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I shrug, like that’s all I wanted. I drop the spotlight from her boyfriend. “Good. And Stace? Happy birthday.”
I let the boy roll up his window, taking no small amount of enjoyment at the way he’s staring back at me, wide-eyed.
And I snap a pic of his license plate. I’ve got a cousin at the precinct. Never hurts to check things out.
CHAPTER 20
I don’t expect to find Inara waiting for me at the door when I get back.
“Matthew,” she breathes, her voice sounding completely fucking horrified, “you are terrible.”
I give her the confused look her pronouncement deserves. “Excuse me?”
“You just humiliated that young woman—andthe male she has chosen for herself.”
“No,” I explain, forehead tipping down as I make my point. “I just made that girlsafewith the boy she’s chosen for herself.”
Inara shakes her head, lips slightly parted, eyes almost stricken. “What is wrong with you overbearing, overprotective men? You all go overboard!”
I give her a stern look. “He’s eighteen. His girl just turned legal. He’s horny. He needed that.” Plus, I like looking into the eyes of someone who’s utterly terrified of me. Who looks at me like he absolutely, one hundred percent believes I could tear him limb from limb. I’m not ashamed to admit that.
“You don’t know him. You can’t possibly know that!”
“Inara, he’s got a dick. Idofucking know that.”
Inara makes an outraged noise.
I cross my arms. “There are times when men need to be reminded to watch themselves. And during that boy-to-man transition, it’s important to change the relationship he has with his dumb-handle.”
Inara’s eyes flash. “And what would that relationship be?”
I shrug a shoulder. “Right now, he thinks with it. After he gets a visit or two from his love-interest’s closest Male of Concern, he stops thinking with his dumb-handle and starts beingafraidfor it. This is a crucial shift in every man’s life.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“No, sweetheart, it’s not. You have a dad and brothers. They’re your checks and balances, and I just did that for Stacy. Do you understand?”
“I understand that is medieval!” she fires back hotly. “What you’ve just done to that poor female? They’vealldone that to me, and I can tell you from experience, Matt, it’s humiliating!”
I shrug, licking the inside of my teeth. “Don’t doubt it. But tell me this.” I look her right in the eye. “You ever been hurt after your family put the fear of God into any guy you’re seeing?”
Inara’s nostrils flare at the same time her lips thin, mouth pressed flat.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
She makes a disgusted noise, and I drop my arms, striding past her. “Suck it up, buttercup. Let me grab my keys and shut shit down. Then we’ll get out of here.”
***
The ride home ain’t fun. When we get into my ride, I brace myself and ask: “So. You mad at me?”
Inara’s noise is one of disbelief or low-level horror or maybe it’s a blend of the two. In other words: not promising.
In silence, we drive back to my place.
It’s so tense there should be dents on the steering wheel where my fingers left white-knuckle gripped impressions.
We manage to make it up all the stairs, through the door of my place,closethe door of my place—before the fight starts.
