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Plus how much of a fool can I really look if I have the most beautiful woman in the world dancing against me like we’re trying out for the nextDirty Dancingmovie?
There are a lot of people out here with us, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s only Nora. Nora’s eyes as they glitter against the darkness. Nora’s smile as it beams its own light through the room. Nora’s body as I curl her into me.
After who knows how long on the dance floor, we go back to the bar for a water and another drink. I leave her there sipping her water for no more than five minutes while I go to the bathroom, and apparently that was too long. When I return, I see an American guy with a death wish aggressively grabbing Nora’s bicep as she turns away from him.
“Don’t be such a prudish bitch! I was talking to you,” he yells above the music, but that’s all he gets to say before I grab him by the shoulder and whip his body around, throwing him back against the bar. He’s clearly a tourist because he speaks English and has that glazed-over, partied-too-much look in his eyes. Screams erupt around us and just as I’m about to throw my fist into his face repeatedly until each and every one of his damned teeth are on the floor, Nora wraps her hand around my raised arm.
“Derek! Don’t!” She says it as a command, and only because it’s her do I drag my eyes away from the dude. I’m shaking with rage and she’s breathing heavy, looking nervous by whatever she sees in my eyes. “Don’t hit him. He’s not worth the assault charges. Please. I’m okay—Ipromise.”
I clench my teeth against the anger and adrenaline surging through me. “That’s where I disagree. It would absolutely be worth itto make him pay for touching you.” And I mean it. I’d go to jail for her if it meant keeping her safe from assholes like this guy.
She squeezes my arm. “I believe you. But I just got you back and I don’t feel like losing you to prison bars.”
Nora drops my arm, but her words wrap around me and squeeze.
I drag in a long breath through my nose and swing my gaze back to the wide-eyed dickhead pinned under my fist. I crowd him even further, getting so close to his face that he’s doing a backbend on the bar. I want him to be able to see the fillings in my teeth.
“Do you see that woman behind me that you just touched without her consent and then called a nasty name?” I ask him in an intentionally low voice that I hope haunts his nightmares.
He swallows and barely manages to get his single-word answer out. “Yes.”
“She’s my wife. And if it were up to me, I’d have you bleeding all over this bar right now for laying a single finger on her that she didn’t invite. When I let go of you, you’re going to apologize to her. And then you’re going to leave this bar, and if you ever treat another woman like that again, I will know, and I will hunt you down…and for legal purposes, I’m not going to tell you what I’ll do to you. But I’m sure your imagination can fill in the blanks.”
I release him with a shove and step back.
It takes him a few seconds to peel himself from the bar and stand upright again. He looks around at the gathering crowd and shrugs his shirt back into place—rolling his shoulders.
I cross my arms and wait expectantly for him to address Nora.
“Umm…I’m sorry for—”
“No.” I cut him off. “Don’t look her in the face. You don’t deserve to look at her. Look at your ugly-ass shoes while you apologize to her.”
His gaze drops immediately and he is now physically shakingwhile he grounds out his halfhearted apology. And then like a chickenshit, he runs out of the bar.
I take one full deep breath and ignore the gawking crowd—ignore the phones pointed in my direction and look at Nora. Her eyes are misty, and when I open my arms, she steps into them, letting me hold her tightly against me. I want to be her human bubble wrap.
“Are you okay?” I murmur into her hair.
“Yes. I’d drifted away from the bar to watch everyone dance and then he appeared out of nowhere and wouldn’t leave me alone. I told him I didn’t want to dance but he kept getting in my face and insisting. So I turned away, and that’s when you showed up.” She pauses and I can’t say anything yet because fury is dripping into my veins. “It scared me. I realized very quickly that I need to sign up for self-defense classes when we get home. My wit is sharp as a knife and I could have killed him with a well-timed knock-knock joke, but I think maybe I need to learn to throw someone into the bar like you just did too. Wouldn’t hurt to have options.”
“I can’t joke around with you yet.” I take her hand and put it over my heart so she can feel just how forcefully it’s pounding against my chest.
She kisses me there, right over my beating heart. I don’t even care if an entire club is watching us, I take her face in my hands as gently as I possibly can and look in her eyes. “What he called you…”
“It’s okay, Derek. He was just a miserable person and—”
“No, it’s not okay. Not at all, because you, Nora, are beautiful, rare magic and nothing less.” A tear streaks down her face and I kiss it from her skin. “Let’s go.”
The elevator is so silent I’m worried Derek can hear my thumping heart—but it has nothing to do with what took place at that bar.
“Are you really okay?” he asks for the hundredth time since leaving the club a few hours ago. I was shaken up at first, but then we came back to the resort and Derek worry-ordered me five different appetizers and three desserts and we spent two solid hours just talking and laughing in the nice barroom. Now my anxiety about it has completely faded and been replaced with a warm-sparkly comfort.
“I really am. I promise times a million.”
“I just…” He shakes his head. “I hope you know. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Nora.”
“I know,” I say, softly. “And I hope you know I’d definitely fight off a guy in a bar for you too.”
