He found an empty table with tall stools near the bar. A harried waitress paused long enough for Cord to whisper in her ear. The next thing he did surprised Jolie. He handed her a set of earplugs. She stared at the orange lumps in the palm of his hand, and then glanced up. He grinned and winked as he fitted a second set into his own ears with his other hand.
After she'd stuffed the spongy plugs in, the noise level dropped to almost acceptable levels. The waitress returned with a scotch on the rocks for Cord and a frozen margarita, extra salt, for Jolie. The man never forgot a thing. She needed to remember that.
The musicians provided a driving beat and Cord offered her a dance. When they returned to the table, a group of rowdy men had taken up residence at the next table. The two facing her looked her up and down, their interest obvious.
"Will you look at that? That is one hot-damn bitchin' woman, fellas."
The other two turned to look. One grabbed his crotch and rubbed. "I'd sure like to nail me some of that."
Despite the loud music and earplugs, their obnoxious comments filtered across her consciousness. Cord stiffened beside her. He hadn't missed the lewd suggestions, either. All four men were obviously inebriated. And Cord wasn't 100 percent recovered from his injuries, despite his assurances to the contrary. Four against one weren't good odds on his best day. She put her hand on his arm as he stood up.
"Let it go. They're drunk jerks."
He ignored her and she sighed. Testosterone drained a man's brain of all common sense. Cord kissed her cheek, but it felt too much like a pat on the head for comfort. Here, he seemed to say with the gesture. Big bad caveman will take care of his little woman.
She couldn't hear what he said to the men, but the biggest guy in the group jumped up, knocking his stool over. In the blink of an eye, he was swinging on Cord, who ducked under the blow and came up with a fist to the guy's gut. The other three jumped into the fray. Fists and elbows flew-the four jerks landing blows on each other as often as they managed to punch Cord. By the time the muscular bouncers arrived, Cord had gotten more than a few licks in, to good effect. Two of the men were on the floor unconscious and Cord was holding his own with the other two. The bouncers separated the men, and with the help of a couple of additional security types, all of them were bundled off to the back of the club.
Jolie followed, not quite sure what else to do. The bouncer standing watch wouldn't let her into the secured area, so she waited in the hallway as the police arrived. She paced and fidgeted as the fire department and then EMTs appeared. Had Cord been hurt? Panicked, she pushed past the man standing guard at the door. He had his arm around her waist attempting to subdue her when Cord's voice cut through the hubbub in the office.
"You will take your hands off her now."
The guy dropped her as if she had girl cooties. "Cord? Are you okay? What's going on?"
One of the cops turned to give her an appraising once-over. Cord growled, and that was when she realized he was in handcuffs. "Wha-what's going on? You aren't arresting him, are you? That's not fair. They jumped him."
"We're taking them all in, ma'am."
"Jolie, my keys are in my pocket, along with my phone. I'm sorry, sunshine. Call Chance and then drive yourself home."
The police allowed her to get his keys and cell and then hustled the men-all cuffed-out the back door of the club. The club's chief of security touched her shoulder. "Miss Davis? I'll escort you out front and have Mr. Barron's car brought around for you."
As she waited for the car, she called Chance, filled him in and asked where to meet him. Ten minutes later, she was parked in front of the county jail building. Chance wouldn't be there for at least thirty minutes. She called Mrs. Corcoran, told the woman she'd be late and settled in to wait.
A tap on the window brought her up out of an uneasy doze with a start. Sharp pain lanced through her neck and her pulse was racing. Chance and Cord stood next to the car. Chance looked amused. Cord looked as if he'd gone nine rounds with a heavyweight boxer.
She climbed out of the car, Cord's injuries her immediate concern. "I need to take you to the ER."
"Sunshine, I'm fine."
Jolie glanced at Chance, who nodded. "EMTs checked him over. Nothing needs stitching, no broken bones. He just needs ibuprofen and ice."
She blew out a breath, and while she really wanted to chew Cord a new one, she was relieved he wasn't seriously hurt. Still, she wanted to check for herself-not that she didn't trust the EMTs, but... "Get in. I'll drive you home."
Cord was dozing, head braced against the passenger window, when Jolie pulled into her driveway. She'd driven to her home instinctively. Thinking discretion was the better part of having to explain her evening, Jolie left Cord sleeping in the car while she made sure CJ and his nanny were both asleep.
Getting Cord out of the car and inside her house was another matter. He was stiff and sore, and no matter where she touched him, he winced. Without conscious thought on her part, he ended up sprawled across her king-size bed. Her bedroom was on the first floor, the guest room on the second. That was the excuse her libido kept giving her conscience.
Grabbing as many frozen gel packs as she had in her freezer, Jolie returned to her room.
"Hey." Why did she feel so shy?
"I'm sorry."
Cord's apology stopped her midstep. "Sorry?"
"Yeah. Not exactly the way I wanted this date to end." He patted the bed beside him. "Come keep me company while you slap those cold puppies on me." He moved to scoot over to make room and winced. "Damn. I hurt everywhere."
She positioned the cold packs on his injuries before ducking into her bathroom to rummage for pain meds and a glass of water. After he swallowed the pills, she settled on the edge of the bed.
"You always were a white knight, Cord, but trust me when I say tonight wasn't worth you getting the crap beat out of you just because those jerks were mouthy." She worried when he closed his eyes and blanched. His brow furrowed in pain. "I wish there was something more I could do."
One corner of his mouth quirked, pulling at the split in his lip. "Oww." He didn't open his eyes as he added, "You could kiss it and make it better."
Twelve
Cord peeked through one eye to see what Jolie's response would be. She rolled her eyes and snorted. Not what he was hoping for, but better than a slap.
"I don't think there's one spot on your entire body that isn't beat-up. I don't want to hurt you."
He opened both eyes and studied her expression. "Sunshine, there's no way you could hurt me." Not physically anyway. She'd already pretty much laid his heart bare, but the more time he spent with her, and with CJ, the quicker that pain receded from memory.
With a sassy smirk, she dropped a kiss just above his swollen eye. "Does this hurt?"
"A little. Maybe kiss me here?" He pointed to the corner of his mouth. She leaned in and carefully placed a kiss there. Fighting the urge to turn his head and take her kiss full on the mouth, he waited until she straightened. Next, he pointed to a spot on the side of his throat. "Doesn't hurt here."
She again bent and nuzzled him. Oh, damn, but that felt good. Little spasms of electricity danced all the way to his groin, and things stirred down there in response.
"Uh...how 'bout here?" He managed to unbutton his shirt and pointed to his chest.
Jolie trailed her fingers through the dark hair sprouting there and made a funny noise in the back of her throat. Oh, yeah. He liked the sound of that. Before he could encourage her any more, CJ's voice echoed from a monitor on the nightstand beside them.
"Mommy?"
Jolie pushed to her feet. "I'll be right back."
Cord took advantage of her absence. Rolling off the bed, he kicked off his boots and headed to the bathroom. He washed his face and hands, assessing his injuries in the mirror. He looked like something the cat dragged in, ate and spat out as a hairball. And felt worse. Stripping out of his ripped dress shirt, he padded back to the bedroom.
Jolie stood in the doorway, staring. He arched a brow.
"Is there any part of you that's not black-and-blue?"
He glanced at the floor and chuckled. "The soles of my feet?"
"You're nuts, Cord. You know that, right?"
Yes, he knew. He was nuts about her. Nuts for ever walking away. And maybe he was nuts for trying to convince her to let him back into her life.
"I don't know how you do it." The words tumbled out before he could think about them.
"How I do what?"
"Be a mom." When she bristled, he held up a hand to keep the peace. "A single mom. I mean, I know you have help. But damn, honey. It's hard work."
Jolie took half a step back, almost as if she'd taken a blow. This conversation wasn't going the way he'd played it out in his head.
"Wow. I don't think I ever expected to hear something like that from you."