PLAYED - A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE (23 page)

Chapter
4

Angel

Tending bar as an
eighteen-year-old girl – particularly one with a pretty face – had taught me a
valuable skill: the art of keeping an eye on the entire room at once.

The newest arrival
proved to be a bit of a distraction. He was dressed in a tight shirt that clung
to a deliciously muscular frame. A brief slick of red ran through his hair, and
he finished off the look with a pair of fashionably torn black jeans. He’d been
staring ever since he walked in. I could feel his burning gaze bore into me
from behind as he hungrily treated himself to some eye candy.

Without a word
between us, I knew I could flirt a big tip out of him. Maybe it would be enough
to get some decent food for the next few days. It was time to play hard to get.

“What can I get you?”
I offhandedly asked him after plugging in the previous order.

“What do you
want
to get me?” he replied.

I turned around to
try and catch the jackass undressing me with his eyes, but his gaze was
surprisingly fixated on the chalkboard drink specials instead.

“I’ll take a draft,”
he said before I could respond to his little comment.

“Which draft?”

He chuckled
arrogantly to me, flashing a condescending but admittedly sexy smile.

“Your favorite
draft.”

I put my hands on my
hips. “I don’t drink.”

A genuine look of
surprise flickered across the man’s face. “You work behind the bar...”

“All the more reason
not to drink. Let’s try this one again: which draft do
you
want?”

He nodded
thoughtfully, ignoring the tone of my voice. After a moment, he opened his
mouth to answer, his tongue absent-mindedly sliding across his canine.

“I’ll take Abita.
Tall.”

I took a second to
shake that sexy tongue flick out of my head.

“
Amber
or
Lager?
”

“Lager.”

“You’re not from
around here,” I observed.

“Never been here,” he
answered, his lip curling up into a sly smile again. “Name’s Trent. Trent Masters.”

Trent Masters.
Didn’t hurt to know exactly
who was pissing me off at any given moment. His name sounded a little familiar,
but I couldn’t place it.

I couldn’t place a
lot of things these days.

But he didn’t need to
know that.

“Coming right up,” I
said, intentionally brushing my fingertips against his before turning toward
the tap. It sent a small bristle through me, which I promptly tried to ignore.

“Thanks, beautiful.”

Beautiful… It was
nice to hear him say the word. Most of the people who called me beautiful were
old enough to be my grandfather… Trent was anything but. He was
handsome
with a capital H
.
Even with his stupid clothes and his
gelled hair, I couldn’t help but notice up close that he was built like a damn
linebacker. I didn’t like it one bit.

Which means, of
course, that I was practically salivating and wanted to touch him again…

As Trent curled his
fingers around his fist and rested his elbows, I could see how thick and well
defined his huge forearms were even as I grabbed a glass. A little higher up,
his bulky, broad shoulders stretched his dark shirt. A simple medallion hung
around his neck, draped over what were undoubtedly rock-hard pecs.

Ignoring his gaze –
and his stupidly hot muscles – I whipped up a frothing, overflowing pint in a
chilled glass. With a glance stained with disdain, I plunked the draft beer
down in front of him.

“Enjoy.”

“Oh, I think I will,”
he smiled again.

UGH.

While Trent began
swigging it, I checked on the other patrons. They had been mostly ignoring us,
which pleased me. Everyone seemed fine.

Well, almost
everyone.

“Hey, Darlin’! Bring
those sweet cheeks over here with another round of shots!”

I sighed internally.
Fucking bikers.

“What’ll you be
having?”

“More Fireball!”

I couldn’t help but
grin to myself.
Fireball.
That was
such a college kid choice.

As I turned for the
bottle, I realized that they had seen my smile and were grinning lecherously
among themselves.

Whelp. That was a mistake.

Now they think they’re amusing me.

I quickly poured
their shots and brought them over, ignoring the way that the newly arrived
stranger’s eyes traced the outline of my body.

God. What is it with everyone eyeballing me like a piece of meat
tonight?

At least he was
fucking attractive, unlike these old weekend warriors in their leather
costumes...

“Thanks, Darlin’,”
the lead biker told me. He placed his hand on my bare shoulder, his fingers
barely brushing my hair as I dropped off their shots.

“Hey. Don’t touch
me,” I flinched.

Out of the corner of
my eye, I noticed Trent stiffen up, his head cocked very slightly.

“She’s feisty, boys!”

The other bikers
hungrily grinned at me. I didn’t like the looks on their faces.

“Alright, that’s it
for tonight. I’ve gotta close down soon anyway. You ready to finish out your
tabs?”

The leader scowled.
“Cuttin’ us off, Darlin’?”

“It’s that time,” I
pointed at the dusty clock on the wall.

I slipped back behind
the safety of the bar, announcing
last
call
. To my satisfaction, nobody raised their attention for a top-off, and
I began closing out checks and dismissing the regular patrons with a weary,
thankful smile.

After about two
minutes, everyone was gone except the new guy and the bikers.

Trent hadn’t seemed
to really care about my announcement. He continued working on his beer at the
same rate, leaving over half of it still in his glass.

“I’m probably gonna
need that glass back in a few minutes,” I smiled coldly, nodding towards the
clock again. “Closing in five.”

“Understood,” he nodded,
his traces of cockiness gone. Instead, he seemed a little on edge.

No idea why.

The bikers were
bothering
me
, after all.

“Got a bathroom?”
Trent suddenly asked.

I pointed him towards
the doorway around the other side of the bar. He slipped off of his stool and
sauntered towards the hall.

This left me alone
with the bikers. Their lecherous leader called me over, and I reluctantly
strolled to his side with the check.

“Here you go, lass,”
he chuckled, dropping a few twenties onto the tabletop. One flittered down to
the floor, and I begrudgingly reached down for it.

I only realized the
mistake just as his hand smacked roughly against my ass.

“
Ow!
” I called out, quickly hopping back up and glaring menacingly
at them. “I
said
, ‘Don’t touch me.’ I
don’t give a flying shit
how
drunk
you are. You can’t do that.”

“Sorry, Darlin’.
You’re just too damn pretty.”

“I’m cashing you out,
and you’re getting
out
of my bar.”

The biker stood up
swiftly, grabbing me by the arm. He pulled me deep into his embrace, his thick,
alcoholic breath stinging my eyes. He was an old guy, but he was built strong
and
mean
.

I struggled, but I
couldn’t pull free.

“I don’t know about
all that, sweetheart,” his gravelly voice rumbled. “I think you owe me and my
boys a proper apology.” His thick lips curled into a disgusting smile. I tried
to scream, and a rugged hand clamped around my mouth.

Chapter
5

Trent

When I stepped out of
the bathroom, I heard scuffling from the bar. I never should have left her
alone with them.

They were a pack of
wild, drunken animals, and she was a young, sexy, defenseless girl.

There was no
argument.

No questioning in my
head.

I knew what I had to
do and I
acted
.

The group had her
pinned against the bar top. Judging by the muffled noises, a hand was clamped
tightly over her lips. They were hungrily pulling at her miniskirt when the
last one spotted me just a moment too late.

With a sickly crack,
my fist connected with his face, sending the man stumbling backwards against
the others.

Two of the assholes
kept holding the poor girl down while the big one – probably their leader, by
the looks of it – reeled forward with a roaring fist.

I sidestepped,
tripping him into a table and sending the remnants of a beer splashing at my
feet. Things were rapidly getting out of control. The bikers recovered quickly,
lunging for me in unison.

Thinking fast, I
stepped backwards but slipped on the wet floor. My head connected with a
barstool, making me vulnerable just at the wrong time.

Someone grabbed me by
the shirt as I tried to orient myself. A powerful fist smashed into my face,
but I detached myself and head-butted the offender.

“
Fuck!
” The voice called out.

It sounded like the
leader.

Good.

The other guy tried
to lash at me as I clambered to my feet, but I ducked his strike. Using his
weight to my advantage, I grabbed at his arm and knocked him off balance.
Before he could regain footing, I drove his head straight down into the bar.

His skull connected
with a resounding
WHAM!

The leader was on top
of me again, as he tried to get in a solid gut punch. I took one in the ribs
before managing to push him back.

My hand brushed
against a dirty glass. It was a stray tumbler, fostering the last few,
forgotten sips of dark liquor.

Perfect,
I thought to myself.

I smashed it hard
against the side of his face.

“
Goddammit!
” He cried out as glass flew everywhere. “
You fucking SHIT!
”

I could hear a
commotion from behind him. Lunging forward, I dove like a feral animal towards
the two bikers still holding down the bartender.

She was kicking and
fighting and had managed to bite the hand covering her face.

I aimed my weakened
but effective punch at the distracted biker with the bitten hand, catching him
just off-center. Stunned, he stumbled backwards against a low wall.

The bartender broke
free from the other asshole, dodging around the rising leader and behind the
counter.

Whoever this girl
was, she was a quick and nimble little minx. She dove behind the bar.

The leader got in a
few good licks at me before I grappled him down to the floorboards. He got the
upper hand briefly, but I managed to force him onto his back, straddling him
and delivering a few solid wallops to either side of his head.

I was just climbing
up when I heard the scraping behind me.

Before I knew what
was happening, the bar stool connected with my head. Falling, my eyes cast back
to the bar. A beautiful yet frightening face was rising from behind the dark
wooden counter with a beastly looking 12-gauge shotgun in her hands. An explosion
rang out, the gun punching a large hole in the ceiling. My loudly ringing ears
couldn’t mask the unmistakable sound of the pretty girl racking another shell.

…And then everything
went black.