On Dublin Street(75)

Maybe I was a little drunk.


I was just about to go to the bar and ask for water when I felt a cool hand on my bare back. I turned, surprised to find Gavin, the personal trainer, smiling down at me.


“Joss.” He grinned, still touching me. “It’s nice to see you again.”


I’ll admit that the huge smile I gave him was more about being pissed off at Braden for getting me to take the night off work and then ignoring me for most of it. “Gavin, hey.”


He whistled as he drew his gaze down my body and I noted the slight sway of his own. He was definitely drunk. “You look stunning.”


I smiled again. “Thank you.”


“What are you doing here tonight?”


“Uh… I know the owner.”


His eyes narrowed and he nodded slowly. “I see.”


“What about you?”


“Well, I’m here to dance. With you.”


I laughed out right. “Oh, smooth.”


“I do try. Why do-”


SMACK!


Gavin’s hand was ripped away from my body and I watched in horror as he crumpled to the floor, blood trickling down his nose. I glanced up at Braden who was shaking out his already swelling fist, his chest heaving with fury as he glared down at Gavin. The crowd had parted around us, watching, and I felt Adam and Ellie sidle up to us. “What the hell was that?” I choked out, loud enough to be heard over the music that had incidentally been turned down a notch when the crowed ooohed at Braden’s punch.


Braden shot me a dirty look. “That is Gavin. The friend who f*cked Analise. Why the hell were you talking to him like you know him?”


My mouth fell open as I turned to look at the personal trainer, watching as he got back on his feet. Shock and disgust warred within me. “He’s a trainer at my gym. He helped me once.” I glanced back up at Braden. “I swear I didn’t know.”


Gavin snorted and we looked back at him. He was swiping the blood from his nose and grinning at Braden. “Looks like you moved onto better things, Bray.” His eyes scanned me now, sleazy and probing. “Here’s hoping history repeats itself, because I’ve wanted between her legs for f*cking weeks. How about it, Joss? You fancy shagging a real man?”


Braden was like lightning. One minute he was at my side and the next he had Gavin on the floor, his fist pounding into him again and again. Adam darted past me and started to pull him off, the security appearing through the crowds to pick up a bloodied Gavin and hold him back.


Adam held tight to Braden as the two faced off. Braden pointed threateningly at Gavin. “You stay the f*ck away from her,” he snarled.


Gavin wiped at his face again, wincing. “Christ, you never hit me when I banged your old lady, Bray. Tease you about your latest skank and I’m down in seconds. Is her * made of gold or something?”


Braden growled and lunged for him again, and one of the bartenders helped Adam to hold him back. “Get him out of here,” Adam ordered the security and then his eyes narrowed on Gavin. “I see you out on the street, I’ll knock your teeth through the back of your skull.”


At Adam’s threat Gavin made a face and let the security manhandle him out of the club.


I stared wide-eyed at Braden, not really even registering Gavin’s horrible words. Braden had hit someone. Over me? After just telling me he’d never hit anyone since he was nineteen, he’d hit someone. Over me. Or was it about his ex-wife?


I struggled to process it, the blood still whooshing in my ears.


Braden jerked Adam’s hands off him.


“You alright, bud?” Adam asked him.


Instead of answering, Braden’s eyes slid to me. His arm shot out and he grabbed my wrist, pulling me as he spun around and started making his way towards his office. I shot a wide-eyed look over my shoulder at a worried Ellie, but didn’t stop the momentum for fear I’d go over on my ankle.


I was hauled into the office with a sharp tug and I tottered up against Braden’s ‘nice and big’ office desk as the door crashed shut behind us. Very deliberately, Braden turned the lock.


I waited, unnerved by this fire-breathing, scary caveman-on-crack, version of Braden as he strode menacingly towards me. “First, you wear that dress so every man in this club wants to screw you. Then you start flirting with the man who f*cking betrayed me,” he hissed into my face.


I pushed against his chest to no avail, my own anger rising. “Hey!” I retorted. “One: back off the dress. I like it, so suck it up. And two: I didn’t even know who he was!”


If it was even possible his face got a whole lot cloudier. I shivered, trying to step back, but the desk was in my way. “And yet you were still flirting with him!”


He’d never yelled at me before, and I flinched back, intimidated and pissed off in equal measure. I shoved harder at his chest, but he only pressed into my hands like a damn cement block. “Me?” I huffed incredulously. “You ask me to take the night off for this, and then I find out you’ve invited all your previous f*ck buddies and girlfriends, and you spend the entire night flirting your ass off with more than one of them! What is this, Braden?” I felt the anger dissolve into hurt and with it my voice grew quieter, “Is this me getting laid off early?”