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I could handle him.
Block him out.
Do what I came here to do. Protect the piece of my heart that remained. Reclaim it. Set everything that had gone bad right.
Not get all cozy with Hot Cop who could so easily distract me.
Resolved, I grabbed a napkin from the bin and patted my face dry before I flung open the door.
So much for resolutions because they all went toppling out onto the floor in front of his feet when I found Ezra leaned against the opposite wall. A hazy mist surrounded him in the dim-lit hall, those big hands that I liked too much tucked into his jeans’ pockets. One massive boot was kicked over the other.
No man had the right to look so delicious.
Steeling myself, I swallowed the unwanted reaction and lifted my chin. “I think you might be lost. Men’s restrooms are that way.”
I pointed to the opposite end of the hall.
“Not in need of the restroom.”
“Well, I guess whatever you are in need of or whatever you want isn’t any of my concern, is it?”
Damn it. It came out far too snippy. Like I was upset that he’d been okay with someone cutting in.
Which was just plain ridiculous.
“I need to get out of here,” I mumbled, and I turned on my heel and started for the break in the hall that led out into the main part of the bar. Ezra had me by the elbow before I’d made it halfway there. He spun me around to face him. Something I didn’t want to decipher curled through his expression.
“You’re mad.” He issued it almost like a question.
I rolled my eyes. “And what in the world would I be mad about?”
Uncertainty flashed through his features, his warm brown eyes almost black in the shadows that played. “That I let Dirk cut in.”
Air huffed from my nose. “It was a dance, Officer Patterson. My feet were starting to hurt since you thought it fit to keep spinning me around like I’m a rag doll, so I was done. And now I’m going home.”
I needed to get away from him. Clear him from my head and the feel of his hands from my body.
I went to walk again, and in a split second, he had me pinned to the wall.
What the hell?
“Those overbearing tendencies are spinning out of control.” How I managed to get the words out around the lump in my throat, I didn’t know. Not with the sudden throbbing in my core.
“And I already told you that as long as you’re in my town, you are my concern. And it’s Ezra to you, not Officer Patterson.” The man freaking growled it, and not in his teddy bear sort of way.
“Right, because we’re friends.” It was a sarcastic scrape from my lungs. I might not know a whole lot about having friends, but I was pretty sure whatever was roiling between us out on that dance floor had been the farthest thing from that.
His expression was doing that uncertain thing again. Those eyes creasing in on the sides like he might not agree.
“Yeah. Because we’re friends.” He seemed reticent to say it.
I trembled with the exertion it took to keep the barricades erected between us.
“Then you’re standing awful close to me for it to be considered friendly, Ezra.” I drew his name out like it was some kind of evidence.
It was apparent we both were just telling ourselves lies.
Like either of us could be immune to this energy. The attraction that burned through the space, singeing all the spots I couldn’t let it.
He eased back, slower than he should, and he roughed one of those hands through his hair. “I’m sorry.”
I didn’t dare ask him exactly what he was sorry for, worried that apology might go too far and too deep. Both of us were treading waters that could so easily consume us.
I ran my hands down the front of my dress like it could brush off the residual of the man. His heat and his scent and the decadent memory of his hands.
“It’s fine,” I told him. I glanced to the opening in the hall. “I just…” I looked down, touching my forehead like it might offer some clarity before I returned my attention to him. “I’m just going to go. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
I wove out from the small opening he’d been gracious enough to leave between us and beelined back into the mayhem of the bar that had grown rowdy and decadent at the late hour.
I needed to get out of here.
Get some fresh air.
Get back home so I could faceplant into my bed and pretend like this night had never happened.
It was a mistake coming here, even though my spirit squeezed at the thought, my heart rejecting my mind’s statement, remembering how good it had felt to be with Beth and Dakota and the whole crew.
