Page 5 of Dark Love

Muscles tense as the bone crusher turns towards me. He has to help me. He just has to.

In the movies, they always kiss the guy or hug him, but there is no way I’m going to sexually assault a person to avoid being assaulted myself.

What should I do?

There’s no way the creep didn’t follow me. His eyes burned into my back the entire time I ran.

What should I do? Ask for help. Give the bone-crushing man in the beautiful suit a chance to say yes. I lean forward allowing my hair to cover my face as I whisper in his ear, “Please help me.” Three little words could save me a world of hurt.

“Come back here, you little—”

The creep is here! It’s the moment of truth.

Will the bone-crushing man save me or throw me to the wolf? I lean back to see what’s going to happen, but don’t get very far before a strong arm wraps around my shoulders.

“Mr.…Vex…Um. I didn’t…I thought…She didn’t—”

“Go now.” The bone crusher’s sharp words send the creep running.

“Thank you so much. I didn’t know what to do. I can’t believe it worked. Things on television shows never really work. It worked. I can’t believe you saved me. You saved me.” I lift my gaze up and freeze.

The glittering emerald eyes staring back at me are like none I’ve ever seen before. Do eyes naturally come in that shade of green? His pierce my soul, making me forget everything. Even the mind-numbing noise disappears.

What is he thinking as he stares back into my boring brown eyes? Mine aren’t dark enough to be considered pools of velvety chocolate or bright enough to remind you of umber stones. Dirt. My eyes resemble plain, boring old dirt, yet his gaze remains locked on mine for the longest moment.

Will he remember me, the woman he saved, after tonight? This memory will stay with me until the day I leave this world. He will stay with me.

Why does that thought settle my soul?

Because I haven’t felt this safe since the last time my father held me in his arms when I was a child. Nothing bad in the world could touch me then. And nothing bad would dare to touch me with this man watching over me. “Thank you,” I whisper the words. If I was living back home, Mom would tell me to make him cookies to show my appreciation. “What kind of cookies do you like?”

His head tips to the side. “Are you crazy?”

“Sometimes. But I think I’m the good kind of crazy.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Oh, I figured that out the hard way.

“I have your drinks.” The friendly bartender walks up with a tray balanced on one hand. “Two white gummy bear shots. And one glass of champagne.” She sets the last glass down with a smile and a wink and then rushes away from the table.

Without a word, Bone Crusher reaches out with his free hand and lifts the ‘champagne’ glass to his lips.

Why did he do that? Did he forget to get a drink?

He sets down the glass, and his eyes move back to mine. There’s an edge in them that I don’t want to even try to understand. “Who let you into my club? My bouncers know better than to let trouble inside.”

Trouble!?! Is everyone inside this place crazy? “I am not trouble. I’ll have you know I’ve never gotten so much as a speeding ticket or detention in school. My parents never needed to ground me once.” My brother, on the other hand, got grounded every other week and suspended several times from school. “I’ve never cheated on a test or paid my taxes late. Trouble isn’t even in my vocabulary.”

Bone crusher shakes his head again. “Who let you in?”

I fold my arms across my chest. There’s no way I want him glaring at someone else. Tac seems like he can protect himself, but Bone Crusher… he’s on a completely different playing field. “I have just as much right as anyone else to be in here. After the week I’ve had, I deserve to have some fun.” Not that I’d consider any of this fun.

“What kind of week did you have?” His eyes develop a dangerous glimmer.

“It was my first week at a new job. Well, not my first week since I had to go in for training before this, but it was my first week actually work working, you know what I mean? I want my coworkers to like me, but this is a hard job with lots of burnout and people seem a little bit wacky. Nice.” I don’t want to give him the wrong impression. “But completely nutty. A few girls from work asked me to join them for drinks after work, and I thought it would be the perfect way to get to know them. But I was wrong. I should have gone with Adonis’ group to eat dinner. Dinner was safer. It doesn’t involve drunk creeps or sexy guys that can crush bones with their bare hands, but think I’m trouble, which I’m not.”

His frown turns into a small smile.

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