Chapter Fourteen

“Hey, you work at Shady Ladies, baby? What, you some kinda fucking freak? You look like a ten-foot-tall Barbie doll or maybe a store mannequin!”

“Yeah, man, it’s like that old movie where the mannequin comes to life…”

Queen Bee glanced worriedly over her shoulder. Three men were following her through the alley, picking up their pace as they moved in closer. By the way they were shuffling along, they’d been drinking heavily.

 “You damn sure don’t look like any regular woman I’ve ever seen,” another voice cackled. Their laughter was a cruel reminder of the hostility that was all too often directed at the LGBT community.

“That’s because I’m nobody’s ‘regular woman’, asshole,” Queen Bee muttered under her breath. She kept her eyes straight ahead as she walked calmly through the alley. She tried to maintain a steady pace that didn’t transmit the fear that was clawing at the base of her spine.

Normally, she would have been driving home right about now, but her piece-of-shit car had broken down again so she had to walk. She had left the bar too late to catch a ride with anyone. So here she was, being harassed by the Three Bigoted Stooges.

The catcalls continued. “Hey, baby! You still got a dick under there? Come on over here and sit on Dan’s dick! He don’t care if you still got a dick, do you, Danny boy?” The guy snickered at his own joke, then started complaining loudly as Dan shoved him like he meant it and called him an asshole.

She needed to get the hell out of there. In one swift move she kicked her shoes off, leaving them behind as she took off running.

The chorus of catcalls and jeers behind her spurred her on to the end of the alley. She didn’t see the car pull up when she exited the alley, but she heard tires screech as a deep voice called out to her. “Get in. Hurry up!”

She looked up and staggered slightly as she took in the sight before her: a beautiful man had pulled up to the curb and was pushing his passenger door open as he beckoned her over. She couldn’t move because that would mean looking away from the knight in shining armor in the Escalade. He exhaled with a frown, moved the gear shifter to Park and got out. In the time it took for Queen Bee to look over her shoulder to check on her pursuers in the alley, she was being scooped up into thick, strong arms.

“Oh!” she gasped, clinging to the corded muscles that held her as if she weighed nothing. Queen Bee’s curves were slender but, at six feet tall, she was statuesque. Cradled in this man’s arms, she felt…petite. Delicate, even. She liked it.

The handsome stranger opened the car door and deposited her gently onto the passenger seat.

“Oh my God, thank you so much,” she gushed, her voice breathy and almost childlike as she stared up at him. “They would have killed me if you hadn’t come along!” She stilled as she looked over his shoulder into the alley. The men had congregated on the sidewalk and appeared to be still bickering amongst themselves about Dan’s lascivious intentions toward her. Her eyes narrowed and her voice took on a decidedly more adult tone as she huffed angrily, “And those bastards made me ditch my favorite shoes!”

“No, they didn’t,” he said. “You stay right here. Don’t you go anywhere.” He shut the car door and strode toward the group. One of the drunks nudged the other two and pointed. The three men took one look at the tall, ominous figure moving steadily toward them and practically stumbled over each other as they ran in the opposite direction.

Moments later her hero returned to the Escalade, a twinkle in his amber eyes and her shoes dangling from two fingers. He opened the car door and offered her a shoe. As she reached for it, he pulled it away and shook his head with a smile.

“Please. Allow me.” He raised an eyebrow as if seeking her permission to proceed. At her nod, he dropped to one knee and gave her a smile that revealed perfectly aligned, sparkling white teeth and a deep dimple. Smooth mahogany skin clung to high cheekbones. His shaved head gleamed beneath the streetlights and it was all she could do not to reach out and stroke the sleek curve of his skull. She decided that she had never seen a more beautiful man in all her life.

“Oh my,” she breathed as her fingertips fluttered along her throat and she extended her foot toward him. His hands were big and warm as he cradled first one foot and then the other as he slipped the shoes into place. His hand lingered just a moment too long on the delicate bones of a slender ankle before he rose to his feet, closed her door, and rounded the car...grinning the whole way.

He slid into the driver's seat and reached over to fasten her seatbelt, then leaned his head back against the headrest and gave her a long, steady look. He rested his arm along the back of her seat and asked, “You okay, my lady?”

“I’m fine…now.” She bit her lip and smiled at the handsome stranger, her eyes twinkling. “My hero,” she sighed and impulsively kissed his cheek. “Thank you for rescuing me and my shoes.”

“My pleasure,” he murmured. “Now, where to?”

Queen Bee's toes curled as she considered the answer to a simple question that she somehow knew would change her life. It was too good to be true, a handsome stranger rescuing her and her shoes from those bigots. That sort of thing never happened. Not to her, anyway.