Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Annie

Do you know what you shouldn't do when you're still heartbroken, dealing with asshole parents, and have no discernable life plan whatsoever?

Go out and get drunk. Nuh-uh. That's definitely a bad idea. I'm sure of it. It's also a super-duper bad idea to sneak away from your best friend's brother and his fiancé when all they're doing is trying to protect you from your drunk self.

I mean, I know these things. I do. I promise.

But not when I'm drunk me. For sure not when I'm sad, mopey me. When these mes take the wheel, I might turn into a different kind of girl altogether and do a few stupid things. Now that I think about it... That's how I hooked up with Daddy Jackson.

Huh.

Maybe I should just not drink altogether.

This thought depresses me even more as I hiccup and plant my ass onto the sidewalk outside the club Suzie and I demanded to be taken to. Neither of us had ever been there. Me for obvious reasons, Suzie because it opened while she was abroad with me.

Ethan and Cole weren't too happy with our choice, but one look at both of our pouts got us the win and they drove us the forty-five minutes it took to get here. It's a busy place, and slightly less fancy than I thought a club called Hip would be. But the music was loud, and the drinks weren't too watered down, so we could have fun, and I could get a pleasant buzz on.

But after drink number three, Ethan started frowning at me, and after drink number five, Cole upfront took it away from me. Not even my pout would work.

However, at that point, I had five drinks in my system, was feeling sparkly, and needed to just forget all the bad things in my life. So I snuck away, found another bar in the huge club and grabbed a few shots before sneaking back to Suzie with two for her.

Never one to turn down a good time, she drank them down with me and we continued to have our fun on the dance floor.

"Then Suzie didn't want any more shots and we had one of our rare arguments, and Ethan tried to get me to go home, and I didn't wanna, so I snuck away and hid in some kind of broom closet type thing and now I'm here talking to you," I say to the young girl passed out on the sidewalk next to me. "You know," I add thoughtfully. "You should probably not be sleeping out here like this. It isn't safe."

Passed-out girl doesn't respond. Unsurprisingly.

"I should phone Suzie, but I'm mad at her. And I don't have Ethan's number, so I can't get him to come fetch me." I keep talking to the poor creature next to me as if she's listening and responsive, but at this point, I'm not far from joining her because I most certainly snuck a few more shots after getting away from my babysitters and didn't have the luxury of dancing the booze out of my system after.

I ponder my different options, knowing full well I only really have one. But I'm just drunk, stubborn and stupid enough to not want to phone my friend to ask her for help. With unsteady movements, I push up from the sidewalk and quickly push my dress back down again, so strangers won't be able to see my lady bits.

I'll just take a walk to the main street and grab a cab. I have enough emergency money stashed away for a hotel room. By tomorrow morning Suzie will be ready to apologize and we can go back to normal.

Or if I'm being honest, I'll feel brave enough to fess up to being an asshole and beg my best friend to forgive my sorry ass.

Ugh, I'm a mess!

I rub my hand over my face as I stumble to the bouncer at the door. My hand lands on his arm, using him to steady myself. "You look after my friend there now, you hear?" I order him, focusing on keeping my words from slurring too badly before I push away from him and very carefully try to make my way to the main road. Mr. Bouncer doesn't respond to my decree, but I figure the girl was passed out and in one piece before I came out, so she'll be good.

But before I can make it very far, a deep, growly, sexy, familiar voice stops me in my tracks.

"Annabelle, if you take another step, I'll have you over my lap before you can say 'Sorry, Sir'."

Holy shit. Holy. Fucking. Shit .

I teeter on my heels before finding my balance and turning around to face the direction the voice came from.

And there he is. I repeat. Holy shit .

Lorcan. In all his angry glory.

He pushes back his dark hair from his face, and the fierce frown makes me shake in my sexy shoes.

I might also be creaming myself a bit at the delicious front-arm porn, and to-die-for tight black t-shirt stretched over his wide, built chest.

"Seriously. Dads should not be this sexy," I mumble before I can stop myself.

He flinches slightly at my words, and I take the hit to my ego, even though I already know there was no chance there, regardless of me never, ever, ever going there with my best friend's married dad.

But he started it with the threat of spankings. And the sexy voice. Not to mention the forearms, pecs, and t-shirt that should be illegal.

He clears his throat before turning to the bouncer. "Does that girl on the sidewalk have anyone here with her?"

"Her friend is just inside getting her cell phone. I'm watching her for now."

Lorcan nods before stalking to me, and I have to swallow down the sudden fear and lust flooding my system.

"You," he growls again, sending shivers through me. "I don't know what the fuck you were thinking, but Suzie is hysterical, Ethan is pissed because he can't find you, and Cole is in trouble for beating up an asshole that tried to feel up a girl inside that fucked-up club."

"Oh."

"Oh?" He shakes his head at me as he grabs my arm and drags me along to the parking lot where Ethan parked. Lorcan pulls out his phone and dials. "Found her. She was outside." He's quiet as he listens to someone—I'm assuming Ethan—on the other side before he responds to them. "That's fine. I'll get her home. You just tell Suzie her friend is safe and then take her to your place. You can bring Suzie home in the morning after you all get some sleep."

He cuts the call before tugging me along to his large black SUV.

I'm about to moan about all the manhandling and growliness when he opens the passenger door and lifts me from my feet as if I weigh nothing before plopping me down on the seat and buckling me in.

"If you have any sense of self-preservation right now, Annabelle, you'll keep your mouth shut."

Sensing that he might be at the end of his tether, I snap my lips together and sit back quietly as he storms around the car, gets in on his side and slams shut his door.

"When Mont told me you were going dancing, I knew it was a bad idea," he growls as he slams his hands down on the steering wheel. "And then when Ethan texted me where you guys were, I almost got in the car to come fetch you and Suzie then. Do you have any idea how much of a shit-show that place is?"

Not sure if he wants me to say anything yet, I keep blinking at him, trying my best not to imagine him following through on his original threat of a spanking.

I obviously have a few screws loose and some kind of death wish if I'm thinking of being spanked by a forty-something-year-old I have no business fantasizing about.

Lorcan is still mumbling, the rumble of his voice doing things to me that I'd rather not think about when he finally turns to me again, those piercing eyes of his looking straight through me.

"Dammit, Annie. What the fuck were you thinking, sneaking away from Ethan like that?"

I shrug and push caution to the wind before answering. "I wanted to forget all the bad things, and the only way to do that was by getting drunk enough. He wouldn't let me get drunk."

"Oh, little girl," he says, his voice a soft rumble now. "How I wish I could help you forget."

But he couldn't have said that last bit. Because that wouldn't make sense in any world.

However, before I can dive too deeply into the sentence he might have said, he leans over stealing all my attention. Lorcan's mouth descends on mine. Is he about to kiss me? The thought barely flicks across my mind when all the icky, stinky, messy drinks decide they don't want to stay in my stomach anymore.

Oops?