Heat built in Jude so hot and fast, he jumped off the stool before he knew what he was doing. “I’ll be right back.”
“Finally! Do I get to watch you in action?”
“Yeah, you do,” he muttered, but he knew there was no way that Rebecca had heard him over the music. He turned toward the doc only to see that a giant of a man had approached Snow. The doctor gave the guy a wicked, inviting as hell grin. Lust slammed through Jude and pulled him that direction like he was being reeled in. He had never seen that particular expression on the general’s face.
And he wanted that for him and him only.
The little blond stepped in front of the big guy and scowled up at him. Jude could only see the back of the larger man, but the blond was in full sight. He was a delicate thing with fine features and head full of platinum hair. He said something to the big guy that sent his hands into fists, his shoulders straight. He picked the kid up and physically moved him out of the way.
What happened then was an accident—even Jude could tell from halfway across the room—as the kid’s hip hit the bar too hard.
Snow slowly turned toward the kid as he cried out and the fury that spilled over his features was dark, violent. He snarled and shoved the big man.
In the next second a huge, meaty fist had grabbed the doc by the shirt.
Bodies surged around them as some men jumped in to stop the fight and some to obviously egg it on.
Alarm surged through Jude and he pushed through the outer group of people who’d spotted what was going on and gathered to watch. Jude couldn’t guess where the fucking bouncers were, but there was no way they were going to reach Snow and the asshole in time to keep this from getting ugly. In the few seconds it took Jude to get through, Snow had obviously lost it. He plowed his fist into the giant’s face then jumped out of the way of the man’s counter.
He didn’t get completely away as the fist slammed into his shoulder. The force sent him spinning into the bar. The blond kid tried to calm them down.
Once again the big man wasn’t paying attention, his elbow hitting the kid in the nose as he muscled for a better position on Snow.
Snow looked at the blood that streamed from his nose, then growled and rammed his shoulder into the guy’s chest, slamming his back into the bar hard enough to rattle glasses and bottles. The bartender shouted, moving as if he were preparing the climb over the bar to separate the two men.
Other people jumped in to try to stop the fight. Jude shoved his way through. “Shit, Snow!” Jude stepped in front of Snow, grabbed his arms, and got right in his face. “Snow!”
The man blinked at him, panting, and again Jude got the feeling he was teetering on the edge. He needed to get him out of there.
Jude looked over his shoulder at the guy Snow had hit. Fury bled from his face and his cheek bloomed a bright red. “Listen,” he told the guy, keeping his voice as low as he could with the crowd and the loud music. “He put someone he loved into the ground today.”
The guy’s expression didn’t soften. “Doesn’t excuse him being an asswipe.”
“Nah, it doesn’t. But maybe you should be a little more careful around small guys like him.” Jude jerked his head toward the blond. “And maybe you should just go ahead and back off now. The doc here didn’t mean to try to flatten your face.”
“I certainly did,” Snow muttered.
Jude tightened his grip on Snow’s arm and turned him toward the blond kid. “Look at the kid’s face.” He turned back to the wall of bulk, fully expecting to take this to a physical level, but the guy was looking at the short man, regret digging lines in his face before he shuffled into the crowd. Jude turned back to the kid.
“I’m Geoffrey,” he said, voice muffled from the napkins shoved under his nose.
“Are you going to look at him, doc?” Jude lifted an eyebrow. The bartender glared at them both in warning, while more heavily muscled men in black T-shirts with The Dock logo on the front lingered in the quickly dispersing crowd.
Snow was breathing hard and glaring at Jude like he was the one who messed things up. For some reason, his body responded and Jude did nothing to hide it. Instead, he did exactly as he had in the parking lot when Snow said they wouldn’t be kissing again. He grinned and he wrapped his hand around Snow’s bicep.
Geoffrey made a strangled noise, looked at his hand on Snow’s arm then down to Jude’s obvious arousal. “But I found Snow first,” he whined.