Oh. Yeah.
I turned toward the voice beside me. I forgot that lady was here.
She was resting her elbow on the bar, her chin propped on her hand as she watched me closely with those witchy blue eyes.
“Hey,” I breathed. “Wow. Your eyes.”
She laughed and leaned toward me, and I smelled her perfume. It was a little strong, but not unpleasant.
“You like ’em?” She lifted a hand decorated with silver rings on every finger, then trailed those fingers lightly across my cheek. “I like these freckles.” She leaned in close, her lips grazing my cheek on their path to my ear, and whispered, “I wanna know if you’ve got them everywhere.”
I laughed at that. “Yeah,” I said, nodding. Her cheek rubbed against mine. “They are alllllll over my body.”
“Mm.” She drew her head back to meet my gaze. “I think I might not believe that ’til I see it. Would you let me see it?” Her hands trailed a slow path down my chest, over my stomach, stopping to lift the hem of my shirt so she could trace them along the waist of my jeans.
It tickled, and I tensed as I grabbed her hands, wanting to stop the feather-light tickling.
But she just laughed and wrapped her fingers around my forearms, guided my arms to my stomach, and crossed my wrists. “You stay right there, handsome.”
I stared into those witchy eyes, captivated all over again, and she held my gaze, smiling.
I wasn’t sure what was happening. My mind was a foggy, mushy mess, and the lights above her looked like they were dissolving into her hair.
But then her hands drifted along the top of my jeans again, cold fingers slipping inside. I jerked and uncrossed my wrists so I could grab her wandering hands again.
I didn’t know what she was trying to do, but I didn’t like it. The room spun, and it was hard to keep track of what was happening. Where her hands were. Wheremyhands were.
“Don’t do that,” I told three of her.
That perfume was all I could smell now and it was suffocating me. My stomach muscles clenched as a sudden wave of nausea hit.
There were cold fingers on the nape of my neck, cold fingers digging into the waist of my jeans, and I tried to saystopbut my mouth felt too fuzzy.
“No—” Heat spread across my chest as I leaned forward and threw up all over her shirt.
A shout broke through the loud music, angry words were thrown at me, and just as another wave of nausea had medoubling over, she shoved me back, screaming incoherent words at me.
The stool teetered, and I was suddenly dragged off my seat as two long arms banded around me and held me against a firm chest, anchoring me. Relief slammed through me when I recognized Lea’s voice, felt the vibration of it against my back as he spoke.
“Are you fucking kidding me?! Get the fuck out, you fucking creep! Shea, make sure she really leaves before I call the fucking cops.”
I was not prepared for how turned on an angry Lea would make me. That sultry purr became hard as steel and just as implacable. Lea’s wrath, and on my behalf, was the sexiest thing I’d ever experienced in my life. Which, yes, the bar was low because the experience pool was practically empty, but still.
And then all horny thoughts disintegrated when an awful queasiness churned in my stomach, and I groaned.
“Shit. Do you need to throw up again?” Before I could even say a word, Lea lifted me into his arms bridal style. “Just hold on, baby.” He rushed us to the back of the bar?—
I retched and slapped my hand over my mouth before anything could come out. God, I didn’t want to vomit on Lea, I would die of?—
“Here, here, come on.” Lea set me on my feet but stayed right behind me, keeping an arm around my chest, holding me up.
Oh. We were in a bathroom stall.
Lea gently rubbed my back in soothing circles and murmured reassuring, quiet words in his soft, smoky voice.
I wasn’t sure how many times I threw up or how long we were in there, but by the time I was done, I could barely breathe or stand on my own, so wiped out that I told Leamultiple times to just leave me here, that he didn’t have to help me, that I was being a burden.
“Didn’t we just have this conversation? You’re not a burden, I thought we agreed on that. Come on, up we go.”