“So are you going to tell me you don’t?” I held firm in my argument. I was going to figure out as much about this man as I could. This crazy attraction had shaken me up, and I didn’t want it leading me down a dead-end road.
“No, actually, I don’t ‘whore around’ as you so crudely put it.” He bumped my shoulder in a joking manner. I guess letting me know he wasn’t truly offended by my statement. “I simply take enjoyment in the company of beautiful women from time to time, and they take enjoyment in me … I might add.” He finished with a big smile.
“Ugh. You’re impossible.”
“Oh, come on. You have to get to know me. You might find out that I’m actually a pretty good time.” He waggled his eyebrows and I felt the need to slap them right off his face. Who did he think he was?
“I am so NOT having sex with you, perv!” I all but shouted, and then glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to us. I couldn’t believe I had just shouted that out like that. He was downright infuriating.
He seemed to find my outburst quite amusing and laughed back to me, “I never said anything about sex. Now did I? I just thought we could be friends. You took that to a whole new level.” He paused then cocked his head sideways. “Now who’s the perv?” He finished, taking another long sip from a bottle of water. I could feel my face heat up. Damn he had me there. He never said anything about sleeping together. I had made that assumption on my own. Maybe wishful thinking on my part? Just being around him for five minutes had me dunking my mind in the gutter. Who am I becoming around this stranger?
“Okay then, how about we start over?” I said, flipping my brown locks over each of my squared shoulders and stuck out my hand. “Kelsey Rien. Nice to meet you.”
He looked at my hand for a second, then back up to my face. He knocked my hand away, and then scooped me up in a bear hug. “Friends don’t shake hands. Friends hug!”
I laughed and returned the hug. When I pulled back and smiled up at him, he was looking down at me with a smile on his face. Damn, there are those dimples again. What am I getting myself into?
Before the embrace had ended, a shouting and shoving match had started up behind me. Kane’s head whipped up fast, and before I knew it, I was standing behind him. Taking a peek around his arm, I could see two guys shove at each before one took a swing. Kane automatically grabbed my hand and led me through the crowd, toward the hallway and front entrance.
“I need you to go outside. It’s going to get crazy and you don’t need to be here.” He squatted down a little so he could look directly into my eyes.
“But my friend is still in here! I can’t leave without her!” I was franticly scanning the crowd looking for any sign of Jessi or the Landon guy she had been checking the tonsils of earlier.
Kane’s head shot up to search for our missing friends in the crowd too. Having no luck locating them, he grabbed a chair and hopped onto it, craning his neck searching the crowd. After a few seconds, he brought two fingers up to his mouth and let out another long, loud whistle.
“Yo! Landon! Over here!” he shouted. My head jerked in the direction he’d yelled because I still couldn’t find Jessi.
Suddenly, I felt the impact of a body colliding with mine, knocking me to the ground on my tail. I immediately felt sharp pains shoot from my tailbone up my spine, and I couldn’t stop the yelp that came from my mouth.
Kane was off his chair in seconds, scooping me up off the floor. Holding me tight to his chest, he carried me over to the chair he had been standing on and gently sat me down. Crouching in front of me, he lightly placed his hands on my knees. “Oh my god, Kelsey, are you okay? I never should have left you standing there alone. Are you hurt? Do you have a lot of pain?”
He kept bombarding me with questions, never really giving me time to answer before he would ask another. Finally, I just decided nodding was the best thing to do in this scenario. He must have been okay with that, because he stood and stalked over to the very intoxicated guy that had bumped me and grabbed him by his collar.
“Watch where you’re going next time, asshole. I ought to just teach you a little life lesson right here and now. When you cause harm to a female, you apologize,” he seethed.
“Kane, stop! It’s okay! I’m fine, really!” I shouted at him. His head turned to me and I saw fire in his eyes. He was clearly still fuming. Luckily for the other guy, the bouncers came running in and dragged the man away before Kane could do more than just yell at the guy.
“Kane, dude. You can’t be doing that shit,” one of the bouncers said to him. “Do you want to get fired? No confrontation. Just get them out the door. You know this,” he added.
Fired? Fired from what?
“I lost it, Eddie. I’m okay now,” he said to him before turning back to me. All the fire that had been in his eyes was slowly diminishing. Almost as if he flipped a switch on all that rage … and it was now gone. I watched him take a few deep breaths before coming back over to me.
“Look, I’m sorry about that.” He glanced around the bar, which seemed to finally be emptying out. “Things seem to be under control now. You should have no problem getting out of here and I’ve got to get back to work. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime,” he said, before walking away toward a black door that was labeled Staff Only.
That is so weird. He works here? I couldn’t ponder on that question long, because another body assaulted me, but this one was much tinier and smelled a hell of a lot nicer.
“Oh. My. God. Kels! There you are! I was worried sick! I lost you in all the commotion. Are you all right?!” Jessi was frantically giving my body a once over.
“I’m fine, Jess, just got knocked down by some drunk guy. Not like I haven’t seen worse or been in a worse situation.” I watched as all the color drained from her face and I immediately regretted my statement.
Boy, I shouldn’t have said that. Now she would start her worried best friend bit and I would see no peace tonight.
“Really, Jess. I’m fine.” I tried to assure her. Hoping with everything in me she would let this go. “Where did that guy go?” I attempted to change the subject. It always seemed to help. Bring a guy into the scenario and Jessi’s mind would wonder. For a second she didn’t seem like she would take the bait but sure enough, “Oh, Kelsey! Isn’t he gorgeous? I told you he was totally gorgeous!” She let out a high pitched squee.