Adrian's Wrath(9)

“Come on, baby.” His breath could have gotten her drunk alone. His eyes were bloodshot and he had a droopy sort of expression on his face. Hell, all of the men at his table wore the exact same expression.

“Can I get you guys anything else?” She needed to keep this professional and make sure her fear didn’t show. These types of men fed off of it, she could tell. She took a step back but he had an iron grip on her waist.

“Yeah, how about you with nothing on and spread wide.”

His words were vulgar and ridiculous. It took everything in her not to roll her eyes and pour his Miller right over his head. “Excuse me.” She made a move to leave again but his grip tightened almost painfully and her heart started beating fast. Memories assaulted her and she had to close her eyes and take a deep breath to push them into the furthest recesses of her mind. Usually when she gave the drunks the brush-off they relented, but this one seemed a little too aggressive and sure about himself.

“Please stop touching me.” He either didn’t hear or he didn’t care because his hand started running up her side. A second later she felt it gone and she breathed out. Clearly he was smarter than she gave him credit for. When she opened her eyes she sucked in a gasp as she stared at Adrian standing before her mauler, his jaw clenched tight and his knuckles white from gripping the other man’s arm. The muscles in his bicep strained from the force he was using on the man’s arm.

“I believe the lady asked you to stop touching her.” His voice was deadly calm, but she didn’t miss the clear warning laced in it. “I should take you out back and break your arms and legs. Maybe slam my fist into both of your eyes so that you remember what will happen if you ignore another woman’s plea.”

All Brea could do was stare at Adrian. Standing this close to him had her entire body singing with electricity. Has he always been this tall, this broad and muscular? The tendons strained beneath his tanned flesh, and she could see dark lines of ink peeking from beneath the edge of his shirt sleeve. She knew how delicious his body looked with that ink. She had seen it whenever she closed her eyes.

The guy that had accosted her visibly swallowed and cut a glance to his buddies, possibly hoping for a little help. His friends knew better, though. They all shifted in their seats and cleared their throats. They knew Adrian. Everyone did that came to these fights. Besides, Adrian was twice the size of a normal man, these assholes included.

“Okay, okay. No harm no foul, man.” The man who had groped Brea looked genuinely scared shitless when he saw Adrian. Adrian let go of the guy’s arm but didn’t move away.

“No harm, no foul?” Adrian took a threatening step forward, the menace pouring off of him in waves. Was she about to see him fight this guy up close and personal? Outside of the cage? Fear started building inside of her like a raging storm. She could hear ragged breathing and knew she would pass out. Everything around her seemed to fade and she knew she needed to get out of here or she would lose it.

Strong arms gripped her shoulders and she was being led through the crowd. She smelled him before she saw him. It was the same masculine and intoxicating scent that seemed to envelop her, wash through her. How could she forget that scent when it had been the first thing her senses had registered all those weeks ago? The night air blew her hair around and it was then she realized she was outside of the club. Maybe she should have been scared shitless that she was now alone with Adrian, but that fear didn’t surface.

“Hey, are you okay?” He didn’t touch her again and she had mixed feelings about that.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said as she took a deep breath and finally lifted her gaze to his. He stood several feet away from her, his hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans, a look of concern etched in his extremely handsome features. Every time she looked at him, even when he was pummeling some guy’s face, she couldn’t help but take note of his raw masculinity. Oh, he wasn’t handsome in the classical sense. Not with the rough, sharp planes of his face, his fuller lips that seemed to have a perpetual frown on them, and the hint of a five o’clock shadow that covered his hard jaw, but he was gorgeous to her, nonetheless.

“You didn’t look fine. You look a little shell shocked right now.” She didn’t respond, because even though she did feel that way she didn’t want to admit it to him.

“Yeah, well, dealing with assholes is in the job description.” Her laugh was meant to lighten the situation but it sounded humorless even to her. She knew she had freaked out over something that happened to the waitresses every night of the week. “I’m not a head case, really. I’ve just…” No, she had already said too much. What was wrong with her? She had been on the verge of actually telling him why she had acted like a freak back there. Shaking her head, she forced herself to hold his gaze. Why did he make her feel so unhinged when no other man did?