by Hart, Kaily
While he watched, the dickwad whose eyes had been all over her walked up to her, grabbed her arm and maneuvered her into a booth, blocking her in with his big body. The move was quick, practiced and every muscle in Nash’s body went on full alert. The guy’s bulk hid her from the rest of the room and no one else seemed to have noticed, including the group of women she’d been dancing with.
He took a deep breath. None of his business, right? He gritted his teeth, clenched his jaw. He’d come in here to have a quiet drink, pick up a woman or have one pick him up and leave. Yeah, except that no one had ignited a shred of real interest until he’d seen her dance.
He closed his eyes briefly. It wasn’t his problem. They had security at places like this. Someone else was bound to notice, sooner or later. Besides, maybe that’s the way she rolled. He really didn’t want to get involved. He should just—
Fuck it.
Before he finished that last thought, he was already moving. He was across the bar to the other side of the dance floor before he could even think about what he was going to do once he got there.
“Get your hands off her,” he snarled.
Okay, that’d do for starters.
The guy gave him a brief look.
“Get lost. Lady’s with me,” he dismissed.
The lady in question was frowning. At him. Okay, it was possible he’d read the situation all wrong, but his instincts were better than that. They had to be, otherwise he’d have been long dead, probably several times over by now.
“That right?” Nash drawled. “That why you have her trapped? You prefer the captive audience approach to picking up chicks?”
The guy stood up in a rush. Christ, he couldn’t be that dumb, could he?
Scratch that. The stupid prick actually took a swing at him.
Nash tempered his reaction just in time. This was real life and the rules here were different. He had to make sure he remembered that.
Rather than the fatal blow he could have delivered ten different ways, Nash just slowed the guy down with a quick jab. And it felt way too good. The last guy who’d come at him had ended up on the floor as well, but at least this one was still breathing. And moaning.
Nash looked up as she shimmied out of the booth. Shimmied. Christ, what kind of word was that? He didn’t have a better one though as she eased sideways along the seat in the tiny skirt before standing up.
Her gaze was fixed on his and she still wore the frown. He expected her to be grateful, he expected to be thanked profusely for intervening and going out of his way to extract her from a questionable situation. Actually, for his effort, he was looking forward to it. He did not expect her to give him a long look he couldn’t interpret, walk over to dickwad prone on the floor and draw her foot back as if she was going to—
“Hey.”
Nash grabbed her around the waist just in time and swung her up off the floor.
The guy probably deserved it and more, but he just couldn’t watch her kick his balls up into his throat while he was out of it, without a qualm, without any hesitation. And with those sexy-ass boots.
He winced. Ouch. And why didn’t that do anything except turn him the fuck on? Big time.
He released her when she started to squirm and he became aware of things he probably shouldn’t with how hard he was holding her. And she’d probably just become aware of something hard he had little control over.
He gave a low whistle. She might be small, cute and blonde, but apparently she had a mean streak a mile wide. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
Even with the boots, she still barely came to his chin. She threw her head back and glared at him. Again. “I can take care of myself.”
And she was spitting mad. At him?
He frowned. “Well fuck me. You’re welcome by the way.”
Lexi swallowed. Okay, that had her imagination running overtime. Her wild, out of control, under-sexed, dirty imagination. Jeez, the guy could move, she had to give him that. He had a way of shifting his body with an economy of movement that might give the impression of laid-back, but she knew better. He moved precisely and with purpose. And he was fast.
“I had everything under control,” she muttered.
“Yeah? Looked like you were taking care of it from where I was.”
She took in a deep breath. The oaf had taken her unawares, grabbing her like that, and her heart was still pounding a mile a minute. And she wasn’t talking about the oaf laid out on the floor.
“Do I look like a damsel in distress? I didn’t need to be rescued, so—”
“Like I said, that’s not what it looked like. In fact, I’d go so far as saying it looked like you needed some help.”
“You think this makes up for you being an asshole earlier?”
He probably expected she’d be all over him in gratitude. Yeah, as if that’d ever happen. She didn’t do simpering well, even if she wanted to.
He leaned down closer to her and frowned. He pointed to the figure rolling on to his side on the floor. “That guy had you trapped. You didn’t want to be there. I took care of it. Nothing more, nothing less. A polite thank-you would have been appreciated.”
Polite? Coming from him? That was rich.
“Out. Both of you.”
Lexi jerked at the deep voice behind her. “What?” she gasped.
The bouncer pointed toward the main entrance. “Out.”
Of all the—
“You’ve got to be kidding, right?”
“Right now.”
“It wasn’t me. I didn’t do anything.” She looked toward Mr. Hot Bod, who still hadn’t said anything. “Really. He—”
“I said out, Miss or I’ll physically remove you.”
Miss? Miss?
“You lay a hand on her and I’ll take your arm off.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. Macho guys. Probably couldn’t help themselves. It was in their DNA. The bouncer looked taken aback. Yeah, he probably wasn’t used to anyone getting up in his face like that. Not someone who could very well have been as big as he was and exuded a vibe that said he could deliver on any threat he threw out.
“I don’t want any trouble here, but all of you need to leave. Now.”
She looked around for her friends. No one was in sight. Well, didn’t this just suck?
“Now,” he repeated.
Shit.
“All right, all right,” she grumbled.
Lexi pushed through the crowd to the entrance. She’d been pretty much ready to leave anyway, but it would have been nice to let her friends know where she was. And to have been able to get her jacket from them as well. The fresh, crisp night air was a welcome relief from the stuffiness of the bar, but she shivered when she cleared the door.
Great. Just great.
“I’ve never been thrown out of anywhere before in my life,” she mumbled to herself.
“Yeah? You don’t strike me as the ‘sheltered upbringing’ type.”
Lexi’s heart skipped a beat as she turned. He was right behind her. Right. Behind. Her. So close she could feel the warmth radiating off him and the wash of his breath on the side of her neck.
And he was laughing. God, what a smile and a laugh did for him. He was laughing at her she reminded herself, enjoying himself at her expense. The pig. She huffed out a breath. He might be a pig, but he was a hot pig. Seriously, the guy was straight-up gorgeous when he wasn’t trying to be the meanest, rudest dude in the room.
“So, you got a name?” he asked when the door to the bar slammed closed.
So now he wanted to do the chit chat thing? She lifted her chin ever so slightly. “Alexis. My friends call me Lexi. You?” She raked him with a look she hoped came off as disparaging because that’s what she was going for. “You can call me Alexis.”
He laughed. Again with the beat-skipping thing. And the stomach-jolting thing. What the hell was that all about anyway?
“Well, looky here.”
The guy he’d just decked stumbled
out of the bar. With two of his friends and if his scowl was anything to go on, he was seriously pissed.
Oh God, this is all I need.
“Don’t be an idiot, Tracey,” she said.
Mr. Hot Bod looked over at her. “You know this guy?”
“He wishes I knew him,” she muttered.
Tracey gave her his standard “I’m imagining your clothes off” glance that made her skin crawl. He’d been hitting on her since the ninth grade and she usually brushed him off as being too drunk, too stupid and very much too obnoxious to worry about. Not much rattled her, but the way they stalked over, totally ignoring her, sent a cold shaft of alarm through her.
To give him credit, Mr. Hot Bod stepped in front of her.
“Alexis, go back inside.”
It was nothing if not a command and she’d never done well with being told what to do.
“Yeah, there’s just a small problem with that,” she countered as the three of them approached him. “We got thrown out, remember?”
He glanced at her as he let his arms relax by his side. He flexed his fingers, balanced his weight on the balls of his feet, his body all at once ready, eyeing the three men. There was a sudden intensity that radiated from him.
“Go back inside. Where it’s safe.”
His focus was almost tangible, measuring each of the threats, tracking their movements as they closed in on him. The thing that struck her most was that he didn’t seem worried. Oh, his body was poised for action. She could tell that in the way he held himself, the way he watched their every movement, ready, waiting. But there was also an air of calm about him. God, he almost seemed as if he relaxed as they got closer.
Lexi gasped as two of them charged him at once without warning. She figured Tracey planned to get his own back while his buddies roughed up Mr. Hot Bod first. And she guessed that plan went out the window as soon as they got within range. She couldn’t really say what happened exactly except there was a blur of movement and the other two guys were suddenly on the ground.
Tracey pulled a knife then and she felt a frisson of real fear for the first time. He was a loud-mouthed bully, a hot-headed jerk, but the weapon surprised her. Of course, he’d been drinking and had been totally humiliated so… As he waved the knife back and forth, the steel glinting, probably hoping he looked intimidating and doing a damn good job of it, Mr. Hot Bod just smiled and motioned to him with his fingers.
Was he nuts?
He glanced her way just as she stepped back and stumbled, her heel slipping on the smooth surface of the curb. Tracey decided to use the distraction as an advantage and rushed him, but it did little good. Tracey’s body made a thick thud sound when he hit the pavement.
Three against one and it had been no contest at all. The guy knew how to fight—she had to give him that—although she wasn’t surprised. She’d known from the way he carried himself he probably had specialized combat training, but to see it like that up close and personal? Frightening, savage and somehow beautiful.
He flexed his hand and looked down at his knuckles. Yeah, Tracey probably had a hard head.
“That’s what I get for coming to a small hick town,” he muttered.
Lexi took a shaky breath. “San Antonio is hardly a small town by anyone’s standards, and bar fights are universal, aren’t they?”
His eyes narrowed on her. “I told you to go inside.”
“Yeah, about that. I don’t follow orders well. Genetic deficiency maybe.”
Plus, it hadn’t seemed right to leave him. Not after what he’d done. Or tried to.
“Um…” She looked down and her throat went dry. “You’re bleeding by the way.”
He glanced down at his leg. The knife had cut through his jeans high up on his inner thigh and done God knew what damage to his leg.
“You should get that looked at,” she added.
He shrugged.
“But you’re not going to.”
“It’s just a scratch.”
She frowned. “The blood soaked right through your jeans. It might need stitches.”
“It doesn’t.”
Jeez, this was all she needed. She would have liked nothing better than to leave him here freezing his ass off. But he’d stepped in to help her out when a lot of guys probably wouldn’t have even noticed anything was up. He’d protected her against a group of thugs, taken care of business matter-of-factly, even though she probably wasn’t in any real danger herself.
She sighed. The least she could do was make sure he was okay, that he got where he needed to go. She could dodge his ego if she had to, ignore his arrogance. It really was the least she could do. Right?
“Let me at least drive you somewhere.”
He looked as surprised as she felt at the words.
“I’m fine.”
“No. I’m driving you home. I don’t want it on my conscience if you bleed out here all over the sidewalk. It’d probably leave a stain and then I’d have to be reminded of it each time I came here.”
He put his hands on his hips. “You don’t listen worth a damn, do you?”
She tilted her chin toward him, not the least bit intimidated. So he was used to being obeyed, no questions asked? She snorted. It figured. “Same goes, hotshot.”
Chapter Two
He’d been mostly silent on the way over in her car, but Lexi knew he’d been uncomfortable in the passenger seat. He was used to being in control, he had it written all over him. And he’d been pissed at having to explain himself when the cops had shown up. He’d owned the small space and even though he’d slumped back in the seat, trying to find enough room for his long legs, she’d been aware of every glance—every hot, sideways glance. And there’d been a lot of them. Of course, it could all have been in her imagination.
Lexi bit back a smile as he wrenched open the door to his hotel room and stalked in, although calling the place a “hotel” was a stretch. He was doing the “if I don’t look at you, maybe you’re not here” thing again.
Who knew hot guys who kicked ass with little effort could sulk? Well tough. She was going to make sure he really was okay whether he liked it or not.
“Unless you intend to put out, get out,” he snapped when he noticed she’d followed him in.
Whew. It was something only a total jerk would say. She laughed. “Oooh, that’s good.”
He frowned and raked her with a disgusted glance. “Jesus, don’t you have any self-preservation instincts?”
She turned back from checking out the shabby room and smiled, thinking the semi-confused look really did him justice. She cocked her head to the side. “Yeah, I do and they’re telling me you’re pretty much all talk.”
His gaze narrowed on her. “Yeah?” he said quietly. “How can you be so sure?”
How did he do that? Draw all the energy in the room and channel it into a single, laser-focused stare filled with such savage intensity that it made her legs tremble, her throat go dry and heat explode low down in her abdomen?
She fought the urge to fidget under that look. “You’re a badass. I can totally see that, but threatening a woman, hurting one? I bet you’re the kind who’d rip his own arm off first.”
He shook his head. “You’re crazy.”
“Just got good instincts.” She’d had to learn how to size people up quickly at an early age. Sometimes her safety had depended on it. And him? He was rude and surly and he might be lethal to some, but she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. She didn’t know how she knew that exactly, but she’d bet her life on it, probably already was. She was alone here with him in his hotel room and screams in this area probably wouldn’t attract a lot of attention.
“Jesus, do you mind?”
Lexi smiled again. She’d followed him right into the tiny bathroom. He looked kinda cute with the frown and slightly harassed look, and she’d bet “cute” wasn’t normally a word anyone associated with him.
“If you’re not going to go to the hospital, then I at least want to see your inj
ury.”
“It’s nothing.”
“It bled right through your jeans.”
“It’s a fucking scratch.”
“Then you won’t mind if I take a look.” She put her hand on her hip and glanced at his crotch. “You shy?”
“Hardly,” he snorted.
“Then let’s see it.”
His right eyebrow lifted.
She tried to deflect the color she felt rising into her cheeks, but knew the effort was pointless. What was it about this guy that had her normally “unaffected by a hot guy” self all affected and bothered anyway?
He let out a quick breath, muttered something too low for her to catch and reached for his fly. Her mouth went dry, chalk dry. He jerked at the button and yanked his jeans down his thighs in a quick, rough move.
She’d heard the expression “left little to the imagination”. Had heard it and thought nothing of it. Now all she could do was stare at the dark briefs that seemed to cup and emphasize his maleness rather than conceal anything. Of course, that might have had a lot to do with the fact that he was aroused. Very aroused.
In the quiet of the room she was sure he could hear her heart beating. And her swallowing. It was almost deafening to her.
“Been like this since I saw your vertical sex act,” he murmured.
Lexi dragged her eyes up to his. “My…what?”
“I’m guessing you call it dancing.”
She frowned. He’d been watching her dance? God, why? She was pretty much oblivious when she was dancing and certainly didn’t give a thought to who might be watching.
“Ignore it. I plan to,” he added.
Her eyes widened. “You can do that?”
She’d heard about guys who got off on the adrenaline rush of doing something daring, dangerous and the fight probably qualified as that.
He gave her an unfathomable look. “Look, you wanna see it or not? Then take a good look.”
He sat on the edge of the low tub and spread his legs. Wide.