Page 11 of Protecting Salvation

Val squished her cheeks together between her hands. “Yeah, we love you too.”

Lotus batted her away. “Get off me, you maniac.”

A song came on that she loved and she’d loosened up after a few of her favourite cocktails. Her shoulder began to bounce, her head bopping on her head.

“Peyton, let’s dance and leave these old married ladies to talk about knitting and which cabbage leaf is best for cracked nipples.”

Peyton stood and Aoife smiled as she moved past her and took the hand Lotus was holding out for her. She felt eyes on her as she walked past the bar area. The man who’d tried to buy them drinks winked like he was God’s gift to women and she should know it. He had a predatory look in his eyes like he’d spied a weak calf separate from the herd.

It made her laugh because Lotus could probably take down half the men in this room without spilling her drink.

“Bozos,” Lotus muttered before they pulled into the throng of people dancing and the men were forgotten. Peyton let her body move, her hips swaying as Lotus grinned and the music seemed to ease something in the other woman. She was aware they’d lost Rykov because of her close bond with Aoife. She’d seen him and Lotus interact and knew how close they were. This had hit the young woman hard, but not in the way the others probably thought it had. She’d been doing this job long enough to know the different types of broken hearts and nothing about this screamed lost lover, more like a lost brother.

Lost in the music, she didn’t feel the man come up behind her until he grabbed her hips. She turned and the smarmy asshole from the bar grinned at her. In another world, he might have been cute, but he seemed to have the personality of a shark and the hide of a rhino.

Stepping away she tried not to make a scene but the doofus just gripped her tighter. Lotus was lost in her own world and, honestly, she could deal with this. She just didn’t like being manhandled as it gave her flashbacks. “Get your hands off me before I give you a rectal exam with a corkscrew.”

His fingers pinched into her hips but he smiled down at her as if she hadn’t said a word. “Come on, sugar, don’t be like that. You know you want Daddy to make you feel good.”

Daddy!Oh dear God, was this asshole for real? “Not if you were the last man on earth. Now get your fucking hands off me.” She hadn’t wanted to make a scene but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t.

“You heard her, buddy, take a hike.”