Pushing my empty plate away, I lean back in my chair and look across the room to find her, but I don’t see her in her section. Then I hear her voice, it’s raised and angry. “Stop!”
Looking in the direction it came from, I scan all the heads in that area and find her near the bar where the girls pick up their drinks. She’s looking at one of the loud, drunk guys who have been taking shots like they’re candy.
He holds his hands up with a laugh. “Hey, sweetheart, just a little fun, no offense.”
Red mists my eyes, and my chair scrapes across the floor as I stand and step around the table and my family. Somewhere in the distance, behind the anger beating in my ears, I hear the other chairs at my table scrape the floor as well.
It takes me seconds to cross to the bar, ignoring the shooting pain in my leg from walking so fast from a sitting position. Nora’s eyes jump to me, and her eyebrows move up her forehead when I grab the guy by his collar and pin him against the bar.
All the anger I’ve felt for the past year swirls in my chest, forming a dangerous mass of destruction. Everything in me wants to hurt the man in front of me for touching her. Instead, I fist his shirt and squeeze it hard around his neck.
“What the fuck, man!” The guy tries to yell, but my hands are pulling his shirt so tight around his throat that it comes out as a croak.
My nose is just inches from his, and in my periphery, I see his friends start to move toward me, but they stop. I’m assuming they see all the muscle standing behind me, and they take a step back. I also see Stony reach for something under the bar across from me, and a fleeting thought in my head wonders if it’s for me or the guy in front of me.
“Where did he touch you?” I growl at Nora, keeping my eyes pinned on the piece of shit in front of me. His hands are wrappedaround my wrists, trying to pull me off him, but he might as well try to bend steel right now.
She hesitates, and I turn my attention to her. I realize she is responding to the anger she sees on my face and hears in my voice, her arms are crossed over her stomach, and her wide eyes are locked on me.
Just looking at her soothes some of the anger sparking off me like a Fourth of July sparkler, and I soften my voice. “Where’d he touch you, sugar?”
Shaking her head, she takes a deep breath. “He grabbed my ass and laughed about it when I told him to stop.”
My hands squeeze his shirt tighter, and as I turn back to him, he tries harder to pull me off him. His face is turning red when he croaks, “Only the once. I wasn’t going to do it again.”
One of his friends pipes up at my side. “You’re choking him, man. He won’t do it again.”
“Apologize.” I growl.
He gasps and chokes, his hands tight around my wrists. My hold on him won’t let him move his head, so he looks at her in his periphery. “Right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you.”
Moving my head slightly so I can see her, I ask, “Anything else?”
Her wide eyes flick from me to him before she shakes her head.
Leaning closer to him, a deep growl escapes my chest. “You should probably leave. If you stay, I’ll have to clean the fucking floor with your face.”
Nodding his head, he croaks, “I’ll leave.”
Tamping down the urge to pummel him anyway, I say, “Good idea,” letting him go with a shove as I take a step back.
He sucks in a deep breath, and his hand goes to his neck where his shirt was pinching his windpipe. His eyes move over my shoulders, probably looking at the team guys behind me, andthen looks around at the audience before he turns to his friends. “Let’s go.”
Standing still, I watch them cash out, their good time coming to an end, before I turn to Nora. She’s frozen in place; her eyes are still on me.
Closing the distance between us in two steps, her head tips back and those green orbs are fixed on me. All my anger drains away and is replaced with the soothing softness that is her. “You okay?”
Her eyes volley between mine and I curl my fingers into my palms to stop myself from touching her. She clears her throat. “Yes. Thank you.” It’s a soft whisper, but I hear her.
I don’t want to leave the calm that seems to stroke the animal in me when I’m around her, but I nod my head and force myself to step away and walk back to my table.
Mistake.
Kinley and Marley are standing arm-in-arm with Sloane next to them, and they are smiling. Taking a deep breath, I bark, “What?”
Kinley lifts her finger with a smirk and moves it in a circle like she’s drawing around my face. “You like Nora. I saw you watching her before.”
Pulling my wallet out of my pocket, I grab a few small bills and toss them on the table without looking at the hormonal, preening sisters in front of me. “Don’t be fucking ridiculous.”
