for the exits. “If you want to leave, just tell me. I’ll make sure you get in a cab safely.”
“I’m fine. Go dance. You need this more than I do.”
The truth was a bitter pill stuck in her throat. She did need this, and she was just selfish enough to drag her sisters and Callie into it in order to justify coming here. Actually, selfish didn’t begin to cover it, but she wasn’t going to apologize. For all the love her siblings bore her, there was no one in this world who’d put her happiness and emotional needs above all others. That was her responsibility and hers alone. If she had to be a selfish bitch to meet those needs, so be it.
She checked on Keira and Callie, but they were fine, both dancing with grins on their faces. So her brother’s fiancée could let loose. Good. She’d seen Callie’s face when she talked about Teague. The woman was over the moon for her brother, and as happy as that made her, she couldn’t kill the little sprout of jealousy that rose. Teague would finally get his happiness, and he would finally stop trying to take his sisters away and save them from this life. It had been a vain hope in the first place, but she still mourned its death. But it just reinforced her belief that no one would take care of her except her.
“I’ll be right back.” She didn’t wait for Sloan’s response before slipping through the crowd, taking her time working her way to the bar on this level, pausing to dance with this man and that and then moving away before they realized she was leaving.
The bar itself was nothing fancy—a counter of faded wood that kept the masses from getting to the wall of liquor on the other side—but it fit the club itself perfectly. She leaned over, trying to catch the bartender’s eye, dipping down a little more than necessary to flash him a generous slice of cleavage.
“Good luck. I’ve been waiting for fucking ages.”
She glanced over and froze, her breath stalling in her lungs. The man who spoke was big enough to give even her brothers pause, and had an air about him that promised more danger than she could possibly handle. It wasn’t his plain white T-shirt or faded jeans that gave that impression, and even his short, scruffy beard and long blond hair wouldn’t make her give him a second look. No, it was blazingly apparent in every line of his body, in the way he held himself as if ready for a fight to break out at any second, and the way his cold blue eyes searched the room for a threat before finally landing on her again, making her treacherous heart skip a beat.
This man was danger personified.
And she wanted him.
Carrigan leaned against the bar, taking her time looking her fill. The stranger sure knew how to fill out a shirt, and the clean-cut clothing only accented his rugged looks. He would be perfectly at home on a Harley if she had to guess. A biker. Her mouth practically watered at the thought. She leaned in to him under the pretense of wanting to speak, taking the opportunity to run her hand up his chest. Yeah, he was more cut than a damn diamond. “Hey there.”
He moved back enough to search her face. Whatever he was looking for, he must have found, because he closed the distance, his short beard scraping against her cheek as his lips brushed her ear. “You look too classy for this joint.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
“I sure as fuck hope so.” His hand settled on the small of her back, a slight nudging that she could have resisted easily. She didn’t. Instead, she let him guide her closer yet, until the front of their bodies pressed against each other. The fabric of her dress was so thin, it might as well not have existed. She could almost feel the calluses on his palm, and she resented the hell out of the barrier.
“You want to take this somewhere more…private?”
His laugh rumbled in her ear. “You read my mind.”
A quick glance at the dance floor showed no sign of her sisters or Callie, but she had no illusions that they wouldn’t come looking for her if she was gone too long. So she wouldn’t be gone too long. She grabbed the stranger’s hand and led the way back toward the bathrooms. Bypassing them, she tried the