her eye. “Thank you, but I can stand up for myself you know.”
“Sure, but why should you when you have me to do it for you,” he tossed back as Griffin stopped right in front of them.
“How is everything going tonight?” Dante asked Griffin as his friend glanced at her and smiled.
Taking his eyes off of her, Griffin looked at Dante then answered his question. “Everyone is having a great time and the tournament is running smoothly. Kent is doing an excellent job keeping all of the players in line.
“I never knew he used to be a professional pool player. I’m glad he told me about it and asked me if he could run it. A few big time players are already inquiring about when we’re going to have another one.
“Furthermore, the food and drinks are selling quite well. However, I didn’t come over here to talk about that. I wanted to see you Amara,” Griffin said, giving her his full attention. “I’m used to you trying to get away from us. It’s nice to see you standing here so comfortable with Dante at your side. I’m guessing the two of you finally found a way to work things out?”
Grabbing Dante’s hand, she gave it a light squeeze. “Yes, we’ve found common ground and honestly, I couldn’t be more pleased that I have Dante in my life.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Griffin said, grinning at her. “I can see a change in him that I’ve never noticed before. The two of you are good for each other. He’s lost that hero complex he used to have all of the time.”
“Hero complex?” She frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Baby, it’s nothing,” Dante quickly cut in glaring at Griffin.
Amara knew something was going on but it seemed like neither man was going to tell her anything, so she could get into it later when she was alone with Dante. She didn’t like the thought of him keeping secrets from her.
“Hey, since no one is going to introduce me, I guess I’ll do it myself.” Stepping in front of Griffin, Caleb extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Caleb just in case you didn’t already know. It’s nice to meet you, Amara. I’ve heard a lot about you, but it’s finally good to meet the gorgeous woman with the beautiful name.”
Laughing, she shook hands with Caleb. God, she bet he kept the woman on their toes with his easy charm and boy next door looks. “Nice to meet you too, Caleb.”
“I think that’s enough,” Dante growled moving her closer to his side.
“Hey, I was only flirting with her,” Caleb said. “No harm done. I saw your ‘keep away’ body language way across the room. I wasn’t trying anything, I swear.”
“Don’t even think about it. Amara isn’t available for your flirting, not with me around and especially not without me at her side.”
She heard the anger in Dante’s voice and touched him on the chest. She didn’t come here tonight to see him get into a fight with his best friend over nothing. “Honey, it’s okay. I wasn’t offended by Caleb and you shouldn’t be either,” she said, trying to soothe his ego.
Dante gazed at her and she felt some of the tension as it left his tall body. “If you’re okay with Caleb’s crazy ass nonsense, then I guess I shouldn’t let it bother me either,” he said.
“Hey, man. I’m sorry,” Caleb apologized. “I was only being—”
“I know,” Dante said. “I overreacted and I shouldn’t have. I know Amara is mine, but I just had to set some boundaries for you.”
Men, Amara thought as she listened while Dante staked his ‘claim’ on her like everyone in the bar couldn’t see they were together with all the kissing and hugging they were doing earlier when they walked through the front door. She wanted to be upset with him, but a part of her was secretly touched.
His actions showed how much he cared about her and their relationship. However, she still was able to take care and speak up for herself. Dante had to back off with being so overprotective. It wasn’t like she was going anywhere.
“Amara, are you ready to meet the rest of my friends?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“Baby, I’m up for whatever you are ready to do,” she answered. “Honestly, I’ve been waiting all day for this.”
“Don’t worry about anything. I know they’re going to love the hell out of you.”
Grabbing her by the hand, Dante went around Griffin and Caleb taking her towards the back of the bar. She couldn’t deny the anticipation was killing her, but it was going to work out for the best and if they didn’t like her, it was their problem and not hers. She was here for Dante, not them.
****
Standing next to the long table, Dante watched as everyone took in Amara after all of the introductions had been made minutes ago. He wished someone would say something because they were staring her down like she was on display at a museum. He could almost read their thoughts and they were wondering if she was good enough for him. Yet, he already determined a while ago that she was more than a woman of the month for him.
She satisfied his needs in ways no other woman had and it was more than sexual. Her ability to captivate all of his senses instead of two or maybe three at the least was very important to him. It meant more to him than Amara would ever know.
“Dante, I see why you haven’t been by Choppers in a while. You’ve been spending all of your time with Amara. Has she found out all of your faults yet?” Jim teased. “I mean you can only keep hiding them for so long before she realizes how much you have wrong with you.”
“Honey, stop picking on Dante,” Keira cut in. “I think him and Amara are adorable together. She’s the breath of fresh air that all of us had been wishing he found for himself.”
“Jim, stop messing with me. I could have told Keira a lot of things about you too. If I remember correctly, we both did a lot of wild and crazy things when we were younger.”
“Hey now, don’t try to throw me underneath the bus now after I’m married because I would deny every single thing that came out of your mouth,” Jim replied. “I only thought it was fair I warned a girl as pretty as Amara how you really are. She might want to do a little better than an old man like you.”
“Mr. Russell, I’m quite happy with Dante. He’s absolutely the man I’ve been looking for, so I don’t think I need to find anyone else,” Amara said, jumping right in to defend him.
His best friend’s wide-eyed gaze swung back and forth between them and then a pleased look slowly passed over Jim’s face. Amara wasn’t aware of it, but her little comment just gained his buddy’s respect. He liked when people stood up to him and voiced their opinions.
“Well, she told me how she felt about you. Dante, you finally picked the right one. Good for you man. Amara, why don’t you join us? It will give Dante time to go and check on things in the kitchen. I know the rest of the group here would love to get to know you better.”
Dante wasn’t about to leave his woman here with Jim. He could tell her about their wild bachelor days on the road dating every leggy woman who looked in their direction. No way...if or when Amara found out more about his younger years, it would be from him.
“I don’t need to check on anything,” he denied, making Jim give him a knowing look. “Besides, I haven’t showed Amara the rest of the bar yet. So, I’m going to do that right now. We’ll be back before all of you leave.”
He took Amara by the hand and rushed her way from the table. He kept walking through the crowd until they reached the hallway that led to his office. A few seconds later they were standing in front of it.
Digging the key out of his pocket, Dante unlocked it and ushered Amara inside closing it and then locking it behind them. He wasn’t taking any chances of anyone walking in on them. Everything was going good tonight and he wanted a little alone time with his woman.
/> Spinning around, Amara looked at him. “Why didn’t you want us to join your friends?” she asked. “I thought tonight was all about getting to know them better. So, what exactly happened out there? Why did you pull me away after only a few minutes?”
Dante went over to Amara grabbing her by the waist. He pulled her to his body. “I couldn’t let Jim tell you about my bad boy days with him at my side. You’ve agreed to move in with me and I can’t have my woman changing her mind. Besides, Jim has a tendency to make things seem a lot worse than they actually were back then.”
“Did you ever think maybe I love the idea of being with a bad boy? You do have the long hair I get to run my fingers through. Plus, your motorcycle is a turn-on, if I’ve ever seen one,” Amara said. “Nothing Jim or anyone else tells me about you will change how I feel. I make up my own mind about who I want to be with. No one, and I do mean no one, influences anything I do.”
The fire shining in Amara’s eyes impressed him. She started out like a scared baby kitten with him but the more time they spent together; she had slowly turned into a lioness. He loved the growing change in his woman and knowing he had something do to with it was even more impressive.
“Remind me not to get on your bad side because I don’t want you sinking your claws into me for any reason,” he teased.
“You’ll never have anything to worry about as long as you treat me as your equal. I love how you want to protect me, but having your respect is more important.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll always get my respect,” Dante answered as Amara walked away from him.
His eyes followed her as she sauntered around his office and ended up at his desk. Stopping by the edge, she picked up the framed photo sitting there.
“Is this a picture of you and your brothers?” she asked. “All of you look so young here.”
Going over to her, he glanced at the photograph and got lost in the memory of when it was taken. “Yes. My mother took it a week before my sixteenth birthday. The only reason I have it is I grabbed it after I packed my bags to move in with the Griffins. My parents only gave me thirty minutes to get my things and it was the first thing I tossed into my suitcase.”
Taking the picture from her, Dante placed it back down on his desk. He didn’t want to think about it anymore. It would be a useless memory that he shouldn’t be wasting his time on. He had come in here for an entirely different reason.
“Amara, we need to talk about something,” he said, taking her by the hand.
“What is it?” she asked, as he took her over to the couch in the corner of the room.
Sitting down, he pulled her down next to him. He didn’t want to move on to the next step of their relationship on so many lies on his part. Pastor Allen was right; he had to come clean before too much time passed.
Amara might be upset with him for a minute, but that was the chance he was willing to take. How could he resent his parents for trying to rule his every waking moment when he was doing the same thing with the woman he loved.
“There are some things that I need to tell you,” Dante said. “I should have told you before now, but it never seemed like the right time to do it. However, after thinking about it some more I see how wrong I was. You need to know everything that’s been going on.”
“Dante, whatever it is you know I’ve been through a lot more, so I’m more than strong enough to handle it. We came together in a whirlwind and our relationship is less than traditional, but I love you more now than I feared you the night we meet.”
His heart swelled with even more love for Amara. She gave him her trust and he wasn’t going to lose it by trying to control who she was and wasn’t friends with.
“Baby, I love you too and I’m thrilled you agreed to move in with me. I just hope after you hear me out that you won’t back out,” he admitted.
The confidence he usually felt was slipping a little more than he cared to admit. He hoped telling Amara the truth about his warning to Mr. Lee and being the driving force behind her new job wasn’t going to drive her away, because he had deliberately gone behind her back and done two things she warned him against doing.
Shoving his apprehension away, Dante gazed at Amara sitting next to him. She already had proven to him that she could handle the toughest situations, so why would his confessions make any kind of difference when it came to them. Couples in love had disagreements all of the time and got through it.
“You’re right. What I have to tell you isn’t so bad,” he said. “I was only doing it to protect—”
A loud banging on the door stopped Dante in mid-sentence. Who in the hell was bothering him? He came in here to get everything out in the open and now somebody was preventing it from happening.
“Go away,” he hollered.
“Dante, I can’t, it’s important. Unlock the door and let me in,” Griffin yelled back through the door. “You need to hear this. I wouldn’t have tracked you down if it wasn’t.”
Damn it, he thought.
“Give me a minute and I’ll be right back,” he said then kissed Amara before getting up from the couch.
Dante walked the short distance to his office door, unlocked it and flung it open glaring at Griffin standing on the other side. “This better be damn important for you to come back here,” he said.
“Morgan and Tanner were in a car crash. They’re in the hospital,” Griffin told him not missing a beat. “You need to go and see them. My parents couldn’t find out any more information because they weren’t family. Don’t worry about running into your parents because they’re on a cruise for their anniversary.”
He grabbed the doorframe with one hand and the door with another, so he wouldn’t fall over as his knees gave away. His baby brothers were in the hospital and he was going to see them. He didn’t give a shit if no one wanted him there. He was going to Harper, Texas and he felt sorry for the person who tried to stop him from going into that hospital room.
Getting himself back together, Dante stood up to his full height and got into business mode. He couldn’t break down without knowing everything that was going on. Morgan and Tanner might need something from him and he was going to be there to give it to either one of them.
“Call your parents and see if you can find out any more about the accident. I’ll see about booking a flight,” he told Griffin.
“You won’t need to book a flight with the airlines,” Griffin said. “Clinton offered the company plane to fly you to Texas after I told him what was going on with your family. He’s going to send a driver to your house to take you to the airport in about an hour.”
He was touched by his friends’ generosity; it would be one less thing he would have to worry about. “Great, I’m glad that’s taken care of. While I’m gone, I need you to take care of Amara for me. Make sure that you give her the spare key to my house we have at Inked. I want her sleeping there instead of the shelter while I’m back in Texas.”
“Sure, I can do that for you,” his buddy agreed. “I’ll take good care of her.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Amara chimed in behind him.
Dante glanced over his shoulder frowning when his eyes landed on Amara standing directly behind him. “What are you talking about?” he demanded. “You’ve already agreed to move in with me, so why not do it while I’m gone back home?”
“I can’t do it because I won’t be here to do it,” she answered.
Turning completely around, Dante said. “If you aren’t going to be in my house, where in the hell do you think you’ll be? You’re done staying at the shelter. It’s past time you moved on from sleeping in that tiny room. You can let someone else have it now.”
“Dante, if you stop demanding I do so much and listen to me you will find out where I’m going to be.”
He wasn’t trying to come off as controlling with her, but he just wanted to know she was safe while he was seeing about his brothers. He couldn’t be in Texas worrying about her back here.
“Fine, I’ll listen,” he said. “Tell me where you’re going to be. I know for sure it isn’t going to be with Mr. Lee.”
Amara gave him an odd look and he could have kicked himself from bringing up the other man. “No, I’m not going to be with Mr. Lee. Why would I? I’m going to be with you in Texas, but after the way you’re acting towards me maybe I should just stay here instead and find something else to occupy my time.”
An indescribable emotion raced through Dante after hearing Amara wanted to go with him. He never thought she would want to get introduced to any of his siblings especially after the things he confessed to her about his family.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked. “We aren’t going to be welcomed with opened arms.”
Touching his face, Amara stared into his eyes. “Morgan and Tanner are your family. You have every right to be there to know what’s going on. Don’t let anyone make you think that you don’t. Now, where’s that sexy, self-assured man I love so much. I bet he isn’t about to allow anyone to stand in his way to get what he wants.”
Amara’s words jump-started him into action. He gave her a quick kiss on the mouth before spinning around to find Griffin still standing in the doorway.
“Tell Clinton we’ll take him up on his offer to use the plane,” Dante said. “Will you take over the bar for me?”
“Of course, I will,” Griffin told him. “You don’t even have to ask me. I know Caleb will step up his game, too. I’ll bring Bear to my house and watch him while you’re gone. All I want you to do is find out how your brothers are doing.”
Dante silently prayed that Morgan and Tanner were fine despite the fact there was this huge void between them. He still loved them and didn’t want any harm to come to any of them. They were his family whether or not they wanted to admit it or not.
“Sweetheart, we need to leave so we’ll be ready in time for the driver,” Amara said, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze.
Glancing down, he saw the concern and love shining in Amara’s eyes and couldn’t help but love how she opened up her heart enough for him to take a place in there. He wasn’t sure what he would do without her now.
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