“You’re my problem,” he grated out. His gleaming teeth showed at the feral smile he gave her. Clumsily, she tried to take a step back and had to stop when the bar dug into her back.
“Are you out of your ever-loving fucking mind?” he snarled.
T.A. couldn’t prevent the small jump at his question.
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because you obviously are to even consider doing that man.”
She licked her suddenly dry lips at the dangerous undercurrents going between them.
“What do you care?”
“Oh… I care,” he drawled out.
T.A. remembered using that word early when they’d been at her apartment.
“Too late.” Heedlessly, she snapped her fingers in his angry face. “I lost any interest in you when I saw you were about to play kissy face with Ginger.”
Methodically, he started unbuttoning his coat, taking it off. She jumped again as his hard body brushed hers as he laid the coat on the bar next to her.
“I’ll get it back.”
She knew Dalton wasn’t talking about his coat. Feeling her nipples tauten in desire, she crossed her arms over her chest. He was hot as hell when he was mad.
“Yeah…” she snapped, about to tell him to fuck off again but smart enough not to cut off her nose to spite his face. “Well.” T.A. changed her tone to a more reasonable one. “We’ll talk back at my apartment.”
“Oh, yes, we will.”
She kind of didn’t like the way he agreed with her. Opening her mouth to tell him so, she snapped it closed again at the way he was looking at her. Deciding to exert a little self-preservation, she nodded at the door behind him.
“You should go. The fight will be over before you get out there.”
She wished she kept her trap closed.
“Are you drunk?”
She vigorously nodded her head.
“Like a skunk.”
Astutely, he lifted his hand to her chin, raising it to stare down into her eyes. Her stomach did a round of somersaults and a backflip when she could see his teeth again.
“Then it’s a good thing we’re going to be snowed in together for the next two days, isn’t it?”
Staring speechlessly after him, T.A. waited until she was the last in the clubhouse before turning tail and running. She had always been smarter than people gave her credit for, and she was smart enough to cut her losses at the deal she struck with Dalton. She had come up with the plan to get close enough to him to fuck him. She had ignored Sex Piston’s warnings about him to be careful, and unless she misunderstood the warning signs that were blasting from Dalton, she was the one who was about to be fucked. And not in a good way; one that when their deal was finally over, he would be walking away, and all that was going to be left of her would be a pathetic puddle that once used to be her heart.
25
“Dammit.” Her curse frosted in the cold air. She had forgotten her ride had the car keys. Cursing inwardly at herself, she trudged back into the club. Thankfully, she remembered Dalton had placed the keys of the rental car in his coat pocket.
Reaching into the coat pocket he left on the bar, she took them out and let them dance on top of the palm of her hand before closing them in her tight fist.
“Sucker. I’m so out of here.” Shivering at the cold wind coming from the half-open back door, she tried to ignore the sounds of fighting that were calling to her like a fucking beacon.
“Don’t do it.” Scolding herself, she managed to take a step toward the front door when she heard Sex Piston’s yells of encouragement over the sounds of grunting men.
“Fuck it!” Pulling up the collar of her teddy coat, she did an about-face and went outside. Seeing that Sex Piston had opened the back of Stud’s van to sit and watch the fight, T.A. rolled her eyes at how smart the bitch was.
Taking a seat beside her, she shoved her hand in her pockets.
“It’d be a hell a lot warmer if we turned the van on.”
“There’s not enough gas in the tank, and Stud’s going to need what’s left to take those deluded fuckers to the hospital.”
T.A. winced in sympathy when she saw Crazy Bitch yank a handful of Ginger’s hair out by the roots.
Sex Piston’s glacial eyes cut at her like glass when she saw the movement.
“You better not be feeling sorry for that slut. She’s the one who started this fucking mess. I knew better than letting you talk me into letting Ginger stay at the club.”
“I’m sorry. This is all my fault.” Morosely, she watched the brothers fighting each other. Burying her hands deeper inside her pocket, she wanted to grab the tire rim that was propped on the wall next to the door the brothers used as a doorstop to brain Pike.