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“You’re not my dad. You have no right to tell me what to do.” I squirm, still trying to free myself, but like a pair of handcuffs, the more I struggle the harder he clamps down.
In seconds, his body is flush with mine and the beast I’d glimpsed beneath his strained facade makes itself known, long and hard, against my stomach.
“I have a moral obligation to your father not to stand by and let you get hurt.”
As razor focused as he is on making me understand he’s in the right here, I’m not sure he’s aware of what’s going on below his belt.
I can’t help myself. “Are you also morally obligated to stare at me all night like some kind of crazed lunatic? Or hump my stomach like a horny teenager?” The second I arch into him, bringing his attention to the bad boy between us, I know I’ve gone too far.
Growling, Kane backs away but he doesn’t let go of my wrist. Instead, he uses it to put me in the passenger seat of his car.
Why I don’t escape as he rounds the front of the car, I don’t know. Maybe I’m drunker than I thought and my reflexes are shot. Or maybe… Maybe it’s because I know him. I know he won’t hurt me like those other guys might have. All I know is that I’m too drunk to take myself home and too drunk to drive, I don’t have another way to get there.
Whatever the reason is that I stay, it doesn’t justify his actions. I’m eighteen and if I want to spend my night making poor decisions that can get me killed, well, that’s my prerogative.
“I knew what I was doing,” I yell at Kane as soon as he sits behind the wheel and shuts his door. “Flirt a little and get some free drinks. It was harmless.Theywere harmless.”
“Is that why one of them grabbed you when you turned him down for some one-on-one time in a dark corner?”
The retort I had planned is lost in the confused mess of me trying to figure out how, sitting on the other side of the loud, crowded bar, he could have heard that.
“Whatever,” I say, deciding it’s just a lucky guess. “It doesn’t change the fact that it’s none of your business.”
“I wouldn’t have had to make it my business if that prick hadn’t grabbed you.”
“Likeyougrabbed me?”Oh, that one feels good.
“That’s different,” Kane says through gritted teeth.
I huff a laugh through my nose.
This guy’s insane.
And driving in the wrong direction.
“Where are we going? My place is on the other side of the city,” I say, trying not to freak out. After all, he doesn’t know where I live and won’t unless I tell him.
“If I take you home, you’ll just go back to the bar. Your dad is out of town. Since you’re drunk and shouldn’t be left alone… You’re staying with me.”
“Like hell I am.” When I move to unbuckle my seatbelt, Kane reaches across the bench seat and grips my hand. My whole fist disappears inside of his. The sight of it brings an unexpected heat to the base of my spine.
“You going to jump out of a car going seventy miles an hour?” His eyes never leaving the road.
“Well, I’m not going home with you.”
I take out my phone to text my roommate before my fuzzy brain remembers she went home for Christmas. It remembers why I went to the bar in the first place. Because I didn’t want to be alone.
That’s where I always end up. Alone, without a home to go to. Even if my dad hadn’t gone out of town, he doesn’t care if I visit. Hell, I’m not even sure he’d have cared as much as Kane seems to about what those guys might have done with me if he hadn’t torn me away from them.
How sad is that? The guy I haven’t seen since I was eight is the closest thing I have to family.
“It’s a warm bed, in a safe place, for one night. The fridge is fully stocked and there’s plenty of coffee to help nurse the hangover you’re gonna have.” He almost sounds kind.
“I’m drunk, but I’m not hangover drunk,” I argue.
“Just argumentatively drunk.”
“Who’s the drunk one? That’s not even a word,” I slur.
