I’m in trouble.
I need help.
And then all at once, his hand is gone.I’m free.The area around me clears out too.When I look up through the curls that have fallen in front of my face, I see a tall man in a dark suit hauling the stranger in by his collar, getting in his face.
Then he looks down at me over his shoulder, and I have to push my curls aside to make sure I’m not seeing things.“Alessandro?”I whisper, but the sound is lost under the music.
He lets go of the stranger, shoving him away, then reaches down and helps me off the floor.His touch is rough but welcome.
“Let’s go,” he almost barks as he starts forcing his way through the crowd of bodies.“It’s time to go home.”
But I don’t want to go home.That wasn’t the point.I’m supposed to be staying with the girls, only I can’t find them, and everything around me is moving way too fast.If it weren’t for Alessandro keeping me on my feet, I would go down again.I have to lean against him, but it’s not so bad.He’s strong.
And he’s grumbling loudly by the time we get outside, where I gratefully gulp in fresh air, even if I didn’t want to leave the club yet.
“Fucking lucky I was watching,” he mutters, walking me down the street while I stumble and struggle to keep up.“It went exactly the way I thought it would.Are you happy?Are you proud of yourself?What would’ve happened if I wasn’t in there?”
“You were supposed to wait for me.”I don’t feel good.At all.I can almost feel my stomach sloshing around with every unsteady step I take.
He barks out a chilling laugh.“Right.And what would’ve happened if I did?”
I hate this goddamn know-it-all.
He’s disgusting.
He’s evil.
He saved me.
We come to a stop at the corner and wait for what seems like a million cars to go past.All of the lights blur together and start to tilt along with the rest of the world.Alessandro Vitali rescued me.The thought makes my stomach churn worse than ever.
“Don’t you dare,” he warns when I clap a hand over my mouth.
Too late.
I barely have time to bend at the waist before an entire flood of puke comes rushing out of my mouth and splashes all over the sidewalk.
6
ALESSANDRO
All things considered, I should have expected this…
The perfect ending to the night.
Right away, the delightful odor of vomit fills the air, which didn’t smell very good to begin with.
“How much did you drink, for Christ’s sake?”I ask when she retches again.I would have tried to get her to a trash can if it hadn’t happened so suddenly.
One thing is for sure… by the time she’s finished and slowly straightens up, there’s no way she’s getting away with this once I take her home.
Then another thing occurs to me.There’s no way I’m sitting in a car with her when she managed to splash puke up and down her legs.It splashed on her shoes, too, and some dribbled down the front of her tank top.She runs the back of her hand over her mouth, groaning miserably before stumbling a little.
And almost slipping in her own mess.
Instinct forces me to reach out and catch her before she goes down.“Easy,” I murmur, my arm around her waist.She doesn’t weigh much, and what there is of her fits well against me.It might actually be enjoyable if she didn’t reek as she does.
“Gonna kill me,” she mumbles, resting her head against my chest.“I’ll have to quit school.He’ll never let me come back.”
