I PULL THE HEM OF my dress down. Again. And look over at Dani from under my lashes while I take another sip of my drink. A large sip this time.
“Smile,” Maddi says loudly in my ear, causing me to jump and rattle the whole table when I bump into it.
Maddi laughs, throws her hands up, and walks around to the other side of the table. She gives Zac a hug before walking to Nate and giving him one as well. Well, what I’m sure started out as a hug but ended up with her jamming her elbow into his stomach when he pinches her butt. She throws a look over her shoulder at her sister before walking back over to me and picking up her drink.
Maddi—like me—is wearing a form fitting dress. Hers is a light purple color that looks amazing on her tan skin. Her long, black hair is up in a high ponytail and her make up is done to perfection. But unlike me, she doesn’t have to struggle to keep her dress from riding up her ass. Mainly because even though she has a great ass, she doesn’t have the hips that I do. Which is a major reason why I have avoided wearing anything this . . . tight.
The dress that Dani insisted I wear, ended up being one of the ones that she had her best friend Lyn drag over. Something that they claim they just had, but being that I’m the only one of them that has hips for days, I know they’re full of shit. Which was confirmed when Lila, Lyn’s twin sister, apologized for being late because they took too long at the mall.
The deep blue dress fit me perfectly. I have to admit it’s stunning, there’s a thin layer of lace that covers the blue material of the dress and takes it from looking like a cheap bar dress to something a little classier. I should be happy because it covers all the important places, but the low neckline makes me boobs stand out. Then there’s the whole back of the dress issue . . . or I should say lack of the back. The blue material stops at my butt and the lace continues about two inches and then it’s nothing but skin except for a thin line of blue that crosses mid back, holding it together. A thin and tight chain connecting each side that I’m convinced is going to snap. A very stupid thin line that prevented me from wearing a bra, so with the added joy of being free, I’ve been praying that my nipples just keep the fun under control.
I tug the hem down again and pull the straw from my drink, toss it on the table, and down the rest of my Long Island Ice Tea.
“Ha! Chug it babe!” Nate yells across the table with a smile. “Wanna see who can drink more?” He challenges.
“Uh, no? Why are you here, anyway?”
“Someone isn’t so sure. I’m here because I know you want to play with Nate Dog?” He wags his eyebrows and I cough out a laugh.
“Did you seriously just call yourself Nate Dog?” I hear Stella yell from the corner.
“Sure I did.” Nate says and puffs out his chest. “Don’t you know how much dogs love to play with cats?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I inquire.
“Cats, babe. You know, pussy. If there’s one thing that a dog can chase, it’s pussy. Wanna play?”
“You’re such a child,” Dani groans and slaps him on the back of his head.
Despite the fact that he has the maturity of a teenager sometimes, he does look hilarious pouting at his sister. He reaches up, pulls his shoulder length hair from his topknot and fixes the man bun that his sister knocked loose. Looking at him, strong bone structure, handsome features and green eyes just as stunning as his sister’s, I have to admit he’s without a doubt one good-looking man.
When he catches me studying him, I get a wink and he thrust his hips, earning him another smack from his sister.
“Leave her alone,” she yells.
“Whatever, sis.” He holds up his hands and looks back at me with a wicked smile. “So, wanna drink meow?”
I laugh and walk around the table and loop my arm through his. “Sure, big boy, let’s go get some drinks. Right, meow,” I jest.
I push my arm through his offered elbow, and start to walk toward the bar. I feel like I have to stand on my toes even with my heels to keep our height even as we walk through the crowded dance floor.
An hour later, I’m pretty sure I’ve lost the ability to stand up straight. Not because I’m drunk, well . . . I might be a little, but watching Nate work the room with what has to be the worst pick-up lines in the world has me laughing so hard that I’ve almost fallen over more times than I can count.
“And then he said to her, ‘You sure are beautiful. Almost as beautiful as my sister, but you know that’s illegal.’ And you should have seen her face. She looked like she swallowed a fly. Didn’t even take a second for her to turn and run.”
Everyone laughs when I finish telling them about one of Nate’s attempts at picking up one of the chicks he walked into after our third trip to the bar. Well, everyone except Dani.
“You are so disgusting. I swear Mom and Dad picked you up on the side of the road.” Dani turns her head and rolls her eyes at me.
“What? Hey, I called you beautiful. Doesn’t that give me brownie points?” Nate holds his hands up and actually looks confused by why we find his failed pick-up lines hilarious.
“Dude, you basically told her that your sister is hotter but you can’t do her because she. Is. Your. Sister.” Zac says, holding his sides as he laughs as hard as I am.
“That wasn’t even the best one!” I yell. “He looked at that one,” I pointed across the room to a tall, stunning blonde before looking at Nate and laughing so hard I almost fall off my stool again. Thankfully two strong hands grab my hips before I can move too far off. I look up at Zac and smile my thanks for him catching me before I fell on my ass. “Then he says to her ‘Taco Bell isn’t the only thing that’s open late and I love tacos’ and she,” I pause to laugh harder when he narrows his eyes at me, “And then, she said ‘baby I’ve been waiting to have someone offer to play with my taco since I had my sex change!’”
After that, there was no way my laughter could have been stopped. Everyone around us starts laughing and Nate just rolls his eyes and takes a pull of his drink.
“Hey, I love this song.”
I jump from my seat and run around the table and into the mass of bodies dancing on the dance floor. I turn and see Dani, Maddi and Stella have joined me as we dance and laugh as each song starts to blur into the next.
We had been dancing for a while now, each of us laughing and having a great time. Nate and Zac seem to be on watchdog duty, because each time someone tries to get too close, they step in. I have a good feeling that they both only showed up for girl’s night to keep an eye on us. Or at least they had been until Mr. Cowboy started to get too grabby.
I had just turned to straighten my body after spinning around in a few circles and wiped my hair out of my face with a smile that died instantly. The stranger that we had been fending off for the last five or so songs gives me a sinister looking smile before pulling me into his arms. I look around, frantic, before I realize my spin dancing must have separated me from the group. I can just see the top of Nate’s head standing a good distance away from me. At six and a half feet, the fact that I can only see the tip top of his head has me swallowing a hard lump of fear. Being this far away, I know he can’t hear me if I call out for him.
I watch Nate’s head disappear as Mr. Cowboy starts to pull me further away.
“Hey! Let go, jerk!”
Pulling me against him, he drops his head and puts his mouth against my ear. The feeling of his breath making my skin crawl instantly. When his mouth opens and he pulls my earlobe into his mouth I start to struggle against him with renewed vigor. My fear turns to panic when his teeth bite down on my ear, causing me to scream out—only to have the sound be swallowed up by the loud beats of the music around us.
“I’ve been waiting for you to come to me,” he slurs and pulls me against his hips. I want to vomit when I feel his erection poke me in the stomach. Memories long since suppressed, start to float to the surface and I start struggling harder. I can feel his frustration as his grip on my arms tightens. My arms burn with the strength of his hold and I just know I’ll have two nasty bruises.
“I could tell you wanted some of Big Daddy,” he moans when I stumble as he pulls me toward the back hall and my stumble does nothing but push me closer to his body. “Yeah, baby. I knew you wanted some of this.”
“Let me go,” I whisper, the panic starting to close in on me. “Please,” I squeak out.
He lifts one hand from my bicep and takes my jaw roughly, his thumb digging into my flesh and he jerks my head up. My eyes water and I let out a whimper.
“You want me. I’ll show you what all that teasing your dancing has been doing gets you.” He grinds his hips one more time and I almost lose the contents of my stomach.
“What the fuck!”
Before I can even process the move, a fist comes out of nowhere and crunches into Mr. Cowboy’s nose. The sickening sound of his bones breaking takes that battle I’ve been fighting against my stomach to a whole new level. Mr. Cowboy goes back but doesn’t remove his hold on my arm so I’m jerked like a rag doll.
“You think about taking my toy and I’m not going to be very happy, pretty boy,” Mr. Cowboy says through the blood pouring from his nose and into his mouth.
My stomach heaves.
“Get your fucking hands off her,” I hear Nate growl and his warm hand gently goes to the arm that isn’t being held. In my mind I picture some sick game of tug of war beginning.
“Fuck you,” he spits and in a move quicker than I can process he lunges forward and clocks Nate right in the left side of his face, jerking my body again so hard that my head snaps back and I feel a sting against my back as the chain on my dress snaps.
He doesn’t even flinch. I can see Nate torn and not wanting to fight while I’m in the middle of them like some convoluted game of monkey in the middle. Well, that is until the jerk that is still holding on to me moves to punch Nate and gets me right in the back of my head.
Luckily for me, he had been drinking enough that the power in his punch was dulled down quite a bit, regardless, my vision swam and between the fear and pain—the battle with my stomach was instantly lost. I lurched forward and spewed every ounce of Long Island Ice Tea I had consumed tonight, along with my dinner, all over that stupid cowboy.
Shock held him still and even though he was covered in my vomit, Zac, coming from behind, grabs a hold of him and started pulling him through the room. I lost sight of them when Nate stepped in front of me and gently tipped my head up. He gives me a quick look, his face stone-cold serious. An expression rarely seen on his carefree face. Seeing this version of Nate jumpstarts the reality of just how serious this situation could have become.
“Come on, Megan, let’s go get you cleaned up before the cops get here.”
“Cops?” I ask, confused.
“Yeah, babe. You’re going to have to give them a few minutes. No way is that douchebag going to get away with trying to force his hand with you.”
“What?”
“Megan, are you okay? Jesus Nate, give her your shirt or something.” Dani rushes around her brother and I feel her messing with my dress. When I look down I almost throw up again. The whole top of my dress is torn and hanging by my hips. “Your back is red. Did he touch your back?”
I shake my head to tell her it was just when the chain snapped but no words come out. I’m too mortified that my dress malfunction had me exposed during my struggle.
“I saw him pull against the top of her dress. When the back ripped I think it snapped against her,” Nate snaps, his tone hard. He’s holding on to his anger by a thread.
“What?” she questions.
They stop talking and I feel fabric being pulled over my head.
“Megan, he was taking you to the exit.”
I blanch at Nate’s words and his eyes widen as I bend forward and lose the rest of my stomach across his shoes.
Between Nate, Zac and Dani, they have me cleaned up and sitting on the couch in the owner’s office. Dani hasn’t let go of my hand since she sat down next to me. Zac has been off and on the phone since we got in here, standing over in the far corner I can’t hear his words, but given that he keeps looking at Dani I think it’s safe to bet there will be a very unhappy husband on his way.
I look around the room and try to take my mind off the officer’s voice as he questions Nate. It’s a nice, clean office, but my skin is still crawling thinking about what could have happened if that man had gotten me out the back door.
I feel dirty.
Not to mention my head is pounding.
“Are you sure she doesn’t need EMS to take a look at her?” The officer asks Nate for the tenth time.
I shake my head and hold even tighter to Dani’s hand. Nate looks over and gives me a small smile.
“She says no and I’m not about to give her more stress than she needs by forcing it. We’ll make sure she’s okay.”
I glance up and smile weakly at Nate. He gives me a small nod before looking back at the officer. They continue to talk for a few minutes and I zone out. It’s been a long time since I felt that helpless rush of fear like I did earlier. The memories that his touch had brought forth are still sticking to my skin. As I think about his hands against my arms, my breathing starts to come rapidly and I feel Dani squeeze my hand.
“It’s okay, Megs. It’s okay.”
I’m not sure who she is reassuring, me or her but I can’t form words to respond.
“Where the fuck is my wife?”
I look up at Dani when I hear Cohen’s voice thick with rage coming from the hallway. She gives me a small smile and waves at Nate to sit down. I watch as she climbs off the couch and walks over to the office door. When she throws it open Cohen comes rushing through and doesn’t stop as his body plows right into Dani. She wraps her arms around him and holds tight as he picks her right off the floor and keeps walking into the room. His head dips into her neck and I can hear him mumbling to her. I tear my eyes away from the intimacy of their connection and turn my head back to the door.
Or I would have looked at the door had there not been a pair of thick thighs covered in dark pants blocking my view. I follow the path of the perfectly pressed material, over the belt—carefully skimming over the gun held at the owner of those thighs and hips—up the trail of buttons on his uniform shirt, until I get to the lightly tan skin on his neck. When I continue my journey I’m met with the dark brown, angry and deeply concerned eyes of Liam Beckett.
He turns his head—his eyes never leaving mine—and says something to Nate. I hear them talk, but I understand not one word out of their mouths. Shock holding me stupid at the sight of Liam. Until the other officer we had been dealing with sticks his ass into their conversation. I lose Liam’s eyes when his head snaps over to where the officer is standing.
“Excuse me?”
“Real lucky we got him, Lee. This guy has got a hell of a lot of people looking for him. Nasty guy. Usually he uses drugs to get his women, but he grabbed her right off the floor. Pretty sure he would have—”
Liam’s growl shuts him up, “I would stop talking now, McKnight. Remember where you are when you start speaking freely.” He looks back down at me, his dark eyes going from every inch of my face before he takes me in sitting there wearing Nate’s huge shirt. “Are you hurt?”
I go to speak, but again no words come out.
“Where the fuck is that bitch? She fucking wanted it. Was all over my dick.” I hear coming from the hallway and look up right in time to see the jerk from earlier push off two cops standing inside the office and lunge forward, toward me.
Liam moves, stepping in front of me. Mr. Cowboy doesn’t make it far, but his words come flying back and that panic from earlier rushes back to the surface.
“Shit, Megan!”
I hear Dani, but my fear is all-consuming and before I can beat it back, my vision starts to blacken and I sway on the couch.