He’d drive his truck back to his cabin and go for a run up into the mountains, he decided. An area that hadn’t been logged yet, the deep forest. That’d be a nice, solitary finish to what had actually been a pretty pleasant night so far.
But as he was pushing through the crowd to the door, following John, Matt Finch appeared in his path.
“Hey there, kitty cat,” he said, a grin spreading across his face. “You think you can drink in this bar? This is a bar for bears, not for little cats. You might get your tail stepped on.”
Getting into a fight had not been part of his plan. “I can drink where I please,” Grey said mildly, “but since I was just leaving, you bears can have your clubhouse all to yourselves now.”
He slipped smoothly past Matt and kept going toward the door.
Behind him, he heard Matt say, “Hey, don’t you run away from me!” He braced himself. It looked like he might be getting a fight after all.
Then a high female voice said, “Matt Finch, if you punch that guy, I am out of here.”
Grey glanced back and saw Matt looking between him and a thin blonde, clearly undecided. There was a long moment where it wasn’t clear which way it would go, but finally Matt said, “All right, baby, fine. I’ll find him later.”
Grey let out his breath and kept on his way. No fight tonight.
It was coming, though, he could tell. Assholes like Matt Finch didn’t let up.
As he got farther away, he started to relax, but just as he was nearing the door, someone darted forward and ran straight into him, hard enough to bounce off his chest and stumble back a few steps.
“Hey,” Grey started to growl, intending to follow it up with, Watch where you’re going!
But the person looked up and met his eyes, and Grey forgot what he was going to say.
She had huge, startlingly blue eyes, framed by long, curling eyelashes and a round, beautiful face. Her skin was olive-toned, smooth, and soft-looking—and there was as much of it as any man could want to look at. Her curves strained the edges of her clothing, as though it was doing its best but couldn’t quite contain anything so magnificent as this woman’s body.
This woman’s body that had just bounced off of his body. Grey immediately regretted not catching her while she’d been there, and just keeping her tucked up against him. Forever.
Then he saw the man behind her, and the tear slipping down her cheek.
The growl rose in his chest without any conscious thought.
***
The evening wasn’t turning out how Ali had wanted.
Her request to go somewhere quiet had been ignored. Mac wanted to go to the logger bar because there were apparently some guys there he wanted to play pool with. Ted wanted to go to the logger bar because he did everything his brother wanted. And Denise was apparently thinking with her panties tonight.
So now they were at the place that was sure to get the most action from the wildest people in the whole town.
The bar had already been loud and rowdy when they got there. Then Ted bought her a beer without asking her if she wanted one, and got mad when she’d set it down without drinking it.
“I paid good money for that, Ali!” Then Ted said, “Maybe you want something else, huh?”
Before she could react, he tried to slide his hand up her shirt.
“No,” she told him. “I don’t want to do that.”
“Oh, come on, Ali. It’s only second base.” His hand slipped higher.
She jerked his hand away. “I said no. We’re done.”
Ali stalked off. He followed her at first, but then his brother had found him and dragged him off to meet some local street-racing legend or something. That left her feeling a little shaky, although she kept her chin high and her expression fierce.
Then she spotted Matt Finch across the bar, laughing with some skinny blonde.
She turned around immediately, her cheeks burning. He hadn’t seen her, but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t care if he had. She was the only one who’d ever cared. And he was the last person she’d wanted to see tonight.