“Thank you,” I said.
The men were cute. Both clean cut, both dark haired. Both dressed in tailored suits, sans ties. One was sporting the perfect amount of stubble on his face to give him a hint of sexy and mysterious, while the other was clean-shaven.
Neither of them made me think of Austin. Not at all. They didn’t make me think of his face that was soft to the touch, or the fact that just that morning, he’d obviously not had the chance to shave, so he left my mouth deliciously chafed. They didn’t make me think of the jeans that fit him perfectly or the smell of his leather cut when I’d dropped my cheek to his chest. I was well and truly perfectly capable of putting all my thoughts of Austin ‘Booker’ Carver out of my mind.
We took the drinks and tipped them toward the men in thanks and then sipped.
“Wow, that’s a cocktail,” Kim said, and set her drink down.
“Yes, yes, it is.” I felt my purse buzz and opened it to locate my phone. “Well, looky here. Six missed calls from Austin… oh, and…,” I giggled, “… a couple of very irritated texts.”
“Seriously?” Kim sipped her drink again.
“Yep. ‘Where are you?’, ‘What the hell, Dani,’ etcetera, etcetera.” I snorted in derision. “I hope this teaches him a lesson. I am not a woman to be messed with.” My tipsy mind was making me quite self-assured, and I threw the phone back in my purse and focused on my drink again.
The song changed and I gasped. “I love this song! Let’s dance.”
I dragged Kim onto the dance floor where several other people were congregating. I was apparently not the only one who loved this song. What could I say? Pink was always a good dance choice.
I don’t know how long we stayed on the floor. At least three songs, before I was feeling stifled by the body heat and in desperate need of water. We made our way back to the table and our server brought us both water and fresh drinks. Again, compliments of the gentlemen across from us. This time, however, they made their way to our table and slid in beside us.
“Ladies,” the one with the stubble crooned to me. His friend sat next to Kim, leaving us in the middle and each of them on the ends. Ergo, we had no escape. We were pinned in.
“Hi,” I said, nervously.
“I’m Derek,” clean-shaven guy said.
“And I’m Aaron.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said. “I’m Dani and this is Kim. Thank you for the drinks.”
Aaron smiled at me. He had a smooth yet sleazy quality about him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “Our pleasure,” he said. “You girls here for anything special?”
I shook my head. “Girls’ night out.”
Kim was noticeably silent. Totally unlike her, but when I looked her way, she appeared to be warding off Derek, who might as well have had eight arms with how successful she was being.
I looked back at Aaron. “I’m sorry, but we really just came here for some girl time, so thank you for the drinks, but would you mind leaving us alone?”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
“Excuse me?”
“You came here lookin’ to meet, and we’re meetin’, so we’ll buy you a couple more drinks if you need them, but we’re not going anywhere.” He ran his hand up my thigh.
I shoved him away. “You disgusting pervert. You think because you bought us drinks that, might I remind you, neither of us requested, you’re due some form of reward?”
“Bitch, you need to learn better manners.”
“I believe the lady asked you to leave.”
I gasped at the sound of the familiar voice, but when I caught a glimpse of Austin, he wasn’t in his signature jeans and cut, he was in a suit that looked expensive. Like Armani kind of expensive.
Danielle
“Who the hell are you?” Derek demanded.
“We’re the ladies’ dates,” came another voice. Mack revealed himself by walking around Kim’s side of the booth, also dressed in a dark suit, complementing his blond hair and adding a whole new level to his sex-appeal.
“Yeah?” Aaron sneered. “Well, we got here first.”
That was the last thing either of them said, as Austin grabbed Aaron, and Mack grabbed Derek. They yanked them from the booth and shoved them to the back. The whole incident took less than a minute. Kim and I were left with our mouths agape, and my heart raced with a nervous intensity.
“Who the hell were they?” she asked.
“Austin and Mack,” I replied.
“I thought you said they were bikers.”
I groaned. “They are!”
“Holy shit, Dani. You didn’t say they were hot.”
“Um, I believe I did.”
“But you didn’t say they were hawt!”
“Hey, Kim,” I droned. “Austin and his friend are hawt.”
“No kidding.”
Before I could comment further, my arm was squeezed, and Austin was standing beside me again. “Come with me.”
“No.”
“Dani,” he warned.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Come.” He tugged on my arm, pulling me toward him. “With. Me.”
“No,” I pulled out of his hold. “I’m here with Kim and we’re having a good time.”
“Being pawed by a couple of grade A douchebags is a good time?” he challenged.
“We could have handled it,” I said with a little more confidence than I felt at the time.
He leaned forward so his mouth was against my ear. “Get the fuck out of the booth and come with me Dani, or I swear to God, I will remove you.”
I gasped and glanced at Kim who was being schmoozed by Mack… the traitor. He did look frickin’ delicious, but still, she should have been as mad as I was.
Austin held out his hand and I slid from the booth, ignoring him, and stepping toward Kim. “Hi, Mack. You look really nice.”
“Thanks, babe,” he said, sending a smirk over my shoulder, and then focusing back on me again. “So do you.”
Austin’s hand settled on my lower back and I was being guided (pushed) to where he wanted me to go, which was toward the back of the club. He walked me down a dimly-lit hallway and through the fourth door on the right (I know this for sure, because I counted).
The room was surprisingly warm with the same mahogany finishings as the club, but instead of the red leather booths, there was an overstuffed sofa, flat screen television and a desk in the corner. I heard the door click behind me and I turned to face Austin. “Where’s Kim?”
“Mack’s taking her home.”
“What? Why? You have no right to blow up girls’ night, Austin.”
He crossed his arms and frowned. “I told you not to come here tonight, Dani. Told you I’d pick you up and take you anywhere else you wanted to go. What the fuck?”
“It’s a nice place. I don’t know what your problem is. We got in, which is somewhat of a miracle to begin with, so I was looking forward to having a good time.”
“You got in because I let you in.”
“What?” I squeaked.
“The Dogs own it, babe. I run it.”
“What?” I repeated.
He sighed. “I told Tommy and Tiny to watch for you and Kim.”
“What?” I threw my purse on the sofa. “So are you saying you’ve known who I was all along?”
“No, babe. I have two rules. No troublemakers or good girls. Nothing will get a club in hot water faster.”
“How could you possibly-“
“Have you ever gotten in?”
“Well, no,” I conceded.
“You would have been denied access because my team is good. Better than good. And they would have seen you coming from a mile away. No one looked close enough at you for your name to raise any red flags. Harris isn’t an uncommon last name and your father and brother work out of Washington.”
He had a point.
“So, they don’t know I’m a cop’s daughter?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.