“You might want to go to your room for a while,” I warned Slider, nudging him with my elbow.

“Why would I wanna do that?”

“’Cause I doubt you wanna watch your daughter shaking it on top of the pool table,” I said dryly, making his jaw drop before snapping shut again. I turned my head to Brenna. “Clear the table, would you?”

Her lips pulled up into a devilish grin while Dragon chuckled, but I ignored them both as I started toward Vera.

“Hey, girl,” she called out as I got close.

“Hey, Vera.” She leaned in to give me a hug, and I squeezed her back. It was kind of amazing how far we’d come since the baby was born.

“Hey, listen. Can you put something on I can dance to?” I asked quietly.

“Dance?”

“Yeah.”

“Not sure we have a whole lotta shit like that, but I’ll see what I can do.” She looked around the room. “There a reason for this?”

“Yep.”

“You gonna tell me what that is?”

“You’ll see.”

“Oh shit.”

Oh shit was right.

She started fiddling with the stereo as I walked away, and by the time I’d made my way to the now empty table, Awolnation’s “Sail” was blaring over the surround sound.

“Oh, this is a good one,” Brenna said as I passed her, making Dragon growl against her neck.

I pulled myself on top of the pool table, and flicked a glance toward Slider as the men in the clubhouse started to cheer. He was very deliberately looking down at the table in front of him.

Ha.

I took a deep breath, and with a glance at Cody, whose eyes were closed, I began to sway my hips. I hadn’t danced for a crowd in a long-ass time, years even, but as the beat of the song rumbled in my chest, it all came back to me. It was like falling into a familiar place, somewhere that you’d gone so many times that nothing surprised you anymore.

I knew how to catch the attention of a room, and I was fucking good at it.

The guys watched as I lifted my hands and used my fingers to hold my hair at the top of my head, bending my knees so I was crouched ass to the table. They quieted as I paused there, then roared again as I kept my torso down and straightened my legs, giving them a glimpse of the little half moons of ass peeking out of my shorts.

Their yelling and high-pitched whistles must have finally caught Cody’s attention, because as soon as I’d lifted back up, he was at the edge of the table, fury darkening his eyes.

“Get the fuck down.” He growled, his face pulled into a grimace.

I ignored him as I dropped my hair to fan around my chest and circled my hips, making the men howl once again.

I was feeling pretty damn sure of myself, working the crowd and throwing smiles toward Vera as she stood across the room, looking worried. Then I looked toward where Cody had been standing to raise my eyebrow at him, as if to say, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it,” but he wasn’t there.

While I’d been playing the crowd, he’d circled around the edge of the table, and before I could prepare myself, he’d grabbed my wrist and yanked me down—directly over his shoulder.

I slapped my arm across my chest to keep from flashing my boobs as the crowd laughed.

He stalked toward the back hallway, and I was surprised he was so steady on his feet.

“Put me down,” I ordered as we hit the dark hallway, headed toward his room.

His hand landed on my bare thigh with a sharp and painful slap, but he gave no other indication he’d heard me.

“Ow, asshole!”

He slammed open his room’s door and dropped me on his bed. I immediately rolled to my knees as he silently paced back and forth across the room.

“Well?” I asked, throwing my arms in the air.

“Well, what, Farrah?”

“Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?” My voice was rising as I realized that my little stunt hadn’t done shit. He was still locked away, refusing to give me a fucking inch.

“I wanted a night without a freaking screaming baby and you harping on me. That okay with you, Farrah?” He practically spat my name, and that pissed me off.

I didn’t harp on him. Shit, that was part of our problem! Until that night I hadn’t pushed him at all, and the longer it went on, the more and more he hid from me.

“You haven’t even seen harping yet,” I said through clenched teeth, my hands fisting on my thighs.

“What the fuck do you want from me?” he yelled, his eyes blurry from the whiskey he’d been drinking and his hands clenched in his hair.

“I want you to fucking talk to me! I want to know what’s bothering you, for Christ’s sake!” I raised my hands in front of me, palms up in supplication. “Why do you keep doing this?”

“Oh, is life so fucking hard for you, Farrah? I don’t give you what you need? I’ve been home with you for months and you fucking follow me the one night I go out? You wanna put my nuts in your purse too?” He reached down and grabbed his crotch as if to prove his point.

“Fuck you!” I yelled back. “You know that’s not what this is about! You freaked out when Rob—”

He stepped forward, startling me by grabbing my face. “Shut your mouth.”

“What is wrong with you?”

He pushed me back on the bed and crawled on top of me, looking like I’d slapped him across the face.

“What’s wrong with me?” he yelled, inches from me.