Page 88 of Simon Says

Jumping down off the stage, Barber made his way over to her. Other than tilting back her head to maintain eye contact, she didn’t move.

Sexual tension hummed between them.

Barber ran his finger along her sleek jawline. “Well, now,” he said softly, “don’t you look enticing, waiting here for me?”

Her smile came slow and easy, a little crooked—and Barber took a closer look at her eyes. He softly cursed.

She looked more than a little high.

Knowing his plans were shot to hell, he asked anyway. “How much you had to drink, darlin’?”

“Jus’ enough to help pass the hours and hours and hours….”

Shit. The slurred words said it all. Resigned to disappointment, Barber said, “Come on, then,” and he took her upper arm to help her from her seat. “I’ll see you home safe and sound.”

Once upright, Bonnie collapsed against him and giggled like a maniacal schoolgirl. “I’ve been thinking and thinking about wha’ we’ll do, Barber.”

Yeah, he had, too. But now he knew she’d pass out before reaching her bed, and he’d be going back to his hotel room alone.

When he had sex, he wanted the woman wide-awake, willing, and very involved.

Not numb from alcohol.

“Let me have your keys, sugar.”

She handed them over without argument. “I’m goin’ to make youcrazy,” she whispered suggestively.

“Shouldn’t be too hard, considering you already got me halfway there.” Getting her out the door and to her sporty little Mazda in the deserted parking lot took some finessing.

She kept trying to cop a feel of his crotch.

“And here I thought you were a lady,” Barber chided, when he eased her grip away for the fifth time.

“Are you insinuatin’ tha’ I’m not respectable?” she asked with a little too much spit.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Just as Barber got the passenger-side door open for her, he heard the rush of footsteps behind him.

He jerked around in time to successfully dodge the chunk of pipe aimed at his head. Instead of caving in his skull, it caught him in the shoulder, slamming him sideways. Bonnie screamed at the top of her lungs.

She had very healthy lungs.

Going with the momentum, Barber hit the ground and rolled, surging back to his feet in one movement.

His shoulder thumped in pain, but not enough to keep him from facing the attackers.

He encountered three men, one standing back as if in charge, another with a pipe, a third grabbing for Bonnie as she struggled.

Like hell.

They all wore ski masks, disguising their faces, but Barber didn’t need to see a face to hit it.

He shot in low and took down the pipe wielder in a full body slam. Aware of the other two behind him, he landed one solid punch to the chin, hard enough to break the man’s jaw. The idiot didn’t even see it coming, and went limp from the blow.

Bonnie let loose with another scream, this one muffled from a hand over her mouth. Barber turned and saw her clamped up tight between the other two men.

Neither of them rushed him as he got to his feet. They were too busy looking at their fallen friend.

Taunting them, Barber said, “You’re both too fucking stupid to know you’re already dead.” He grinned to add menace to the threat—and attacked.

---