Chapter 43 #2
Latisha slides off the barstool, lifting her arms to loosely circle them around his neck, effectively forcing the two women away from him.
Legion slips a hand to the small of her back and pulls her to the dancefloor while Toni Braxton’s song You’re Makin’ Me High blares from the speakers.
His two shunned and disheartened groupies move on to other willing guys.
The bartender returns with our drinks and places them down before me. “Thanks,” I say, before twisting on the stool to take another peek at what Legion and Latisha are doing on the dancefloor.
I don’t know why I’m surprised to see them pressed against each other. He’s got his hand jammed in her back pocket, grabbing her ass like she’s already wearing his patch.
When the song ends, Latisha reclaims the barstool beside me, laughing like she just had the best time of her life. She grabs the cocktail I’ve been guarding for her and takes a gulp.
“ He’s a wild one!” She gasps like she has to catch her breath.
Within a second, Legion is on my other side. He shoots his Johnny Walker, then slides the shot glass across the bar top. It collides with a sharp clink against her cocktail. “You wanna go again?”
“Fuck yes.” She grins back at him as if it’s a challenge.
“You better finish that first.” He cocks his chin at her drink, and when she chugs the rest of it, he rewards her with a growled, “ Good girl,” before leaning into my ear .
“You really should try to have a little fun, sweet one. Your friend is such a spitfire.” Before I can say anything, they’re back on the dancefloor, grinding to Rob Zombie’s Dragula .
His insinuation that I’m not any fun plays over in my buzzed brain while I finish the rest of my cocktail, ignoring my water. I can be fun. Asshole. The next ‘90s hit begins to play, Meredith Brooks’s Bitch . This could be my song. Fuck him. I can dance. And I can dance by myself, too.
I slide off the barstool and make my way to the edge of the dancefloor.
When Latisha spots me, she ditches Legion and dances her way over to me.
Immediately, I feel better, and the two of us are laughing together, having the time of our lives without him and his dark, manipulative energy tensing up the atmosphere.
We dance to three more songs before Latisha says she needs to use the bathroom and will be back as soon as she can.
There’s always a significantly long line for the ladies’ room, and tonight is no exception.
I’m fully buzzed and perfectly content to continue dancing on my own. I don’t get to, though. The moment she leaves, a random guy moves in on me, zapping all the fun away with his bold, unsolicited advances. I turn away from him, bumping into someone else. Someone who smells like smoke and leather.
Why does it make me smile?
A finger lifts my chin up, forcing me to look him in the eyes. “Dance, sweet one.” When I notice the shot in Legion’s other hand, he offers it to me. “You’re free tonight.”
I don’t feel like arguing with his choice of words. I take the shot and hand it back to him. A good song is playing. Another one I can really move to. Melissa Etheridge’s I’m The Only One …
I think I’m getting drunk, though I’m not quite tipsy enough not to notice the way Legion has been using the proximity of his body to maneuver me away from the crowd.
Over the duration of the next few songs, he’s moved closer and closer, our bodies briefly touching, lightly bumping against each other, now and again.
I’m sure I am meant to believe it’s all been by accident.
Though now that he has me where he wants me…trapped between his hovering form and the brick wall, I lift my eyes to meet his intense stare.
“What?” I ask, still moving my body to an En Vogue song. He leans into me, planting one hand against the wall beside my head. “I just want to dance.”
“Don’t let me stop you.”
“Are you sure? You’re crowding me.”
“I’ve seen what you can do in tighter corners than this.” He grins.
I scowl at him. “ Creeper .”
His smile only broadens. However long his list of regrets might be, apparently stalking me is not on it. “The way you move…your body calls to mine…speaks to me.”
“Oh? And what is my body saying to you, right now?”
Smiling back at him, I thrust my middle finger into his smug expression.
He startles me when he snatches my wrist and yanks my hand closer to his face.
I watch in shock as he drags his tongue up my finger, then sucks it into his mouth.
His teeth scrape gently against my skin as he slowly pulls my finger out and releases me before saying, “I believe that was the international sign for fuck you … Offer most eagerly accepted, sweet one. I would savor every moment between us.”
I swallow hard, emotions I can’t even begin to decipher in my inebriated mind riot throughout my body, and my heart pounds.
He wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me until his body presses against mine.
Bowing his head, he brings his lips to my ear, and I can feel his warm, whispered breath through my hair.
“Do you not realize the power you wield? The influence you have? That if you commanded it of me, even here… right now … with all of these cretins to bear witness… I would drop to my fucking knees before you and…”
“ Legion…stop .” I can barely breathe. His words, his proximity, doing things to my body I should not be feeling.
“ I would worship you … I would accept any terms you set forth… I would wait in the wings, in secret, for you… I would take our secret to the grave… Keegan need never know .”
“I would never betray him.”
“Then I would go to him, and offer?—”
“There is nothing you could offer him. Enough!”
“He’s struggling…you know this…”
I attempt to push him away, but he cages me against the wall between his arms. It’s his fault the patronage at the Twisted Throttle isn’t what it once was. “My husband would never entertain what you’re insinuating, no matter how bad the financial hardship you caused!”
“I was thinking more along the lines of a timeshare … Though I’m not entirely opposed to the idea of a threesome… Are you?”
“Just when I think it might be possible that you actually are, deep down, a decent human being, you pull this! Get off of me!” I shove at him.
“The only one playing games here is you. I’ve been straight with you about everything! You toy with me!”
“Excuse me?”
He grabs my hips, pulling the lower portion of my body flush against his. I push against his chest, leaning back as best I can.
“Deny the magnetism between us, Vanna.” He growls, grinding himself against me. I gasp, and my awareness of his arousal seems to darken his lustful gaze. “Deny you feel anything for me. That you haven’t thought about me these last long years I’ve been on a fucking quest for you and you alone!”
“Legion, you need to get off of me before someone sees us!”
“ Let them . Tell me you haven’t thought about me like this. That you haven’t imagined us together.”
“ Stop it .”
“How many times have I fucked you?” he demands as I attempt to discreetly struggle out of his hold. “Tell me. How many times were you thinking of me when he was inside you?”
“You feel something for me?”
“I feel a lot of things for you.”
“Then let go of me. Step away from me. Show me I can trust you. Show me you actually do have some level of respect for me. That you do see me differently than you have… others in your past.”
“Whores?”
“If you see me differently, treat me as such… What you’re doing now…this isn’t respect. This isn’t kindness, Damien… please .”
Legion steps back, his grim expression a mix between wounded and angered. I take the opportunity to storm back to the bar.
“Another water, please,” I ask the bartender. I need to sober up and get out of here. I glance around for Latisha. Is she still waiting for the damn bathroom? I’m about to pull out my phone to text her when Legion brushes up against my side again.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” he begins to say, when my night goes from bad to godawful. I’ve just locked eyes with a worst-case scenario, and my heart practically lurches up my throat along with that last shot I’m now regretting.
“Oh great.” I’m buzzed, aggravated, and Lucinda is the last person on earth I want to see tonight. Or any night. Ever again . She lifts her drink from the other end of the bar and saunters toward me.
Wearing what would be considered an obscenely low-cut top on someone like me, and a pair of low-rise jeans to go with the sly little smirk on her face, she sneers, “What do we have here?”
Her gaze shifts momentarily from me to Legion, as he moves closer to my side. I can’t help but wonder if he’s being protective or just wants a front row seat. She looks him up and down with an air of dismissal before we lock eyes once again.
“Dean’s so worried about who I’m fucking when he should be worried about you! I’m sure he will be thrilled to hear all about everything I just saw.” Lucinda’s red lips curve up in a grin that’s just begging to be slapped off her face.
“Nothing you say to him will ever mean anything. Especially not about me. You’re dead to him.” I glare back at her. “Dean doesn’t care who you’re with. That ultimatum wasn’t about who you’re fucking. It was about keeping you away from the club. You’re toxic.”
Cold liquid splashes up into my face, and I gasp in surprise, tasting the cinnamon and whiskey flavor of her Fireball cocktail.
Before I even realize what I’m doing, her empty glass smashes on the floor, and her long blonde hair is ensnared in my fists. Shoving her backwards, I slam her up against a wall and jerk her head back, forcing her to meet my eyes again. Hers are wide with surprise.
“This has been a long time coming!” I snap, releasing her. Before she can do or say anything else, I ball my fist and throw a punch, nailing her in that devious mouth.
Her head snaps to the side, and I can’t help but feel there isn’t another person more deserving of my first real punch than Lucinda.