Any Day Now - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,12

ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, then proceeded to throw his money around as if that would impress me.

It didn’t.

In fact, all it did was gross me out.

Because some of the women that worked at the club were desperate and Rogan damn well knew it.

Sometimes all he asked for was a hug, and then he’d tip a hundred bucks.

Others, he’d ask for a smile.

Or a kiss on the cheek.

I wasn’t sure if the others were falling for it or not, but I sure the fuck wasn’t.

My daddy taught me better than that.

“How about you come take a seat on my lap?” he suggested. “Take a bit of a break.”

I clenched my teeth and went back to wiping down the bar, followed shortly by rearranging glasses, restocking beer, and then anything else I could do to ignore the man that kept his eyes on me like he owned me.

I fought the full-body shiver that went through me and was just about to walk up to a newcomer at the end of the bar when chaos erupted at the bachelor party across the room.

Chaos that quickly spread when about fifteen ladies came into the room, all of them throwing fits.

The men that Rogan had come in with, two people that looked important but didn’t throw their importance around like young Rogan did, maneuvered to flank Rogan.

Which was when I realized that they were his bodyguards.

They stood in front and to the side of him protectively, as if they were just waiting for danger to come his way.

Who the hell was Rogan Germain?

He’d actually talked about himself once, and I’d started to listen, but there was only so much self-absorbed arrogance I could take. I’d zoned out and started reciting my notes in my head.

Ignoring the man and his obvious bodyguards, I walked to the end of the bar and watched as the women fought the men. Like, full out, no holds barred, fought them. There were kicks, punches, lunges, ducks. Seriously, I’d never seen anything more entertaining in my life.

And only when the officers started to swarm the room did things start to calm down enough for me to realize that Rogan was standing incredibly close to me, and it was seriously creeping me out.

I stepped away, right into the path of his bodyguard.

The bodyguard didn’t move, but I could tell that he was doing his best to keep me from moving away from Rogan without being too obvious about it.

“Excuse me,” I said through clenched teeth, trying to get around them.

Rogan shifted closer. The bodyguard shifted sideways, blocking my path.

Which then pissed me off.

“Get back,” I ordered as fiercely as I could.

Rogan laughed, his chilling voice skating like a cold finger down my spine.

“You’re smaller than I imagined you’d be,” Rogan said, reaching for my hair.

I jerked myself back, snarled, and did what my daddy taught me to do when I felt threatened.

I fought back.

Snapping my fist back before either bodyguard could react, I launched it forward and aimed it directly for Rogan’s perfectly straight, aristocratic nose.

It hit with a satisfying crunch.

Seconds later I found myself on the ground with two hundred and fifty pounds of man muscle on top of me, restraining me.

But I wasn’t fighting.

I was laughing.

Why? Because Rogan was whining like a little girl.

The bodyguard’s hands tightened on my arms to the point of pain, and I reared back and slammed the back of my head into the man’s nose, too.

Before the second bodyguard could reach for me, I was on my feet and yanking my leg back to land a solid kick to the bodyguard’s face.

The steel in my steel-toed boots hit the bodyguard’s temple, and he passed out.

Bodyguard two reached for me just as a second pair of hands did, too.

Only, I didn’t struggle when the strong, muscular arm reached around me and pulled me tight to his body.

Because I was very, very familiar with the tattoo on the fingers. Most particularly because I’d had those fingers in my mouth when I was sucking off icing from a couple of donuts.

I went limp.

All the fight went out of me.

“No struggling for me?” he asked, the rasp of his voice making my heart sing.

I licked my lips.

“No.”

One simple word, but the meaning was clear.

I would never struggle when it came to this man.

He squeezed me tight, his arm slipping away from me to be replaced by his hand as he pressed me back into him.

“What happened?” he asked curiously.

I licked my lips, then gestured to