Dirty romance

Chapter 4

I open my eyes from my blackout, feeling a hard surface under my back while lights are flashing and the music becomes even louder the more conscious I become. I find my sight clear and the first face I see is him looking down from above. I realize I’m lying with my head on his thigh while he strokes my hair. His warm presence makes me feel at ease and I begin to drown in his green eyes. His broad body hovers over me when he sees me waking up.

“How are you feeling?” I blink as he asks. What is this? Why is he here helping me? From what I recall he could never get away from me any quicker and now he is here asking me if I’m okay after passing out in his arms and saving me from the jerk who forced himself on to me. Although I do feel much better with him around his presence makes me feel somewhat protected especially after what he did for me back in the bathroom. I begin to lift my body from his lap while rubbing my eyes to clear my vision.

“I’m okay, just a bit of a headache.” That’s when I realize that I totally forgot about Mandi. I jump up from my seat at the back of the club and start looking around for her. From my earlier experience, this club could be quite dangerous and Mandi is usually over friendly with people she doesn’t know easily. I feel a huge amount of worry washing over me when I don’t find her anywhere. She’s probably abducted already and taken away by crazy evil men willing to sell her for a drug fix or something. s**t, how long have I been asleep for? I need to find her.

“Don’t worry, I found your friend. She is upstairs at the bar, I told her to go there this one seems a bit crowded.” He states.

I feel a sense of relief knowing she is okay. I look at Mr hottie and I try to read him. Why does he suddenly care about me, if anything I would’ve thought he’d just leave me to fall on the floor just to get away from me. There’s something dark about him, that he tries to hide. Could that be the reason he doesn’t talk much other than the things which need to be said? I fidget with my hands something I do when I become nervous which I most definitely am.

“You didn’t give me your name,” I say softly hoping he didn’t hear me. His eyes glue on to me and his face becomes cold and hard. Moving closer to me “It’s Eric… Eric Rivers.” His hard tone puts me in a daze.

Eric…I repeat the name over in my head. It suits him. Glancing down I notice his outfit, he always seems to wear dark clothing. A long sleeve V-neck shirt with his sleeves rolled up, the material hugging his broad shoulder and his hard bulked chest. Black jeans and black combat boots and behind him on the seat his helmet, does he have a motorbike? He always seems to walk around with the helmet.

“Oh thank god you’re awake! I thought you passed out on me!” Mandi snaps me out of my thoughts. I watch as she stumbles along the sides of the table between Eric and me clearly very drunk. “The night is still young come on drink up then we’ll go have more shots.” She encourages me while bringing the glass to my face. What she’s already wasted and she wants to go drink more. I gulp up the ice cold water she gives me already feeling my headache start to relieve me.

“Mandi, I think we should head back to the dorm. I’m kind of tired it’s been a long day.” I sound so boring.

“No problem Em, I’ll call us a cab.” I move my attention and notice Eric just observing our conversation.

“I could take you girls home. Emily, I won’t be sleeping in the dorm tonight so Mandi feel free to use my bed.” I feel my face flush at his offer to take us home.

“Uhm… not to burst your bubble but there’s no way the two of us are getting on to a motorbike with you,” Mandi states while referring to his helmet. I hear a slight laugh coming from his chest. Well, Mandi is right there’s no way I’m getting on a motorbike.

“I wasn’t expecting you ladies to get on my bike. I’ve got one of my cars here. I’d feel better knowing you got home safely.” He doesn’t break eye contact with me. “Sure, we’ll go with you.” I blurt out.

His mouth forms into a slight smirk making his eyes unbearably sexy. I could lose myself in them by wondering what’s going on inside there. His eyes are soft yet stern as well as his smile, friendly yet devilish. And in seconds his face becomes hard and emotionless, you’d never say his eyes were bright a few seconds ago. Immediately we start moving away from our seat pass the loud crowd to a different exit than the one we entered. What the hell is going on and where are we going. I need to pay more attention to what’s going on around me and stop thinking about this man.

We approach a dark passage with no lights aside from the glare of the club lights. I grab on to Mandi’s hand in front of me for some guidance. We keep walking and the music from the club seems to get softer and softer until it’s almost no longer there. Finally, Eric opens a door and a red light shines in my face. I shut my eyes for a second then open them giving them time to adjust to the light.

I reach the door and walk into a small room as I give ear to the loud bang of the door closing behind me. The red light appears to be much dimmer than before we entered. While inspecting the room, a brown cluttered desk in the middle of the room with a white lamp glazing its light over all the paperwork. An old broken couch with a blanket lying untidily on it, I swear if I looked long enough I might’ve seen a pillow underneath the messy blanket. Behind the desk, you can’t help but notice two huge steel cupboards which I presume for storage. Whoever owns this place must be a very untidy person.

While trying to move I knock my Louis Vuitton against something hard on the floor. My instant reaction is to scream but the object seems to take all my attention away from the pain in my foot. It’s a wide huge safe on the floor with a circled knob used to enter the combination. Why the f**k would someone put that there.

“Eric, are you sure we are allowed back here,” I asked feeling my anxiety start to build at the sight of the safe by my feet, what if we got caught here.

“Don’t worry about it.” He says nonchalantly. I watch as he opens up the drawer then searches in depth for something until his face glides out of focus mode once he’s found what he’s looking for. He lifts the keys closer to the light making sure it’s the correct one. Is he stealing from this club? I don’t even know if he has a car other than his motorbike. He slides the keys into his pocket and slams the drawer closed and walks towards the door. I stare at Mandi and she looks concerned as well.

We follow Eric outside of the club to the car, he indicates me to sit in the passenger side. By this time I’m all sobered up with the extreme anxiety that we might be driving in a stolen car. We turn into the road as I turn to fasten my seat belt and stare at the road taking in every road and turn off he is making.

“Are you all right?” his deep voice takes me out of focus. “Uh yeah…” I try playing it cool. “Stop talking s**t Em! What the f**k dude, you totally just went in there and stole this key. Like, explain, please. Do you work there, do you know the owner, do you even have permission to drive this damn expensive car or did you just lie to us about having another car to take us home.” Mandi screams while her arms swaying around in the back seat.

I stare at Eric’s reaction and his face just indicates that his listening to what Mandi is saying and he has no reaction.

“I told you, girls, not to worry, I own the club.” I hear his faint voice.