Sweet Trouble Read Free Page B

as if it’s made of steel and not pink leather. Her eyes blaze and she looks like she’d take me on if she could. Her small hands wrap around her purse. I imagine she’d throw a punch if I got close.
    She’s twenty. The same age Olivia was when David Voss attacked her. My sister was never the same and couldn’t ever have children for reasons she refused to tell me. I should have spent five years in prison for the beating I gave David Voss. Attempted Murder, that was the charge. But then David Voss surprised us all. He left a note confessing to the assault along with six more. I was let out after nine months. The release was early but the label of felon remains.
    I don’t like this girl. How can I? She’s a fucking Voss. That night, when I’d finished beating the crap out of David Voss, I told him I’d come back for him and the rest of his family. But prison sidetracked me, and by the time I was back, he and his grown sons were dead.
    Voss or not, Bailey should not be here. She’s sweet, and beautiful, and the drunks in this place will hit on her all night long. She won’t believe a word I say but I can still offer a little protection.
    “We’re dancing,” I tell her.
    “You w-want to dance with me?” she stammers.
    “No, I don’t. But if you go out there with me, the other men in the bar will leave you alone.”
    Her hand flutters to her chest like she’s trying to settle her heartbeat. I’m sorry I’m scaring her, but Fulton has some rough elements, especially on Friday nights when the oil men come to party.
    “I don’t need men to leave me alone.”
    Her words piss me off even more. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
    She shrugs. “I’m leaving. Going home.”
    Good. Go home, little girl. You don’t belong here. I should be pleased but if she comes back here, she’ll have the same problems with men hounding her. If I dance with her a time or two, dicks like the guy just in here will leave her alone.
    She walks past me, goes to the sink to wash her hands. Looking in the mirror, she eyes me like she wonders what my next move is.
    I shake my head. “You’re not going home until you dance with me.”
    Setting her hands on her hips she gives me a dirty look. “Who the hell do you think you are, Mr. McKinley? You think you can just order me around? Force me onto the dance floor? Are you some kind of…cave man?”
    Her eyes flash with anger, the blue darkening and her face turning a lovely pink as she lets me have it.
    “Cave man? We’re all cave men. I’m just one of the more civilized ones. I need to ask you… Who do you think you are, coming to a bar when you’re only twenty. You know that’s illegal, right?”
    Her jaw drops and a flicker of fear passes behind her eyes. I’ve got her now. It might not get her arrested, but as a nurse she wouldn’t want any sort of trouble like allegations of underage drinking.
    “I don’t know how to dance,” she says softly.
    Her gentle tone flows over me in a way I hadn’t anticipated.
    “It’s not hard. C’mon.”
    She purses her lips as she mulls it over. “I’ll step on your toes. I mean…it’s not just that I don’t know how, but I’m very bad at it. Two left feet.”
    “I’ll suffer through it. Now let’s go. One dance. That’s all.”
    Her gaze wanders to the door that’s hanging a little crooked now and back to me. She’s studying me, probably realizing I don’t take no for an answer. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
    She leads the way back to the dance floor, giving me a fabulous view of her ass. At the edge of the dance floor she looks over her shoulder at me, a look that is part amused and part worried. Her brow is creased but her lips still have that mischievous smile. “Hope you’re wearing your steel-toed boots there, cowboy.”
    The girl’s got a smart mouth. As she turns away, her skirt swishes over her ass. I’d like to flip that little scrap of material up and give her a few sharp