“Easton? Easton. Come on, come with me. We need to go.” I heard her voice and her hand on my arm, tugging me away from the scene. That was probably the right move, but I wanted to stay. I wanted Alex to get up again so I could hit him on the other side of his face and even out the swelling.
“Easton? Easton, please.” I softened my body and let her pull me away with her. I stopped resisting. That was a mistake. I was going to be paying for that tomorrow, but right at that moment, I was just glad that Alex was getting to see me walk away with the woman he wanted.
20
Artemis
I knew my face was brighter than my dress, I was so embarrassed. I stared studiously at the ground walking out of the club so that I didn’t make eye contact with anybody. All they wanted was a night out and what they had gotten was a Friday night fight. It was bad enough that I had been in the middle of the scene. It was worse that Easton seemed to have a vendetta with the man who had tried it on with me.
I was a mess. I didn’t know whether I was grateful for him getting in the middle of what would have gotten ugly, or if I was upset at him for almost causing a fight. He was still the same person, it seemed, even after all the time and effort I had spent on his makeover. There was that hair-trigger temper that Toby had warned me about. I had seen him get angry, but I suppose there was a limit to how angry he could get with me versus how he would act towards another man, particularly another man who was in a way asking for it.
I didn’t like to blame the victim, but this was one of those rare cases where the victim wasn’t a victim but an antagonist. He was drunk, but he wasn’t deaf. He needed both me and Easton to tell him that I wasn’t interested until Easton had taken matters into his own hands, literally.
We finally got out of the club, walking out into the cool New York nighttime air. I rounded on Easton.
“Are you absolutely out of your mind?” I asked. Easton looked at me like I was the one who had just caused a scene and almost gotten us kicked out of the club.
“Are you out of your mind? That guy was sexually harassing you in the middle of the club. If that was how he was willing to act when he was surrounded by people, what if he managed to get you alone? What then?”
“Who was that man?” I asked him. He shook his head, beginning to pace a little bit. I held my hand out to try and hail a cab. We needed to get out of here. At first, I thought that alcohol might be behind his actions tonight, but he was clearly sober as a judge.
“A guy who’s gonna need to get his teeth checked to make sure I didn’t knock any of them out,” he said.
“No, Easton. I’m serious. Who was that man?” I asked him. The music was loud and everything had happened pretty fast, but I knew that I had heard part of their exchange. I heard them discussing a contract and he wouldn’t discuss a contract outside of the context of work. I had connected the dots in my head and I was afraid that my conclusion was correct. He had gone to dinner, and then to a club to entertain the client. The way Toby had swooped in to try and get in the middle of them, I was almost one hundred percent sure that the man who had come onto me at the club was the said client.
“I told you about him already. He’s a client from DC and he wanted Toby and me to take him out before he had to fly out tomorrow.” I closed my eyes. My worst fears were confirmed. Easton had just knocked out a potential client.
“Are you proud of yourself?” I asked him. A taxi finally started to slow down.
“If you’re asking whether I would do it again, the answer is yes.” The taxi stopped and I pushed Easton into it before jumping in myself. I took my phone out quickly to tell t
he girls that I had left early and that I was in a taxi, safe, and on my way home, before turning my attention back onto Easton.
“So, what do you have to say for yourself?” I asked.
“Nothing. I’m not sorry. I’m not gonna apologize to the guy when I see him again.”
“He was talking about a contract. How much is your company going to lose because you couldn’t keep a grip on your temper?” That got him angrier than he was already.
“Whatever the amount, it’s not worth it. I don’t want that fucking loser’s money anyway.”
“That’s not the way to run a business, Easton. I’ve only been working for a few months and even I know that.”
“You know, I don’t understand how you’re failing to see the point. That guy is a loser. He doesn’t respect women, and I’d put money on him having done something like that or even worse in the past to someone else.”
“You still shouldn’t have done that.”
“No, I didn’t do enough. What I should’ve done was drag him out of the club to the sidewalk and beat him to a pulp, so bad that he wouldn't be able to walk tomorrow.” He was fuming. I spared a thought for the poor cab driver who was hearing this whole exchange. I felt like this was my fault. I knew that it wasn’t, but I had dragged Easton away from the situation and effectively stopped him from taking out his frustrations on the guy who was dancing with me. Now he was angry, he was frothing at the mouth with all this pent-up anger and nowhere to direct it. I felt like I had to do something, so I did. I leaned across the seat, and I kissed him.
He was surprised at first, but he warmed up very quickly. I felt that giving him something else to focus on would get him out of his head long enough to process things logically. From his short exchange with Toby, I knew he was going to be in a lot of trouble tomorrow. He needed his mind to be clear enough to figure out what he was going do to fix this.
His anger seemed to drain out of him enough to pull me into his lap instead of pushing me away. I couldn’t lie that this was all for him, it was also for me. I lost absolutely nothing by indulging in his touch and taste. His hands ran up my thighs under my dress. It had ridden almost all the way up to my hips. My hands ran over his still smooth face and down his chest. He really did look good tonight, that wasn’t just me trying to soften him up.
The cab lurched to a sudden halt. We were at my place. I had blurted out my address as a reflex rather than his and now I was inviting him into my place. With everything else that hadn’t gone to plan tonight, sure, why not. Truly, I had blocked out the fact that we were in a moving vehicle with a stranger. Easton tended to have that effect on me. He cleared his throat.
“How much is that going to cost us?” he asked the driver.
“Let me cover this. I’m the one who took you out of the club,” I said. Easton completely ignored me, settling the fare. We got out of the cab. I walked up to the front door and opened it. I had never imagined inviting Easton to my home but now that he was here, there was only one thing I wanted to do with him.