Page 31 of Small Town Firsts
All eyes were on me and my chest tightened at the onlookers crowding around to gawk. Before I had a second to call off all the attention, Ronan plucked me up off the guy and hooked me around his hip. His huge booted foot landed about a millimeter away from the drunk guy’s nose.
“You know this guy?” Mason yelled over the cheers, gesturing to Ronan.
It was either hook my arm around Ronan or land on the drunk guy again. “Yes. From the orchard.”
“From the orchard? Is that all I am to you?” Ronan asked in so not his indoor voice.
“Not helping,” I whispered furiously.
My boss grunted. “Get her clear then.”
“I’m fine. Stop manhandling me, dammit.” I pushed at Ronan.
He only held me tighter. “Shut up, Kira.”
My molars snapped shut in shock.
“Relax, Ronda,” he said when I would’ve spoken.
I frowned. Who the hell was that? “Put me down. I have to help clean up.”
“It’s all glass back here and you’re dripping—again.”
My cheeks heated.
He buried his face in my hair. “I prefer you smelling like sex and apples than tequila, Sunshine.”
I had a feeling I smelled worse than tequila. I’d been sweating my ass off working for the last four hours and I still had two to go.
“We’re going to close off the patio,” my boss called. “Why don’t you head home?”
“It’s okay, I can help.” I pounded on Ronan’s shoulder. “Would you put me down?”
“Nope.”
“Can I at least talk to my boss?”
He turned us around so I could see Mason. The drunk guy grunted as Ronan kicked him in the ribs, almost as an afterthought.
“Was that necessary?”
He shrugged. “Yes.”
Everyone was staring at us. My heart seemed to be pounding in my ears and everything sounded overly loud.
Mason glanced from me to Ronan. There seemed to be some sort of unspoken thing between the men which only pissed me off more. “Yeah, you guys should just go.”
“I still have two hours left on my shift. And I need to help you guys clean up.” I tried to wiggle my way down, but the damn Viking’s arms were like iron.
“It’s chaos back here, but we can handle it. I’ll have Jared come out for the handsy jackass.”
I glanced around. Great, Mason was calling in his brother, the Chief of Police in Crescent Cove. “Where are his friends?”
“Not such great friends. I think they escaped while you were pinning their buddy to the floor.” Mason crouched down to check the guy who had passed out.
“Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. Nothing a few hours in the drunk tank won’t fix. Impressive skills though. I wouldn’t want to get into the octagon with you, K.” Mason grinned up at me.
