Party Foul - Abby Knox Page 0,4
too. Her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red and her eyes darted to the bricks beneath their feet.
Easy, big guy.
He was curious why she wasn’t making a move to wait out on the curb, in front of the bar. Alleys were no place to hang out, even with a bouncer having your back. “So. You wanna wait out front for your boyfriend or what?”
She looked from the ground to Levi and her cute mouth formed a slow smile. “No.”
“Good,” Levi blurted, prompting a smirk from the woman. “I mean,” he corrected, “he’s an asshole for letting you come all this way.”
Her smile, though shy, was full. “And what do you mean by ‘all this way’?”
He glared down at her; he had to let her know that once she got back to the other side of the river, she should never come back. The dock workers were about to change shifts and no northsider, male or female, who knows what’s good for them, wanted to be here when that happened. Most of those crews knew how to behave; but they were rough. They talked rough, partied hard, and didn’t take kindly to anyone unfamiliar filling a chair at the place.
Instead, Levi focused on the radiance in front of him and absorbed every detail he could see. “Look at you. Can’t get more Shoreline than you.”
Bingo. He’d guessed right. Her eyes reacted immediately.
“How did you—”
He towered over her now, his eyes traveling up and down her body. “Real leather handbag from River Drive, silk scrunchie, stainless steel water bottle with a DeTour Pier logo on it.”
Her cheeks flushed. Levi had struck a chord with that one. DeTour was the private pier. Not the public Newcastle Pier, where the tourists all went, nearest to the amusement park. DeTour was the one you had to pay to walk on. And that was before you even get the privilege of paying exorbitant rates for the quickest ferry to Lee Island, which used to be home to middle class local folks who commuted to Newcastle for work. That island life was now a privilege of the wealthy elite.
Levi worked hard to rein in the sneer in his voice when he said this.
Her eyebrows rose in interest—or challenge. “Wow. You’re pretty smart for a bouncer. You shoulda been a detective.” He could see by her face she instantly regretted saying that.
Typical, he thought. “What the fuck does that mean?”
She looked away to the side and bit her lip. “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“Yeah you did,” he said, reaching up to touch her face, but stopping halfway. “I’m just a meathead Docksider and you came down here to have a little fun pretending to be casual and shit.”
“No,” she said. “You can read where I’m from, but don’t you dare read my motives.”
He clicked his jaw. This chick is two kinds of trouble. Denying she’s just here to get her rocks off, and enjoying getting me riled up. She has no idea what I’m even like riled up, but she’s aiming to find out.
“How long until your guy gets here?” He cursed himself even as he said it. He meant to sound impatient for her to get out of his sight, but it came out as if he’d been asking for a quickie in the alley.
The tender skin of her throat jumped when she swallowed. “Five minutes.”
He grunted. “Who the fuck are you, anyway?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Slumming it for the night. Just like I thought.”
The girl aimed her chin up at him. “No. I came here to get away from people so I could study.”
“If it’s peace and quiet you want for studyin’, you came to the wrong place. You got real lucky tonight.”
She slightly gnawed on the inside of her top lip. “Or maybe I’m about to. I like watching men fight.”
Levi should have kept his mouth shut instead of saying, “That what you have to think about so your boyfriend can manage to get you off? Guys pounding each other?”
Her sexy mouth went from open to full-on gape. “You’re bad. I like you.”
He scoffed. “I ain’t your entertainment. Boxing ring’s next door.”
She closed her mouth and eyed him like he was certifiable. “It’s closed at this hour.”
“Always somebody sparring in there,” he said.
She lifted one perfectly shaped honey-colored eyebrow. “Maybe I like it with gloves off.”
Oh my fucking god. Get away from her now. She’s into some kink and she’s probably going to try to drag you into some weird fight club with follow-up sex