Dare to Submit (Dare to Love #4)(2)
Author: Carly Phillips

“No.” She cringed at the thought. Hadn’t they already negotiated? Laid down the accepted rules and boundaries? She’d been uncomfortable all night, and now she knew why her instincts had been on high alert.

“No?” This time he yanked on her hair to show his displeasure. “What about me and my friend?” He spoke louder than was appropriate or necessary, and she blushed as people around them began to look. “One of us in that tight pu**y, another in your ass?”

Hell no. “Red!”

“Get your hands off her.” This from the man whose dark gaze followed her everywhere but whom she’d never met.

“What’s going on here?” John, a club monitor, approached. Fully dressed in leathers and wearing a badge indicating his status, his arrival was exactly what Amanda needed.

He turned a hard and pissed gaze on Mike, the man she’d stupidly opted to play with tonight.

He stepped into her personal space, getting between her and Mike, the ass**le. Apparently he had a protective streak.

“The lady said red. Mike didn’t respect it. You can take care of the bastard. I’ve got her.”

John nodded, pulling an argumentative Mike away for what looked like a good dressing down.

“Thank you,” Amanda said to her rescuer, admiring his take-charge personality, which turned her on as much as his good looks already did. She’d had her eye on him for months.

Cropped, jet-black hair and a strong, chiseled face that knocked her on her ass. He had an air of authority that aroused her.

“My pleasure.” He smiled, taking her breath away. Until now, she’d only seen him from across the room. His impact was more potent up close.

She only came to the club once in awhile, to try and get what she needed from a guy without the hassle of a relationship. It still amazed her she’d only ever really desired him. But he’d never approached her, and she wasn’t the kind of woman to take what she wanted from a man. Never had been. Didn’t trust the reaction she’d get in return. There was a reason she had a membership here, where expectations were laid out up front and if someone approached her, he wanted her, if only for the night.

He clearly hadn’t.

The deeply ingrained insecurities instilled by her perfection-demanding mother rose to the surface. Too fat. Not pretty enough. Passably smart, but where would that get her?

“Let me take you out of here,” he said in a gruff voice, pulling her back to the present. She met his gaze.

The unexpected flare of desire in his dark blue eyes took her off guard. If he’d approached her earlier or another time, she would have taken him up on the invitation. Now, it seemed like he’d made it because he felt sorry for her. She’d been someone’s pity f**k once before. Never again. Insecurities were one thing. Being stupid quite another.

“Thank you but I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” He lifted her trembling hand, which made his point for him.

He obviously thought she was upset about the incident with Mike. He was wrong. She was overwhelmed by his masculine scent, and her body trembled with the effort it took not to take him up on the offer. Pheromones didn’t care about things like emotions and pity f**ks.

“I don’t know you,” she said, throwing out another, more substantial roadblock.

Even he would understand that after the crap Mike had pulled, not even the security of club membership assured her anyone here was safe. He couldn’t expect her to leave with him.

As much as she wanted to.

She shivered, suddenly cold, wishing she were wearing day wear and not this stupid corset and short leather skirt.

“I can vouch for him,” Max Savage said. He was a nice guy she’d done a scene with awhile back. He’d relaxed her and taken her close to subspace. Not over. No one took her there. And at the time she’d been with Max, she’d had no interest in sleeping with him.

This guy was another story.

She glanced at Max and tried not to grin. One friend trying to help another get laid. “Nice try, but I don’t know you all that well either.”

She rubbed her hands up and down the goose bumps on her bare arms.

“What if I told you he was a cop?” Max asked.

“Really?”

He extended his arm, and someone handed him a blanket, which he proceeded to wrap around her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she said, immediately feeling better.

“You know me.” John, the club monitor who’d hauled Mike away, reappeared by her side. “You can trust Decklan to take care of you. Mike’s been warned before. His membership has been revoked.”

She blinked in surprise. “I’m glad.” The ass**le didn’t deserve to be in a position of trust.

“Decklan’s a decent guy. Don’t leave with him if you don’t want to, but at least let him get you something cold to drink. You’ll feel better, and then you can get changed and leave. I’ll walk you out myself,” John promised.

Decklan. She tested the name in her head, liking the sound. “A soda sounds good.”

The crowd around them had already dispersed, and even Max had walked away, giving his friend a shot on his own.

Good luck, she silently told him. To her way of thinking, they might have passed I’m interested looks with their eyes over the last six months, but he hadn’t stepped up, which Amanda took personally. Decklan whatever-his-last-name-was would have to bring his A game if he expected her to do any more than drink a soda with him before heading home.

TWO

At work and in his personal life, Decklan laid out the facts and the truth. He didn’t tolerate BS or lies. With this woman, who eyed him with an intense amount of distrust coupled with a healthy dose of desire, at least when she thought he wasn’t looking, he intended to do the same.

They sat together at the bar. He ordered two club sodas and let her drink in silence, waiting until she was definitely over whatever had happened with Mike. She was. The tense quiet between them now had everything to do with them. She didn’t trust him, and his gut said the reasons went deep.

When she put down her drink and met his gaze, he decided it was time.

“I’m Decklan Dare.” He held out his hand.

“Amanda Collins.” She accepted the gesture, placing her smaller palm against his.

He immediately slid a thumb over the pulse point in her wrist, pleased with the rapid beat that told him she wasn’t immune. Just wary.

Wary he could deal with. Now that he was here, he was in for the night.