Party Foul - Abby Knox Page 0,3

they could both be in trouble. An innocent, lost female like her was far too tempting of a release for all his surging adrenaline. Fuck, there would probably be lawsuits galore if he even dared touch someone like her; at least one of her parents had to be a lawyer, or somebody important.

He took another step closer, still afraid of what he might do but unable to deny the pull. His body just wanted to be closer. When she didn’t shrink away, the urge was so powerful that it almost became a sound in his ears.

Really? What are you gonna do, you big gorilla? Try to hug her? You’d probably crush her. A hapless ogre trying to pet a scared baby bunny, that’s what you are.

And then, the girl stepped away from the wall and inched toward Levi.

“Come on, I’ll walk you to your car,” he said, ignoring the little shining puddles that kept on forming across her bottom eyelids.

She’d been all but hidden in the corner booth all afternoon, studying all by herself, making very few demands on Crow Bar wait staff. The little bookworm with the tasteful handbag was traumatized.

Her head shook. “Not yet.”

Levi cocked his head. She looked terrified. Well, if she was scared, she’d done it to herself. Not Levi’s fault she followed him out here when he’d dragged Walls out into the alley when he refused to leave her alone. One thing was for certain, he needed to get her outta here and back to the other side of the river.

“Time for you to go home, princess.”

He regretted that word as soon as it was out of his mouth. She didn’t deserve that. She’d kept mostly to herself all day, and tipped well. A little too well.

“I don’t have a car, I mean,” she corrected herself while dabbing her eye makeup with the edge of a tissue from her bag. “I do have someone coming; he should be here in a few minutes.”

Called it, Levi thought. Of course she has a boyfriend.

“What kind of guy leaves his girl alone at Crow Bar?”

She blinked several times, and Levi detected a slight hint of a smile on her pouty bottom lip. “I came here on my own.”

Levi gave in to the humming, magnetic force between her body and his, and drew closer. She was a short little thing. He was now so close she had to look up to meet his gaze.

“Guess your ‘guy’ doesn’t do a very good job of keeping an eye on you.”

Was it a little bit of a sexist thing to say? Sure. Did it get a reaction out of her that was kinda hot? Absolutely.

She blinked her eyes several times as she inched closer to him. “I do what I want.”

That was not a challenge. That was an invitation. Suddenly the thousands of taut muscles in Levi’s body cranked even tighter, in both anticipation and caution.

Coppery flecks in her brown eyes glinted in the sickly yellow security lamp that illuminated the alley. The tiny pearls in her earlobes glowed. Every part of her deflected or morphed all the unpleasantness around them. He could only smell her perfume and not the usual stench of trash mixed with beer and booze that permeated the alleyway. This girl carried an energy about her that drew him in, and now that he was looking at her he couldn’t look away. Like a visitation from one of the saints or angels his grandmother still believed in, this girl’s presence defied the gloom of the world around them.

She didn’t look scared anymore. She looked like she was waiting for him to ask more questions, pull more answers out of her.

He should be more careful. Those north side rich girls once in a while liked to slum it down here in Dockside. Some of them did it on a dare and some just liked to play dangerous.

At least her eyes weren’t leaking anymore. Her tears had conjured something out of him that made him deeply uncomfortable. Sympathy? Protectiveness? Levi only possessed those feelings insofar as it allowed him to do his job to look after customers.

He wasn’t going to let a poor little rich girl get under his skin, no matter how used to getting her way she was.

“I’ll wait with you, make sure nobody messes with you.”

She nodded, smiled, and reached out to touch his forearm. “Thank you.” The press of her hand on his leather jacket, her soft words, spoken too close, zapped him.

She had felt it