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“Uh, okay. You can let go of me now. I’m not going to let some crazy man scare me so bad that I can’t walk outside alone.”
“I only touched you because I wanted you to hear what I had to say, and you were walking away from me,” he said but still didn’t let me go. Somehow, when he held me, I felt forced but not forced to be there with him, at once. I couldn’t explain it.
“Now that you have my attention, can you let me go?” I asked.
“I can, but what if I don’t want to let you go, Alise? What then?”
I gasped as his dark brown gaze roved over my lips that, by now, I was sure were pouting lusciously. I had to get away from him before I started panting.
“Well—”
I took a step away, and he pulled me back close to him. The heat from his glare went in through mine and got all inside of me. My breathing went ragged in a span of seconds, and Lord, have mercy. My body started reacting to him with the clenching and unclenching of my vagina. It pulsated pleasurably. My nipples hardened and fought to break free from the black cotton dress I was wearing. I licked my lips that had suddenly become dry.
“What are you doing, Bruiser?” I had to know what exactly it was that he was doing. Knowing that would guide what it was that I was doing.
“Trying to protect your stubborn ass. Stop running away from me when you should know by now that I’d be the first to put hot lead in a man over you. I should be the last person you run away from. Now, come on, and let me walk you to your car. I need to check it out before you get in,” he started walking with me in tow. Walking away as if he didn’t just pour passionate hot sex into my eyes from his and pretend that he didn’t.
Without even trying, Bruiser had taken control of me. His grip of my arm now felt a whole world different than the crazed man earlier. This, my body welcomed.
“No, I don’t need you to do that. I can protect myself!” My body may have responded favorably to him, but the protection mechanisms in my mind went off loudly, and I resisted the way he made me feel. “I’ve been alive for thirty years. I don’t need you standing over me like I’m a child!”
“You don’t know what you need, Alise. If you keep behaving the way you do, something bad will happen to you. You need to stop acting like you’re a man because you’re not!” he growled. His tone shook me a little, but I would never let him know that.
“Bruise, man, what’s going on now?” Jeb asked as he and Tameka walked in our direction. I had never been so glad to see my friend and her husband.
I spoke up, explaining, “First of all, this man thinks he’s my daddy or something. I left my phone case at the table we were sitting at. I went to get it and came outside, and he started hollering at me like a mad man.”
“That’s because you shouldn’t be out here in the dark by yourself. Anything could happen to you, and all of your snappy attitude, kicking and screaming wouldn’t be enough to save you,” Bruiser said, grabbing the sides of my face, forcing me to look up into his eyes, as he argued his point.
Oh. My. My. My. Why did he touch me like that?
“He does have a point, Alise, especially after that guy tried to attack you tonight,” said Tameka. I wanted to reply to Tameka, but Bruiser’s hands on my face had silenced me.
“Huh?” was all I could say.
Bruiser let my face go, and I missed his touch already. I would have been just fine standing there, doing whatever it was we were doing when he was holding the sides of my face. He turned to Tameka and nodded, glad to have an ally in his apparent quest to tell me what I could and couldn’t do with my life.
“I don’t need saving by anyone, Tameka,” I said, including both Bruiser and Tameka in my ire.
“Sis, he does have a point,” Tameka reiterated. “It’s better to be on the safe side.”
“Not you too, Tameka,” I said.
“Thank you,” Bruiser said to Tameka then turned back to me. “I watched you and your friend to the car earlier and thought you were gone. Then, you show back up alone without anyone to look out for you. What if the guy had been lurking around and watched you leave out and come back in? You have to be more careful than that.”
“I’ll be fine! Just leave me alone,” I said, not understanding why I said it when another part of me just wanted him to touch my face again.
Tameka nudged me and mouthed, “Security.” She wanted me to hire Bruiser’s security company. “Do you have a card you could give Alise so that she can hire you when she does gigs at other clubs?” Tameka spoke up in my stead.
I glared at her.
I don’t need his card. I won’t use it.
“No—”
“Here,” Bruiser cut me off before I could decline, handing his card to me. “It would be best if you hire a guard, and I have some qualified men that work with me.”
I snatched the card from him while complaining, “If I hire you, I may not be allowed to leave my house.”
