Caged (9 page)

Guess the girls in line don’t read Cosmo…

I was quickly pulled out of my ruminations when we entered the main club area. It was enormous. Enormous like basketball-arena enormous. I think my jaw actually hung open until Sean’s voice snapped it closed.

“Welcome to the big city,” he said. I didn’t feel very welcome.

I felt assessing eyes looking me over - men to see if I’d meet their sexual desires, and women to see if I was competition for those men. Some of the women actually looked at me in a confused manner though it took me a while to figure out why. I guess it wasn’t every day that you saw an amazingly hot guy bringing a pale, lanky girl to that kind of place.

Are they jealous? Can’t be. They have to know that he’s not with me.

At that m
oment he reached back and took my hand in his to draw me through the crowd. When their faces scowled I realized that they wanted me dead, and Sean however they could get him. I smiled even if their aggression was misplaced. I was going to live their jealousy up as much as possible. Ruby 1, pretty girls 0.

We slowly made our way over to the bar. The crowd was thick with sweaty bodies gyrating in positions that I was pretty sure wouldn’t have made their parents proud. I must have looked a little shell-shocked when we made it to our destination because Sean laughed and quickly got me a vodka cranberry to take the edge off of my anxiety. He spoke to the bartender as though they were old friends, though he later denied that they were. He wasn’t drinking.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I asked nervously. Humor and sarcasm were going to be the order of the night to get me through my growing discomfort. Instead of laughing he looked at me rather heatedly, his eyebrow cocked ever so slightly.

“Would you like me to?” he asked, leaning forward so that I could hear him better.

I took a tiny sip of my cocktail and placed it back on the bar. That made him laugh.

“Point made,” he said, leaning his elbows behind him on the bar-top.

I kept my eyes off of the dance floor while we talked mindlessly about the decor, my drink and the random people surrounding us. Eventually, I did get up the courage to ask how we got in with no difficulties at all, assuming that he would be vague and evasive with his answer. I was surprised when he said that he knew the owner. When I tried to pry a bit and find out more, he suddenly looked very distant. And not very happy.

“I think you have an admirer,” he said, still looking out into the crowd of moving bodies. He actually growled for a split second after he choked the comment out.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to figure out who he had in his line of sight. “And why do you look like you’re going to kick somebody’s ass?”

“I don’t like how he’s looking at you,” he said, voice low and threatening. “He looks like he’s starving and you’re lunch.”

“You don’t even know that he’s looking at me. This place is full…he could be looking at anyone in this direction!” I argued.

“No,” he said convincingly. “It’s you he wants.”

I turned to see who my potential admirer was, hoping I wasn’t going to have a rerun of the “Creeptastic” adventure. I scanned the vast crowd unable to find who Sean was all in a twist about. I was about to turn and tell him how crazy he was when my eyes fell on an elevated section of the dance floor. There were about fifty people up there, but my eyes landed on
him
instantly. They were drawn to him and I was unable to pry them off.

His honey brown eyes were undressing me from twenty yards away, and I liked it. I wanted to touch the face that so beautifully framed those eyes, along with a few other things. I felt myself start to walk in that direction when Sean grabbed my arm and whipped me around. My head felt funny instantly, but I assumed it was the lingering effects from the centrifugal forces I had just experienced.

He looked angry at me.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” he asked, his voice rumbling through me.

I cocked my head to the side in an unfamiliar gesture. “
I’m
going to dance.”

“You have no idea what the guys here can be like. It’s not safe for a girl like you,” he said looking somewhat genuinely concerned under all that rage.

A smile that I’d never smiled before crossed my lips. “I don’t think you have any idea what kind of girl I am.” I watched his eyes flash something right as I pulled away from him and strutted through the crowd to the driving beat of the bass. The mass of club-goers parted before me as I crossed the floor. I felt pulled to him as though my body moved through no volition of my own. He was no longer dancing, only standing, staring as I approached.

I couldn’t get there fast enough. When I finally reached him I stopped just inches away, our faces nearly pressed together. His caramel eyes were fierce and burning, and I loved them. He smelled rugged and fresh, like ocean and forest, and I had to work hard not to bury my face in his chest and breathe him in. I looked over his body to enjoy its magnificence. He was all man - strong, lean, tall and he exuded sex and danger. I wanted whatever it was he was selling.

His style was understated: a simple white t-shirt that was practically painted onto him, dark jeans that were tight in all the right places, and bright white Pumas with a lime green arc on the side. The only standout piece was a silver necklace that hung close to his neck with a pendant of some intricate design, all curves and angles woven together. I was fascinated by it, but not enough for my eyes to linger there for too long. His face was the show stopper and his eyes were all for me. They looked beautiful surrounded by his “cafe con leche” skin. There was no hair on his face or head, leaving it completely smooth, and I had an uncontrollable urge to run my hands over both but managed to gain some composure as I saw my hands starting to drift towards him.

The music at the club managed to save me from myself. The next song came thumping through the speakers with an animalistic beat, and before I could think, the two of us moved as one on the floor. I was consumed by him, unaware that anyone else was there. I wanted to be alone with him.

Though our bodies were glued to one another, we managed some semblance of decorum. We weren’t having sex with our clothes on like I’d seen so many others doing that night. It was far more intimate and intense than that; we were one. Music moved through us and played us like we were the same instrument.

His face was close, breathing my air. Every time I made eye contact with him, I lost myself in the most literal sense. I said things I’d never said before, and did things I would never have done; I was a completely different person. I was so influenced by his energy, his power, as if it was seeping out of him and into me. I knew I could sense the feelings of others as well as I could my own, but this was entirely different and new. The feeling was heightened exponentially with eye contact so I tried my best to avoid it. I did an amazingly poor job of it.

I heard a voice from behind me but didn’t acknowledge it until a hand clamped down onto my arm and jerked me around in a not-so-friendly way. Sean’s look was murderous. He was visually communicating his desire to creatively remove certain body parts from the guy he’d just peeled me off of, making sure the process was intolerable. There was something personal about his stare, like the two had been at a crossroad before.

“Do you two know each other?” I asked, not really expecting an honest answer. I needed to diffuse the situation before the pissing contest got any more heated. The man laughed and said nothing. I abruptly turned to look at Sean, not sure how he would react to the man’s expressed humor with the situation. He did nothing but stare him down.

“You never truly know anyone, Ruby,” he said, calmly. “But no. I don’t know
him.
”

Sean’s emphasis on the word “him” seemed strange, but so was Sean sometimes. I shrugged as I audibly exhaled.
Boys can be so trying sometimes.

I looked back at the man causing such a clear air of tension between them. I wanted to know who he was. However, as soon as I looked at him I no longer cared, I just wanted to be with him regardless of the cost.

“I’m Eric,” he said without being prompted.

“Ruby,” I managed as I struggled against Sean’s very strong grip to get closer to Eric.

“We’re leaving,” Sean stated as he whirled me around and marched me towards the door. My feet barely made contact with the floor and I realized he’d picked me up around the waist to drag me out of the dance hall. Eric followed closely behind with a wickedly amused look plastered all over his face. The situation was more personal than either of them was letting on and I was furious at being in the dark about something that so clearly involved me.

Sean stomped through the lobby, pushing through innocent club goers with no regard. As we broke through the front door, Eric slipped a small piece of paper into my hand as Sean continued on towards the parking lot. He didn’t see me take it so I managed to quickly slip it into my shirt and down my bra even with the restricted range of motion I had in my arm. I doubted that Sean would strip search me to find it even if he had seen what I did. Eric slipped out of sight into the bar while I continued to be hauled away like luggage to the car.

“I’m quite capable of walking, you know,” I said with as much ferocity as I could muster.

“I’ve seen what you’re capable of tonight,” he scoffed.

“Why are you so angry with me?” I asked trying desperately to figure out what offense of mine he’d suffered.

“It’s nothing,” he answered.

“Nothing? This is how you act about nothing? Remind me never to do
something
to you then, because I shudder to think what your reaction would be to that,” I said, trying to wiggle away from him.

He had no reply. We made our way to the car: me tucked under his arm and Sean still pissed off. When we got to the BMW he put me down right in front of him and bent down so close to me that I could see the tiny scar just above his left eyebrow.

“I’m angry because you don’t know what the hell you’re doing and you’re going to get yourself hurt one of these days. You know nothing about that guy and yet I barely managed to get you out of there while your clothes were still on,” he said with an ever increasing volume. “You looked like a bitch in heat out there. Do you have any idea what he’s capable of?”

“No, I don’t,” I yelled, feeling insulted. “Apparently you do though, so why not be a peach and share some of your vast knowledge on the subject?” I asked angrily.

“All you need to know is that guys like that are trouble. They care about only one thing in life and that’s them,” he said, he eyes flashing hatred. “They are always their own bottom line…everyone and everything else is assessed as to whether or not they can improve that.” In the dim lighting the streetlamps provided, I could have sworn his beautiful green eyes were swallowed by a black so deep it appeared endless. “Any more questions?”

I hadn’t noticed how tightly he was gripping my arms, and I tried to pull them out of his grasp before they were bruised.

“Why do you even care?” I asked, finally freeing myself.

I knew it had been a low blow when I said it, but I was so infuriated that it didn’t seem to matter at the time. His expression softened slightly, but I felt his anger and anxiety coursing through me.

“If you have to ask that question, then you really aren’t the person I thought you were,” he said, opening the car door. I sighed, walking around to the passenger side to get in. We both sat in darkened silence for a few minutes; he hadn’t even started the car. I felt the growing tension in the air and knew I wouldn’t be able to take it for too much longer. I knew he was angry and clearly distraught by my behavior, but there was something else coming off of him, something that I couldn’t place.

Is he…hurt?

He finally broke the silence.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he turned to face me. “I have no right to judge your behavior or your choice in…men.” The last word came off his tongue like it was bitter, offending his mouth.

I sooooo wasn’t expecting that.

I wasn’t sure what to say. The truth was that I didn’t recognize my behavior that night any more than he did. I felt strange from the moment I laid eyes on Eric. That sensation seemed to only increase with my physical proximity to him. As soon as he went back into the club it was like I slowly came down off a high and more into myself. With that came the embarrassment and shame of my uncharacteristically whorish behavior. I was even more ashamed that Sean had been there to witness it, and to add insult to injury, had to save me from the whole debacle.

He owed me no apology.

“Don’t be. I was being defensive earlier. I…I don’t know what happened. I’ve never felt like that before and certainly haven’t acted that way either. What’s really weird is that the feeling seems to be fading. Do you think somebody slipped something into my drink?” I asked while I grasped for something to rationalize my behavior.

“Yes,” he said, firmly. “I think that’s exactly what happened. I’m going to take you home now, and I’m going to stay over to make sure there aren’t any ill effects from whatever got into your system tonight.” He fired up the engine and backed the car out onto the street. “No arguments, either.”