Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men Book 9) (37 page)

“Oh, baby doll,” he murmured sympathetically. “No, no, no. You’re going about this all wrong. Here.” He turned me around, gripped my hips and propped me up on the kitchen counter facing him.

I liked where this was going.

“First of all, we’re dumping this.” He overturned my glass, letting the rest of the contents spill out into the sink. I sent up a quick prayer that it didn’t cause any kind of toxic, glowy green gas in the sewers and morph baby turtles into human-sized ninjas or anything.

No, wait. That would be cool. But, damn, that had already been done too. Pooh.

“Now…” Colton set his hands on my thighs, the heat from his palms feeling delicious as it soaked through my yoga pants. “Close your eyes.”

Really,
really
liking where this was going, I did, tipping my face up, you know, just in case he wanted to do something to that area with, say, his lips, maybe.

His breath wafted across my cheek, and my body stirred.

“Drain your mind,” he instructed, his voice husky and low.

Instead of draining, my mind filled…every sense overflowing with nothing but him.

Preferring this to a drained mind, I tightened my lips and said, “Okay.”

He chuckled as if he knew exactly what I wanted him to do but wanted to tease me first. “Think of every favorite flavor you have. Food, drink, whatever. Then mix them together and imagine them combined in a single beverage.”

I opened my eyes and met his curious brown gaze. “So you’re saying I should chop you up into pieces and put you in a drink? That’s kind of sadistic, don’t you think?”

“Ah, baby doll.” Sweeping in, he kissed me, his hands confident and warm as they ran down my back and clutched my ass. “You sure know how to make me feel loved.”

“You are,” I assured him. “Completely.” Wanting to thank him for the kindness he’d just paid my friend, I buried my fingers in his hair and tugged him forward, nipping at his mouth, then kissing him deeply.

“Oh, hell no!” Sasha squawked, screeching to a stop as she entered the kitchen. “Jesus, Juli. No sex on the kitchen counters, ’kay?”

Mortified, I buried my face in Colton’s shirt and muffled out a wincing, “Sorry.”

“I was just inspiring her to create a really awesome drink,” Colton answered, making Sasha snicker and back out of the kitchen.

“Well, then. I’ll leave you to it. Just hurry it up. Ty’s getting restless.”

I pushed Colton back so I could slide off the counters. He backed away, taking my hands as I landed on my feet. “I need to get back to this alcohol-making duty
someone
assigned me to.”

He winked and kissed my forehead. “I’ll stop inspiring you, then.”

And he strolled back out of the kitchen. I watched his ass in his jeans until he disappeared, soaking up the last bit of inspiration I could before, wham, an idea really did hit me.

Chocolate-covered strawberries were my favorite thing on earth. I hurried to pull a carton of strawberries from the refrigerator, then chocolate syrup, and some whipped topping. Raiding the cabinets, I found some rum and Kahlua and put my mixer to work.

A minute later, I was carrying a tray full of three drinks into the living room, where Chad had crept out of hiding and was sitting in the chair farthest away from the couch where Tyla was. She remained curled up between Sasha and Colton, who had an arm draped around her shoulders.

“The alcohol is here!” I announced, grinning brightly.

Sasha and Tyla immediately took their glasses, and when Colton reached for the third, I sent him an arch look and half pulled away. “That one’s mine. You’re not twenty-one,
remember
?”

He glanced at me and then winked. “I just want a taste.”

I sighed but stopped pulling back to allow him to claim the glass. As he took his first sip, I held my breath and bit my lip. He looked up at me and lifted his eyebrows. “Mmm. This shit is good.” His next drink was more of a gulp.

“It really is, JuJu,” Tyla announced while a busy-drinking Sasha could only nod and hold out a thumbs-up.

Curious because I’d been too afraid to try it, I reached for Colton’s glass. “I want to try it.”

But he held up an arm to block me. “Hell no. This one’s mine now. Go make your own.”

I paused to raise my eyebrows. “What did you just say to me?”

Eyes sparkling with mischief, he stuck out his tongue and slowly lapped his way up the outside of the glass. “I licked it. It’s mine.”

When Sasha and Chad and Tyla all burst out laughing, I gasped. “Why you…” I dove at him, making him shout out his surprise and quickly set the drink on an end table before either of us spilled it.

I pounced onto his lap and tried to reach past him, but he cried, “No!” and laughed, slinging an arm around my waist to hold me back.

“Give me my goddamn drink, you jerk,” I muttered, struggling against him and yet unable to stop laughing either.

“Jerk, huh?” He lifted his eyebrows through his grin. “That’s definitely not going to get you your drink back. Actually, I think that’s grounds for
this
.”

And the bastard proceeded to tickle me.

“Oh my God,
no
!” I squealed, struggling against him and giggling uncontrollably. “No! Stop. Stop! Oh my God, wait. You’re going to jostle my ovaries.”

He immediately stopped before he realized I was making fun of him by repeating his own words back to him from when I’d had my period.

A second later, he narrowed his eyes. “Ooh, you smart-ass. I’m going to get you even more for that.” And he advanced slowly, his fingers spread and curled into mock claws.

“Girl, please do not tell me you have a bun in the oven,” Tyla demanded. “Are you fucking pregnant?”

J
ULIANNA’S
C
HAPTER
|
31

C
olton straightened with surprise. “Wait, what?” His eyes went wide and scared as they darted between me and Tyla. “Pregnant?”

I blinked at my roommate, utterly confused. “Yeah…
what
?” I asked Tyla.

“Well…” She blinked at me, clearly confused. “You said something about jostling your ovaries.”

I glanced toward Colton. He glanced back at me. And we both burst out laughing.

Tears were streaming down my face and Colton still couldn’t calm down enough to help me explain our inside joke when Tyla finally lifted her hands, and said, “Never mind. I don’t want to know. You and your happy new relationship is making me ill.”

“No, wait.” I dove at her, grabbing her arm. “I’m sorry. We’ll stop. I’ll behave, I swear.”

“Yeah, I won’t touch her for the rest of the night,” Colton promised, right before sending me a big wink and then scooting me off his lap. Then he turned all his attention to Tyla. “This is your night. We’ll do whatever you want to do.”

“Whatever I want?” she asked, her gaze lighting with appreciation as she looked at
my
man. I began to narrow my eyes, wondering what the heck she was going to suggest he do with her, when she said, “Theo never let me play Super Mario with him.”

Colton’s eyebrows lifted with surprise. “You want to play Super Mario? Hell, I would love to play Super Mario with you. Anyone else in?”

“Ooh, me!” Chad said, immediately rising from his seat and coming closer so he could squeeze onto the couch at the end, next to Sasha. “I’ll play.”

I smiled at them as they began to set up that game.

“I guess I’ll go make another drink for myself,” I announced.

Chad, who’d been sipping from Sasha’s glass, lifted his hand. “Make me one too. This shit rocks, Juli.”

I beamed, proud of my concoction. “You got it.”

“I’ll help you,” Sasha announced as she popped to her feet and followed me into the kitchen, only to yank on my arm as soon as we were alone. “Oh my God, I could just kiss your Colton right now. Did you see the way he totally cheered her up?” She sighed and pressed her hand to her heart. “Girl, if you don’t end up married to that one, I might.”

I snickered and bumped my shoulder against hers, knowing she was joking. “Back off, bitch. He’s mine.”

With a laugh, she helped recreate my masterpiece, but a knock on the front door interrupted us.

“Babe, can you get that?” Chad called. “We just started.”

Sasha’s hands were covered in strawberry guts where she was busy cutting off stems, so I set my hand on her shoulder. “I’ve got it.”

Cracking my neck and once again preparing for a confrontation with Theo, I hurried back into the front room and made sure to cross behind the television so I didn’t block the screen from the three playing Super Mario so intensely on the couch.

When I pulled the door open again, however, I was once again surprised.

The man on the other side of the door spread his arms open wide with a big grin. “Surprise!”

My jaw sagged. “Dad? What…what’re you doing here?”

“What? Like I need a reason to visit my Juli Bug?” He walked past me into the apartment before I could invite him inside, shedding his gloves and trench coat as he went.

I opened my mouth to say something along the lines of not having any warning, but he stopped dead, staring at the sofa where Tyla, Colton, and Chad sat in a line, each of them frantically operating the Nintendo controls in their hands with their gazes fixed on the television. A second later, Colton shouted his triumph as he sprang to his feet, while Chad and Tyla on either side of him cried out their dismay and flung down their controls, disgusted.

Colton was still grinning over his win—or whatever he’d done to best the other two—when he caught sight of me standing slightly behind my father as Dad stood stonily staring at him with his coat folded over one arm.

I could tell the moment Colton realized who he was. His grin faltered and he darted a quick glance at me before pushing another smile onto his face, this one a little bit leery.

“Hey,” he said, sounding completely polite and welcoming.

Dad’s glower intensified before he glanced at me. “Is he the one Shaun told me about, then? The boy you’ve been seeing behind my back?”

“Oh…shit,” I heard Chad’s quiet curse. A second later, he and Tyla scrambled past Colton to escape the room and hustle into the kitchen, making excuses about things they had to do.

Five seconds later, only Colton, my dad and I remained.

Colton made the first move. “Hey, um,
hi
.” When my father veered his hard stare back to Colton, Colton winced but cleared his throat and kept striding forward. His black and blue eye suddenly stood out horribly. “You must be Juli’s dad. I’m Colton. It’s nice to meet you.” He respectfully held out his hand, but of course, my dad only narrowed his eyes.

Colton slowed to a stop and shifted his attention to me, his gaze clearly asking me what I wanted him to do.

Unable to leave him hanging like that, I moved to his side and took his hand—the same one my father had refused to shake—and squeezed his fingers as we faced my dad together. “I don’t know what Shaun told you, or
thinks
he knows about me, but yes, this is my boyfriend, Colton. I wasn’t hiding him or doing anything behind your back.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Oh, weren’t you?”

I lifted my chin. “No. I wasn’t.” Okay, maybe just a little, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Well…I forbid it.”

“Wait, what?” Colton shook his head. “Just like that? Don’t you even want to quiz me first, find out how totally awesome I am, check out my teeth?
Something
?”

My dad sent me a dry glance. “I don’t like him. He’s disrespectful.”

Colton gulped audibly and sank closer to me. I lifted our entwined hands to my chest and scowled stubbornly at my father.

“Is this the only reason you came all the way up here? Because you heard I was dating a white boy?”

Dad’s jaw tensed at that. “This relationship, or whatever it is you two have going on, is over. The color of his skin has nothing to do with it.”

Yeah, right. I snorted. “How can you say that? You don’t even know him.”

“Little girl,” he boomed. “Do you really think I came all this way without checking him out first? The kid came from the poorest neighborhood in Pennsylvania. He’s
trash
who grew up in a trailer house with his three siblings, who all had different fathers, by the way. And his mother was a drunk, drug-addicted crack whore, who had sex with men for her next hit.”

When Colton flinched, I stepped closer to him. “He can’t help who his parents were, Dad. That was a low blow. Did your
research
lead you to the fact he hasn’t lived with his mom since he was eight and he went on to graduate as the
second
smartest student in his high school class?”

“Sure, but he enrolled into college with his degree as undecided. He has
no
plans whatsoever for the future. Hell no one’s ever even turned in a W2 for him, meaning he doesn’t have a job either.”

I was about to argue that he made a very lucrative career out of making Vines—where I’m guessing his sister took care of the money matters—but my father would probably turn his nose up at that too and call it frivolous and irrelevant or something.

“You’re not being fair,” I muttered. “He’s only eighteen. What do you expect, he’ll have a complete resume on hand, with a detailed blueprint planned for the rest of his life?”

“And he’s only
eighteen
years old!” My father jabbed out his arm as if making a point. “Which is
four
years too young for you. Child, what are you thinking?”

“Actually, uh, it’s three years and four months,” Colton said. All this time, he hadn’t said one word in defense of himself. But he spoke up
now
? For
that
?

My father and I both turned to look at him as if he were insane. He just shrugged. “Well, it sounds better than straight-up four.”

Dad shook his head and focused on me. “He’s not one of us. He will never respect you.”

“Respect me?” I barked out a laugh and set my hand against my throat. “Colton has done nothing
but
respect me, something I can’t say for Shaun.” That tattletaling sack of shit. “And he’s always made me feel like I fit into his life. It breaks my heart that you don’t even want to give him a chance. And I hate not having your approval, but honestly, Dad, this isn’t your decision to make. I am with Colton now, whether you like it or not.”

Clearly, the man did not. He narrowed his eyes and pointed at my nose.

“You are to stop this nonsense right now, young lady, or I will take you back home with me tonight. Is that clear?”

I stared at him a moment before sighing. “No.” I shook my head. “That is not clear at all. I’m twenty-one years old. You can’t order me to do anything.”

“Is that so?” He glanced around the living room of my apartment before declaring, “I pay for this apartment, Julianna. I pay for your college. Your car. Your phone. Do you want me to keep providing for you or not?”

My mouth fell open and the air whooshed from my lungs. “Are you giving me an ultimatum?”

My father and I had a brief stare off before he slowly began to nod. “Yes, I guess that’s what I’m doing.”

I swallowed, feeling as if he’d just pummeled me in the chest because the breath left my body.

Colton was the first to react, even though he’d experienced a moment of frozen shock too. “Dude,
what
?” he exploded. “You would cut off her money for
college
? Why would you do that? I mean, I could totally see it if she was like some wealthy heiress or something and you said you’d cut off her trust fund as a way to drive me away, like testing to see if I was a fortune hunter or something. But messing with her education doesn’t affect me at all. It only hurts
her
.” He spun to me, incredulous. “What the fuck? I thought you said he was a good dad.”

Before I could answer, Dad grabbed Colton’s arm and spun him around so they were face-to-face.

“Look here, boy. You have no right to stand there and question my parenting skills. Until you have raised a little girl all by yourself since she was six years old with no one in the world but you responsible for her, you have no right to tell me how to do my job. I know my Julianna. And I know how to protect her.”

“Yeah, no. No, you don’t,” Colton said, shaking his head. “I think you forgot one little detail when you were raising her up right to be a strong, independent, intelligent woman. She actually
became
a fucking strong, independent, intelligent woman. She doesn’t need you to support her. If she wanted to, she could still do everything she’s doing now without you. It may take her longer and put more stress on her, but she’d get that shit done. So all you’re really doing right now is cutting yourself out of her life because of your
own
issues. You’re hurting her by making it damn clear you don’t trust or support the decisions she’s made. You’re…you’re just being a fucking prick right now.”

“Colton,” I said softly and touched his arm to calm him down.

He huffed out a breath and tore his glare from my father. When his gaze met mine, his shoulders slumped. “Well, he is,” he muttered.

“My ultimatum stands,” Dad stated, gazing between us. “I’ll give you twenty-four hours to make your final decision.” Then he strode out of the apartment, leaving a wake of silent shock behind him.

I looked at Colton.

He blew out a breath, fell onto the couch and finally lifted his gaze to me. Something punched me hard in the center of the chest, and I realized it was doom. What was worse, I could see the same doom reflected on his face.

“Wow,” he rasped. I swear his voice was shaking with nerves. It scared me.