“Um, I don’t really know how…”
“You don’t know how to dance?” He laughed again, louder this time, and for the first time I smelled the alcohol on his breath. It nearly knocked me sideways. He leaned in until his lips brushed against my ear making me cringe away out of instinct. “I’ve seen you dance, remember? I watch you all the time at the academy.”
He did? I half turned to face him but his face was too close. Any closer and our lips would be brushing. Kissing. I shifted away.
I was all for experiencing my first kiss. I’d spent countless nights dreaming about what it would be like. But never in all of my fantasies had it been like this. With a drunk guy I barely knew in the middle of a crowded party.
No, not surprisingly, my fantasies had always centered around one very irritating, very overprotective wide receiver. Out of instinct I sought him out.
But this time, he wasn’t looking. His familiar gaze was gone. My entire body went cold and my stomach sank to the floor when I took in the scene in front of me.
Holly was at his side. One hand was on his chest, the rest of her was draped on top of him—as much as humanly possible for two people who were standing upright.
Nausea had me looking away, but it was sheer masochism that had me glancing back, just in time to see him crack a smile at something Holly said. One of his arms came across her waist like he was pulling her in even closer and he leaned down toward her.
I turned back to Alex in horror. That nausea and disappointment made it hard to see straight.
But it was anger that had me moving into action.
I refused to look back at Cooper as I reached for Alex’s hand and tugged. “Yeah, okay,” I said quickly, before I could overthink what I was about to do. “Let’s do it.”
Alex was all sloppy smiles and his voice was too loud but he led the way, tugging me into his arms and moving us in time to the music.
“You look so hot tonight.” His voice was slurred, his lips so close to my neck I could feel his breath.
It kind of wigged me out, but my heart was still pounding with anger and I forced a smile in response to whatever he said next, even though I didn’t quite catch it.
I let myself go along with the music, anger making me feel reckless, wanting to lash out. I draped my arms around Alex’s neck and draped myself all over him the way Holly had done to Cooper.
If Holly could do it, why couldn’t I?
And more importantly, how dare Cooper be such a hypocrite. So...what? It was all fun and games if he decided to flirt with Holly, but heaven forbid I enjoy a bit of attention from the opposite sex.
Men.
I felt like growling but tipped my head back with a laugh instead as Alex’s hands started to roam. When they slid down to my backside I stiffened and pulled away. I opened my mouth to say, ‘whoa there, buddy.’ Or maybe ‘slow down, tiger.’ Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was going to say because I never got the chance.
One minute I was in Alex’s admittedly handsy arms and then the next we were being torn apart. A very firm hand wrapped around my arm and I was being yanked behind a brick wall. I didn’t need to look up to know who it was.
Cooper.
He towered over us both and the rage on his face caused my heart rate to increase.
I opened my mouth and nothing came out. It wouldn’t have mattered even if I had protested because Cooper was too far gone. I could see it in his eyes, in the tenseness of his jaw.
“Let’s go,” he snapped.
He wasn’t looking at me, but he was talking to me.
“Come on, man, we were just having some fun.” Alex’s smile turned just plain stupid as he grinned up at Cooper. “You can’t keep her to yourself, dude, she’s a hot piece of—”
Wham. The crude words were cut off with a sickening collision of fist against face and Alex was knocked to the ground.
The dancing stopped. The party ground to a halt as all eyes focused on him. On us.
“Let’s go, Eve,” he said. No, he growled. He commanded.
I wanted to protest. I was still angry about what he and Holly had done, but if I were honest with myself, I was a little scared about how far things had gotten with Alex. What started out as fun had shifted to something I wasn’t quite ready to handle. And as much as I didn’t want Cooper to be the one to intervene on my behalf, deep down, I was kind of glad he had.
But I was too shocked to move. Even when he wrapped his hand around my elbow and gave it a quick tug, my legs didn’t comply. Instead, I just stood there, frozen.
“Now, Eve.” He tugged one more time and then let out a deep sigh as he leaned down and scooped me into his arms like I weighed nothing. I pressed my hand to his chest to stabilize myself and my breath caught in my throat as I felt his heart rate. It was pounding in time with mine.
We didn’t say anything as he carried me out of the party and into the night. I peeked up at his expression to see that his jaw was set and his eyes dark. He kept his gaze forward as he made his way over to his truck. It wasn’t until we were standing next to the passenger door that he set me down.
“Get in,” he commanded and then walked around the hood to the driver’s side.
I didn’t protest as I pulled on the handle and climbed inside. Now alone, I let out my breath. So much had happened in the last few minutes and my brain hadn’t quite caught up with everything yet.
All I knew was, Cooper was angry and disappointed. And with the way I was feeling, I wasn’t sure which of his reactions was worse.
Chapter 6
Cooper
My hands were shaking as I sat in the driver’s seat. My knuckles on my right hand were numb and from what I could see in the streetlight, bleeding. Eve was sitting next to me. Her lips were pinched shut and in the darkness, I couldn’t read her reaction and I wasn’t ready to stare too hard to make it out.
Was she mad? Sad? Pissed?
Whatever she was feeling had been a mystery to me as I carried her out of the party. And if I were honest with myself, I hadn’t really been paying attention to how she felt. I’d acted through pure rage ever since I saw Alex leering at her. So much so that my control slipped.
I wasn’t the kind of guy who just went around punching people. At least, I’d been working really hard not to be that guy. I scrubbed a hand over my face as the reality of what I’d done hit me full force. I’d even started to think of myself as reasonable. Level headed.
Apparently not.
Not when it came to Eve. There was something visceral that happened inside of me when I saw what Alex was doing to her which left me with one option—action.
But now that was all over and my entire body was shaking from the adrenaline leaving my muscles, I felt like an idiot. A big, ridiculous idiot.
I cursed under by breath as I shoved my key into the ignition and started the engine up. But there was something that was stopping me from driving off. I had to know Alex was okay before I bailed. So I grabbed my phone and found Ethan’s number.
Me: Alex okay?
A few seconds later Ethan responded.
Ethan: Yeah. He’ll have a shiner and he’s pissed, but there’s no major damage.
I shot him a thumbs up but a second later, Ethan replied again.
Ethan: You okay?