Page 85 of Introvert

"How old are you anyway?" The man gestured to my hand and the big black X there. "Got you marked up. Must be too young to drink."

"Yeah, I'm 17," I said then immediately wished I hadn't.

The way he smiled, eyeingme up and down, made me want to bleach my skin off. "You want to dance?"

"No, but thank you."

I tried to say it as nicely as possible,I really did. But it didn't matter. The guy's face twisted as he went from pleasant to angry in two seconds flat.

"Think you're too good for me?" he said.

Shifting away quickly, I said, "No, I don't."

He laughed, coming closer, blocking my escape. "You think you're hot shit in that dress, huh?"

I shook my head while discreetly reaching inside my purse. "Can you move, please? I want to go join my friends."

"Why? You don't like talking to me?"

"I…" Taking a deep breath, I centered myselfor tried to. "I'm leaving now."

He laughed as I tried to walk past him, stepping in front of me.

"Please get out of my way."

"Or what?"

When I didn't respond, his nasty smile reappeared.

"Or what?" he repeated.

Frowning, I tried to rush past, but he grabbed my arm in a bruising grip. Lifting my purse, I came down on his hand as hard as I could, and with a scream, he backed away. Apparently his scream got a lot of attention because at some point the music stopped.I kept going until I ran into someone who smelled like fresh flowers and honey.London looked from me to the man and back again, taking note of the red finger-shaped marks on my arm. "Are you okay, Aurora?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.

"Hey," she got right up in the guy's face and yelled. "Did youlay hands on my friend?"

"No," he muttered.

"I think you did."

"Whatever."

"You're a creep," she said, pointing at his chest, still so closeas if she wasn't afraid at all. "When a woman says no, she means it—especiallywhen it's to a creep like you."

He was red-faced and furious. "You can't talk to me like that."

"I'll talk however I want. It's a free country."

"Bitch."

London drew back then opened her mouth like she was really going to lay into him—but before she could, a dark shadow fell over her.

"What'd you just say?"

The deep voice belonged to Ryker. His eyes were shooting fire.

"Relax, Ry, I've got this," London said.

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