Sophie Jordan - Tease

Annie gasped. Noah’s wide eyes shot to me and Annie before looking back at the biker who outweighed him by at least one hundred pounds. Before he could react, Walt swung.

I winced at the hard smack of bone on bone. Noah fell back on the table, sliding along the surface and hitting the floor with a crash of flailing limbs.

Annie screamed. The other three members of Noah’s band surrounded him and tugged him to his feet. Instantly Walt’s friends shot to their feet and closed ranks.

“What did you do?” Annie snarled at me as the shadow of a half dozen bikers fell over us.

I shook my head helplessly. My stomach pitched and bile surged in my throat.

“Picked the wrong bar,” Walt declared, focusing all his attention on Noah. What little was visible of his lips amid his scraggly beard curved wide. He reached out and gathered two fistfuls of Noah’s nice button-down. “Now I’m gonna fuck you up, boy.”

Oh. Crap.

NO SOONER HAD THE words left Walt’s mouth and it was on.

Shouts erupted and the place broke into chaos. Walt and his crew swarmed Noah and his hapless friends. Annie’s screams rocked my ears. Glass shattered and chairs and tables flew. I staggered, getting jostled in the sudden press of bodies. An elbow caught me in the eye. I cried out at the sharp jab and went down, dark spots dancing in my vision as feet stomped all around me. I clenched my teeth against the pain and curved into a small ball, clutching my face.

A hand clamped around my arm and yanked me up. Suddenly I was off my feet and being carried. Blinking, I focused on the guy who was carrying me. Hot Biker Boy .

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

“Getting you out of there before you get trampled.” I shivered at the first sound of his voice. It was deep and throaty and matched him perfectly. Goose bumps broke out over my skin.

I twisted my head around to assess the chaos. What about Annie? And the others? “My friends!”

He shook his head, his mouth pressed in a grim line.

The image of Annie getting crushed beneath biker boots flashed through my panicked mind. Desperate, I hit his impossibly hard chest. “You have to help—”

“You’re lucky I got you out of there. I can’t carry all of you.”

I squirmed in his arms, determined to go back for Annie and the others. I couldn’t leave them! “Let me down.”

An air horn blared long and hard across the air. The kind that made your ears bleed. Everything fell silent in the buzzing echo of that noise. Everyone froze—even Biker Boy.

“Enough!”

My gaze flew to the owner of that gravelly voice. A man stood on top of the bar, a shotgun in one hand and the air horn in the other. “I’m not having my bar trashed tonight! Next person to throw a punch in my bar is gonna eat a bullet!” For emphasis, the owner swung the barrel of his shotgun around the room. “Understood?”

It was like I’d walked into some old Dirty Harry movie. This couldn’t be real .

“Oh, it’s real, sweetheart.” The deep voice rippled through me, leaving gooseflesh in its wake.

Apparently I’d spoken out loud. My gaze snapped back to Biker Boy. His heart thudded strong and steady beneath my palm where it rested on his chest. I jerked my hand away and crossed my arms. “You can put me down. I think everything is under control now.” A quick glance confirmed that Walt and his friends were reclaiming their seats, grumbling and looking like chastised children. The rest of the bar followed suit, righting tables and chairs.

“Sure.” He lowered me to the ground, my body sliding along his in the most disconcerting way.

I quickly put space between us, stepping back and pressing a hand to my neck where my pulse hammered like it wanted to burst from my skin. I inhaled his clean soapy smell. It was nice. Especially in this place where the odors mostly consisted of sweat and smoke.

He clucked his tongue and peered closely at my face. “Oh, you’re gonna have a shiner there.”

With a grimace, I touched my tender eye. “I’ll just get my friends and go.”

“Yeah. That would be a good idea.”

Scowling, I dropped my hand and whirled around. Leaving him behind, I found Annie with an arm wrapped around Noah’s waist. He didn’t look good. The right side of his face was swollen, his eye puffy and sealed shut. His band members didn’t look much better as they clumsily gathered up their instruments.

“Let me help.” I moved to wrap another arm around Noah, but Annie yanked away.

“You’ve done enough.”

“Me?” I pressed a hand to my chest.

“Thanks to you Noah got jumped.”

“Me?” I repeated dumbly.

“Yeah.” Annie’s face scrunched up, looking almost unattractive. “Get your own ride home.”

“Are you serious?” I looked around me. “You can’t leave me alone—”

“It’s not my problem.” She shouldered past me. I gaped at her, watching as she headed for the door. Granted, I knew that Annie wasn’t the nicest girl. I hadn’t liked the way she treated Pepper last fall when Pepper and Reece were first hooking up. I’m sure jealousy had been a factor in her catty remarks, but that was months ago. She’d been decent since. I never would have imagined she’d leave me stranded like this.

So much for a fun night out.

Noah’s band members followed, lugging their instruments and amps. They didn’t even move toward the bar to get paid. Although a guy who drove a Lexus probably wasn’t in this for the money anyway.

I reached a hand out for the drummer—he was my only hope—but he just glared at me with one eye that looked like it was warming up to a nice shade of blue. Clearly they all blamed me. And they were leaving me here. Unbelievable.

I hurried after them, weaving between tables on unsteady legs. Someone bumped into me and I had to grab the surface of a table to keep from falling. The sudden action made my world spin and I squeezed my eyes in one long blink in an attempt to quell the dizziness.

“Hey, watch it,” a woman’s scratchy voice warned.

My gaze lifted toward the door, panicked that they had already left and I’d lost my chance to change their minds. I caught sight of their retreating backs an instant before the doors slammed shut behind them.

With a curse, I pushed after them. By the time I stepped outside, they were already getting into their cars. Sudden cold that had nothing to do with the wintry air swam through my veins. My boots crunched over the snow-packed parking lot.

“Annie!” I shouted just as my foot hit an icy patch and I went down hard. My ass took the brunt of the fall and for once I was glad that it was well padded. I might be petite, but I’d been cursed with a backside that could serve as a flotation device.

Annie heard me. I watched helplessly as she looked back at me before ducking inside the car behind the wheel. Struggling less than gracefully to my feet, I gawked as she started the car and reversed it out of the parking spot. Noah’s Lexus followed, his drummer driving.

I stared after the taillights, my teeth chattering. My jeans were wet from my fall. Looking down, I swatted at my thighs, trying to dust off the white powder.

Snow started to fall softly then. Blinking against the wet flurries, I turned and moved back toward the bar, taking shuffling steps to keep from falling again.

My legs felt heavy, every step a chore, but I forced myself to cross the threshold. It was warmer inside at least—even if it smelled like one giant ashtray.

I stayed near the door, scooting along the wall, trying to be inconspicuous. No easy feat when I’d started a brawl not ten minutes ago. I’m guessing I was on people’s radar.