Page 13 of A Dark Fall
“You want him outside, Jay?” the creep asks.
What? I turn to Jake, incredulous. He still looks angry—a glare that only intensifies when he turns his stare on Matt.
“Did you come with him?” Jake asks. I don’t realize immediately he’s talking to me because he’s glaring past me, but then his eyes catch mine. Piercing. “You and him, together?” he asks me, quieter.
I shake my head. “No. I just met him.” Does he seriously think I’d have allowed what happened upstairs to happen if I came with Matt?
Jake’s face softens a fraction before he goes toward Matt, brushing past me, all coiled strength and sexual arrogance. Yes, I decide, it’s definitely a thing.
“Come on, mate. What’s this all about? This is crap.” Matt sounds indignant, but there’s panic there below the surface.
Despite being a few inches shorter, Jake’s demeanor makes him look the more powerful of the two. He holds himself completely differently from any other man I know, as if he’s trying to contain something destructive. Power reined in tight. He looks dangerous suddenly. Matt seems to come to the same conclusion because he takes a step back and swallows, expensive vacation tan fading before my eyes.
“First off, I am not your fucking mate,” Jake growls.
I stiffen. His voice is an unwholesome mixture of calm and malice, and it puts me completely on edge. Matt looks at me as though sending out a visual SOS. I wonder whether to step in.
“Hey, hey—you don’t look at her, yeah?” Jake snaps, quiet. “You hear me? Eyes back here, pretty boy.”
Matt looks back at Jake for only a moment before dropping his eyes to his feet. My mind catches on the term “pretty boy,” because there’s an irony in the fact that compared to Jake, Matt looks like Quasimodo.
“I’m just here with my mates having a good time,” Matt mutters quietly.
“Yeah, I fucking bet you were,” Jake’s friend snickers, shooting a glance at me.
I see Jake’s jaw clench hard, a tremble of rage moving over him. Something propels me forward.
“This is ridiculous, Jake. What is this about?”
His head snaps around to me, his eyes harsh and cold still. “What this is about, Alex, is that this prick here was trying to mount you on my fucking dance floor,” he says coldly.
I jerk back as though he’s slapped me. Mount me? I feel indignant, defensive, embarrassed. My cheeks flare. As I stare at Jake open-mouthed, he studies my face—every inch of it, it seems—for a bloody eternity.
“What, wait—she’s your girlfriend? Oh, fuck. I had no idea, mate,” Matt says, breaking the silence. “Sorry.”
Jake and I speak together:
“I’m not his girlfriend,” I snap.
“I am not your fucking mate,” Jake hisses. Something flickers behind his eyes, something less cold, and he licks his lips in that slow, deliberate way. As though he deliberately wants me to think about kissing him. As though he deliberately wants to remind me of him kissing me.
Suddenly, his face softens, and he nods once, the suggestion of a smile tugging at the corner of his petal-pink mouth. He turns away from me to address Matt again, his shoulders more relaxed this time, his body less murderous.
“Well, it looks like it’s your lucky night, mate,” Jake tells him. “There happens to be someone here I’m trying to show my nice side to. Also, I don’t really fancy getting your blood on my shirt. So, take this as a warning, yeah? I see you back here anytime soon, it ain’t going to end like this. Your friends can stay, but I want you the fuck out of here. Now.”
I can’t believe he sounds so reasonable considering what he’s saying. For a second, Matt looks as if he might say something back, maybe try to argue the point, but he doesn’t. Instead, he nods once and shakes his head.
“Smart move,” Jake says. “Kev, get him the fuck out of here.”
The security guard, aided by the creep, immediately starts hauling Matt down the hallway away from us.
“You can’t throw him out for absolutely no reason, Jake. That’s ridiculous.” I use my professional voice again, and it stops Kev and the security guard in their tracks, amused. Matt looks annoyed, which is ungrateful to say the least.
Jake takes a step toward me—so close I can feel his heat and smell his smell again. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, Alex,” he breathes. “’Cause I can do whatever the fuck I want in here. And we both know it’s not for no reason.” He darkens.
“Oh, that’s right. It was for trying to mount me.” I nod. “Well, since I was also a part of that, maybe you should throw me out too.” I raise my eyebrows.
Jake’s eyes darken. “From where I was standing, you didn’t seem to be enjoying it. But maybe I was wrong.” His voice is quiet, his breathing fast. “Were you?”