Page 5 of Saint
He frowned at the question, probably because it was so silly. Then he seemed to think it over before sending her a wicked grin. “A dragon. Yours?”
Goosebumps rose on her arms. Yep, she could definitely see that. “I’d say…a cat.”
He chuckled. “You got claws, Goldilocks?”
She nodded. “They’re currently sheathed, but I will use them if provoked.”
A deep laugh burst from his throat and then the alarm buzzed. He didn’t get up, though, and she didn’t mind. However, when the next guy walked over, he seemed to mind quite a bit.
“Get up, bro. It’s my turn.”
“Keep moving,” Nik growled, tossing a glare at the frat boy with his hat on backward.
“No way. I want a chance to talk to her, too. She’s the hottest one here.” When Nik didn’t move to stand up, the other guy turned downright whiny. “You can’t hog her all to yourself. The alarm went off.”
Mia tensed. Was he insane? Challenging a dangerous-looking man like Nik?
“What alarm?” Nik asked innocently.
“The one on the table. Are you blind?”
Mia looked from Khal Drogo to Frat Boy, holding her breath as the tension in the air increased. Very casually, Nik picked up the little plastic alarm clock then crushed it in his fist. Frat Boy’s jaw dropped and Mia’s lips twitched. Maybe she should be disturbed instead of amused, but she’d always had a warped sense of humor.
“Sorry,bro, but ours broke. Guess I lost track of time.” Nik shoved his chair back and stood up. He turned his full attention on Mia and held out a very large, inked hand. “You ready?”
Her heart thundered and warning lights went off in her head. The rational part of her brain screamed “violent stranger” and “no way in hell!” while the more curious part wanted to take his hand, walk out that door and hop on the back of his motorcycle. Because this guy definitely had to own a bike. It came with the surly expression, leather jacket and sarcastic attitude, right?
But this wasn’t a book or movie, and even though he was brutally attractive in a very dark and rough sort of way, Miadidn’t want her lifeless body to end up in a dumpster. Yeah, real life could be a bit of a buzzkill, but better to be safe than the victim of a serial killer. Alarm-unaliver had red flags written all over his tragically beautiful face.
Too bad.
“I don’t think so,” Mia said carefully.
“Suit yourself.” He shrugged, then turned and walked away.
Disappointment flooded through Mia when Frat Boy sat down and Mr. Dangerous disappeared out the front door.
“What an asshole,” Frat Boy said. “And what was up with all the tats? Talk about overkill, right?”
Shit.The seconds began ticking by and Mia bit her lower lip, wondering if she’d just made a mistake. The first man who’d caught her attention in a very long time just walked away after expressing interest in her. All because she was scared to take a chance.
Before she could think too hard about it, Mia downed the rest of her drink and stood up. “I have to go. Sorry.”
Hustling through the crowd, she told herself she was just going to go out and take a quick look around. Afterall, Nik was probably already gone. A man like that didn’t wait around and probably had a bottomless pool of willing women just waiting for him.
Throwing the front door open, she stepped out into the cool night and scanned the packed parking lot.Figures,she thought, her hopes deflating. Nik was gone and—
A shadow stepped out of the darkness, and before she realized what was happening, Mia was lifted up and tossed overa very broad shoulder. She cried out in surprise, her fingers grabbing onto a leather jacket, feet getting ready to kick some very uncomfortable places, when she realized it was Nik.
“Hey!” she squeaked, her surprise turning into shock. “Put me down!”
“I tried doing this the easy and polite way. You shut me down. So now we’re doing this my way.”
The initial thought he was only playing around quickly morphed into a cold trickle of fear. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone looking for him. Maybe he was exactly like he looked—trouble to his very dark core. “I’m going to scream!”
“I’m not going to hurt you. But, if you wanna scream, go right ahead. Scream your bloody head off.”
As she bounced up and down against his back, she tried to twist around so she could see him better. He paused beside an SUV, opened the door and tossed her onto the back seat. Her fear skyrocketed.Scrambling up, she turned and cried, “What are youdoing?”