“Madison.What the fuck are you doing?”Nicholas sounds angry, but he is so far away, and so unimportant, his words barely register.Mr.Hottie’s arms circle me.His huge hand wraps around the back of my neck.He fists my hair and tilts my face exactly where he wants me.His touch is gentle, but unyielding.Something inside me snaps.I feel like I know him, like I’ve always known him.His taste.His smell.Everything about him feels right.
I want him inside me.Now.
Wrapping my arms around his head, I make silent demands of my own with my lips.
“Watch out!”Hannah’s sharp gasp penetrates my fog of lust.I turn in time to see Nicholas reaching for me.
Before he can make contact, the giant beneath me lifts me with one arm as he stands, shifting me so that I’m against his side with his arm protectively wrapped around my waist.Nicholas lunges toward us.Mr.Kissable extends his free arm and wraps his hand around Nicholas’s neck.The move stops my former fiancé dead in his tracks.My hotties so tall and so strong, he doesn’t even wobble or fight for balance.
“You will not touch her.”His deep voice rumbles through me like a shockwave.Even his voice is sexy.
“What the hell?Get your hands off me, you freak.”Nicholas’s hands tug frantically at the coiled fingers under his jaw, to no avail.“Who are you?Get your hands off my fiancée!”
“I’m not your fiancée, Nicholas.”The denial is fast and furious from my lips.I feel the truth of every word to the depths of my soul.I am not his anything.Not anymore.
“Madison, please.”Nicholas gives up fighting and begs for what?Forgiveness?Another chance?He’s not thinking clearly, that much is obvious by the bulging eyes and cloying tone of his voice.
“Please what?”
“Come back with me.I explained to everyone that you just had cold feet.They’re all still waiting at the church.”
He.Is.Insane.“Tell them the truth.”
“I can’t.You know I can’t.”
I shake my head.How did I not see through his façade?I didn’t want to.I wanted the fairy tale.I still want a stable home and a family, but I don’t want him.Not after that kiss.Not now that I know what real passion feels like.I’m still tingling all over and this stranger’s arm around me feels safe and powerful and perfect, like I’m exactly where I belong.
“Madison, say something.Please.Come with me.We can work this out.”
“No.Go.Get out before I change my mind and tell the whole town what really happened.”I threaten, tucked against Mr.Hottie’s side with my arms around him.He smells amazing.He’s so warm, it’s like hugging a hot stone.
Nicholas pales.Even though he admitted he didn’t tell anyone the truth, somehow, I’m still surprised by his reaction.Of course he lied.The truth might ruin his perfect image.Everything about him, form his false confidence to his small-town charm, from his smokescreen integrity to his sexuality, is literally a lie.
Nicholas looks at me for another moment before giving up and turning his attention to my new favorite kisser.“I don’t want trouble.Just let me go, okay?I’ll leave.”Nicholas raises his hands on either side of his head in surrender and my giant releases him.
“Get out and do not trouble this female again.”
Nicholas clutches his neck as he backs away, the whole time glaring at me as if I’ve done a terrible wrong.True to his word—and his cowardly nature—he practically runs out of the bar.
My god, what a weanie!And to think, I almost married that joker.
“Good riddance.”Emily whispers before glancing at me.“You okay?”
“Yeah.”But I don’t want to let go of my new superhero.Rather than face him—and that amazing kiss—I give his two friends a once-over.“What are you guys wearing?Did you just come from a sci-fi convention or something?”
The gentleman Hannah is staring at looks at my hottie before responding.“No, the suits were issued to us by the Federation.It’s standard battle armor.”
Man, they are really hamming up their cosplay.I love that kind of devotion.
“They’re amazing.Except—” I can’t say it.I shouldn’t.But damn it, I want to feel the man beneath the armor, so to speak.He’s literally covered from the neck down.
“What about our appearance is less than amazing?”My hottie asks.
“Excellent question.”Emily whispers and I notice she can’t take her eyes off her Viking god either, the man on the right.What is it about these guys?They are lethal to the libido.Deadly.
Typical of me after a few shots of tequila, I say what I think.Out loud.It’s a bad habit.“You need to do something about your?—”
“Yes?”Hannah’s man asks from my savior’s opposite side.“About our?”
