I leave Conor in the motel room talking on the phone to Shane while I go to reception to check out. They were discussing some business in Ireland that seemed to involve Shane’s ex-fiancée, Erin, and I didn’t want to hang around and listen to any conversation involving her. She brings out a jealous streak in me I didn’t even know I had until I met the Ryan brothers.
After handing in our room key, I push open the doors of the motel reception and walk around the building to the parking lot where Conor’s car is parked up, almost bumping into two men as I round the corner. One of them nudges the other and they share a look like they know me. I try to step past them, but they block my path.
“Hey, you’re the girl from last night?” One says and I recognize them as the two men from the bar.
“Yeah! The cock-tease who shook her ass like a whore and then pretended she didn’t want us to touch her,” the other one adds.
I take a deep breath and count to five in my head. These are two big guys and while I’m pretty sure I could take one of them if I caught him by surprise, both of them might be a stretch. As Conor is in the motel room talking to Shane, I could do without riling these assholes any further, so I resist the urge to make a snappy comeback. “Can you let a lady past please, gents?” I say with as sweet a smile as I can muster.
“You ain’t no lady. Tramp!” The bearded one snorts and his buddy starts to laugh loudly, and I see the flash of his gold canine tooth.
I shake my head and try to move past them again, but they move as I do, blocking my path to the front and side and preventing me from walking away.
“Guys? Please?” I say with a sigh.
“Please?” One says in a whiny voice as they both edge closer to me until I feel the heat from their bodies. The anger bubbles up from the pit of my stomach and comes out of my mouth before I can stop it.
“Why don’t you pair of dickless wonders crawl back under whatever rock you slithered out from under and let me be on my way?” I snarl.
“Dickless?” The bearded one snarls as he grabs his crotch. “I’ll show you dickless, bitch.”
He grabs hold of my left arm and I swing my right one back and punch him in the jaw, making him stagger backwards. His buddy steps in and grabs me from behind, pinning both hands behind my back. “You gonna take that from this little whore. John?” he laughs as I try to wrench myself from his grip. But he holds me tight, his thick, sausage fingers digging into the soft flesh of my arms.
“Bitch!” The one I now know is John snarls as he wipes some blood from his mouth and steps back towards me. I stamp my foot down on the toes of the one holding me and he cries out in pain, but he doesn’t let me go. Instead, he holds me tighter as John pushes his face close to mine. ‘Whores like you need to be taught a lesson, darlin’,” he leers at me as his hands drop to his cock again. “Get her in the truck. Quick,” he hisses as he looks around the empty parking lot.
“The fuck you will,” I growl before I spit in his face. He raises his hand and slaps me hard across the cheek with the back of it, making my head snap back. Running my tongue over the inside of my cheek, I taste blood and I spit at him again.
“Fucking hell, Jeff. Muzzle her, will you?” he snarls at his buddy standing behind me and a few seconds later, a large, sweaty hand clamps over my mouth. “You need to be taught some manners, little girl,” he says as he nods towards the truck and Jeff starts to walk me towards it.
I try to scream, but Jeff’s grubby palm muffles the sound. I kick and wriggle as they drag me to the truck, but Jeff carries me with ease. I glance around, desperate for someone to see me. Where the hell is Conor? This isn’t playtime any more. These two psychopaths are seriously going to kidnap me. Fuck!
My heart starts pounding in my chest as my eyes search for a weapon or something I can use to my advantage. John opens the truck door and Jeff lifts me by my waist with my arms still pinned behind my back. He is about to throw me onto the back seat until I plant my two feet on either side of the door frame to stop them.
“Get her the fuck in there,” John hisses, as he quickly looks around us.
“Help me the fuck out then,” Jeff snarls his reply.
John grabs hold of my legs by my knees, forcing them together to try and release them from the door frame. “Come on darlin’. I promise these legs will be spread wide for the rest of the day and night. But I need to get you in this truck first.”
Jeff chuckles behind me. ‘We’re going to tear you apart little girl,’ he says against my ear and the bile surges up my throat from my stomach.
“Not if I tear you apart first, you sick fuck!” I hear Conor’s familiar growl behind me and almost cry with relief. He grabs hold of John first, pulling him away from me and punching him so hard in the face that he knocks him out cold.
Jeff releases me, turning to face Conor, who glares at him with a murderous look on his face.
“I’m going to rip off every part of your body that you touched her with,” he snarls, his teeth bared like a rabid dog. “And then I’m going to make you beg for your momma while my girl watches me torture you to death.”
Jeff’s face turns a deathly shade of white, but he throws a punch at Conor, who ducks it easily, before he punches Jeff in the face, causing his nose to burst open like a ripe peach. Jeff howls in pain and drops to the floor as Conor starts raining blows down on his head. Although there is no doubt Jeff deserves whatever Conor has planned for him, I just want to get out of here. I look up to see two men walking out of the bar across the street and wonder if they might be buddies of John and Jeff.
I grab hold of Conor’s arm. “Conor. Please stop. You’ll only draw attention to us. This isn’t New York. If someone calls the cops, they’ll arrest us both. You’ve made your point. Let’s go.”
He turns to me, his eyes narrowed. “They were about to put you in their truck, Jessie. They were going to rape, and probably kill you! They are going to fucking die for putting their hands on you.’
“I know they deserve to, but I really want to go. Please?” I glance across the street at the two approaching men before I look back to Conor.
“For fuck’s sake,” he snarls as he takes his cell out of his pocket and snaps a picture of the number plate before taking my hand and walking us to his SUV. He picks up our bags from the floor on the way, which he must have dropped when he saw me almost being thrown into that truck.
“Why did you take a picture?” I whisper.
“You think I’m going to let them away with what they just did to you, Angel. I won’t kill them, but I’ll make damn sure someone else does. They will never put their hands on anyone else ever again. Now get in the goddamn car,” he snaps and I climb inside with a lump in my throat. It seems like he’s mad at me.
Once he’s put our bags in the trunk, he jumps into the driver’s seat. Reaching out his hand, he rubs the pad of his thumb over my lip. “Please let me go back there and fuck them up,” he breathes.
Turning around, I see the two guys from the bar are now helping John and Jeff get to their feet. I have no doubt that Conor could take all four of them, but I don’t want to hang around and have him prove my point. “I just want to get out of here, Conor. Please?”
He frowns and starts the ignition, before gunning the engine and wheel spinning out of the parking lot.
I sit in the passenger seat in silence as Conor glares at the road ahead. When we’ve driven about a mile, he pulls the car over and takes off his seatbelt before unclipping mine too. “Come here,” he orders and I blink at him for a few seconds, before I climb out of my seat and move onto his lap until I’m straddling him.
He draws in a deep breath and brushes my hair back from my face. “Are you hurt?”
“My cheek stings a little. But I’m okay. Why do guys like that think that they have a right to put their hands on women that way? Assholes!” I rub my cheek as though I can rub the stain of their hands from me, and he takes my hand and kisses my fingertips. Then he brushes his fingers over the mark on my face, much gentler than I did.
“Because they’re backwards thinking, misogynistic assholes, Angel.”
“They called me a cock teasing whore,” I whisper. “Because I was dancing last night.”
His whole body tenses beneath me. ”Fuckers! You should have let me deal with them. I would rip their fucking limbs off and shove them up their asses!” he snarls.
“They’re not worth us getting into any trouble for, Conor. The last thing we need is to draw any unwanted attention to ourselves. I just want us to get home.” I place my hands on his chest and his breathing slows.
“Home?” he smiles at me.
“You know what I mean,” I whisper.
“But it is your home, Angel. I’m just happy to hear you calling it that again.”
“I’m happy to be calling it that too,” I say as I lean forward and place a soft kiss on his lips.
“How do you manage to have me eating out of the palm of your hand, Angel?” he breathes. “You have a power over me like no-one has ever had before.”
I bite my lip as I look into his warm brown eyes. “That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is, and you know it. I would do anything for you, Jessie Ryan. You’re all I think about every second of every day.”
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I press a soft kiss against his cheek. “I love you, Conor Ryan,” I breathe. “And I would do anything for you too.”
