Where Lightning Strikes (Bleeding Stars #3)(35)

I’d had the stupid compulsion to apologize again.

Instead I’d pressed my back against my wall to keep myself concealed when she’d come out her door, looking like the best thing I’d ever seen. Like everything I couldn’t have. So I’d convinced myself again just to let her be.

Of course that’d been shot straight to hell when Ash, Zee, and I had come strolling into Charlie’s. She hadn’t seen me, but I’d caught the tail end of what the piece of shit had said to her.

Worst of all was I’d seen the look in his eye.

Like she was dirt and he was about to get dirty.

Charlie had intervened with Tamar, because I was pretty damned sure I’d seen the girl just about to lose her cool, while Nathan, the big-ass, burly bartender who doubled as security, started to haul the piece of shit out the door.

I’d seen red.

It was instant. The spike of rage that pierced me like a fiery arrow. It’d come on like a hurricane. The need to protect this girl. The need to hurt whoever hurt her.

I was right behind Nathan.

I knew it was the aftereffects of last night. Of feeling so f*cking helpless when all I’d wanted was to track down the bastard who’d struck that all-consuming fear in her.

Nothing had prepared me for the look of absolute horror—fear—on the normally fierce, beautiful Red.

Ash had intervened, got in between us and shoved me back. He knew from experience. If I unleashed the fury there would be no stopping its force. He told me to go check on his Tam Tam while he and Zee took care of what needed to be done. Charlie’d been game and pointed me in the right direction.

Wasn’t supposed to end up with her pressed against the wall with my hands and mouth all over her lush body, words falling from my tongue that didn’t belong.

But the second I’d seen her slumped over, like she was giving it all to hold herself up? I couldn’t stop it.

It felt like holding her might be something right.

Like maybe I’d be doing something good.

So yeah, I wanted to f*ck her. Wasn’t gonna lie. I knew a piece of me was just being greedy. Wanting something I shouldn’t have.

But maybe two months would give her more than that. Maybe it’d give her back something she’d lost. Maybe for once I’d be counted a benefit rather than a stain.

I studied Zee whose knee was bouncing around with enough amped-up energy to light up the town.

“You okay?” I asked.

He shrugged a single shoulder. “He had it coming.”

Ash gestured at him. “One of these days he’s going to jump in.”

Zee cracked a smile. “Looked to me like you had it handled just fine.”

Ash laughed. “Dude was a *. All he needed was to be taught a little respect. Nathan and I were all too happy to give him a lesson. Pretty sure he’s feeling it in all the right places.”

“Thanks, man,” I said to Ash.

“I’ve got you,” he returned seriously, before a knowing smile came sliding back to his face.

Great.

My gaze slithered over the darkened space. The crowd churned, doing their best to get up close to the stage, and a mob swarmed the bar.

Tamar had pulled herself together and gotten behind it. Fingers fluttered over her shirt to smooth it out, swept through that wild red hair to tame what I’d spent the last fifteen minutes mussing up.

She caught my stare and a tic of one of those sexy smirks curved her sweet mouth. But there was timidity, too. She waved a bottle of Jager my direction.

You want?

Hell yeah, I most definitely did want.

I lifted a chin in acknowledgment.

Sure.

Ash clucked. Heaviness gone. Pot-stirrer firmly back in place. “So, did you ride in there like a knight in shining armor and save the damsel in distress? Kind of ironic because my Tam Tam just doesn’t seem the type. Looks to me like she is perfectly capable of doing a little ass-kickin’ herself.”

That’s because he didn’t know her.

Not at all.

And by some miracle…I did.

I hiked my shoulders, not about to betray what she’d somehow trusted me with last night. “We talked. She’s good. And I’m sure she could have handled herself just fine.”

His brow lifted like maybe he suspected more. Like he’d sniffed out my bluff and was getting ready to call me on it. “You sure about that…the two of you were just talking? Wanna tell me what the hell happened last night? Tamar up and disappeared right when the party was getting good.”

He smiled wider. “And so did you. After you were both looking like you might reach across the table to kill the other. And here I was thinking you’d met your match. Thought you said you didn’t like her?”

I scowled at him. “It’s nothing like that.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Then what’s it like?”

I gritted my teeth. “It’s like it always is. I f*ck. I leave. Simple as that.”

But simple wasn’t close to describing what this was.

Ash knew it just as well as I did. Knew I was acting a fool. Stepping into territory where I didn’t belong. Everything about it felt miraculously right and profanely wrong.

He sat back in disappointment. “You’re an idiot.”

Leaning forward, I cocked my head to the side, my voice dropped low. “Even if I wanted something more, did you up and forget who I am? What I did?”