Page 17 of The Catcher

I tried to concentrate on what Matt was telling me about his latest relief outing, but it was hard knowing Tanner’s eyes were on me. All I could hear were the breathy moans of the women beside him as they laughed and giggled.

Then Matt put his arm around me. Not even reallyaroundme, just lightly on the couch behind me.

“Move your arm,” Tanner said, his voice landing like a steel bar, and Matt jerked around as if he’d just been shot in the leg.

“Tanner, stop,” I said in a strangled voice, my throat feeling so tight it choked me.

“I’m not talking to you, Em,” Tanner said coldly. “You, backup, move your arm away from her or I’m going to break your jaw.”

Matt jerked his arm as if it burned him to be on the sofa and I was infuriated.

“You can put your arm around me if you want to,” I said.

“You don’t want that, Emrys,” Tanner said, and his eyes were like glittering coal in his face, his cheekbones looking sharp enough to cut glass.

I whirled around on the seat to face him.

“Butt out, Tanner,” I warned. “This has nothing to do with you.”

The women beside Tanner had both stopped drinking to look back and forth between us curiously. He looked disgustingly attractive, deceptively attractive, with that ink-black hair over his ears and his big arms out on the sofa.

If you didn’t know he was an absolutely fucking psychotic nightmare.

“It has everything to do with me,” Tanner said. “I don’t want anyone touching you, so don’t encourage it unless you want me in jail again.”

“What’s the problem here?” Matt asked nervously, and I watched the cold sheen of sweat on his generically handsome face with a twist of disgust. Any potential attraction to him plummeted when I saw how he submissively rolled over and offered his belly up to Tanner.

“The problem is your arm around her,” said Tanner. “I want it gone.Now. In fact, why don’t you just get up and find another woman to rub your dick on? You won’t be doing that with this one.”

I saw Matt’s face flame red as I darted a glance at him.

“Ignore Tanner,” I said sharply, putting my hand on Matt’s thigh. “He can’t make you do something you don’t want to do.”

I saw Tanner’s face darken and I felt the tang of violence on my tongue as he looked pointedly at where my hand rested on Matt’s thigh. “Remove that hand,” he said harshly. “Unless you want me to throw him out the window.”

“Oh, go back to your blowjob and stop bothering me,” I said.

I saw the gleam in Tanner’s eyes, and he pushed by the woman on her knees in front of him.

“You’re shit at that,” he snapped at her. “Go away, I don’t want you.”

As she huffed with disappointment, Tanner looked up and his eyes met mine. I felt a shiver of fear go down my spine.

I squeaked and removed my hand from Matt’s thigh.

He watched me and settled back into his seat. “Good girl,” he said.

So really it was his fault.

I knew it was stupid, reckless really, to test him, but I put my hand back, higher this time, my fingers curving toward Matt’s inner thigh.

For a moment I couldn’t breathe as I saw the expression on Tanner’s face, then I snatched my hand away as quickly as I could.

But it wasn’t fast enough.

He was faster than me, lunging over the table, his fist landing a solid blow on Matt’s face, the two players crashing into each other and knocking over the side table and nearby chair. The others at the bar started looking around. Tanner had Matt on the floor, his fist smashing repeatedly into the other man’s face. I saw a burst of blood, and I leaped up to tug at the back of Tanner’s shirt. His whole body felt frenetically heated, like he was on fire, and I pulled, feeling the lean bands of muscles underneath his thin T-shirt. My hands felt heated too, like they were going to combust.

Tanner ignored me, but then Steak and Tre were there, yanking Tanner off Matt. Miguel and Alex stepped in between them.

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