Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Catching his eye, she jerked her head.
He wandered over, a big smile on his handsome face and his usual quietness diffused by the fact they’d met multiple times over the years. “Hey, Catie. You and Danny finally hooking up?”
“He’s been slipped drugs I think,” she said to him under the cover of music. They both knew Danny would never do drugs on his own. “Can you help me get him out the back somehow?”
Expression changing so quickly that it was obvious he was sober, he nodded. “Let me go check out the exit there.”
She found herself stroking Danny’s back in the interim, his muscles flexing under the contact. “Hold on, hotshot. I’ve got you.”
Catie could murder the asswipe who’d dared do this to him. She and Danny might be frenemies at the best of times, but even she’d admit he was one of the genuine good guys. Smart, loyal, trustworthy—and irritating as all fuck. But when the shit hit the fan, Danny Esera would be the man you’d want beside you.
Danny mumbled a response, but she couldn’t make sense of it. What she didn’t miss was the fact that—even drugged and out of control—he was trying to brace himself on the bar so he wouldn’t push her off-balance.
“It’s all good,” she said against his ear—which she could reach because he was kind of bent over the bar. “I’ve got excellent upper-body strength.”
He didn’t scowl at her subtle reference to the time she’d beaten him not once but twice at arm wrestling. They’d been in their teens at the time, and he’d muscled up considerably since then, but she liked to mess with him by pulling out that factoid, did so now in the hope it would spark emotion, clear out a little of the fog. But his eyes stayed dazed as his hand clenched desperately on her top.
Catie stroked his back again on a roaring wave of protectiveness.
No one was allowed to do this to her people. And nemesis or not, Danny was one of Catie’s people. “Where the hell is Vili?”
The other man appeared out of the mass of people at that moment and gave a short nod before putting one thickly muscled arm around Danny’s waist and pulling Danny’s arm around his shoulders. Though Vili was as tall and well-built as Danny, Danny was having so much trouble holding himself up that Catie stayed at his other side, her arm around his waist and his other arm around her shoulders.
To outside eyes, it’d look like the three of them had had a few too many drinks—enough to get a little loose with their bodies but not enough to get Danny any bad press.
“You’re heavy, hotshot,” Catie muttered in an effort to keep Danny awake.
He was fighting the drugs, but it was obvious they were starting to win. And even Viliame couldn’t get Danny out if he became dead weight. Danny might be one of the fastest people on the team, his ability to sidestep opposing players legendary, but he was still a rugby player. The man was muscle on muscle in a way that was quite different from Catie’s runner’s physique.
“Come on,” she said as they weaved through the crowd; the happy partiers provided excellent cover for their stumbling progress. “You can do this, Danny.”
Her use of his actual name seemed to get through, and he managed to help them the last few feet off the dance floor. Probably because she mostly called him anything but his name. Hotshot, GQ, Skinny, and her favorite, Cutie. That last one always made him growl because he knew she was poking him just to get a reaction—and still he’d react.
Never would Catie tell him, but that growl thing was actually cute.
Once out in the dimly lit back corridor, she and Viliame only had to go a short way to get Danny to the back door. When Vili pulled it open, she saw why he’d been gone so long—a rugged dark green Land Cruiser sat by the back door. Right, of course. Vili was based in the region, must’ve driven tonight.
“No Ferrari?” she huffed out, aware of his love for that sleek bullet of a car.
“This rig is Romeo’s,” he said, naming another teammate. “I’m the designated driver for a bunch of us—but don’t worry, boys’ll be in the club for hours yet.”
The two of them managed to get Danny into the back seat. “I’ll get in with him,” Catie said, suiting action to words. “Just in case he throws up or has another reaction.”
“Hospital?” Vili glanced in the rearview mirror. “I don’t like how he’s looking.”
“Yes, head for the emergency department.” Catie had managed to belt Danny in, and he was now lying with his head on her shoulder. “I wish we could protect him from the media, but his health comes first.” For whatever reason—whether his rugby royalty family, his natural charm, or his gorgeous face and body—the entertainment media had decided that Danny Esera was their current “It” boy.