Page 63 of Embraced at Seaside
Leanna and Bella pointed to the table.
“We’ll meet you back there,” Bella said.
Jana nodded. “After this song.”
She felt free and untethered, but when she noticed a tall, muscular guy encroaching into her personal space, the contented smile fell from her lips.
He reached for her and she sidestepped his touch. “I’m here with someone,” she said. She could handle herself with most guys, but the feeling inside her wasn’t one of fear or intimidation. It was a twisting in her gut, telling her that things had changed. She’d changed. The unsettled feeling from earlier returned.
The burly guy reached for her again, and she stepped away with a sharp, “Not interested. Sorry. I’m involved with someone.”
The guy began gyrating his hips in front of her, so close she could smell the alcohol on his breath. She was used to this. Before Hunter she would have probably enjoyed the dirty dancing, but now she had no interest in anyone other than Hunter.
She stepped backward, tripping over another dancer. As she found her footing, the big guy was lifted by the back of his shirt off his feet. Hunter came into view, his face burning with rage, the veins in his neck bulging as he seethed.
“Don’t touch my girl.”
The guy held his arms up. “I didn’t know, man.”
“She said she wasn’t interested loud and clear,” Hunter growled.
“Hunter!” Jana yelled. “Put him down.”
Hunter’s angry eyes moved between the guy and Jana, his brow wrinkled in confusion.
“Hunter. Seriously.”
“Learn some manners,” he said before dropping the guy to the floor.
Jana stormed through the crowd and out the front door.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
HUNTER FLEW OUT the door and caught up to Jana. “Where the heck are you going?”
“Nowhere.” She paced, hands clenched tight.
“Jana, what’s going on? Why are you angry?”
“Because,” she spat. “Why do you have to act like a Neanderthal? I can handle myself.”
“Seriously?” He closed the distance between them. “Did you want that jerk to touch you? Because if you did, then forget me, Jana. I thought you were mine.” And then it hit him like a brick in the face, and he stopped cold. His entire body turned to ice as his words hung in the air between them.
First the key, now this? What is going on?
“Hunter…” She reached for him, but he took a step away.
“Jana…?”
“I don’t need you to go all caveman crazy. I’m allowed to dance. I’m allowed to move my body to the music, and yes, guys are going to look. They might even approach me, but come on, Hunter, don’t you trust me to handle myself?”
“Do you want me, Jana?” As soon as he said it, her lips curved up in that crazy sweet smile that turned him inside out, and he realized he’d asked for the three words she was never going to give him.
She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
He laughed, despite the anger that was coursing through him. “You’re a pain in the butt.”
“So are you,” she pointed out. “I’m not a delicate flower, Hunter. I can tell a guy to back off if I need to.”
