by Liv Morris
Her eyebrows arch, and she looks surprised by my question. “Like marriage?”
“Yeah.”
Her green eyes are looking into mine, but I feel like she’s really not seeing me. Like she is remembering something; something painful. She takes a deep breath.
“We had discussed our future once. We were going to get married one day and have children.” She continues looking straight at me as she lifts her wine glass a few inches off of the table. “I’m just glad that he did what he did before we went that far.”
I nod my head. “I’m sorry.”
She blinks, snapping out of whatever she was remembering. “Why are you sorry?” She smiles.
“For what he did to you.” I don’t know how any man could hurt this beautiful angel.
“It was for the best. I’ve come to realize that what I felt for him was not the kind of love I’m looking for.”
A huge smile spreads across my face, knowing that she is over him. “Do you have any other family members?”
She moves her food around on her plate and looks up at me. “No.”
I put my fork down, and stare into her green eyes. “No one?” I hate that I’m bringing up bad memories of her past.
“My dad had a brother, but he had a heart attack and passed away.” She puts her fork down, looking at the table.
“Your mom’s side?” I ask quietly.
“She was an only child, like me.”
“Done, sir?” the waiter asks as he comes to bring us new glasses of wine.
“Yes, thank you,” I answer, handing him my plate. I keep my face expressionless as I watch Angel take a big drink of her wine. “I’m sorry.” I reach out, taking her hand in mine on the table.
She sets her glass down. “What for?”
“For bringing up your hurtful past. I just want to know everything about you.” I smile, hoping it will lighten then mood and she won’t be mad at me.
“Don’t be.” She pats my hand, then pulls away to continue eating her filet of beef.
“What about you? You said you have never had a girlfriend. Why is that?”
I shrug, not wanting to tell her the truth. How do you explain that you prefer to fuck around and not have to put someone before yourself to someone so selfless and loving? She nods her head as if she understands me. I know I want something more with her, and that we are going to need complete honesty and trust. I take a deep breath, hoping that what I’m about to tell her doesn’t make her run from me.
“Angel.” She looks up at me with a small smile on her face. “I’ve never been in a relationship because I never felt the need to have anything more than a one night stand. I never wanted to be with one woman,” I shrug.
She smiles, surprising me. “I understand, Slade. You don’t have to explain it to me. I’m sorry I was such a...well, mean to you when I first met you. I’m not really like that.”
“I know.”
The waiter comes back with our sage ice cream. “Mmm, this looks delicious.” I nod my head as we both dig in.
I don’t eat much of my ice cream as I silently sit back in my seat and watch her from across the table. She closes her eyes slightly, and every now and then her pink tongue comes out and slowly licks her lips. I know she’s starting to feel the alcohol and it makes me chuckle to myself. It doesn’t surprise me, though. She has such a small frame that it doesn’t take much to affect her.
I look away from her as the waiter approaches the table. “Check, sir.” He places the check on the table.
Angel reaches down for her purse on the floor. “Here, let me get it.”
“No.” I laugh at her. “Absolutely not.” She reaches for it, but I grab it first. I will never let her pay for dinner.
“Thank you,” she says sweetly.
“Are you ready?” I ask.
“Yes.” I stand up and reach out my hand to her. She takes it as she stands and I walk us out of the restaurant.
I kiss her before opening the passenger door for her. “You’re welcome, Angel.”
I can tell she’s tipsy and I can’t help but laugh at her. I text my brother and we head towards Main Street.
On the way to downtown, I recall stories of Micah and I growing up, while her laughter grows louder every time. Her laugh makes me smile like a fucking idiot.
And I love it.
“Well, shit. I was hoping there would be a parking place out front. Guess we’ll have to park in the back.” As I try to find a place to park, I see Holly and Micah getting out of his Ford truck. They start to walk towards my CTS, when I find a spot just a few down from them.
“Damn, this place is pretty packed already,” Micah says as he greets us.
“Yes, well it is a Saturday.” I go to open Angel’s door, but she’s already climbing out, and laughing. I have a feeling we won’t be here long.
“What’s so funny, girl?” Holly asks as she walks over to her.
“Slade told me about the time he dressed up Micah in Vivian’s pink bathrobe and put lipstick on him.” She’s laughing so hard that she’s almost crying. “And how Micah paraded around the house...” laughs some more, “letting Vivian take pictures of him.” Holly starts laughing with her.
“Dude, you told her that?” Micah says, laughing with the girls. I just shrug my shoulders and take Angel by the hand, leading her to the entrance of the bar.
As soon as we walk in, everyone turns and looks at us. I know why they’re looking; I have never shown up at a bar with a woman, and I sure as hell have never held a women’s hand. Groping one in the corner, or getting caught with my pants down in the bathroom, those are the kind of things I get seen doing.
I don’t want people to get the wrong impression of Angel, so I turn her to face me. I place both of my hands on either side of her soft face and kiss her. As I kiss her, I pull her body closer to mine and she moans in my mouth. Fuck, I can’t get enough of that sound from her! I pull away, remembering that I want people to understand she means something more to me than just bar trash.
“Go find a table with Holly while Micah and I get us some drinks.” I kiss her on her forehead before she walks off.
When we reach the bar, we recognize a guy we’d gone to high school with. “Hey, Matt.”
Matt played football with me throughout high school, but we fought a few times our senior year. He was always pissing me off.
“Hey, Slade, Micah.” He tilts his head toward us. “Who’s the flavor of the week? She’s hot.” I notice he’s staring at Angel’s ass.
“It’s not like that,” I try to explain she means more, but he thinks I mean something different.
“Oh, so she’s just the flavor for the night. Don’t mind if I go get her number so that I can have her tomorrow, do you?”
“What the fuck did you just say?”
“Or maybe you could share, and I’ll just have my fill with her tonight as well. She looks like she wouldn’t mind taking us both. She seems pretty drunk.” I move to punch him in the face, but Micah stops me, pulling my arm back as he speaks to Matt.
“Hey, dude, calm down. She’s with Slade. If you mention sharing her again, I’ll punch you myself.” I was proud of my little brother, but all his talking wasn’t working.
“With Slade?” he laughs. “No girl Slade fucks is ever off limits.” He continues to stare at her ass.
I need to make myself clear.
I grab him by the shirt and shake him a bit. “She is with me. As in, she’s my girlfriend. Stay the fuck away from her. You seem to like her ass so much...did you see that little M on the ass pocket of her jeans? That M stands for mine. Don’t fucking touch it or even fucking look at it for that matter. If you do I will beat the fuck out of you. Do you understand?” I have a feeling I should just beat the fuck out of him anyway.
He nods his head really fast. “Yes. Yes, I get it. She’s yours.” He throws both hands up in the air and I shove him away from me.
I turn to Micah, who looks like he wants to punch
Matt’s face in as well. Micah is not afraid to fight; he just considers other options to solve problems before throwing punches. I prefer to settle things with my fist.
“Come on. We can just order drinks from our waitress.” I turn and try to calm down my temper before reaching our table. Micah walks over to where Josh and Holly are talking to a waitress friend of hers. I don’t want Angel to know anything is wrong but, as I approach our table, I can tell by the look on Angel’s face that she can sense something’s wrong with me. I’m trying, but it’s pretty fucking hard to wipe the pissed off look I have on my face.
I sit down beside her, pulling her rather roughly out of her chair, over my lap, where she straddles me. Then I kiss her. Hard. Dominating her mouth with mine. As my tongue explores her mouth, I dig my hands into her hips and she pulls away, staring into my eyes. I release her hips, tangling my hands in her hair, and holding her face in front of mine.
“Kiss me,” I demand. Right now I don’t care what people think of me being all over her. I want every mother fucker in this bar to realize that she is mine! That she belongs to me, and only me. She tries to pull away again, but I pull on her hair, hard, and she parts her lips slightly as she whimpers.
My cock goes hard and I lower my lips to hers. “Fucking kiss me,” I whisper, and her eyes go big, but I don’t care. I want to beat the shit out of someone, and I know my angel is the only one who will be able to calm me down. I grip her hair harder, and she closes her eyes as she sucks in a breath. I can tell she likes it by the way she grinds her hips against my now hard cock. She leans down and kisses me as she continues moving her hips back and forth.
“Fuck,” I pull away and look in her bright green eyes. They dart around the room, looking to see if anyone is looking at us, but I could care less. I hope they are looking. I want them to see how much she wants me, and only me. Her eyes land on mine.
“What happened? Are you okay?” She lifts her hand up to cup my cheek.
I go to answer, but get interrupted.
“Did you want another one, Sam?” I look over my shoulder to see some scrawny red headed guy I don’t know asking Sam if she wants something.
“Another what?” I ask, not taking my eyes off the guy.
“Another shot.”
“Shot?’’ I look back at her.
She shrugs a dainty shoulder and looks at me apologetically. “When we walked over to the table, he handed Holly and I two shots.”
“Angel,” I sigh. “Do we need to have the ‘don’t take drinks from strangers’ talk?” I ask seriously.
She throws her head back, laughing out loud, and it makes me smile. Fuck, I love to hear her laugh.
“What were they? How many did you have?”
“Two. I don’t know. I think they were weak because I don’t feel different.” She giggles.
I release Angel’s hair and run my hands through it as I hear Holly laughing behind me. She sits down in the seat next to me.
“Not feeling it? You will.” Holly looks at me. “We had two shots of Crown.”
“What?” I shake my head. So much for the possibility of us fucking tonight. She will be so fucked up within the next twenty minutes, and I don’t want her so far gone that she won’t be able to remember what I have planned for her.
Angel laughs, bringing my eyes back to her. I continue running my hand through her soft thick hair.
“So do you want another?” I forgot that guy was standing behind us. Before I could tell him to fuck off, Angel speaks.
“No. I’ve had enough.” She giggles again.
I stand, placing her in my seat. She strikes up a conversation with Holly while I go to talk to Micah. He’s standing with Josh, ordering a beer from a waitress as I approach.
“You want one?” He points a finger at me.
I shake my head. “I just came to say bye. I’m going to take her home. I have a feeling she’ll be passed out in minutes after those two shots she took.”
We all laugh. “Okay, well call me in the morning. Drive home safely.”
“You too.” I turn, and walk back to the table. I can tell she’s starting to feel it, and when she looks up at me, her eyes look glassy.
“Ready to go, Angel?”
“Yes. Just let me use the restroom real quick.”
I nod, and help her out of the chair. I sit down as she walks away.
“What are you doing, Slade?” I sit up straighter not liking Holly’s accusing tone. I haven’t done anything wrong.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Yes you do.” She leans forward, putting her elbow on the table. “I know you took her to dinner. I told you to be careful.”
“I’m not going to hurt her, Holly.”
I’m getting annoyed now. Can’t they tell I treat her differently? That I feel something different for her?
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” She shakes her head.
I start to ask her what she means when that red headed guy comes running toward our table.
“Slade! Slade!” he calls frantically. How does he know my name? “Sam is yelling at some guy outside the women’s bathroom.”
I jump up so fast that my chair overturns. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Micah and Josh are running after me. I don’t know if they are coming to stop me, or planning on helping me, but I don’t slow down.
Once I get to the hallway, heat runs through my body at what I see. Matt has Angel pushed up and cornered against a wall. I can’t comprehend what she’s saying, but I can tell she is screaming in his face. I don’t stop running until we hit the floor and I’m sitting on top of him, my fist connecting with his face.
Shit!
I try to pull a very pissed off Slade off of Matt, when Holly grabs me.
“Don’t!” she yells. She has to yell because there is so much commotion and screaming going on in this very small hallway that I can’t even hear myself think. Micah is yelling at some guy; why isn’t he helping Slade?
“Slade!” I scream. “Stop! Just stop!” He punches Matt in the jaw. “Slade! Please! Stop!” Matt manages to push Slade off and sends him flying backwards. Matt jumps on him, throwing a few punches, and Slade blocks two to his face, but can’t block the one to his ribcage.
I watch as the guy who is arguing with Micah punches him in the stomach. Micah grunts, then starts swinging a fist around.
I can’t seem to focus on anything!
I look back to Slade as he kicks Matt off of him. He stands and proceeds to walk towards me, but Matt gets up right before Slade reaches me and runs at him.
“No! Look out!” I scream. By the time Slade turns around, Matt is on him punching him in the face.
I can’t take any more of this, someone has to help!
I yank my arm from Holly’s hold, throwing my purse down, and run for Slade. Matt turns around, and before I can think much about it I punch him in the face with everything I have. Which probably isn’t much, considering I’m drunk and a girl, but I don’t hold back as my fist connects with his nose. My hand instantly starts throbbing.
“Bitch!” he snarls as he takes a step towards me. I don’t step back; if he starts swinging at me I will fight back.
Slade wraps an arm around his neck from behind and pulls him back as Matt reaches for me. “Get her the fuck out of here!” Slade yells to anyone who is listening, but his eyes are on mine and he looks pissed.
Josh grabs me around the waist from behind and picks me up, carrying me to the back exit. I scream Slade’s name over and over. I don’t want to leave him. He needs help. Josh should be helping him, not pushing me out the exit.
“Shit,” Josh says as I manage to lay one blow with my elbow to his side. He drops me and I spin around to head back to Slade. “Sam!” Josh yells as I run from him and to Slade.
Slade turns when Josh calls my name. “Fucking get her ass outside!” Slade demands to Josh as Matt hits him in the back.
Jos
h grabs me again from behind, pinning my arms down to my side. “No! No. No! Don’t!” Tears run down my face as I watch Slade. I try hitting Josh again, but I can’t make contact. “He needs help!” I kick and scream as Josh pushes us through an exit.
“He’s a big boy. The guy can fight. You shouldn’t have gotten that close. What the fuck were you doing hitting Matt? Is your hand ok? Let me look at it,” he rattles off angrily as he sets me down, keeping a grip of me.
I shake my head angrily. “Who cares about my hand! He needed help! Let me go back in there.”
“No!” he screams back.
The back door swings open, and Holly comes running toward us.
“Get in my car. We have to leave,” she says frantically, waving my purse in the air.
“No! I won’t leave Slade here!” Are these people out of their mind?
Josh picks me back up and walks me towards Micah’s truck I’m screaming so loud that I don’t hear the back door open again.
“You can put Angel down, Josh.” We all turn to see Slade and Micah walking towards us. As soon as Josh puts me down, I run to him. I need him. Need to see that he is breathing and okay. He meets me halfway and pulls me into his arms, lifting my feet up off the ground. I know he’s probably hurting, but I can’t stop hugging him tight.
He puts me back on the ground and grabs my face. “What the fuck were you thinking?” he growls, wiping away my tears. I can’t answer. I can only shake my head. Is he crazy too? I didn’t want to see him get hurt. There’s blood everywhere, and I can’t tell where it’s all coming from.
“You’re bleeding,” I choke out. My throat is hoarse, and I have to blink several times to clear my tears in my eyes.
“Don’t worry about me,” he snaps.
I ignore him and go to wipe the blood off his face, but my hand never makes it.
I feel the wind knocked out of me, then the next thing I know I’m rolling around on gravel in the parking lot, trying to catch my breath. What the hell just happened? I try to get up on my hands and knees when a sharp pain shoots up my side. I drop back down, holding my side and gasping for air.
What happened? Where’s Slade?