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“What’s wrong?” She had the ice pressed against her face, hiding the worst of the damage.
“Nothing’s wrong, beautiful. Just need to hold you.” The maneuvering ended up being awkward as hell since he was trying hard not to jostle her, but he managed to wedge himself behind her on the couch. Once in position, he encouraged her to lie back and use his bicep as a pillow.
As she snuggled into him, Holly let out a sigh. “This feels so nice.”
The surprise and appreciation in her voice had LJ feeling like shit. Of course, it felt nice to be held by her man or fuck buddy or whatever the hell he was. Despite weeks of fucking, eating together, hanging out alone and with his friends, this was the first time he’d held her in his arms like this. The risk of falling asleep was too great and weighed too heavily on his mind. Meanwhile, Holly probably assumed he just wasn’t into her enough to just lie around cuddling her.
He was a grade-A prick.
“Yeah, baby, it is nice.”
“I’m guessing you want to know what happened.”
“You up for telling me, now?” Please let her be up for it because his mind would swirl with horrifying possibilities if he didn’t get the real story.
“Yeah,” she said.
“What’d you mean by mostly an accident?”
Eyes closed, Holly held the ice to her face. LJ stroked her hair over and over.
“He was drunk when I got there. Super drunk. Right from the moment I walked in his house, he was a complete jerk. Spouting off all kinds of shit about you and the club, and you and me.”
“What kinda shit?”
Holly shook her head. He’d give her tonight, but tomorrow he wanted a word for word repeat of the conversation.
“It’s all right. What happened next?”
“He started going off about not understanding why I’m with you, which somehow morphed into him being able to take you in a fight. He was stumbling around, swaying but decided to demonstrate his amazing boxing abilities. He started throwing all these wild punches in the air, but he was crazy close to me. I tried to dodge them all, but he got me once. Oh, my God, LJ, it hurt so bad. I had no idea one punch could hurt like that.”
One punch to a woman from a man twice her size. Yeah, that would fucking hurt and fuck up a face, as it did.
“See,” she said, voice growing thick. “Mostly an accident.”
A grunt was the only response he could form. Mostly an accident made sense to his logical brain, but he didn’t tend to think with that side of his brain when it came to Holly. Mostly an accident translated to a little bit not an accident which was un-fucking-acceptable. Even if he hadn’t hit her, the fucker shouldn’t have spouted off his fat mouth and shouldn’t have been drunk off his ass when he was about to take out a woman. Especially LJ’s woman.
Asshole had a bill to pay, and LJ couldn’t wait to collect.
“I’m not sure why I’m so sleepy. It’s not late at all.”
“Adrenaline dump.” Decision made, he said, “Sleep, sugar. I’ve got you and I’m not going anywhere.” And he wasn’t. It’d been a solid seven days since LJ had been plagued by any nightmares, so he was probably safe to doze for a few. Besides, chances were high he wouldn’t sleep a wink, just stare at Holly and plot Schwartz’s death.
THE LAST THING Holly remembered before falling asleep was the incredible sensation of being wrapped in LJ’s strength. Warm, safe, comforted. Free to let her mind release the events of the night long enough to fall asleep. Him cuddling her had been just what she needed after learning just how vulnerable she was last night.
Waking, however, wasn’t nearly as pleasant. It happened in an instant. No warning, no time to prepare. Holly was ripped from the cozy cocoon of sleep by an intense weight on her chest and a crushing pressure against her windpipe.
Her eyes flew open to find a stone-faced LJ flattening her with the full weight of his six-and-a-half-foot frame. One bulging forearm lay across her neck, compressing her airway with such great force, she couldn’t draw in a breath.
“LJ,” she mouthed. The only sound she expelled was a feeble squeak since there was no air behind the words.
Busted face forgotten, Holly immediately surged into survival mode. She thrashed, clawed at LJ’s back, and tried to shove him off with her legs. Nothing worked, and every action only served to drain her reserves and increase the need for air. He had to be covered in bloody scratches as she could feel his skin gathering beneath her fingernails.
Panic began to take over, but Holly fought the terror for all she was worth. Above her, LJ’s eyes darted in every direction, but he seemed completely unaware of his surroundings, or the fact she was grappling under him. With each passing second, she grew closer to passing out until darkness rimmed the edges of her vision.
