Page 43 of Lovers Like Us

Sulli darts out. “Kits, where’s theice?”

Beckett slips further inside the bathroom, clutching the neck of a beer, and he scans the trickles of blood along the stonetile.

Maximoff pulls out of my hand. “I’ll clean it later. Watch out,Beckett.”

“I’ve seen worse.” Beckett puts his beer to his lips. “You’ve forgotten that I’ve lived on my own in New York for the past three years. I’ve grown up. Independent and free.” He outstretches his arms before looking at me from head-to-toe. Sizing me up for the fourth time, and that’s just countingtoday.

See, what I know of Beckett Cobalt is mostly based on bodyguard-talk, and Donnelly told me that Beckett is anti-relationships from trust issues being acelebrity.

He’s cautious of me. Either he believes I’m going to fuck and chuck Maximoff or toy with his emotions. Both of which, I’m not subscribingto.

But I’m not about to convince a twenty-year-old that I’m “here for the right reasons” and prefer long-termrelationships.

I raise my brows at him. “Question?”

Beckett licks beer off his lips. “Not at the moment.” Then he shakes his head at Maximoff. “She was one elbow away from me, and you were hit. You have the worstluck.”

“It’s the Hale Curse,” Donnelly says, propping his tattooed arm on the door frame and drinking abeer.

I roll my eyes and gesture Maximoffcloser.

“The what?” Maximoff asks, his brows knotted, but he edges nearer and stands between my legs. I clutch his jaw again and inspect hisnose.

“Don’t ask him,” I tell Maximoff. “Donnelly tattooedCobalts Never Dieon his knee. He’d create imaginary curses for any family but thatone.”

Beckett grins into his swig of beer. “That’strue.”

Donnelly ignores his client and motions his bottle to Maximoff. “The Hale Curse. If there’s a Hale in the room: what could go wrong, will go wrong to the Hale. Statisticallyproven.”

The security team basically loses their shit whenever Beckett makes the face that he’s making now. It’s a scrunched-up, un-replicatedyou idiot, that’s utter bullshitface.

“Statistically proven,” Beckett says, “zero percent of thetime.”

Maximoff starts smiling, even covered inblood.

I barely glance at Donnelly. “Looks like your client is smarter thanyou.”

Donnelly pats Beckett’s back. “Learned from the best. Me.”Such a buddy-guard.

Oscar squeezes through the hallway. “That’s a negative thing, Donnelly.” He skids to a halt by the door and winces at Maximoff. “Ouch.”

Quinn peeks his head in. “God, I know how that feels.” He points at the scar along his crooked nose. “Two years ago, right hook in thering.”

“What’s that scar from?” Sulli wedges in and points at the tiny scar below his eye, and she tosses the ice baggie wrapped in a towel to Beckett. He catchesit.

I’d really love for this unnecessary audience to evacuate the bathroom and hallway and stop distracting Maximoff. Who at this point has completely rotated his head away from them, and he stares at thewall.

“Skin split from another boxing match,” Quinn says. “I KO’d the otherguy.”

Oscar and Donnelly start clapping in jest, and normally, I would’ve joined the mock applause, but I need these fuckers out of thebathroom.

“Okay.” I chew my gum. “I can’t do my best work with you bastards shadowing the light.” I’m not about to say,hey guys, Maximoff has trouble being vulnerable in front of people, so please kindly exit. No. I gesture to the Omega bodyguards. “Get the fuckout.”

As Donnelly leaves, he blows me a middle-finger kiss, and Oscar makes some remark about me being territorial. Quinn asks if I need anything, and Oscar sticks his head back in, just to mouth,my brother loves you. He bats hislashes.

I pop my gum and just tell Quinn, “Ibuprofen forMaximoff.”

Once they disperse, Beckett stays in the bathroom with Sulli in thedoorway.