Blood splatters across his face and shirt, and his yelp of pain fills the air as I tug her away from him and his buddy.
My arm moves around her waist, and I pull her to me, putting myself firmly between her and the assholes. With her protected against the bar, they can’t get to her without coming through me.
And that sure as hell isn’t happening.
Before she can say anything or even react, my arm is pulled from around her waist and jerked behind my back as I’m shoved to the floor.
My chest hits the tile, all the air rushing from my lungs as someone pins me down with their knee between my shoulder blades, twisting my shoulder and wrenching my arm violently.
Fuck…
Warm breath flutters over my ear, and a light jasmine scent floats over me, stilling any reaction my body wants to take against the attack. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, touching one of the girls?”
Holy hell.
It isn’t the voice of the big burly guy who stood at the door that rings in my ears; it’s the voice of a fucking angel with an impressive submission hold.
2
BISHOP
I drive my knee harder into the upper back of the man I have pinned on the floor and wrench his arm even harder behind him, knowing the type of strain I’m putting on his shoulder and the agony he must be in.
Relishing it.
Using all my leverage to make it even worse.
This fucker thinks he can touch one of the girls which means he’s going to learn a lesson in what happens when you do…
Straddling his hips, my entire body weight on him in a kimura hold, he’s completely at my mercy.
And I can’t wait to hear him beg.
They always do.
But unlike so many other troublemakers I’ve forced into submission, he doesn’t fight it.
No bucking and flailing to try to throw me off like most people would if they were in his precarious position.
He calmly glances over his shoulder at me the best he can, and one Cerulean blue eye meets my gaze. The corner of his mouth twitches, but instead of a cry of agony or an angry demand that I get off him, his body starts to vibrate beneath me with strained laughter.
“Damn, woman. Most men I know can’t pin me like that. Impressive.”
This smug motherfucker…
I lower my mouth to his ear and snarl, my fury only growing at his unusual response to the situation. “Nothing about this is funny, you asshole.”
He continues to chuckle lightly, despite my weight pinning him down and the discomfort he must be in due to the strain on his shoulder and arm. “Oh, I disagree.”
The shuffle of footsteps and click of heels beside me draws my attention up, and Jade grabs at my shoulder, her eyes still wide and darting around us. “Bishop, stop! He was trying to help me.” She motions behind her to two men being shoved out of the club by the doorman. “Those two were being creeps. This one was protecting me.”
Well, shit…
Everything happened so fast, and I briefly looked away from this man at the bar and was watching Honey on the stage and keeping an eye on the rest of the rowdy group at the front of it.
All I saw of whatever went down over here was the man under me with his arm around Jade and her looking terrified…
And apparently, I completely misread the situation.
