I screech when a huge body unfolds out of the car next to mine, and comes to stand in front of me. Even though daylight savings time is a couple of weeks off, the parking lot is dark enough that if someone wanted to hurt me, well, they wouldn’t find the body for a while.
Fucking shit, how in hell do I get in these situations?
The curse! Again!
“What the fuck, Dean? Who said you could come lumbering out your car like that, scaring the shit out of me?” I hiss, appalled that my lower lip is trembling. I wasn’t that scared. I might just have peed myself, though. And only a little.
Dean comes around his car, big strides eating up the space between us to come stand in front of me. Then he hugs me, crushes me to his chest where it’s all nice and warm and he smells like hot chocolate and his cologne and Dean and shit, shit, shit-
“Is there a problem here, Katie?” Liam asks from behind us.
Dean only lets me go when I push against him with enough force to throw a smaller man flat on his ass.
“Bro,” Dean says, and my mouth drops open in shock. Bro? Bro?! “When a woman is walking away from you after you called after her, means she doesn’t want to be talking to you, alright?”
Liam looks like he’s going to have a seizure. “What the fuck, man?”
Dean pulls in a breath like he’s trying to explain a complex mathematical formula to a little kid and the conversation isn’t going so well. “You called out her name, and she didn’t turn around. What’s that signal for ya, man? What’s it mean? Means she couldn’t give a fuck about what you have to say, and the way she was practically sprinting to her car? Not a good sign.”
What is happening?
Liam looks utterly shocked. I kinda want to laugh. “Ease up there, big guy. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” The guy makes a show of straightening his tie, and smoothing down the material of his sleeves. This whole time, I don’t think his hair has moved in the cool breeze.
I watch Dean get into Liam’s space, and the height difference has my knees wobbling. Losing Dean’s heat from his solid chest is making me shiver and pissed off.
“Yeah, but you were going to. And we both know it. No means no, motherfucker. You even look at my girl in any other way that makes her feel less like a goddess, I’m going to come up to that glass cage you call an office and give you the beating of your life. You get me?” Dean’s voice hardly carries in the dark lot, and that’s what makes it even scarier. He’s got a dangerous mode and I don’t know where the on/off switch is.
My God, he’s beautiful. The crappy orange streetlight makes him look more dangerous, the shadows carved into his features make him look deadly, and the sheer size of his body make him a threat you don’t want to mess with.
I really need to fuck him tonight. I really, really do.
I don’t see Liam scurry away back into our building, and I don’t really hear what he mumbles as he’s doing that. Nah, I’m completely mesmerised by Dean and what he just did for me, and by what he said.
I don’t think that Liam was going to do anything, but you never know. And no matter what, I’m not changing jobs because of one fucker.
“Thanks, Dean,” I whisper, stuffing my hands in my pockets.
He doesn’t look at me, but stares at the glass doors I guess Liam just disappeared into. He stares for almost a minute then finally looks at me, shivering in the dark. My car beeps its locks closed and I jump at the sound. Yup, nerves of steel over here.
Dean suddenly puts his palms above his knees and bends at the waist, the same kind of position you would do if you were about to pass out.
“Whoah, head rush, head rush, head rush,” he sing-songs, and I lean down to get a look at his face. I swipe some of his hair behind his ear, and watch him flick his face to the side and give me a reassuring smile, like this happens all the time.
He straightens up, a mega-watt smile on his face, cheek muscles totally contracting. “Holy shit, I didn’t think I had that in me. Did you see me? I thought that little shit wasn’t going to back down. But he did. Did you see my skills? Without throwing a punch, too. Pat on the back, Carter, pat on the back.” He actually pats himself on the back.
I fake-yawn while trying to keep an unimpressed face. He’s a little kid stuck in a hot, hot, hot body.
“I saved the damsel in distress. Do you know what that means?”
Damsel in distress, my ass. I would’ve handled it. “What?”
“I get food. You’re buying.”
Chapter 10
We go to La Belle Pro’s where we get steamies and glorious poutine with enough gravy to make a soup out of. Dean puts mayo and ketchup on his hot dogs, I all-dress mine up minus the onions.