Page 20 of Flirt
The blush that had begun to fade came back in full force, burning hotter and spreading all the way up to the tips of his ears. The words themselves had been innocent enough, but the invitation in the question was anything but. “No,” he answered honestly, hoping he didn’t sound as breathless as he felt. “I’m off work until Monday.”
They’d made it only two steps, but honestly, Cameron had already forgotten about his disastrous date and the guyhe’d left standing beside the door. So, when a hand wrapped around his arm and jerked him around violently, he was too stunned to fight back. His lack of awareness had him stumbling right into Scott’s arms, and for the first time that night, a sliver of real fear threaded through him.
He’d thought Scott uncouth and critical, but ultimately, harmless. With his fingers digging into Cameron’s triceps hard enough to leave bruises, and a wild, unhinged gleam in his emerald eyes, he didn’t look harmless. He looked dangerous, and his simmering rage focused solely on Cameron.
Scott didn’t want to hurt him. He wanted to break him.
At nearly half the man’s size, there was little Cameron could do to stop him. Another ripple of fear raced through him and pushed the throttle on his pulse, but he stood his ground and refused to cower.
“Let go.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Scott demanded, giving him a hard shake that made his teeth clack together. “You’re with me.”
Movement in his periphery had him glancing toward the right, and he nearly gasped at the quiet, possessive fury that darkened Asher’s expression. Fuck, it was sexy, but so far, they hadn’t caused a scene or drawn attention, and Cameron wanted to keep it that way. So, with great reluctance, he caught Asher’s eye and shook his head.
“Look at me,” Scott barked, shaking him again.
His arms ached, the grip on his muscles becoming increasingly more painful, but Cameron didn’t try to pull away as he tilted his head back and met the intense stare. “We went on a date. It didn’t work out.” He spoke slowly, his tone deceptively calm. “You don’t own me.”
“Wow, you’re a fucking tease.”
Cameron didn’t understand the context of the statement, but it didn’t sound like a compliment. “A tease? I’m sorry if you got the wrong impression, but I promise spending an hour listening to you talk about yourself and degrade everyone around you is not my idea of foreplay.”
Out of the blue, Scott smiled. “You’re playing hard to get.” He shook his head as if the answer should have been obvious. “If you were trying to make me jealous, it worked, so you can stop pretending now.”
Oh, for crying out loud.
“I’m not playing hard to get. I’m not playing anything, not with you. Go home, Scott.” He did try to step away then, but the grip on his arms kept him immobile. “Or stay. I don’t really care, but take your hands off me, and leave me alone.”
Apparently, Asher’s patience had reached its limit, because his long, elegant fingers encircled Scott’s wrist and squeezed until the skin turned white. “I suggest you take a hint and remove your hands.”
When Scott leveled a look on Asher that promised pain, Cameron thought things couldn’t get any worse. He was still trying to work out a way to diffuse the situation without anyone ending up bloody or arrested, when an all-too-familiar voice cut through the tension like a hot knife.
“What the hell is going on here?” Standing next to Scott, James at his side, Nico took in the scene through narrowed eyes.
“Misunderstanding,” Asher answered when no one else spoke, his fingers still squeezing Scott’s wrist while Scott held Cameron’s arms.
Cameron could only imagine what they looked like, the three of them locked together in the least erotic threesome ever.
“Misunderstanding?” Nico’s gaze hardened, and his lips pressed together in a thin line.
“Yes,” Cameron said, tired of being manhandled. “Clearly, Scott misunderstood when I told him to go fuck himself.”
“Scott? Hey, ease up, man. Let’s just calm down.”
It pissed him off that James hadn’t spoken up sooner. Scott washisfriend after all. He’d hand Nico his ass for such behavior. James, on the other hand, sounded more like he was speaking to an overemotional toddler than a full-grown man losing his shit because someone had dared to deny him.
“Let him go,” James pressed, placing his hand on Scott’s shoulder. “You’re hurting him.”
Angry, humiliated, and exhausted, Cameron just wanted to go home, crawl into bed, and stay there until Monday morning. He could probably get out of Scott’s hold with a well-placed kick to the balls, but he had hoped it wouldn’t come to violence. With his hands beginning to tingle from lack of blood flow, he worried he might not have another option.
Nico, however, had no such reservations about the use of force to get what he wanted. “Take your fucking hands off him, or I’m going to rip your dick out through your nose.”
Whether from James’ gentle coaxing or Nico’s threat—Cameron couldn’t say—Scott finally seemed to realize he was outnumbered and making an ass of himself. With deliberate movements, he unfurled his hands from Cameron’s upper arms and straightened to his full height. The moment his hands fell away, Asher released the grip on Scott’s wrist and wound the same arm around Cameron, holding him close as he took a step back to place them out of reach.
“I think maybe we should go.” James’ glanced from Cameron to Nico, his smile apologetic.
Rubbing the feeling back into his arms, Cameron nodded along with Nico in agreement. The rational part of his brain understood he couldn’t blame the guy for hisfriend’s behavior. The part of him that had just been attacked by a narcissistic douchebag kind of hated him on principle.
