Page 266 of Romeo

For one second, there was nothing except pain across my shoulder blades and the shock of cold brick through my coat. Then his body crowded mine, and the panic that had been hovering somewhere outside me rushed in all at once.

I pushed at him and he caught my wrist. His face was so close I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

“No.”

I turned away when he tried to force his mouth against mine, the rough scrape of his cheek against mine making my stomach roll. One of his hands grabbed at my coat, and something inside me tore loose.

“No!”

I fought without thinking, bringing my knee up. My heel scraped uselessly across the pavement. I clawed at his hand, his face, anything I could reach. For half a second, I got my wrist free and swung at him, but he caught it again and shoved it back against the wall hard enough to send pain ricocheting through my fingers.

“Stop fucking fighting me.”

The words barely registered.

Nothing existed beyond getting away.

I could hear myself breathing, too fast and too loud, could feel the brick grinding against my shoulder as I twisted. His hand dragged at my clothes, and fear became something almost physical inside my chest, crushing everything else beneath it.

Then an engine cut through the silence.

At first, the sound seemed too far away to matter. My own pulse drowned most of it out, until headlights swept across the wall and spilled over us.

The man holding me looked toward the entrance of the lot.

The expression that crossed his face terrified me.

Then I saw the motorcycle.

Jasper.

For one suspended second, everything inside me stopped.

How was he here?

He was supposed to be in Nebraska. I had talked to him two nights ago and told him I wished he were closer, and now he was coming toward me so fast my mind couldn’t catch up with what my eyes were seeing.

The motorcycle fell to the ground as Jasper jumped off before the engine stopped.

I had never seen Jasper look like that.

No smile. No teasing glint in his eyes. Nothing of the man who could turn almost anything into a joke because he liked hearing me laugh. His face had gone frighteningly still, his attention fixed on the hand holding my wrist and the body pressed against mine.

The man loosened his grip when he turned toward him.

He never got the chance to do more.

One moment, I was pinned against the wall, and the next, the pressure vanished so suddenly my knees nearly buckled. Cold air rushed over me as Jasper ripped my attacker backward by his jacket.

I sucked in a breath that hurt.

Jasper drove him into the building hard enough that the impact traveled through the brick beneath my palm.

“The fuck did I tell you?”

His voice frightened me almost as much as his expression.

He wasn’t shouting.