My Favorite Distraction (Distraction series)

by Stephanie Jean

  “Do you want a drink?” He took his jacket off, and I watched his muscles flex under his shirt as he picked up the bottle of booze.

  “No, thank you.” I didn’t smile, didn’t want him to think I was enjoying myself.

  “My sister gets emotionally unstable when Jason is concerned.” He began drinking his alcohol, but he never took his eyes off me.

  “I am not sure what the hell you want me to say to that. Your crazy-ass sister just befriended me in the bathroom, drugged me, and kidnapped me. I think abducting is beyond unstable. I think she needs help. I would like to call the police and have them shove her in a locked room with a stranger.” I glanced away, wishing I hadn’t said that, fueling his fire was not going to help me. “Can I go somewhere where people can see me? I don’t feel safe in here with you.”

  He moved closer to me, and I jumped over the couch to get away from him.

  “I promise not to hurt you. I really think you need to have a drink.” He stopped and calculated. He was trying to size me up to see if I could cause damage to him. I held my heels in front of me as a weapon and put on my ‘bring it on’ face. Blond Brad didn’t know I could take a beating. I was indestructible, and maybe this time, I could get a few hits in.

  “You got the part where I said your sister just drugged my drink, right? Why in the fuck would I take a drink from you?” His eyes bugged out a little when I yelled “fuck.”

  He gestured with his hands, trying to calm me, but it was not working. “You are skittish, aren’t you? Jason and I are friends. I would never touch his girl.” He was motioning with his hands like I had a gun and he was surrendering.

  “I am ready to leave. Please let me leave.” I looked at the door and back at him.

  “Jason is on his way. He can take you from here.” He took another swig from his drink, almost finishing it.

  “I want to wait outside for him.”

  He moved toward the door, and I backed up behind the couch again.

  “All right, you can wait at the bar. I don’t think you’re going to like it out there, though. Something tells me, Jason didn’t tell you about his role here.” Blond man opened the door and stepped through it. Then his upper body leaned into the room and he looked at me. “Are you coming?”

  I made my way through the door and took off running. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew I needed to get out of there. My freedom didn’t last long. I heard Brad yell something from behind me, and a man stepped out of nowhere. I punched him as hard as I could and kneed him in between his legs. He just wrapped his very large arms around me and tossed me over his shoulder. I was kicking uncontrollably and still punching with my arms, but he didn’t react at all, just walked over to a bar area and sat me on a bar stool.

  “Get your hands off me…Hulk.” I continued to punch him as hard as I could, my hands throbbing. He reached behind the counter and pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and before I could register what he had in his hand, he handcuffed me to the bar and stepped away.

  “If you weren’t Jason’s girl, I might have to teach you some manners.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked me up and down.

  “I am not anyone’s girl. Believe me when I say you don’t want to make me mad.” I felt like I had steam coming out of my ears.

  He just looked at me and started to laugh. It was more like a bellow. He threw his head back and laughed. He was so loud people started to look. The bartender walked over, and they talked just out of my hearing range and then both smiled at me. I turned my head and pulled at my handcuffed hand and gave them my middle finger. It was one of my more unladylike moments, which I was not proud of.

  The bartender walked just in front of me and offered me a drink of water. I just shook my head, not wanting to talk to anyone. I looked around and saw many people, all different ages, dressed in very skimpy clothing, most women shirtless or in outfits made of lingerie material, men in dress pants and button-up shirt or leather pants and no shirt. I tried to look invisible. I stopped staring and sat still, trying hard not to respond to any conversation. The bartender put a bottled water in front of me, nodded his head, and walked away. I drank the whole bottle down, and then I looked up and noticed a man sitting really close to me. He began casually talking to me like he normally sat this close to women he didn’t know. I tried not to look, but he touched my free hand. My head whipped around as I jerked my hand away. He was very good-looking, wearing a suit with a deep blue silk shirt underneath, the top two buttons undone. His eyes were dark blue, and his hair was light brown, clean cut, and styled. He was the cover of GQ.

  “Can I sit and have a drink with you?”

  I showed him my handcuffed hand. “I am not good company right now.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” He smiled. The man oozed confidence. He kept talking about his job, I think. I wasn’t listening. He took off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. I saw parts of what looked like a tribal tattoo. It was hard to see because he was talking with his hands. I found it frustrating, so I diverted my attention to the bottles of alcohol lined on the shelves in the back of the bar. He leaned in to whisper something in my ear, his breath hot on my neck, and I pushed him away with my left hand. I would have slapped him, but my angle was bad.

  “I’m not interested at all, but I am sure you could have any girl here. Good luck to you.” I focused my attention on the bottles of booze again, avoiding the very persistent man to my left.

  He started laughing. “Are you telling me to leave?”

  “Yes.” I smiled, but it wasn’t my friendliest.

  He gave me an amused smile and then I followed his eyes down the bar. Jason appeared from around the corner and eyed the man sitting next to me. I immediately got butterflies, and my skin started to itch all over for his touch. His smile took up his whole face. My face lit up in response. I attempted to stand up, but he was at my side too fast.

  “She’s a tough one. You’ll have to tell me how you landed that one.” The man next to me shook Jason’s hand. “I owe you a beer. I thought I could seduce anyone. First time for anything, right?”

  Jason stood behind me and reached over the counter and grabbed keys to unlock the handcuffs.

  “Jason, you know him?” He laughed and shook his head. “That is risky, Mr. Riggs.”

  Once my hand was free, I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his body. He lifted me up and sat my bottom on the bar top and began kissing me. It was a very demanding kiss, and I loved every minute of it. He started to pull away, but I anchored him close with my legs around his hips. He softened the kiss. It was tender, and my suddenly oversensitive lips tingled. It felt like my mouth was drooling. He literally made my mouth water. He rested his forehead on mine and sighed. His eyes were closed, and he was whispering something. I reached between us and put my hand on his heart. His eyes shot open, and he watched me. My hand slipped inside his button-up shirt, and I felt his heart thumping out of control. I knew I looked worried when I felt it because he took my hand away from his chest. He picked me up and carried me to a booth farther away from the bar. He sat down and adjusted me on top of him, and I was still. His breathing began to get deep again, and I could hear his heart now beating rapidly.

  He whispered, “Did she hurt you?”

  I honestly didn’t know what he was talking about. I was going over everything that happened at the bar, and then Bettina’s face popped into my head.

  “No. She drugged me, but didn’t hurt me.” I felt his body relax a little. I started to pull away. I wanted to ask about her, the things she’d said, but his arms held me tight.

  “Please don’t move. I need this right now.”

  I stilled and even stopped breathing for a while.

  “I need everyone here to know you belong with me.” He put his face in my hair, and I heard him breathing roughly. “You have no idea how bad I want to take you over to that table and fuck you. I want to fuck you in front of everyone. Do you hear me? I want the world
to see me mark you.”

  I knew he was trying to scare me, trying to get me to react.

  “All right, let’s go. You can put me on any table and have sex with me. Jason, you don’t scare me.” My voice was low. He laughed but not a normal laugh. It was more sinister.

  “You have no idea what you’re saying, rabbit. This is not sex. I want to fuck you raw in front of everyone. You would feel me in you for days. My mark would not go away. You would be walking in the grocery store and still feel me between your legs, not a tingle, an ache. I won’t do that to you. You’re different.”

  I was trying to rationalize what he was saying. I knew he was trying to find control, but I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t handle rough.

  “Are you scared you might break me?” My head was still buried in his chest. I heard a rumble of laughter before he spoke.

  “Katie, you and I are already broken. Fucking you in front of everyone is not going to fix the broken parts. I am all for pushing your limits, but not here, like this. Besides, I know you will run after, and I really don’t want you to do that.” His voice grew quiet.

  “Would she see us?” I was referring to Bettina.

  “I think she is waiting for it. I think they all are. They want to see me react. They took what is most precious to me right now, and they are all waiting for me to go animal crazy on them.”

  I closed my eyes when I heard him call me precious, and I felt my heart start to beat faster as tears began to fall from my eyes. I was silent and still.

  We sat there like that for a long time. I heard other people come and talk to Jason and leave, but he didn’t move, and neither did I. It grew quiet for a while. I heard him sing a song that was somewhere in the background noise. I closed my eyes focusing on his voice. It reminded me of when I was young, my brother, Brian, used to sing to me. One of my punishments was the dark closet, where I was told to think about what I had done. It was the worst; I would take a beating any day over a dark hole. Sometimes, when I was locked in the closet, he would sing on the other side of the door so I would know I wasn’t alone.

  I could tell the bar was getting quieter when the voices at the table became a little clearer. I sat up, but Jason wouldn’t let me leave his lap. He handed me a bottled water, and I snatched it. He gave me a huge smile, the one smile I craved from him most. My stomach fluttered and I grinned back. I felt my face grow red, and he held me tight. There were two men at the booth talking with Jason. The conversation was bar or club stuff. I kept trying to follow the discussion but was lost. I just heard voices of the men, until, Jason scooted me off his lap, and I looked around. I was dizzy like I had just woken up. The men were both staring and smiling at me. I grabbed Jason’s hand quickly, reminding both him and myself of our connection. He looked at me, worried.

  “These are my friends, Alex and Trevin. This is Katie.”

  I smiled and nodded, sitting close to Jason so I could still feel his body.

  Trevin, I think, stuck his hand out for me to shake, but I just waved politely. As I looked at him, I recognized him as the man who had handcuffed me to the bar. He resembled Vin Diesel, very muscular and slightly stocky, with a shaved head. He had a bloody lip and some scratch marks on his face. I giggled. I was quite proud of my visual scarring. Jason looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

  “Something funny?”

  I just pointed at Trevin and grinned.

  “She’s laughing at my face, not cool.”

  Jason leaned over to look at him more closely. “You did that?”

  My smile widened. “Yep.”

  He broke out in a laugh. “Hey, Trevin bet you didn’t know she is some sort of self-defense expert.” Jason looked at me. “Tell him.”

  I crinkled my nose. “No, I took one semester in college, but there was too much touching and pretending to get attacked. Heather lied. One semester was all I could stand.”

  He just smiled at me like he already knew.

  “Well…it was nice to meet you both.” I said dismissively, and nodded at both of them to leave.

  “See how she does that, dismisses us?” I recognized the other man, Alex, as the man at the bar.

  “I know there are some lucky ladies out there with your names on them.” I smiled, and they laughed as they eyed Jason and left the table.

  “Subtle,” Jason laughed.

  “I kind of like it when we are alone,” I turned my attention to him as I talked. “So do you miss it?” I waved to the whole bar area.

  He took a moment, trying to form his words carefully. “Yes, I do. There is a rush from it, and I was good at it. I could make anything happen in here. Any fantasy I could imagine, any girl I wanted. It was hard to walk away from the thought of possessing a girl so much that she will beg you to do anything for your touch…It’s exhilarating and very addictive. I think if my dad didn’t push me to be a veterinarian, I would have become part owner or had a club like this for myself. It was entertaining and effortless for me, and I craved it. No one would say no to me. It is the most powerful feeling. My girlfriend would bring girls to me and watch me fuck them. I did mean things to her, and I am not proud of any of them. It seems OK in here.” He moved his hands around like I did earlier. “But the days became harder and the nights…well, darker.” He shifted away from me placing his hand on the back of his neck.

  “Is that why you kept your membership?”

  He just looked at me and raised his eyebrow, not willing to answer the question.

  “When I was younger there was this girl. I was in a terrible place and she gave me advice. It was simple and I followed it. She told me to pretend.” His piercing stare was trying to tell me something, willing me to read his thoughts. “I was young and thought that my life and the people around me were invincible. The truth is, you have no control over the end of your life. The control happens during, so I...” his eyes intent on mine. I couldn’t help but think this had to do with the girl Bettina mentioned, in the elevator. He continued, “pretended to have total control over life, not focusing on the end part. It worked until about a few years ago and I was a pretty solid asshole by then. The pretending was easy and controlling others came naturally, but the constant need to pretend, this is who I was, started slipping.” I busied myself at the table moving his beer to the center of the cocktail napkin, wiping the drops of water with another napkin. All the pretending talk, and the way he looked at me like he knew who I really was, had my body shaking and my heart beating fast. He grabbed my hand, calming my movements, causing me to look up and stare blindly into his eyes.

  “The advice to pretend, that’s great advice. The girl, whoever she was, sounds like she understood your pain.” I was prompting him to open up and talk about the girl, but he was silent. He just peered at me through his fingers, so I dropped it. Bettina had mentioned that the girl had died. It didn’t take long to piece the puzzle together and figure it out; this was the source of his anger.

  “Why did you stop? I mean, if you loved all of it, if you were a sex god?”

  He looked at me as if it were obvious. “I saw you before you bought me the coffee. I asked if I could sit with you.”

  I shrugged, not remembering.

  “You didn’t even see me, didn’t say anything to me. It was like I didn’t exist. You packed up your stuff and left. I watched you after that. I would get there early and watch. You would come in, wave at the owner, and take the same booth, but before you would get comfortable, you would clear the table, getting rid of the napkins and menus so it was only you and the table. I would sometimes open the door for you, and you would thank me, but never look at me. I became better because I wanted you to see me.”

  I looked at him in amazement.

  “The first day you smiled at me, I saw light. My older sister had me in treatment before I could finish talking about you.”

  “Wow, I am impressed.” I smiled. “You didn’t talk to me for three months, and you felt this way about me.” I smiled, feeling powerful
from everything he was sharing, but getting a feeling he was leaving an important part out.

  “Honestly, I woke up every day just to go to the coffeehouse.” He leaned over and kissed my soft lips slowly and tenderly. I loved that kiss.

  “I came back to the club the night I told you, before you bought me the coffee. It was hard for me to be here. I called her to make amends, and agreed to meet her here. She was humiliated that night. Your friend’s boyfriend, ‘Red,’ fucked her in front of everyone and when he finished he called her trash. I thought he was an asshole for what he did to her. I cared for her and feared for her safety, and I took her home. She had Bo still, even though I took him everywhere with me. I would pick him up in the mornings and drop him off at night after work. I didn’t want her to be alone. When I got there, she was trying really hard to make me angry. She walked over to Bo and began kicking him. Bo was already scared of her, and she was kicking him. I lost it and called the police. It was still my place she lived in, so they came and took her away. Like I said, her brother was pissed at me, but he’s a good guy. I just looked at him and saw what I didn’t want from my life anymore. I apologized to him, and to her, that night, and I am not sure how, but she nabbed my wallet, which did make me mad, furious even. I was so angry that day in the coffee shop, and I turned around and saw you slip out the door. I thought I had scared you, but the owner said you bought me a coffee.” I could see tears in his eyes, but he choked them back and kissed my head. “Thank you for that.”

  “You know what I think?”

  He shook his head, looking curious.

  “I think you need an active hobby to replace all of this.”

  He smiled a wicked smile.

  “I am serious. I think I know the perfect thing. Do you trust me? It’s nothing that you will get hurt at, I promise, but if you were ten years younger, I might have suggested the UFC with your aggressive tendencies and your passion for ‘disciplining.’”