AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Losing some people hurts more than others. Like Kane. The one person who made me feel like I had a family after my mother died. But then he left too. Never to be heard from again.
They all leave. As much as I want to believe Kayleigh won’t, someday she’ll leave me too. When she finds her other half and starts a family of her own.
Everyone leaves, but that doesn’t mean I have to be alone.
With as much determination as I can muster, I pull the black, floor-length, drop-V dress from my closet.
It’s Christmas Eve eve. I refuse to be depressed. It’s time to go out, con a drink or two out of a few desperate men at a bar with a less than reputable bartender who won’t bother carding me and who knows? Maybe weed out the least threatening guy to bring home and play reindeer games. If you know what I mean.
“Come on, dress. We have work to do.”
Chapter two
Alice
Okay. The plunging V-neckdress, showing not only the entirety of the inside swells of my breasts, but a good portion of my stomach as it points to my belly button has definitely earned a permanent place in my Friday night rotation. I haven’t had to pay for a drink all night. Even if I needed to, the bartender’s eyes haven’t drifted above my neckline once to question my age. It’s fucking awesome.
And I needed it. The alcohol to dull my senses and slow my restless, unfocused brain. I wish I could figure out what the fuck is going on, but I haven’t been able to concentrate on even the simplest tasks the last week or more.
So, it’s boys and booze to the rescue.
Until one of those boys, after I refuse him more than once, insists I follow him to the back of the bar.
And just when I think it can’t get any worse, after I extricate myself from that asshole, a giant brute of a man barges through the small entourage of horndogs and drags me out of the bar and into the cold.
“Do you know who I am?” He barks, after planting my back against his car, his big hands braced on either side of me so I can’t escape.
Though he’d stuck to his shadowy corner booth, I’d made him hours ago.
Kane. “My dad’s asshole friend who really needs to learn to mind his own business,” I hiss and shiver against the cold, seeping through the thin satin fabric of my new favorite dress.
Seriously, the balls on this guy.Iknow who he is, but who the hell doeshethink he is? I’m an adult and don’t need him or anyone else butting into my life for whatever reasons they think they should. Especially after he abandoned me when I needed him most. He can’t just come barging back into my life like he doesn’t have shit to answer for.
“Do you have any idea where you would be if I hadn’t?” He’s not backing off. And now, he’s so close, even in the dimly lit parking lot behind the bar, on the edge of the city, I can see the fury in his amber eyes.
I scoff. “Those guys were harmless.”
Not sure I can say the same about Kane. The way the sharp lines of his jaw flex under the generous amount of stubble, it’s clear there’s a violent beast, clawing to get out.
“You aren’t even supposed to be here. You’re too fucking young, Alice.”
I don’t know what it is, but when he uses my name to scold me, heat flushes under my skin, letting me ignore that he dragged me out here without my coat and threw me against the cold, black steel of his classic Camaro.
“They let you in if you’re eighteen. You just can’t drink.” I try using my arms to help make my point, but he’s closed in on me enough now that my hands don’t get far before colliding with the hard expanse of his chest.
“And I suppose the drink you dropped was non-alcoholic and you’re not drunk right now.” He grips my wrists. My traitorous hands, that have—without my permission—firmly planted themselves on that expansive chest of his, don’t move.
“They bought it for me. It would have been rude to refuse. And I’m not drunk.” I’m a terrible liar. Especially, when I’m drunk. My words tell him what I want him to believe, but my body tells another story.
Even though I’m mad as hell and want to get away from him, I can’t stop my hands from pressing into Kane’s muscled chest.
Jesus. Has he always felt like this?
I try not to let my mind drift to the last time I saw him. Ten years ago, when he abandoned me. Left the eight-year-old little girl who thought the absolute world of him, without even saying goodbye.
“So, you were acting likethatsober?” When he scoffs at me, I remember how much I hate him, and attempt to tear out of his hold.
The thin, gold chain strap of my tiny, black leather purse falls to the crook in my elbow showing how much I’m struggling. Yet, Kane shows no sign he’s having to expend any energy to keep a hold of me.
