But I learned a valuable lesson. Life isn’t about everyone or everything being perfect. It’s about the misadventures, the unplanned madness of losing your luggage and being forced to spend travel insurance money and going on the best shopping spree ever.

It’s about sitting at the fanciest restaurant and seeing a rat run past the table, only to end up at the closest McDonald’s in your formal wear.

It’s called life.

Perfection is open for interpretation. Society makes us believe that when you find the perfect man, it’s love at first sight and you say “I do” and buy that dream house. Then you have your two or three kids and live happily ever after.

And guess what? We did the opposite.

Screw a stranger in the alley of a club, fall pregnant, run away with a newly-divorced man to live in a rundown bungalow out of wedlock. This is our perfect.

And from the moment Haden promised to give me more, I finally understood the meaning of living life to the fullest. I understood what it’s like to have no plan and just live for the moment. I didn’t have to become an adrenaline junkie like Haden. I just let fate do its thing. I savored every experience, good and bad, with the man who gave me more.

The man, Haden Cooper, otherwise known as my #Jerk.

He’s got that stare.

Those dirty eyes.

Licking his lips in anticipation.

And he’s watching my girl.

She’s oblivious. She always is. Standing across the room, my gaze is steadily on her while she’s talking animatedly with some friends. That dress isn’t helping, and I’m so fucking torn between wanting to see her beautiful body showcased and wanting to belt every fucker who’s looking at her. It’s that fucking slit, the one that rides so far up her thigh, it doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

And I know what every single fucker in here is thinking. I can read their minds. They are thinking the exact same thing as me. They are imagining how perfect her legs would be wrapped around their face. How her huge tits would bounce around as she rode them fast till they blew their load.

But she’s mine. My head starts to throb, slowly forming into a migraine as I struggle to ignore the sadistic thoughts running through my mind. Blame the dress. This ridiculous dress that caused a massive argument between us earlier. Stubborn woman wouldn’t back down, calling me a caveman or some bullshit like that. I just knew what every jerk would be thinking. After all, that used to be me.

The room is dark and slowly morphing into a lions’ den. The beasts are hungry, waiting for their prey to make a move, a wink, even a sly smile. A gesture that will have the beasts moving in leaps and bounds, thirsty for some meat. My eyes dart back and forth. One on the prey, the other watching the beasts. The one on my left…I’m certain it’ll be him. He’s covering his mouth with a bottle but his eyes have never left her. Then, he does the unthinkable. He moves his hand to his crotch and adjusts his cock.

Muthafucker has a hard-on already!

“You alright?”

Lex Edwards is beside me, having just stopped the waiter for a drink. I lose my focus, but only for a second. If it wasn’t for him buying a share in Lantern Publishing, this stupid party wouldn’t be happening.

“Yeah...it’s just….. Never mind.”

He chuckles as if he’s in on some joke. “You’ve got to let it go. Otherwise you’ll drive yourself insane. Trust me, I know. And you should know since you so eagerly tried the same move on my wife last year.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, man,” I apologize.

“So the tables have turned and you’re about to smash every guy in this room for looking at your woman.”

“I can take them out easily. Especially that fucker on the left,” I grit.

“You’ll spend a lifetime fighting it off. You need to find a way to control the jealousy. It’s a balancing act. Let her think you’re cool but never—and I repeat never—take your eyes off the prize.”

I don’t know how Lex is so calm about all of this. His wife is standing next to my girl. The beasts are probably thinking of how to bag the both of them in one go. The waiter returns but not quickly enough. I grab the scotch and down it in almost one gulp. It burns my throat and follows up with a numbing sensation. It doesn’t stop me from seeing red.

“If that’s what I gotta do, then I’ll spend my life fighting every fucker that thinks they can go near her.”

She doesn’t realize what she does to me. To every man in this room. Except for Lex. He’s fighting his own battles, despite being in denial.

It’s been over a year since I made it my mission to crawl under her skin. The woman who drove me to the brink of insanity. And she had no clue either. Because beneath her mass of curls was a hardheaded, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, feisty woman that rubbed me the wrong way. Boy, did that backfire. I thought fucking her in the alley and leaving her pussy wet with no happy ending would teach her a fucking lesson. It taught me a lesson. You play with fire, you get burned. The amount of shit I did to forget her was all a waste a time.

But I wouldn’t change it.

My son is my fucking life.

And running through his veins is the blood of this woman that consumes me. It’s not just her wild hair that cascades down her back and covers her body like a Greek goddess’. It’s everything about her. The way her big brown eyes stare back at me, drawing me in enough that I could climb into her soul and bury myself there. How her body begs me to take her, whenever and wherever.

Whenever…wherever…

I’ve got it. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

You did, moron. You’re always thinking about it. This is what happens when you’re in love with a beautiful woman.

I finish the drink in my hand and place it on a table, abandoning Lex without another word. Walking straight to her, I don’t break my gaze until she stops mid-sentence as my body presses against her back. My hands move around her hips and I pull her closer till my cock is nestled in her ass.

Yeah, I’m hard. What’s fucking new?

“Look who’s here. What, aren’t we allowed to talk to your girlfriend?” Kate teases, laughing along with Lex’s wife, Charlie.

“Stop teasing him, Kate. It’s this man thing they all have to do,” Charlie chastises.

Kate rolls her eyes at Charlie. “Yeah, you should know. Your man is over there practically eye-fucking you.”

Charlie scans the room and spots Lex. “Oh…the joys of being eye-fucked. I’ll see you ladies later.”

I don’t give Presley an opportunity to say anything as I excuse us from Kate.

“Haden, what’s wrong? Where are we going?”

Pulling her along, I weave my way in and out of the crowd until we are outside in the lobby. I look to my left, then to my right. There it is. My savior for tonight.

“Come with me.”

Puzzled, she follows me until we are at the lobby desk. There is a bench located in front and I tell her to take a seat.

“Wait here,” I instruct.

At the counter, I pull the young busboy aside and whisper in his ear, “Key to the cloak room.”

I’m hoping he is smart enough to read between the lines since I’m holding out a hundred-dollar bill. At first he watches the people behind me, then takes the cash. “Alright. But you’ve got fifteen minutes, then my boss is back.”

Fifteen minutes. I’ll be done in five.

I make my way back to where she is sitting and grab her hand forcefully.

“Haden, for the love of God what are you doing?” She scowls, trying to release her grip from mine.

With the key in my hand, we make our way to the cloak room. I open the door and switch on the light, pushing her inside. Closing the door behind us, I don’t give her time to ask any more ridiculous questions. I slam my mouth onto hers as I push her against the wall. She clutches onto my shirt and manages to pull away for just a split second.