“Cute,” Kace said while blowing out a long breath. “Jett was just trying to—”

Kace was interrupted by Lyla, my old roommate flying through my door. Ever since I’ve been staying with Diego, I’ve been able to visit her more often. She was out with us the other night when everything went down at the bar but the dumb bitch hooked up with someone and left early.

“Goldie, did you see…” Lyla stopped in place when she slammed into Kace. She looked up at him and her eyes widened. “Oh my God, who’s the Adonis?” she said while looking at Kace.

Watching closely, I saw Kace’s eyes scan Lyla up and down and a small twitch of a smile tickled the corner of his mouth as he appreciated every last inch of Lyla.

She licked her lips and gave him the same perusal that he did but spent more time looking at his crotch as if she had ex-ray vision. The heat in the room turned up dramatically as they both looked at each other, not saying anything. Holy hell, I was turned on just watching them.

I cleared my throat and said, “Uh, hello. You can eye-fuck each other later. Why are you both here?”

“Kace,” he said while holding out his hand.

“Lyla,” she said back.

“Oh, so you just give her your name as if it’s nothing but I had to agree to be a part of your little gentleman’s club world before you told me your name?”

He didn’t look at me when he answered, “It’s not my club.”

My hands went to my hips and I felt like stomping my feet to get their attention. I poked Lyla in the side and said, “Why the hell are you here?”

She slowly turned away from Kace and held out a magazine. “Just delivering the news.”

Kace’s head snapped as he reached for the magazine but I was quicker than him, for once, since I beat the infuriating man.

“Give me that,” he said sternly.

“What are you going to do about it?” I asked as I jumped up on my bed.

He walked over to me, grabbed both of my legs and pulled them out from under me making my ass fall to the mattress and my arms flail about. He grabbed the magazine from my hands, rolled it up and stuffed it in the back of his jeans.

“Hey, that’s mine!” I said while trying to gain my balance from tornado Kace that just blew by.

“Call Jett,” Kace said then eyed Lyla up and down and said, “Let her call Jett.”

“Give me your number and I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Say nothing and I’ll think about giving it to you.”

“Good enough for me,” Lyla responded as she followed Kace out of my door.

“Traitor!” I shouted as they shut my door.

I grabbed my phone but kept it plugged in as I turned my phone on. Sure enough, there were five missed calls from Jett.

I dialed his number and he picked up on the first ring.

“Goldie, why was your phone off?”

“It died, I forgot to plug it in. What’s going on, Jett?”

He paused on the phone, making my stomach do a flip. What was so damn bad that he had to take a second to respond?

“There were some pictures taken of me yesterday, and they were published, but I have to tell you, nothing happened.”

“What kind of pictures?”

“Pictures with Keylee Zinc.”

“The kiwi?!”I shouted into the phone. “What were you doing?”

“I was helping her pick out a dress for tonight. I didn’t want to go but I had to, to keep up an image. Please believe me…”

“What were you doing, Jett? What’s in the pictures?”

He took a deep breath and said, “It looks so fucking bad, but she asked me to help her get out of a dress she was caught in and before I knew it, she was topless…”

“Topless?” I paused and thought about it. “They’re fake, aren’t they?”

“Wh-what?” Jett sputtered.”

“Her tits, they’re fake, right?”

“Um, well I don’t know. I didn’t touch them if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I’m asking if they’re fake, Jett. I don’t think it’s a very hard question to answer.”

“Goldie, please…”

“Are they fake?”

“God…yes, they’re fake. Jesus, why does it matter?”

“I knew it. You know, I looked up Keylee in Urban Dictionary and it said bitchy girl with fake breasts.”

Jett paused for a second before saying, “Does it really?”

“After I get off the phone, it will.”

“Goldie…” Jett breathed out. “Can you please listen to me?”

“I get it, Jett,” I interrupted him. “You have to do what you have to do. It’s a tough situation you’re in and I know that you’re doing your best to take care of things. I trust you,” I said while trying not to grit my teeth as realization hit me.

Jett would do anything to protect me, even if that meant being caught with another woman. Well, fuck that! I was over this Jett trying to protect me thing. It was time that I took matters into my own hands because right now, the only thing Jett was able to accomplish was push us further and further away from each other. I was done, if we were going to be apart, we were going to at least accomplish something.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Jett. One more night, right?”

“Hopefully,” he responded with not much confidence. And that right there, that was my cue, this was no longer Jett’s problem, this was ours.

“Are you coming over tonight?”

“Yes,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Good, I will see you then. We can talk about this then.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“No, Jett. I’m not. I respect the fact that you’re doing the best you can for the both of us.”

We talked for a little bit longer but I hung up the phone once my stomach started rumbling. I left my phone to charge and headed down to the kitchen. I was on a mission.

Diego was making a sandwich when he turned around and saw me.

“Hey, sleepy…”

He didn’t finish his sentence because in one swift movement, his nipple was my prisoner as I held it in a death grip and looked him dead in the eyes.

“What the fu…” He tried to pull away but I just gripped tighter and spoke sternly.

“You listen closely, you motherfucker. We’re going to sit down at this table, I’m going to eat that sandwich you just made and you’re going to tell me every last fucking thing you know about Lot 17 or else I will pinch your nipple off so hard that it will look like a goddamn cherry tomato when I’m done with it.”

“Jesus Christ,” he said as he pulled away.

I grabbed his sandwich, took a big bite and pointed to the table. His hands found his nipples and put up a protective shield when I made a pinching motion at him. I followed him with my pinchers until he sat down.

I took the seat next to him and drank from the cup he had set down for himself.

“Now tell me what the hell is going on.”

“Goldie, I told Jett…”

I lunged at him with my fingers and he backed off while saying some obscenities.

“Damn bitch, you’re crazy!”

“Test me, Diego. I swear to God, go and test me because you have no fucking clue what crazy is. Try sleeping with me hovering over you with a bloody rat dangling from my hand and a knife in the other.”

“Holy fuck,” he exclaimed while he scooted back some more.

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not if you like your dick.”

His hands quickly went to his crotch as his eyes widened.

“Well…”

“Fine.” He took a deep breath and said, “Lot 17 is a piece of property that Jett has been keeping his eyes on for a while, he plans on using it for the local Boys and Girls club and building a park in honor of them and for them.”

My heart warmed from that information. Why did he make it seem like it was such a bad thing?

“The only thing standing in his way is his father,” Diego added.

“His father?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, the man is in the same business as Jett but he isn’t as successful as his son because he’s not honest and he’s very distrustful. He uses people to get what he wants and he won’t let anything stand in his way when he sets his eyes on something he wants, even his son.”