Unhinged Love

Chapter 5

Conrad's POV

"You better f*****g leave right now," I growled in Ryder's face. I don't know what the hell she was doing with this guy, but he was bad news. I wasn't stupid, and I knew what he did. He tried to do business with one of the companies that I represented, and I did some looking into him and, while his shop was mostly legal, he also had some skeletons in the closet.

"Or what?" he spat back in my face. Literal spit. I wiped my face and pushed my chest out and stepped up to him until we were nose to nose. "Leave before I drag your ass out of here, and you may not know who I am, but I sure as f**k know who you are, and you don't want to try me because I will bring every f*****g skeleton out of your closet and we both know you don't want that." I threatened, and I watched as his face broke, and he let out growl before he backed down.

"Not f*****g worth it," he said, taking one last look at her, because if he looked again, I would rip his eyes out of his damn head.

I grabbed Avery's screen door and pulled it open, almost pulling it off its hinges and pushed her front door open and pulled her inside with me. "What in the ever-loving f**k was that about?" I yelled at her.

"That was my date. I never told you that I was going out with you. I never replied to any of your texts and now my date is gone, and I wasted my evening getting ready."

"Oh, you didn't waste it, and I wasn't going to let you go out with that scum. You will only be going on a date with me," I said, and she threw her head back, laughing. I wanted to wrap my hand around that pretty little throat of hers and shut her up and kiss the f**k out of her.

"You can't tell me who I can and can't date. You don't own me."

"Guess you don't know me very well. You. Are. Mine," I said, making sure to make sure she understood.

"No. I. Am. Not." she said right back at me with the threatening tone that I used.

"You may not know it yet, but you are."

"You own me by watching me go on dates with different guys every weekend. By letting me ignore your text. I thought you were going to come over and teach me some manners," she said with so much sass in her voice and topped it off by placing her hand on her hip and popping it out to the side. God this woman was a f*****g handful.

"Holy f**k, you did this on purpose, didn't you?"

"Did what on purpose?"

"Ryder. You were never going to go out with him. You wanted to see what I was going to do."

"No, he was supposed to take me out. We were going to get burgers and beer and ride on his bike. I had never been on a bike before and was really looking forward to it. It sounds kind of hot."

I grabbed her hand. We were going to start this night over now that he was gone. I was still mad that she set me up like that, but I did kind of deserve it. I had followed her on too many dates to count, and I can't believe that she knew about it. I really thought I was better at following her, but apparently not.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"I'm taking you to dinner like I had told you, if you would have listened." She gave me that drop-dead gorgeous smile of hers and we left her house. I made sure her front door was locked. "Why don't you have cameras up outside your front door? You should have some."

"I don't know, I thought about it," she said, shrugging her shoulders. I walked her all the way around to the passenger side of the car and opened the door for her and held her hand while she slipped into the driver's seat. I shut her door softly and made a mental note to have some security cameras installed. She might live in a safe neighborhood doesn't mean she was safe, and I wasn't going to let anything happen to my girl.

"Where are we going to dinner?"

"I have reservations at Silvers," I said, and the look she gave said she was disgusted.

"How about beer and burgers?"

"Sounds good to me," I said, and her face lit up. That surprised me a little. I didn't take her as the burgers and beer type, but I loved that she was.

I pulled into a little diner and rushed around to open her door, but she was out waiting for me. I tried to grab her hand but this time she pulled it back. We walked inside and there was a sign that said to seat yourself, so I found us a booth in the back corner. Not that they were busy, but hopefully it would stay empty, and we could have privacy.

There was a waitress standing there with menus as soon as we sat down. "Good evening, can I start you guys with some drinks?" she asked, but only looking at me and I quickly looked at Avery, who ordered her beer of choice and I got the same thing. It took her a second to leave, but as soon as she did, Avery let go of my hands that she had grabbed and sat back and looked at the menu and I continued to look at her. God, she looked so good tonight. The f**k me heels and the low-cut top and all the makeup. She didn't need it at all, but f**k I loved this version of her. I loved every version of her.

"Have I told you how amazing you look tonight?"

"You haven't, but go on," she said with a giant smile on her face.

I leaned forward in the booth, so I was as close to her as I could get, but honestly, it wasn't close enough. I f****d up with I got a booth because I should have gotten a table where I could have inched my chair closer to until we were sitting right next together. "You look absolutely fuckable, but you always look that way. But tonight, when I saw you standing there holding Ryder's hand, you took my breath away."

"Can I take your order?" the waitress asked, interrupting us, but I didn't even look up at her.

"Two burgers and fries and refill our beer," I said without even looking at her. She huffed and walked off.

"Tell me about yourself," I asked. I know lame, but I wanted to know more about her as well. I wanted to know everything.

"What about me?" She asked and leaned back in her seat. I did the same, getting more comfortable.

"Where are you from? Because you didn't grow up here, trust me, I would have noticed."

"Well, it is a big town," she said, and I just gave her a don't lie to me look, and she giggled and, God-damn, I loved that sound. It was hypnotic. "I'm from Connecticut."

"An east coast girl on the west coast."

"Did you grow up here?"

"Yes, born and raised. I left to go to school but came back."

"Why did you leave?"

"I didn't love it there."

"What about your family?" I asked, and I watched her face turn from happy to sad back to happy again. It was a quick change and if I wasn't really paying attention I would have missed.

"What are we doing after this?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"What do you want to do?"

"We should go get some more drinks and go dancing," she said, lighting up. I was down for the drinks but not the dancing, but I would sit there drinking and watch her dance.

"Whatever you want," I said, and our food was placed down in front of us. The smell hit my nose and my stomach growled, and she must have been just as hungry as I was because she shoved a fry in her mouth and I got so wrapped up watching her chew and I don't know why, but damn it was hot, and I could feel myself getting hard imagining her opening her mouth and taking me all in one swallow.

She cleared her throat and pulled me out of the trance. I shook my head and tried to wiggle in my seat to get a little more comfortable, but it didn't work, and I couldn't just reach down and adjust myself. That would be obvious. I thought about my grandma, and a horror film I watched and anything else that I could do to make myself to go soft.

We were pretty quiet while we were eating. I think she knew how she affected me earlier, and I had to avoid watching her. I have never had that reaction to watching someone eat. I was going to be f****d with each meal I had with her.

When we walked into the club that she had picked I was instantly blinded by the flashing lights and the music was so loud that we would never have any type of conversation, but I wasn't here to listen to her talk. I wanted to watch her dance.

"Do a shot with me?" She yelled in my ear, and I was still barely able to hear her. She grabbed my hand and dragged me to the bar. I pulled out my credit card, and she ordered a shot of something for both of us. I opened the tab, and she raised her shot glass up and grabbed mine quickly and clinked our glasses together, and she threw hers back downing it quickly, and I watched as her body shook with the flavor, and then I took shot and, damn, I don't know what that was, but it was nasty.

"Let's dance," she yelled.

"You go and I will watch." I told her, and she pouted but turned and walked towards the dance floor. I watched her ass the entire time, but as soon as she hit the floor she was swept up into the crowd of people. I ordered water because I was going to have to drive, and I wouldn't be taking a ride-share. I moved to the second floor and found a table right by the ledge and was able to overlook the dance floor and watched as she danced her way all over the floor. Sometimes with different groups of people, sometimes with girls and sometimes just by herself. The way she put her hands up and swayed her hips to music. I sat back in the chair and watched more. I saw her look over to the bar and not see me, so she frantically started looking around. It took her a few seconds to find me, and she motioned that she was going to get another drink.

I moved to the edge and looked over and watched as she took two more shots and then down a half of a beer and headed back to the dance floor. She moved to the middle of the floor and never took her eyes off me as she danced out in the middle just for me. She was putting on a f*****g show and it was f*****g beautiful.

She motioned for me to come down there, but I shook my head no at her so she kept dancing, and I could literally see the alcohol take effect.

"Hey man," someone said, slapping me on the back. I took my eyes off Avery and turned to see Mason standing there. A friend from high school.