He does one of those slow scans of my body. Head cocked, eyes wandering, pausing at all his favourite places—hips, tits, throat. He runs his tongue over his bottom lip, and in response, my body heats.
I bite down on my smile. Decker really needs to stop fucking looking at me like that. I am too drunk for this shit. This much liquor in my system, and a look like that will have me taking my clothes off with very little coaxing.
Tamping down on the inclination, I clear my throat. “Oh… well. How’d you get here so fast?”
“Was at Cooter’s having a beer with Miller.”
I scrunch up my nose, the tequila rolling in my gut again. “Ew. The strip club? That place as dirty as it used to be?”
He shrugs. “Can’t beat their two-for-one wing nights. Gotta be pretty brutal for the girls, though,” he says, waggling his fingers. “All those sticky hands touching them.”
“That’s gross, Linc. For real.”
“I’m just there for the cheap beer and wings.”
“Sure you are.”
With a roll of his eyes, he holds out a hand. “I’m taking you home. Let’s go.”
“Ah, no. I’m not going anywhere with you.” I push off the wall, swaying a bit.
He steadies me quickly, his hand finding my waist. “Ah, yeah, you are. You’re wasted. You need to sleep it off. And I’m not letting you go back in there so Tex can convince you to leave with him. That asshole isnotwhat you need right now.”
Scowling, I thrust his hand away. “First of all, I’m capable of making my own decisions. I can sleep with whoever I want. Second, I won’t let Tex convince me of anything. If I wanted a quick fuck, I definitely wouldn’t ask him for it.” I step forward, this time taking extra care to root my feet to the ground.
“Who would you ask? And so you know, Grace, I’m not all that quick.”
“And third,” I say, ignoring him and the thrill shooting up my spine, “stop this ‘you’re not gonnaletme’ shit. You don’t get to tell me?—”
The world spins, and my feet leave the ground. A second later, I find myself slung over Decker’s shoulder.
Yelping, I hammer my fists against his back. “What the hell?” His grip on me is firm, and he keeps me restrained easily as I kick out wildly. “Decker!”
He’s already exiting the alleyway and stepping out onto the crowded street.
The people gathered nearby watch, a few laughing and pointing, a few others looking concerned.
“Put me down,” I warn.
“No.”
“I’ll scream,” I grit.
With a dark chuckle, he slaps my ass.
“Ow, hey!”
“You screaming because of me isn’t the worst thing in the world, Grace. I’m pretty good at that. Making women scream.”
“Screaming as they run in the other direction,” I mutter with another punch to his lower back. “Put me down.”
To my surprise, he flings me over his shoulder and places me gently on my feet.
I wobble slightly, head spinning as I adjust to being vertical again. “You’re an asshole, you know that?”
“So? Get in.” He nods to the big black pickup parked on the curb.
I open my mouth to argue, but he cuts me off.
