AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A sense of determination flowed through me as I left my mom's house. It lasted all the way until that evening when I decided to go to the bar where I knew I'd find Grace.
20
Grace
It turned out Jax had been right. Despite my earlier statement that the evening out wouldn't turn into a slobberfest of couples, it had. Derek and Maggie started off keeping a well-rounded conversation going, but as the evening wore on, they were spending more and more time making moon eyes at each other and constantly stealing kisses. I think they forgot they weren't on their honeymoon anymore.
Paul and his girlfriend, Alison, weren't much better. She'd been shy around us at first, but the more the drinks flowed, the more comfortable she seemed to get. Comfortable enough to be pressed up to Paul's side nibbling his ear and neck. I didn't want to think about where her hand was when I saw it slide under the table.
Jade couldn't have cared less about the couples. She wasn't shy about hitting the dance floor and finding a guy for the rest o
f the night. She currently had some guy pressed all up against her back with his palm flat on her stomach while her arm reached back and up into his hair.
To be fair, she'd tried to get me to dance with her instead, but I wasn't feeling it tonight. When I'd arrived, I'd been determined to carry through with my self-promise that I was going to find someone and have fun. It wasn't for lack of opportunity. I'd been approached over and over throughout the evening. I even gave it the old college try and danced with a few. But I couldn't stop comparing them to Jax. None of them held me the same or smelled the right combination of woodsy citrus and raw man. None of them made me laugh with a sarcastic comment. And while a few of them had been polite and offered nice compliments, none of them revved my senses the way a certain grumpy, non-committal pain in the ass I knew did.
Instead, I spent three drinks worth of time trying to convince myself to let the idea of Jax go. It was harder than it should be. It wasn't just about having been kissed by the master of kissing. It was remembering him with Caleb's fingers around his learning ASL or the time he spent listening to Micah and coaching him to a better young man. It was recalling how exhilarating it had been to challenge him and how exciting it had felt when he'd sought me out of all the women who would have willingly thrown themselves at him.
He seemed so confident in most things Yet, when push came to shove, he'd retreated. He said I confused him, but I think somehow, I scared him. I'd been around my dad enough to hear how people reacted to events in strange ways, even self-destructive ones. Had something bad happened to Jax? Or did he genuinely not want me? Was it the chase? Loads of self-doubt made the perfect mixer to the alcohol that played with my brain. Along with that, the loud dance music and crowds were getting on my nerves. I decided I'd had enough for one day.
I tapped Maggie on the shoulder to let her know I was leaving.
"Oh, don't go," she said clasping my hand. "Stay, and I promise I'll ignore Derek the rest of the night."
"Don't make promises you can't keep," I said, laughing. "You stay and enjoy your new husband. I'm tired. I think I'll go home and take a warm soak before heading to bed early."
Maggie pouted. "Okay, but let's get together again soon. Maybe dinner at my”—she grinned and glanced sideways at Derek—"I mean our place."
I nodded and headed to the dance floor to let Jade know I was leaving. Some guy was grinding against her, while she had her arms loosely twined backward around his neck. Another guy in front of her gripped her hips.
I mentally rolled my eyes and wondered if there would ever come a day that Jade would settle down. As soon as she saw me, she patted them both on the cheek and mouthed something that looked like, “I'll be back.”
She looped her arms around my neck and kept swaying, forcing me to keep the rhythm with her. "What's up chickie?" she yelled over the music.
"I'm going home. I'll call for Uber."
"You're no fun," she answered with a pout. "Does this have anything to do with some moody but hot millionaire not showing up?"
"No, of course not!"
She rolled her eyes. "Riiight. Keep telling yourself that."
One of the guys she'd been dancing with returned behind her and rested his hands on her waist, making thrusting motions with his hips as the music picked up in intensity. The movement jostled her into me. I might have fallen, other than the large body pressing into my back. Large hands dug into my hips and tried to force them into a rhythm that matched the same as his pelvis that was now tight against my backside.
What the hell? I grasped the hands and tried to remove them to no avail.
"Relax, baby. Just go with it," a deep voice murmured in my ear before he shimmied down my back. As he rose, one of his hands slid up my leg and under the hem of my skirt.
“Hey! Let me go!” I shrieked. I looked at Jade, my panic increasing as I felt his beefy hand squeeze my butt cheek.
I tried to turn to push him away, but the men had effectively caged Jade and me tightly between them while they continued grinding against our backs. I watched in horror as the guy behind Jade grabbed her breast in one hand and mine with the other. He squeezed her boob, then slid that hand between us, scrunching his fingers so the hem of Jade’s skirt and rose and he could slide his hand under it. The gyrating hips behind me simultaneously pushed my pelvis into that same roving hand. Jade’s eyes grew wide and she seemed more terrified than the anger I expected from her.
Either no one noticed, or no one cared enough, to interrupt what might look like an erotic foursome from the outside. It all happened so fast. I was gathering a breath to scream while I cast panicked eyes around the room and was relieved to see Derek and Paul jump up from their seats and head toward us.
But before he could reach us, I felt a sudden pocket of air behind me. I couldn't recover from the momentum of my struggles fast enough, and I landed on my back on the hard floor, knocking the breath from me. For a second, I thought I must have cracked my head because I looked up to see Jax standing over me like a glorious avenging angel.
A burly man stood beside me rubbing his jaw. "What the fuck, man?" he said.
"Keep your fucking hands off her." Jax's voice sounded more like the warning growl of a large animal.
