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Oh my.
A muscle jumps in Antonio’s cheek, and his hands ball into fists that probably aren’t even half the size of Big Guy’s fists. He cuts his eyes to me, something ugly and hateful bubbling behind the sharp brown.
“You think this gangster can save you from me?” He shakes his head. “Wrong. You’ll crawl, and when you do, I’ll make you beg for forgiveness on bruised knees.”
He doesn’t wait for my reply before he turns and walks away. Big Guy at my back shifts forward, like he’s going to act on his veiled threats here and now, but I spin around to place a hand on his chest.
It’s almost laughable; the sight of my slim, tiny hand on the wall of his muscled chest. There isn’t a world in which I possess the physical strength to stop this man from doing whatever it is he wants to do, and yet at that simple act, he freezes dead in his tracks. Ice blue eyes snap from Antonio’s retreating back to me, and a little of the ice in his eye’s thaws.
“Thanks for that.” I’m the first to speak, and when I do, his eyes drop to my mouth. They linger there for so long, I feel something warm and totally unexpected ballooning inside my belly. Inside my core.
“Anytime.”
“I’m—uh—I’m gonna go now that it’s safe to go.”
“Are you here with someone?” he asks. I shake my head. “You drive yourself?” When I nod, he adds, “I’ll walk you to your car.”
I don’t argue as I lead him from the club to my car in the parking lot. It’s not a total dump, but it’s nothing crazy, which kinda sucks because if I don’t find a roommate fast, I’ll either be forced to move back home with Mom and Dad or make my trusty girl my main residence. Neither of which is something I want to do.
With my hand on the handle, I turn to him. I suck a big gulp of night air into my lungs and breath out. “Thanks again for tonight.”
He nods, assessing eyes never leaving me even when I pull open my door and slide inside. I’m stopped from closing the door when he drops a big paw covered in ink on the top, holding it open and leaning in. “Your ex—” He starts and rolls his lips before he continues. “He ever knock you around?”
I think of the bruises Antonio left on my arm the last time I’d seen him and tried to walk away. He’d held me back, but he’d never actually hit me. Never really put his hands on me like that, intending harm.
I shake my head. “No, he hasn’t.”
Frosty eyes narrow as he rises to his full height, no longer holding my door open. “You be careful, now, Sunshine. Yeah?”
I dip my chin. For some odd reason, I’m blushing.
No one’s ever called me Sunshine. I think I like it.
“I will, Big Guy. Thanks again.”
With that, he closes the door gently and standsback with those large, inked arms folded over that large spread of chest that is covered by a tight black t-shirt. I try not to note how strong his jaw is cut, or the scruff of shadow growing there, or the tat that climbs out from the neck of his t-shirt to crawl over a thickly corded throat. I try not to note the way his sharp eyes seem to take it all in, with the potential to cut and burn like the Siberian ice fields— just as frosty blue.
But the guy is hard to ignore, because I note it all and store all that is him into the vault of my mind. I have every faith I’ll meet Big Guy in my dreams in both the near and far future. He’s just one of those people a girl doesn’t easily forget. If I weren’t fresh out of a relationship—an engagement—I might have asked him for his name. His number.
As it is, I’m a little bummed he didn’t ask for mine.
I don’t blame him, can’t blame him, really. My life is clearly a mess. I’d connected with him like a bomb of chaos falling into his arms, a damsel in distress he’d had to man-up to save. Way too complicated.
And, really, it’s better this way. Like I said, I just severed my engagement to one of L.A.’s most sought-after bachelors. I’m not mentally, emotionally or even, hell,physicallyready to dive head-first into another relationship. Especially since I haven’t totally shaken off the last one.
Antonio, I was finding, was like stepping out into brisk morning air, a peach sunrise kissing the horizon,a feeling of accomplishment and wonder and hope ballooning for the day ahead—only to step in dog poop. Antonio, like the scent of shit, clings.
But I remember how I’d felt when I first met him. How he’d swept me off my feet. He’d been such a charmer, and I was such a fool.
I tear my eyes from the rear-view where Big Guy stands, and exit the parking lot. Then I give Big Guy a firm shove from my mind.
Live and learn, Nevaeh. Live and learn.
two
Nevaeh
The whoosh of another sent email interrupts the reader of my audiobook right as it’s getting to the good stuff. By good stuff, I mean they’ve finally found the killer. The sleuthy bakery owner turned detective (unlicensed), and the very annoyed, very manly, (real) detective are about to crack the case. Then, I’m confident they’ll fall into bed together, because the flirty heat has been—real. Listening to audio as I work keeps my mind sharp as a tac, I like to tell myself.
