Breathe Into Me (4 page)

“Katie is not my girlfriend,” he stated strongly.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Oh, don’t give me that crap. By the way she had her nails dug into you, I would beg to differ,” I argued.
If she isn’t his girlfriend now, she must have been at some point. You don’t get fiercely protective over someone you don’t have, or have never had, feelings for.
Whether he’d had them for her or not, was not the point. She’d clearly had some claim staked on him, and was not going to let him go without a fight.

“No really. She’s not. She’s a … close friend that I used to have.” He finished with a chuckle and I rolled my eyes at his attempt to get out of coming right out and saying she was or used to be his fuck buddy.

“Well still, I don’t get involved with guys who whore around.”

Which was true. I had never been attracted to the player type. I believed in commitment. I believed in love. And I never understood how some people could give their whole body to someone without knowing for a fact, that person was fully committed to them.

He took a step back and grabbed his chest. “I’m shocked you would make such accusations about me. After all, we did just meet.” He winked.
Oh god, did he have to wink?
This man oozed enough sex appeal without kicking it up a notch with a sexy-as-hell wink.

“So are you going to tell me you don’t?” I held firm in my argument. I was going to figure out as much about this man as I could. This crazy attraction had shaken me up, and I didn’t want it leading me down a dead-end road.

“No, actually, I don’t ‘whore around’ as you so crudely put it.” He bumped my shoulder in a joking manner. I guess letting me know he wasn’t truly offended by my statement. “I simply take enjoyment in the company of beautiful women from time to time, and they take enjoyment in me … I might add.” He finished with a big smile.

“Ugh. You’re impossible.”

“Oh, come on. You have to get to know me. You might find out that I’m actually a pretty good time.” He waggled his eyebrows and I felt the need to slap them right off his face. Who did he think he was?

“I am so NOT having sex with you, perv!” I all but shouted, and then glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to us. I couldn’t believe I had just shouted that out like that. He was downright infuriating.

He seemed to find my outburst quite amusing and laughed back to me, “I never said anything about sex. Now did I? I just thought we could be friends. You took that to a whole new level.” He paused then cocked his head sideways. “Now who’s the perv?” He finished, taking another long sip from a bottle of water. I could feel my face heat up. Damn he had me there. He never said anything about sleeping together. I had made that assumption on my own. Maybe wishful thinking on my part? Just being around him for five minutes had me dunking my mind in the gutter.
Who am I becoming around this stranger?

“Okay then, how about we start over?” I said, flipping my brown locks over each of my squared shoulders and stuck out my hand. “Kelsey Rien. Nice to meet you.”

He looked at my hand for a second, then back up to my face. He knocked my hand away, and then scooped me up in a bear hug. “Friends don’t shake hands. Friends hug!”

I laughed and returned the hug. When I pulled back and smiled up at him, he was looking down at me with a smile on his face.
Damn, there are those dimples again. What am I getting myself into?

Before the embrace had ended, a shouting and shoving match had started up behind me. Kane’s head whipped up fast, and before I knew it, I was standing behind him. Taking a peek around his arm, I could see two guys shove at each before one took a swing. Kane automatically grabbed my hand and led me through the crowd, toward the hallway and front entrance.

“I need you to go outside. It’s going to get crazy and you don’t need to be here.” He squatted down a little so he could look directly into my eyes.

“But my friend is still in here! I can’t leave without her!” I was franticly scanning the crowd looking for any sign of Jessi or the Landon guy she had been checking the tonsils of earlier.

Kane’s head shot up to search for our missing friends in the crowd too. Having no luck locating them, he grabbed a chair and hopped onto it, craning his neck searching the crowd. After a few seconds, he brought two fingers up to his mouth and let out another long, loud whistle.

“Yo! Landon! Over here!” he shouted. My head jerked in the direction he’d yelled because I still couldn’t find Jessi.

Suddenly, I felt the impact of a body colliding with mine, knocking me to the ground on my tail. I immediately felt sharp pains shoot from my tailbone up my spine, and I couldn’t stop the yelp that came from my mouth.

Kane was off his chair in seconds, scooping me up off the floor. Holding me tight to his chest, he carried me over to the chair he had been standing on and gently sat me down. Crouching in front of me, he lightly placed his hands on my knees. “Oh my god, Kelsey, are you okay? I never should have left you standing there alone. Are you hurt? Do you have a lot of pain?”

He kept bombarding me with questions, never really giving me time to answer before he would ask another. Finally, I just decided nodding was the best thing to do in this scenario. He must have been okay with that, because he stood and stalked over to the very intoxicated guy that had bumped me and grabbed him by his collar.

“Watch where you’re going next time, asshole. I ought to just teach you a little life lesson right here and now. When you cause harm to a female, you apologize,” he seethed.

“Kane, stop! It’s okay! I’m fine, really!” I shouted at him. His head turned to me and I saw fire in his eyes. He was clearly still fuming. Luckily for the other guy, the bouncers came running in and dragged the man away before Kane could do more than just yell at the guy.

“Kane, dude. You can’t be doing that shit,” one of the bouncers said to him. “Do you want to get fired? No confrontation. Just get them out the door. You know this,” he added.

Fired? Fired from what?

“I lost it, Eddie. I’m okay now,” he said to him before turning back to me. All the fire that had been in his eyes was slowly diminishing. Almost as if he flipped a switch on all that rage … and it was now gone. I watched him take a few deep breaths before coming back over to me.

“Look, I’m sorry about that.” He glanced around the bar, which seemed to finally be emptying out. “Things seem to be under control now. You should have no problem getting out of here and I’ve got to get back to work. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime,” he said, before walking away toward a black door that was labeled Staff Only.

That is so weird. He works here?
I couldn’t ponder on that question long, because another body assaulted me, but this one was much tinier and smelled a hell of a lot nicer.

“Oh. My. God. Kels! There you are! I was worried sick! I lost you in all the commotion. Are you all right?!” Jessi was frantically giving my body a once over.

“I’m fine, Jess, just got knocked down by some drunk guy. Not like I haven’t seen worse or been in a worse situation.” I watched as all the color drained from her face and I immediately regretted my statement.

Boy, I shouldn’t have said that. Now she would start her worried best friend bit and I would see no peace tonight.

“Really, Jess. I’m fine.” I tried to assure her. Hoping with everything in me she would let this go. “Where did that guy go?” I attempted to change the subject. It always seemed to help. Bring a guy into the scenario and Jessi’s mind would wonder. For a second she didn’t seem like she would take the bait but sure enough, “Oh, Kelsey! Isn’t he gorgeous? I told you he was totally gorgeous!” She let out a high pitched squee.

“Yes, Jess he’s a cutie. But where did he
go
?”

“Oh, right! He left,” she said as she backed away from where I was sitting so I could stand. “Said he had to go check on his friend. He went in that door over there that says Staff Only but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t work here.” She shrugged and we began to make our way toward the hall that led to the entrance doors.

“Kane?” I questioned.

“What?”

“His friend. Was his name Kane?” I asked again, even though I was quite positive I already knew the answer.

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. He just told me he would call me later and went off through the bar”—she paused—“Why would you ask?”

Oh no, I’ve done gone and done it now.

“No reason, really. I was just talking with this guy before the fight broke out. He said he was a friend of the guy you were swapping saliva with. He seemed kind of upset before he left.”
There, maybe that will be enough to pacify her so she won’t ask any more questions.

“And you just met him, right? Short chat you say? Not buying it. SPILL! You wouldn’t have even brought him up if there wasn’t some interest there.” She grinned knowing she had caught me.

Damn her and how well she knows me.

So what if I hadn’t stopped thinking about this guy’s eyes all day and he just so happened to show up at the bar and we ended up hitting it off pretty well. He obviously wasn’t really interested since he had just taken off like that.

“Really, Jess, it was no biggie. I got knocked down. He picked me up. Got pretty heated at the guy who knocked me down. Then left. End of story.”

When I replay it all back, it really didn’t sound like a big deal at all.
Why am I obsessing over this guy so much?
He probably changed his mind after seeing what I klutz I am and went running over begging for that good time with Katie.

“I’m just sayin’, Kels. You never really talk to guys. Let alone have a conversation with one then go on to talk about them later. You’re finally coming around to the world of make outs, hookups, and all around awesomeness that is MEN.” She said as she threw her arm around my shoulder and we walked out into the night air, back toward school.

I rolled my eyes at her, but did feel a slight smile pulling at the side of my mouth. No, I had never really been one to hookup, or even date for that matter, but if I was ever willing to think about changing my mind on the subject, Kane would be a perfect candidate to try it out on.

“Come on, slut puppy. Let’s get back to the dorms so I can get out of these clothes and you can go on to tell me all about how your new friend tastes. Cause Lord knows I’m going to hear all about it ‘til I fall asleep.”

And I did.

I was actually awake before my alarm went off the next morning. For some reason I had slept very sound the night before. Must have been all the commotion from the bar. Wore me out I guess. At least I was up before Jessi, which meant I got first shower and could stand in the steamy water and let it wash away all the soreness from the fall I had taken the night before.

Today was the last day of freedom before classes started tomorrow morning. I needed to make a run to the bookstore. Then we needed to get a few items for the mini fridge. Our plans for the day really didn’t consist of much more than pizza, girly movies and being lazy—while we still could anyway. When I finally emerged from my nice steamy shower, I wrapped a towel around my body, and then headed into the room. I found Jessi sitting up in her bed, her back resting against her headboard, with a big cheesy smile on her face. She was staring down at her phone typing out a message. When she finished, she sighed and scooted to the edge of the bed.

“He’s so sweet, Kels. Look at the text I woke up to from him this morning.” She started waving her phone around in the air, never actually holding it still long enough for me to read anything on the tiny screen.

“Yeah, he’s a real sweetheart,” I said as I walked over to my closet and pulled out my favorite Rolling Stones t-shirt. It had been my moms and I had worn it so much that it was becoming threadbare, but I could never bring myself to part with it. I paired it with a dark pair of denim shorts and my black Chucks. I had always been a Chuck girl. While I did enjoy being girly, wearing makeup, and getting dolled up from time to time … this was normal style. I had Jessi’s closet to raid for all other occasions.

Speaking of Jessi, who was still sitting on her bed gawking at her phone, I threw my towel at her head. “You better get up and start getting ready. I know it’s going to take you forever and I would like to make it to the bookstore before it gets swamped with people.”

She let out another long sigh before finally heading toward the bathroom. After a minute or so, I heard the shower start and I finished getting myself ready.

The trip to the campus store had been an adventure all by itself. While I was worried about getting all the books I was required to have, and trying to anticipate the supplies I might need, Jessi was too busy looking at cute hoodies and pajama bottoms. Not like she was in any short supply of clothes, though. She was currently using half of my closet and drawers.

After finally getting my essentials, we made a quick stop at a local grocery store, stocking up on water and snack foods before heading back to our dorm to order some pizza. We planned on pigging out and watching movies ‘til we crashed.