I’d heard this song a thousand times before, but I’d never really understood the words until now when the vocalist begged for her guy to open up her eyes and tell her who she is. She begged him to let her in on all his secrets, no inhibitions, no sin.
She was asking everything of him I wanted to ask of Henry.
This stranger I barely knew.
This man who’d sparked something inside me I’ve never felt before: desire, rage, intensity, heat, desperation for just one touch, the fantasy I’d never allowed myself to think of before now.
When I looked over at him, his eyes locked on mine, it felt as though so many unspoken things passed between us. Another silent conversation. A language we were both becoming skilledin without ever having taken a lesson. It felt right doing this with him.
It felt…
I stumbled forward as a pair of rough, sloppy, unfamiliar hands slapped my backside hard and squeezed with a sickening strength that made me lose my balance until I froze in place, my body no longer my own.
“If you’re gonna dance and tease the crowd like that, baby, you can’t blame a guy for wanting to know what it feels like,” came a strange voice in my ear as the stranger’s face rubbed against mine.
I forgot how to breathe. Forgot how to move. Forgot where I was.
“What the fuck, man?” Jace cried, racing back towards me and looking over my head at the man whostillhad my arse in his grip.
For just a few seconds, the world around me stopped… until Jace charged forward with a look of murder in his eyes.
I’d always thought I’d have the courage and strength to remove myself from any situation like that and put the guy responsible in his place, but before I had chance to even think about any sort of plan, a rush of bodies moved around me, and somewhere, somehow, a fist came flying towards my face. Without thinking, I ducked just in time before I heard flesh meeting flesh. A sound so nauseating, it immediately made my head spin.
Everything seemed to happen around me in slow motion, and just as I thought I was about to fall to the floor covered in drinks and stampeding feet, I was pulled into someone’s arms and yanked against them while a fight broke out all around me,becauseof me.
Chapter Twenty
Henry
Icaught her just in time before she had chance to hit the floor, curling one arm around her waist while I pressed my free hand to her neck and held her. But even though I should have put Phoebe above everything and everyone else in that moment, all I could focus on was the guy who’d dared to touch her. The one Jace and Andy were currently trying to tackle to the ground. There was pushing and shoving, and I was pretty sure Jace’s first punch had landed squarely on the guy’s jaw, but he was a big fucker, and he wasn’t going down easily.
As soon as Bailey and Rhea came rushing over, I reluctantly passed Phoebe over to them.
“Take her,” I told them. “Donotlet her go.”
“You got it,” Bailey said, quickly pulling Phoebe into her arms. “What happened, Bee? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Phoebe started. “I’m?—”
I didn’t wait around to hear the rest. I moved without thought, my stride purposeful as I stepped into the chaos around the same time I saw the security fighting their way through the dance floor from the very far end of it. The guy who’d dared totouch Phoebe didn’t even see me before I grabbed hold of his shoulder, spun him around, and smacked him square in the jaw with all the fury I had within me.
He barely had time to blink before his head snapped back, his eyes rolled, and he crumbled to the floor like the sack of fucking shit he was.
Just like that, the party died down around us, even though the music continued to play, and everyone nearby turned to look our way.
I stood over the handsy little fucker’s body and leaned down to fist his shirt, pulling him off the floor just a few inches as I lowered my face to his, letting him see all the years of rage I had stored within me. And there was a lot.
“Touch what isn’t yours again, motherfucker, and I’ll break every working finger you have, one by one, understand?”
Before security reached me, and with the crowd gathered above us keeping me out of sight, I threw another punch to the guy’s already bust-up jaw and let him fall back to the floor with a thud.
“Fuck, yes, Cohen. That’s what I’m talking about!” cried Andy.
“Jesus, man, you’re insane! Get out of here!” Jace said, pulling my shoulder back until I turned to face him.
Security started shouting over the heads of the other men and women on the dance floor, but the strangers around us seemed prepared to hold them back until we made our swift exit. I cast a quick glance security’s way before I took off, moving back through the gathering of people until Phoebe stood in front of me again.
Without thinking about anything anyone had to say about it, I scooped her up into my arms and marched her out of the bar with nothing else on my mind but making sure she stayed safe.
