Josh laughed, and his friend looked at her apologetically.

“Sorry, darlin’,” he apologised, slurring drunkenly.

Rosie frowned and shook her hand, flicking a few drops of beer from her fingertips as she looked at me. “I just need to go dry this off, I’ll be right back, okay?”

I nodded and bent my head to hers, kissing her, loving how she instantly kissed me back. I pulled back and smiled. “Sure, I’ll wait right here for you,” I suggested, shrugging easily. She smiled and walked off through the crowd, towards the back of the bar. When I turned back to look at Josh, I realised that all five of us: me, Josh and his three friends, had all watched Rosie’s ass as she walked off.

Josh’s eyes met mine. “So you’re the flavour of the month are you?” he asked, looking me over again, not bothering to try and disguise his loathing this time because Rosie wasn’t here.

I laughed humourlessly. “Flavour of the month, that’s funny. Yeah, I guess I am,” I agreed, nodding along with his little game of trying to piss me off.

“She’ll be bored of you soon and move onto the next. She always does. You assholes never last longer than a few weeks with her,” he warned.

I raised one eyebrow. Was he seriously expecting me to buy that about Rosie? Did he actually think I was stupid? “That’s a good one, Josh. I’m here to stay though, so I guess we’d better get used to each other, huh?” I offered, trying to go for the friendly approach and be the bigger man, ignore the fact that he’d just called me an asshole.

He stepped closer to me, his expression was clearly annoyed and jealous. “She’ll come back to me when she’s done screwing with you.”

I tried desperately not to slam my fist into his smug face. “No chance of that happening,” I answered, trying not to show he was getting to me. “You and her are done.”

“Me and her will never be done,” he retorted, his nostrils flaring as he glared at me.

“She wouldn’t come near you again even if her life depended on it,” I informed him, my voice harder and more menacing than I intended it to be.

He smiled at me confidently. “What’s up, boy toy, scared of a little competition?”

Boy toy? Is he seriously going to keep that up? Dickhead!

“There is no competition!” I almost growled, my hands itching to choke the life out of him.

“See, that’s where you’re wrong, boy toy. Rosie and I will always be connected; we have a past, and there’s nothing you can do about it. She’ll be crawling back to me soon enough.”

I forced a smile and nodded. “You’re right, you two do have a past, but the thing is, Rosie and I have a future.”

“We’ll see about that then, huh? Game on, boy toy. Game on.” He laughed and chinked his glass against one of his friends before taking a swig of his drink, his amused eyes watching me over the rim of his glass.

My stomach dipped at his words, but I worked hard to keep the horror from my face. Was Josh going after my girl?

Chapter Twenty-Three

My hand balled into a fist. I was going to kill him. There was no way he was getting anywhere near my girl again, not a chance in hell that I was losing her to this waste of space. I tightened my jaw; I didn’t want to say anything that would make me look bad in front of Rosie, after all, if I killed the father of her child I’m pretty sure that would constitute the end of our relationship.

He smiled smugly, probably seeing how his words affected me. The way I saw it, I had two options. One, smile, nod and wish him good luck, and then do everything in my power to make sure I won the ‘competition’. Two, drop Rosie home, follow this guy back to his apartment, slip a bag over his head, drive him out to some dirt track and execute him. Then all I would have to worry about was where to bury the body.

Both options had their pros and cons.

I was still weighing my options when he spoke, “So then, Neil, why don’t you just run along and find yourself someone with less baggage. I’ll take care of Bunny and see that she gets to bed safely.”

I hated the fact that he still used a pet name for her; it didn’t matter that she obviously hated it, it bugged the life out of me. “It’s Nate. And I can take my girlfriend home and make sure she gets to bed, but thanks for the offer.”

His eyes narrowed as he took in what I said. It obviously really bothered him that she was with someone else. He was probably used to her being single. A guy like Josh probably always thought of her as his fall back, like he’d get back with her at some point down the line after he’d had his fill of screwing anything that moved.

“Just back off!” he warned, stepping closer to me, his face angry.

My body desperately wanted to respond, I wanted to grab the nearest chair and smash it over his head.

I opened my mouth to say something, but I spotted Rosie from the corner of my eye. She was walking back towards me, a nervous expression on her face. I smiled reassuringly and stepped back, putting some space between me and Josh, pretending that we were getting along.

“Hey, Stripes,” I greeted her with a forced smile as she stepped to my side. She smelt strongly of beer and I couldn’t help but laugh. “You smell great,” I teased.

She chuckled and scrunched up her nose as she pressed herself to me. “I know, every guy’s wet dream, a girl who reeks of beer,” she agreed, playing along.

I leaned in closer to her. “Definitely my wet dream.” I was only half joking.

She grinned and bumped her hip on mine as she turned back to Josh; I noticed with some small measure of satisfaction that he wasn’t hiding his jealousy very well. He was glaring at me, his posture ridged and angry. I smirked at him as I pulled her closer to my side again.

Take that, you little bitch!

“How’s your mom? I haven’t seen her in a while. She doing okay?” Rosie asked him, her voice light and friendly, she was obviously fond of his mom.

He smiled. “Yeah, she’s good. She asks about you all the time.”

“I’ll have to give her a call, see if she wants to meet up for coffee or something. I haven’t had any new recipes for a while. DJ and I are getting bored of eating the same old food.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Why don’t you both come around for dinner tomorrow? I’ll call her in the morning and tell her to cook for two extras. I’m sure she’d love that.”

My jaw tightened at his offer. There was definitely an ulterior motive behind it, he clearly just wanted to spend more time with her and try and steal her off me. The f**king nerve. I mentally crossed my fingers and prayed she would decline, after all, she had agreed that we would spend the day together tomorrow. Anna had insisted that we weren’t to pick up DJ before three, so we had practically the whole day to ourselves.

Rosie smiled and shook her head. “I have plans tomorrow. Besides, I thought you were working,” she replied, watching him, as if waiting for him to admit that he’d lied to her.

He slapped his forehead. “Yeah, I forgot. I’m working at twelve. Damn stupid shift hours. I hate this new rosta thing, it means I can get called up to work my reserve hours at any time.” He shrugged, not looking too happy about it, but for some reason, I didn’t believe him when he said he was working.

Rosie turned to me. “Josh’s mom is an amazing cook. She’s part Italian and, I swear, she makes the best spaghetti sauce in the world,” she said, smiling fondly. “She’s tried to teach me, but I just can’t get it right.”

I nodded. It was nice that she had someone that she could be close to on Josh’s side of the family but, for some reason, I was even jealous of that too. She hadn’t even met my mom yet.

“Want to dance?” I asked, nodding towards the dance floor. In reality, I just wanted to put some space between her and Josh. The predatory looks he was shooting her were making my stomach shake with anger, and I wasn’t sure how long I could stand it for.

She nodded. “Sure. Talk to you in the week, Josh.”

“I’ll speak to you in a bit. Maybe we could grab a drink or a dance. We hardly ever get to be out at the same time and behave like normal adults.”

She shrugged in response, looking a little uncomfortable as her eyes flicked to me as she gripped my hand and led me to the dance floor. I wrapped my arms around her possessively. All I wanted to do was leave, but I didn’t want to look like I was punking out in front of Josh and running away from competition or anything. Not that there was any f**king competition, she was mine, end of story.

An hour later and I was all but pulling my hair out. After we’d danced and got a couple of drinks, fooling around and laughing together, Josh had made another appearance. He’d planted himself next to Rosie at the bar and was currently doing everything in his power to get into her pants, seeming to be completely oblivious to the fact that she came here with me.

They were talking about old times and laughing, talking about family and friends that I hadn’t met, places they’d been. Although I felt uncomfortable and wanted to drag her away from him, she included me in everything that went on. Explaining the stories, who people were, things like that. The whole time, she was holding my hand, playing with my fingers, or leaning back into me. So, although I felt pissed off by his presence, I didn’t actually feel too threatened by him.

Rihanna’s ‘Complicated’ came on, and Josh laughed, leaning in closer to Rosie. “You always said this was our song. You remember?” he asked drunkenly.

She frowned slightly and nodded. “I remember.”

He nodded his head back towards the dance floor. “Want to dance?”

She laughed and shook her head. “I’ll pass.”

My body relaxed at her knockback. I wasn’t actually sure if I could allow her to walk off with him, so I was glad she refused so I didn’t have to find out if my body would possessively forbid her to leave my side. That probably wouldn’t go down well at all, me telling her she wasn’t allowed to dance with someone. I was pretty sure that was against the boyfriend rules. I really needed to read up on this subject and find out what I was and wasn’t allowed to do with regards to having a girlfriend; it was all so freaking new to me!

He stepped closer to her, which made my back tense up. “Aww, come on, bunny. I’ll sing it to you,” he smiled, trying to convince her as he brushed his hand against hers.

Jealousy rose in my chest and I barely resisted the urge to grab her, pull her behind my back and bark ‘Mine!’ at the top of my voice.

She shook her head, smiling a little now, so he carried on trying to convince her. “Come on, I’ll sing the nice bits to you and you can sing the mean bits to me if you want,” he offered.

She grinned and shook her head. “Like the ‘I want to punch you in the face’ line?” she replied.

“Yeah, I know that was always your favourite.” He winked at her, and I shifted on my feet, wanting nothing more than to throw her over my shoulder and carry her home, caveman style.

“I don’t sing,” she protested, folding her arms over her chest. She obviously had no idea the effect that little move had on a man – Josh’s eyes dropped down to her cleavage, and I actually let a little groan of frustration escape before I realised.

He stepped even closer to her, a suggestive smirk on his face. “We both know that’s not true. From what I remember, you sing my name beautifully,” he teased. I cleared my throat, wanting this painful conversation to be over, but unfortunately that didn’t stop him from carrying on. “You remember all the things we used to do to this song, Rosie? The challenge you used to set me?” he asked.

She gulped, shifting on her feet nervously as her gaze flicked to me. “Josh, I think you should go and talk to your friends now. They’re probably wondering where you are,” she suggested, nodding in the direction that his friends were standing chatting to a group of girls.

Josh didn’t even glance in their direction as he waved his hand dismissively. “Remember when you used to bet me that I couldn’t make you come by the end of the song?” he purred, leaning in way too close to her for my sanity.

I did not like this conversation at all! Seriously, was I allowed to tell him to f**k off? What where the damn boyfriend rules?

“Shut up, Josh,” she said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

I couldn’t help but jump into the conversation. “Yeah, shut up, Josh!” I warned.

Rosie shot me a sideways glance, she didn’t look too annoyed with me though, so I obviously hadn’t crossed the invisible line that would change me from thoughtful, sweet boyfriend, into possessive creeper guy. I breathed a sigh of relief and took a mouthful of my drink, trying to calm my stressed body.

Unfortunately, Josh didn’t take my warning into consideration.

“I’d love to slam your ass to the beat of this song,” he stated casually, his eyes twinkling as he looked at her suggestively.

The drink I’d just swallowed got stuck half way down, and I choked for the second time tonight, almost spraying it everywhere.

Rosie didn’t seem fazed in the slightest; she didn’t even blush as she looked him right in the eye. “You kiss your mother with that mouth, Josh?” Her voice was teasing and light. I was still gasping for breath, choking to death on my drink as Rosie patted my back, not looking at me. Had I not been choking, I would have thought this an acceptable moment for me to tell him to f**k right off.

Josh laughed and shook his head. “No, but I’d happily kiss the mother of my child with it though.”

She gasped, putting her hand over her heart, faking shock. “You have another child? You mean DJ has a little brother or sister?”