Rescue Me (Demon Riders MC #1) (3 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

The openness that had been in Suzi’s face just a moment before disappears and the shutters come down on her eyes. “Fair warning.” She huffs the words out, throwing them down more like a challenge than a caution. She grabs the tray, sauntering over towards the men playing pool and Elyse watches her go, wondering what the hell that was all about.

Elyse observes as Suzi hands out the drinks to the men around the pool table, paying particular attention to the supremely cute guy Elyse had seen when she walked in. They’re engaged in conversation and it gives Elyse the chance to get a good look at him. He leans lazily on his pool cue and he really seems to know how to work the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing.

They’re familiar with each other, standing close and looking intimate. He reaches out and takes hold of her chin, looking straight into her eyes as he says something and she nods tiredly as if he’s telling her something that she already knows. Elyse feels a pang of jealousy as she watches them and it catches her completely off-guard, making her wonder where it’s come from. Sure, he’s cute but she hasn’t even spoken to him. She doesn’t have any grounds to be jealous of whatever his relationship is with Suzi.

All of a sudden, as if the couple has sensed Elyse staring, they both look up at her, in unison and Elyse holds her breath as her eyes lock with his. Even from this distance she can see his eyes are so dark they’re almost black and the thought that she could fall into eyes like that skitters across her mind before she pulls herself together and forces herself to break the stare. She can feel her heartbeat speed up and it’s so loud in her own ears she can’t believe no one else can hear it.

Joe is giving her a look, as if he has just watched the scene play out and he knows exactly what’s going on in her mind. The thought of that makes her blush.

“I’ll take another one, thanks.” She raises her empty beer bottle towards him, wondering how she’d drunk it so quickly without even realizing. Joe nods and shrugs at her as if to say ‘whatever.’

“This one’s on me.” The voice comes from behind Elyse, a middle-aged guy in a crumpled suit who looks like he’s hiding from his wife. After the encounter with her boss today, it was easy to recognize the type.

“That’s all right. I’m good.” Elyse holds up her hand in thanks to the man, not wanting to offend him but also not wanting to give him the wrong idea by accepting a drink. He clearly wasn’t part of the Demon Riders. Lord only knows how he’d found his way into Shooters.

But he doesn’t seem to be willing to take no for an answer. He slips off of his stool and sidles over to her. He’s not tall, but she’s forced to look up at him from her seated position. He leans close enough for her to smell the booze on his breath. But it’s not only coming from his breath, it oozes off of his skin, like he’s just topping up whatever he’s been consuming for the past few days.

“Come on, beautiful. Let me buy you a drink.” He leers at her, looking at her long legs that the hot pants do nothing to hide.

Anxious not to cause a scene, Elyse decides that sometimes the path of least resistance is the best bet. “Thanks, that’s nice of you.” She smiles at him winningly and leans back, away from him a little, hoping the hint is enough for him to give her some space. But, if anything, he gets even closer to her.

Joe deposits the bottle in front of her and looks like he wants to say something, but he’s called over to the far end of the bar by another punter.

“So, what’s your name, beautiful?” Drunk Suit Guy leans towards her as she tries to maneuver herself farther away from him.

“Elyse.” She blurts out her real name before she can think of a fake one and curses herself for not having decided on one before she’d come to the bar.

“Elyse, that’s a beautiful name.” He leers at her and Elyse tries to shuffle backwards on her stool. “How much?”

For a second, Elyse wonders if she’s misheard him. “How much for what?” She looks at him completely confused and watches as frustration flickers across his face.

“Well, what do you do?” He smiles greedily at her again and alarm bells start ringing in her head.

“Sorry, but I think you’re a little drunk. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, looking in the opposite direction and hoping that he’ll just take the hint and leave her alone.

He grabs her hand and her head snaps back towards his. “What’s the matter? My money isn’t good enough for you? I didn’t think girls like you were that picky.”

Elyse looks at his hand clutching her wrist and it suddenly dawns on her what this is all about. He thinks she’s a hooker. She fits the pieces together – the bartender asking if she was a little young for this, Suzi’s warning about the men in the bar – it all makes sense now. She looks down at herself in her leather get-up and realizes that a hooker is probably exactly what she looks like.

“Let go of my hand.” Her voice is low but strong despite the nerves in her stomach. “I’m not whatever it is that you think I am. I’m just having a nice quiet drink. So why don’t you let go of me and go back to your seat? You don’t want to do something you’ll just have to lie to your wife about.” She looks pointedly at his gold wedding band.

Elyse watches as his expression changes from irritation to pure anger. The alcohol in his system has kicked in and it’s heightening all his emotions. Elyse has seen more than one bar fight break out amongst inebriated frat boys at college to know the score.

“Don’t you dare talk about my wife!” His hand tightens its grip on her wrist and she winces involuntarily. “What’s the matter? You think you’re too good for me? My money’s as green as the next guy’s, honey. So cut the crap and let’s get out of here.” He jerks her arm, pulling her off her stool and the alarm bells in her head get even louder. He’s a big guy but soft from too many years on the road eating junk food and drinking himself into an early grave.

She thinks about not drawing attention to herself, her intention had been to go under the radar. She thinks about what Brett has always told her in his class – not to react, not to think that she’s invincible, that the best defense was to run in the other direction. Brett almost never advocated violence, but he admitted that there were some exceptions, especially for a woman. She figures that this is one of those times. Decision made, her brain kicks into autopilot and she plants her feet solidly, silently cursing her too-big boots.

Drunk Suit Guy gives her arm another yank, trying to pull her towards the exit and she explodes into action. Her left leg kicks out, landing on the side of his knee, making it buckle and pushing him off balance. At the same time, she delivers a knife hand strike to the side of his neck, enough to stun him but not enough to cause any permanent damage. He lands on his ass with a thud, looking up at Elyse as if she’d tricked him.

He goes to stand and Elyse doesn’t even have time to plan her next move when she’s aware of a steadying hand on her shoulder. She turns her head and sees the hot guy from the pool table next to her, looking down at Drunk Suit Guy on the floor and shaking his head.

“Stay down.” His voice is a growl and it does strange things to her stomach.

Drunk Suit Guy seems to take him at his word, freezing mid-crouch.

He turns his attention to Elyse, giving her an appraising look with eyes that are even darker than she had thought. “You all right?”

Elyse nods slowly, not trusting her voice not to come out as a squeak. What was wrong with her? It wasn’t like she’d never seen a good-looking guy before and they’d never reduced her to a mute.

“That was a pretty impressive move.” He looks at her admiringly and Elyse feels her heart flutter in her chest.

But before she can answer, she catches movement in the corner of her eye as Drunk Suit Guy straightens up, probably figuring that now was the best time to make his move with them both distracted. Elyse tenses, but not quickly enough. He reaches out to grab her again, the anger in his eyes plain for anyone to see and she takes a step back just as Hot Pool-playing Guy inserts himself between the two of them. He lets a lightning punch fly, hitting the suit right in the nose.

Elyse watches with a small amount of satisfaction as blood starts spurting from his nose. “You broke my nose, you fuck!” He clutches at his nose, looking at them both, outraged as if they were the ones that had started the fight.

“I’ll break more than that if you don’t get out of here right now.” The deep voice from the specimen in front of her gives Elyse a little thrill and she watches as his broad shoulders stiffen, his hands clenching, ready for action.

“Who are you? Her pimp?” Suit Guy spits the words out and Elyse feels herself blush at the outright accusation.

“Who am I? I’m the guy who’s going to kick your ass if you don’t get out of here.” He doesn’t even give Suit Guy a chance to respond before he grabs him by the lapels of his sad suit and half hustles, half drags him towards the exit, virtually throwing him out of the doors.

Elyse looks around and the other men in the bar barely even seem to have registered what has just gone down. They must be pretty accustomed to seeing fights, she reasons to herself. The doors swing open again and Hot Guy walks through, looking grim and holding a wallet.

“How much he owe you, Joe?” He starts pulling out bills before the bartender answers.

“Twenty even, Dane.” Joe doesn’t even miss a beat, taking the money and pocketing it before the other man disappears out of the door again, returning a few seconds later without the wallet.

He walks right up to Elyse and motions towards her beer that must have been knocked over at some point in the struggle. “Can I get you another?” Elyse still hasn’t quite recovered the power of speech and he seems to take her silence as assent, motioning towards Joe for two more beers.

She realizes that soon he’s going to start wondering if she was actually capable of speaking. “Thanks…for getting rid of that creep.”

Dane shrugs as if to say it was no big deal. “You looked like you were doing pretty well before I showed up.” He levels her with that admiring look of his and she has to break eye contact before he renders her mute again. Damn, but the man was handsome. Handsome in the kind of movie star smoldering way you don’t really believe exists in real life.

She hides her smile of satisfaction that he’d noticed she wasn’t just some damsel in distress. “I do okay.” She shrugs like she gets into fights all the time when the truth is that she can only count on one hand the number of times she’s actually had to use any of her karate in the outside world.

He nods to Joe as the bartender places their drinks down in front of them before moving off to take another order. It’s clear he’s a friend; he doesn’t seem to have any issues with the scuffle that just went down in his place.

“Haven’t seen you around here before.” It’s a throwaway comment but Elyse gets the feeling from the way Dane’s eyes never seem to rest on one thing for too long that he doesn’t miss much.

“Haven’t been ‘round here before.” She takes a swig of her beer, noticing he has dimples when he smiles.

“You always talk this much?” He raises a questioning eyebrow at her and she laughs out loud at his joke.

“Only after a bar brawl.”

CHAPTER SIX

She feels a jolt in her chest as they stare at each other and notices the flare of attraction in his eyes. She feels like she could burn up under the intensity of this man’s stare. Her eyes drop to his lips and she wonders what it would be like to kiss him. His mouth quirks up in a sexy smile like he knows exactly what she’s thinking and she feels herself blush for the second time that night. She drops her gaze back to the beer bottle she’s absently playing with in her hands, searching for something to cut the tension.

“So you come here a lot?” She cringes at the lameness of her question. It sounds like a pickup, exactly the opposite of what she was going for.

He throws her an amused look, but seems to take pity on her. “I guess. It’s biker-friendly and there aren’t too many of those places around.”

Elyse feels excitement prickling her skin. This is what she’d come here for: information on the MC, not to get hypnotized by some guy’s eyes. “You’re a biker?”

“Guilty as charged.” He opens his arms and, absently, Elyse notices the tattoos on the inside of his tight biceps. One is an illustration of a motorbike and the other is a flowing script with the word ‘Brotherhood.’ She’s seen enough biker tattoos from her day of Internet research to know that these most definitely qualify.

“So you’re part of a Motorcycle Club?” She frowns, looking like she’s not sure if that’s even the right term.

“Trying to be.” He takes another swig of his beer, signaling the end to that line of questioning.

“You always talk this much?” She watches as his eyes twinkle in amusement at her.

“Only when I’m with a pretty girl who can bring a grown man to his knees.” He pins her with that look of his again and Elyse swallows hard. “So am I allowed to ask?”

Elyse frowns at him, wondering where this is going and hoping to hell that he isn’t about to ask how much she charges. “What? What my specialty is?” She figures it’s better to face the elephant in the room head-on rather than skirting around it. He barks a laugh at her bluntness and Elyse registers what a great sound it is.

Focus, Powell, focus.

“That wasn’t the route I was going. You don’t exactly look the type.” He emphasizes his point looking her up and down, his eyes lingering on her long legs and figure hugging leather top.

She feels herself flush again and does what she always does when she’s nervous, she covers it with a joke. “Apparently that’s exactly what I look like.” She holds out her arms as if to make it plain that she’s well aware of how slutty she looks. Damn you, Jen and your Dominatrix outfit, she thinks to herself. Her outfit had clearly needed more research than she’d put into it. “So what did you want to ask?” She plays with the bottle in front of her, wondering why she cares what he’s about to say.

“Well, you don’t look like the kind of girl who turns tricks. So why are you dressed like one? From the way you’re squirming around in that get-up I’m guessing it’s not the kind of thing you usually go for.” He says the words simply, but Elyse isn’t fooled, he clearly sees more than he makes out.

A little embarrassed at the fact that her outfit has so clearly given out the wrong impression, Elyse says the first thing that comes into her head before she’s had time to check if it sounds remotely plausible or not. “It was a dare from a friend.” She rolls her eyes theatrically. “This place is sort of a well-known biker hangout, we played truth or dare, I chose the dare. So here I am. My friend Jen thought it would be funny and she was right up until I was mistaken for an extra from
Pretty Woman
.” She shrugs, looking up at him and hoping that her explanation doesn’t sound as ridiculous to him as it does to her.

He doesn’t seem ready to buy her story just yet, but he doesn’t question her. Instead he just looks into her bottomless blue eyes as deeply as she’s looking into his. Elyse wonders if that has anything to do with the reason he’s willing to put his reservations about her story to one side.

“So now I know the name of your friend that managed to persuade you into that outfit, but I don’t know yours.” He looks at her expectantly, leaning in a little closer than necessary and it strikes Elyse that he’s flirting with her. Sure, it’s an ego boost, but she hasn’t forgotten the very familiar way he was chatting with the waitress from earlier, perhaps this is just the way he behaves with everyone.

Get a grip, Powell, this guy probably has women falling at his feet on a daily basis. Just because he’s being nice to you doesn’t mean he’s interested.

“Is it really that bad?” She stands up a little straighter and puts her hands on her hips, realizing she’s flirting with him.

He gives her a blatant slow once over, from the tips of her borrowed boots right up to her big blue eyes that Jen has managed to make look even bigger tonight. It couldn’t be any different to the once over she’d had from his girlfriend earlier or from the Drunk Suit Guy. It doesn’t make her feel cheap or trashy. It makes her feel sexy and it warms her right through.

“Bad is definitely not the word I’d used to describe how you look. But you don’t need to fish for compliments. I have no problem telling a girl how pretty she is.” He shoots her a cocky smile that would probably be infuriating if he weren’t so damn attractive and Elyse feels herself flush. “So are you going to avoid my question or are you going to tell me your name?” He takes another sip of his beer, looking nonchalant, as if it doesn’t matter to him if she tells him or not. As the silent seconds tick by, eventually he sighs heavily and sticks his hand out towards her as if he’s showing her something she hasn’t seen before. “How about this? I’ll go first. I’m Dane, nice to meet you…”

She smiles, enjoying the game and his complete confidence in himself. “My name’s Elyse.” She shakes his offered hand, almost giggling at the formality of the act after the events of the night. But any desire she has to laugh is abruptly stifled by the zing that jolts through her as she touches him. His hand is warm and strong and she feels the heat travel through her body right down to her core.

Dane watches her as her emotions play out across her face. She had never been very good at keeping a poker face. He gives her that sexy grin of his again and Elyse abruptly pulls her hand away from his as if his touch had burned her. In a way it had. She takes a hurried sip of her drink, more from a lack of anything else to do to distract her from the sexy man next to her than because she actually wanted the beer.

“So where’d you learn the moves you pulled on that asshole?” Dane jerks his head towards the exit where he’d escorted Drunk Suit Guy. “You looked like you knew what you were doing.”

“I’ve been doing martial arts since I was a kid. I’ve only had to use it a few times in real life.” She realizes her hand trembles against her beer.

Dane’s warm hand covers her shaking one. “It’s normal that you’re a little shook up. It would be weird if you weren’t. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen to most people every day.” The gentleness in his eyes makes her heart melt a little.

“If that’s true, why do I get the feeling that this wasn’t your first fight?” She raises a questioning eyebrow at him, surreptitiously slipping her hand out from under his and immediately missing the contact when she does.

“You couldn’t really call that a fight.” He shakes his head dismissively at the thought.

Elyse wonders if he’s normally this cagey or if he’s purposefully avoiding answers to her questions. The thought crosses her mind that, perhaps she isn’t the only one with something to hide. Her cell buzzes insistently in her pocket, interrupting her train of thought. It’s Jen, asking her when she’s going to be done.

Suddenly Elyse feels exhausted. Her first night on the reporting job that she’s expecting to kick start her whole career has pretty much been a bust. Between being mistaken for a hooker, getting involved in a bar brawl, and having found out absolutely zero information about the Demon Riders, she could officially call this night a complete waste of time. Dane throws her one of those intense stares of his and she rectifies her assessment of the night. Perhaps it wasn’t a
complete
waste.

“I should get back. It was nice to meet you, Dane, and thanks again for your help.” She signals for Joe to tell her what she owes.

“Those are on me, Joe.” Dane beats her to the punch and Joe doesn’t seem to have any intention of taking her money.

Elyse contemplates arguing, but the night has been way too long for her not to appreciate a seriously hot, nice guy buying her a drink. “Then thanks again, I guess.” She throws him a smile and grabs her jacket.

“Hold up, where’s the fire?” Dane catches hold of her arm before she manages to walk past him.

Elyse throws him a questioning glance, trying not to notice the electric current that runs up her arm from the contact between them. “No fire. I should just get going. My friend will probably be wondering why I haven’t called her yet to come get me.”

“Jen.” Dane nods knowingly and Elyse can’t help but feel a little thrill of triumph that he’s cared enough to actually listen to her and remember her friend’s name. He straightens up, coming to his full height so that she has to look up at him, at five-nine it’s not easy to find a guy who towers over her like Dane does. He makes her feel small and delicate and feminine. It’s a nice feeling. “You ever been on a bike?”

Elyse raises an eyebrow, surprised at the question. “Like a motorcycle?” She wishes the stupidity of the words back as soon as they’re out of her mouth.

Dane’s lips spread into that sexy smile of his. “Yeah, a motorcycle. I could give you a ride home. It’s on my way.”

Elyse levels him with a flat look. “You don’t even know where I live!”

He shrugs. “Wherever it is, I’m sure it’s on my way.” His cockiness would be annoying on anyone else, but it really seems to work for him, his confidence making him even more appealing. Without waiting for her response, he takes her hand and leads her out of the bar as if it were the most normal thing in the world.