“I’m just here with friends,” she said. Her limbs felt uncoordinated as she tried to move away from him. And her mouth wasn’t moving quite properly, nor were her thoughts as clear as she wanted them to be right now.
“I could be your friend,” the guy said, leaning in and grabbing her around the waist. “Just dance with me.”
“No,” she said.
Suddenly, Lucas was stepping in between them. “Everything all right over here?”
The guy gave Lucas a sidelong glance of annoyance. “She’s talking to me, buddy. She’s fine. Why don’t you go get me and the lady a drink?” He took out a billfold and peeled off a twenty.
“I don’t need another drink,” Ivy told him.
“Shit,” Lucas said, staring past them now. His eyes had gone wide with something resembling terror.
And then Ivy noticed that all of the temps were looking in the same direction, and all of them seemed similarly uneasy.
She turned towards the door and saw a sight that took her breath away with its unexpectedness.
Cullen Sharpe had just entered the bar. He was still as fearsome and foreboding as ever, even outside his kingdom. He was with two other men that she’d never seen before, but they also wore nice suits so she assumed they were from work.
“I can’t believe he’s here,” one of the female temps said nearby.
“He’s so fucking hot,” another girl replied.
“I’d totally fuck him,” one of the male temps said, making it clear which team he played for.
Some laughed nervously, but everyone was watching Cullen Sharpe.
Ivy felt a thrill of excitement upon seeing him there, but then quickly remembered she was trying to forget him.
Cullen surveyed the room as if he owned this place along with all of the people in it. His gaze landed on her and his eyes narrowed.
Ivy’s stomach did a double flip and then she shook her head, looking quickly away.
Fuck him, she thought. Maybe I will take this jerk up on his offer to dance with me.
She turned intentionally back to the dumb frat guy or whoever he was. “I’m Ivy,” she told him, smiling flirtatiously.
“I’m Hank,” the douche in the green tie said. His eyes stared down at her cleavage.
She took one of his hands and put it on her hip. He got the idea and did the same with the other hand, and then she spun around and let him grind on her from behind.
The music was thumping and she had her eyes closed.
I hope you’re watching me, Cullen Sharpe. I hope you’re watching and it’s making you crazy.
This caused her to smile, as the man behind her thrust his hips against her backside.
They danced like that for a time, and when she opened her eyes again, Cullen and his friends were gone. He wasn’t watching and he evidently didn’t care what she did.
That made the game a lot less interesting and her dance partner’s advances even less inviting than they’d been. Ivy realized she didn’t feel very well.
The room was spinning and her stomach felt like someone had put a brick in it.
“I don’t feel so well,” she muttered, trying to free herself from his clutches.
But Hank wasn’t too interested in how she felt, apparently. His left hand moved up to her breast and grabbed it blatantly as he hip thrust yet again into her behind.
Across the way, she heard and then saw his cronies at the bar howling with laughter, clapping and shouting encouragement.
“Hey,” she shouted, wrestling out of his grip. “What’s wrong with you?”
Hank’s bloodshot eyes stared unintelligently at her. “It’s pretty obvious you enjoyed what I was doing.” He grabbed for her hips again. “Come on, dance with me, bitch.”
“Bitch?” she shouted back at him. “Who do you think you are, asshole?”
Lucas moved in between them once more. “That’s enough, buddy. She doesn’t want to dance with you anymore.”
“And who are you? The fucking white knight?” Hank said, spittle flying from his mouth. “Why don’t you just fuck off,” he continued, pushing Lucas in the chest.
And then, before she knew what was happening, Lucas was surrounded by Hank’s bar buddies, who swarmed in. They started heckling Lucas and shoving him, and it was clear the young man was overmatched and scared now.
He spun one way and another to fend off his attackers.
At the same time, one of Hank’s other friends had now grabbed Ivy’s waist and was whispering in her ear. “You look so fucking sexy,” he said, his breath rancid and hot as he slathered her ear. “I couldn’t stop watching you all night.”
“Leave me alone!” she yelled.
But he wouldn’t, and the crowd around her was getting ugly. From the corner of her eye, she saw someone grabbing Lucas by his shirt and pulling him, ripping his collar. Another person clubbed Lucas beside his ear with their open hand.
People were pushing and shoving and yelling. A bottle smashed on the floor nearby.
For the first time, fear shot through the drunken haze in Ivy’s mind. She realized she could actually get hurt, as the man near her began groping her without fear of reprisal in the mayhem.