All Chained Up (Devil's Rock #1)(56)

His gaze tracked her. For being not much of a party girl, she was doing a good job faking it. He glared across the distance, straining and twisting his body as he worked the bar, determined to keep her in his sights. She held her hands up in the air and swayed those hips he remembered holding in his hands, anchoring her as he slid home inside.

He lifted on the balls of his feet slightly, following her stripper moves between bodies and over the tops of people’s heads. Where the hell did she learn to dance like that?

Her hair was wild and free, shining as bright as a copper penny in the dim light as she danced. He suspected she was already halfway drunk. She hadn’t imbibed much since she got here, but from the glassiness in her eyes, he would stake money that she’d had a few drinks before showing up here. Maybe she had needed the liquid courage to face him again.

Over the past week he’d felt an odd mixture of relief and disappointment that she wasn’t pregnant, and that was just all kinds of messed up. He didn’t wish her pregnant. That wasn’t right. Although as wrong as it was, he understood the disappointment. If she was pregnant, he would be a part of her life. He’d still be seeing her. What was to keep them from sleeping together more? All the time even? He could keep showing up at her apartment. Kissing her, having her, waking up tangled in her hair.

Unhealthy thinking all around and great motivation to give her a wide berth. Which he had been doing successfully. Until tonight. Until she showed up here.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She never wore her hair down like that. The only time was when he pulled it loose so he could fist his hands in it as he f*cked her. It felt like she was showing off his secret to the world. His. There was that word again.

He poured Blue a fifth of whiskey, still keeping a careful eye on her as a pair of losers closed in on Briar and her friend like fresh meat thrown to the wolves.

Annoyance burned hot though him. Annoyance? Hell, he was pissed. Just like that first time he saw her at the prison and he thought she didn’t belong. It was the same sensation but only worse. Now he knew her. He felt proprietary. Caveman and all that shit. She didn’t belong at the prison and she sure as hell didn’t belong here. She was as clueless now as she had been then. His chest tightened with a rumbling growl.

“Hey, you’re spilling good whiskey,” Blue complained, and Knox quickly pulled back the bottle.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

Blue followed his gaze to Briar and Shelley on the dance floor. “Which one?”

Knox frowned. “Which one what?”

“Which one you f*cking?”

“Neither,” he snapped, not even bothering to feel offended by the biker’s crudeness. The guy had served time with him. He’d heard worse out of him.

His aunt pushed up to the bar with more drink orders. “She’s the one with all that curly hair.” Apparently she had overhead Blue.

He glared at her. As much as he loved the woman, she was a busybody that needed to mind her own business.

“Ah. You’ve got no stake in her, then?” Blue winked knowingly at his aunt.

“That’s right.” Knox nodded and wiped down the bar where he’d spilled the whiskey.

“Then you don’t mind that guy all over her?”

His gaze swung back to the dance floor to watch a long-haired guy in a Metallica T-shirt bump and grind behind Briar.

Hell. No.

“Aunt Alice?” he said, not looking away from the dance floor.

“Yes?”

“Tell Jack I’m taking a break.”

“Sure thing, Knox.”

He walked around the bar, ignoring Blue’s and Aunt Alice’s snickers. He didn’t care if he looked like a jackass. He wasn’t going to let any man put his hands on Briar. Not in front of him. It was one thing to let her go so that she could continue her life without him. A life that would naturally include her seeing other men. Touching them. Letting them touch her. Knox had just never counted on watching that unfold in front of him. And he didn’t have to watch it. Not in his bar.

He cut a hard line across the room, stopping in front of her with a thud of his boots. She appeared to be enjoying herself. Dancing as the greasy-haired bastard grabbed onto her hips and pushed himself against her ass.

“Briar.” She looked up at his hard bite of her name. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

The color bled from her cheeks as she took in his face. She stopped dancing.

Shelley crowded close, glaring at him. “You’re kicking us out? Why?”

The guy that had been grinding behind Briar stepped forward, his chest puffing out belligerently. He threw an arm around Briar’s shoulders. “Yeah, why do they have to go? We’re not causing any trouble.”

Knox stared at him coldly. “Trouble is about to happen to you if you don’t get your arm off her.”

Greasy Hair looked down at Briar. “This your man?”

Color flooded her face and she paused a moment before shaking her head swiftly.

For some reason this only made him angrier. His hands curled into fists at his sides.

“All right, then.” Greasy Hair met his gaze again. “Then f*ck off.”

Briar gasped. Even her friend inched back, smart enough to know that shit was about to get real and she needed to get out of the way.

Briar shook her head, her expression twisting with embarrassment. She stepped out from under the guy’s arm. “It’s fine. I’ll just go.”