“Hey!” I objected, my gaze bouncing between them. “I don’t belong to him!”
“Well now you know,” Garrett stated, clearly choosing to ignore everything I’d just said. “And I don’t like to share, so fuck off.”
Without giving the guy a chance to respond, Garrettgrabbed me by the elbow and began pulling me off the dance floor.
“Where are we going?” I asked, nearly running to keep up as the people in our path began to part like the Red Sea to allow the famous rock star to pass. The first thing I saw once we cleared the floor was Ian’s imposing frame standing sentry.
“Hey, Ian.” I waved excitedly at the sight of his friendly face. There was a slight possibility the tequila had kicked in, and I was really starting to feel it.
He tipped his chin up and gave me an ever professional “Ma’am.”
“Keep everyone away from the back exit,” Garrett ordered, not breaking stride.
“Yes, sir,” Ian responded.
“Wait!” I insisted, pulling fruitlessly at Garrett’s hold on my arm. “Corrie’ll be looking for me.”
“I’ll see to her, ma’am,” Ian replied, putting me at ease.
All I could do was jog on my stilettos to keep up with his quick pace. “Bye, Ian!” I waved again as I scuttled past, catching his mouth quirking up in an infinitesimal grin.
Yep, tequila had definitely kicked in.
SEVEN
Garrett ledme down an empty corridor ending in a set of double doors that opened to the alley behind the club. He didn’t release my arm until the metal doors clanged closed behind us, shutting out the pounding beat of the music inside. Even though he’d released me, he still invaded my space, giving me no option to escape.
“What are we doing out here?” I asked, shivering against the cold breeze. “It’s freezing.”
“That’s ’cause you’re practically naked,” he grunted.
Tipping my head back far enough to scowl up at him, I crossed my arms over me in an effort to stave off the chill. “Am not,” I argued insolently. “Did you see those other women in there? I might as well be wearing a burka, for Christ’s sake!”
Garrett crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at me like I’d done something to piss him off. “I don’t give a shit about those other women. They aren’t the mother of my child.”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” I snapped past chattering teeth. “Can we please go back in? I’m freezing my tits off out here,” I asked, past caring that I sounded like a whiny teenager. I might have been feeling the effectsof those three shots, but it wasn’t enough to protect me against potential frostbite.
“Jesus Christ,” he sighed with a roll of his eyes as he shrugged off his worn leather jacket. It wasn’t the type of worn that made it look beaten up; it looked stylishly distressed and vintage. It was a cool-as-hell jacket, and as he reached around me to slide it on my shoulders, I decided I wanted to keep it forever. It was toasty warm from Garrett’s body heat and smelled absolutelyamazing.
“There. That better?” he asked with gruff sarcasm. The exasperation on his face would have made me laugh if I wasn’t a teensy bit drunk and my legs weren’t at risk of turning into blocks of ice.
I hugged the jacket closer to me, hoping it wasn’t obvious I was sniffing the cologne that lingered before asking, “What are you doing here? Are you following me?”
He scoffed, as if the idea was beneath him, which, seeing as he was a world-famous rock star, it probably was. “What amIdoing here? The better question is what areyoudoing here, Gwen? Our record label closed down this whole place to throw a private party to celebrate the end of our tour. How did you even get through the door?”
My shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I don’t know. That big guy at the door with a swollen neck said we’d do and let us in.”
“He said you’d do?”
If I had all my faculties, I probably would have noticed the frostiness in Garrett’s voice, but… drunk brain.
“Yeah. He did this….” I ogled him, doing my best impression of the bouncer, and adopted a weird, deep voice. “‘You’ll do. Go on in.’ Then he opened the door.”
“I’ll kill him,” he growled.
I pulled my nose out of his jacket and stopped sniffing. “Huh? What? Why? Because he let me into your stupid little party?”
“You don’t belong here.”
