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“Oh, what is this shit now? You go back to your goddamn immigrant friends, fuckface, before you get hurt.” Billy was going from ruddy to red and starting to sweat visibly. His free hand clenched into a fist, and he turned on the slimmer man threateningly. “This bitch is mine.”
The stranger just smiled calmly, opening his stance just a touch. He had locked gazes with Billy. “Don’t make me repeat myself,mudak, or you will quickly regret it.”
Billy swallowed, his cheap beer courage wavering a little as he got confused again. “The fuck are you gonna do?”
The man sniffed, then glanced behind him once. A chorus of chairs squeaked against the slate floor, and every one of the suited men got up as one, and started walking over. The stranger’s mild smile never wavered. “The real question is…do youreallywant to find out?”
Billy looked from him to me, to the men closing in on us with implacable expressions, and then to the barman, who only shrugged and gave him a look as if he deserved this.
I felt a tiny, animal shudder of instinctive fear go through him as he turned back to the green-eyed man, but beer and ego won out. His face twisted obstinately. “I’m not gonna—”
It was right then, while he was distracted, that I grabbed my still piping mug of coffee and poured the contents over his arm. “I said get the hell off me!”
He yelled in pain and shock and his hand opened. I jerked free, scrambling back out of grabbing range. Immediately, Green Eyes and one of his friends were standing between me and Billy like a bulwark.
The big man half-doubled over his scalded arm, obstinacy turning to rage as his face purpled. “Bitch! I’m gonna—”
“You will do nothing but excuse yourself and leave.”
Billy looked up and saw the green-eyed man leaning down to look him in the eyes, his fine, pale face inches from Billy’s sweaty, coarse one, still smiling. He opened his suit coat slightly, showing Billy something hidden inside, under his arm. Billy’s purple face paled to a sickly pinkish in an instant.
What the hell was under there? A gun? Several guns? A bazooka? Well, whatever it was, it did the trick.
“Get out of here,” Green Eyes instructed.
Billy nodded and straightened, his entire demeanor instantly changed. He gave me one last nasty look before turning and walking quickly toward the door, still cradling his scalded arm. His shoulders were up, his back stiff, and he never looked back. The big men at Green Eyes’ table watched him go, and waited half a minute before heading back to their seats.
The bartender sighed in exasperation, as if this kind of drama was commonplace here. He grabbed a bar rag and went to wipe up the spatters of spilled coffee as we moved to give him room. “Sorry about that. I’d ban the guy, but he’s one of my few regulars. Don’t know I’d make the rent every month if it wasn’t for his drinking issues.”
“Mmhmm,” I said, wondering how many women his buddy Billy had driven out of here with his behavior. Probably more customers than he’d made up for in beer purchases. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t have wanted to face down Billy myself, not without backup. And aside from the desk clerk, Mike didn’t have any.
“It seems that you need a better class of regular,” Green Eyes said smoothly. “Fortunately for you, my brothers and I have our hunting lodge just up the road now.”
“That big place? Jesus, that’s sat open for ten years. You renovating it?”
“We broke ground just before we got here.” He considered my empty mug sitting on the bar top. “It appears that the young lady requires a refill.”
Green Eyes turned his gaze to me as Mike the Bartender went to pour me my second cup of coffee. “Are you all right?”
I slid up my sleeve and checked my reddened forearm. I might have bruises in the morning, but it didn’t hurt much. “Nothing worse than an annoyance,” I confirmed. “Thanks for stepping in.”
“It was necessary.” A bit more warmth trickled into his smile. “I wouldn’t think much of a man who sat by and did nothing in such circumstances. And such boorishness offends me.”
Anna had warned me when I’d started dating, “Beware of white knights.”Those were men who did the right thing in situations like this, but afterward acted like it entitled them to a chance with you. Normally, I would have taken everything about this guy with a grain of salt, and been adamant that he wasn’t going to successfully coax me into bed.
But the problem was, I was already hooked. I had been before he had even stood up for me. That had only intensified things.
I wasn’t normally a shallow person, but between his cool composure, the eyes, that sexy voice, and how he filled out that suit, Green Eyes already fascinated me…including sexually. In fact, my body was reacting to him in ways I hadn’t felt in years.
Maybe it was my long dry spell—five years of orgasm-free relationships followed by two of avoiding dating altogether. But whatever it was, I couldn’t ignore it. I put my smile back on.
“Yeah, it offends me too. I feel like I should start carrying bear mace when things like that happen.” I accepted my fresh mug with a nod and turned back to Green Eyes. “So, what’s your name? I’m Olivia.”
“Viktor,” he said, and gestured behind him at his table. “Please. Join me and my brothers. I would love to talk with you further.”
I hesitated. There was something dangerous about this man, but also something hot and chivalrous. He had been so damn confident when he had faced down Billy, brothers or no brothers. What was he capable of?
But I couldn’t walk away. So I found myself nodding and turning to join Viktor at a seat on one end of the long table.
