Runaway Heart (A Game of Hearts #2)

by Sonya Loveday

  “No, love. I mean chips.” He leaned a little closer, so close I saw the small flecks of gold near the irises of his eyes.

  An ache formed in my stomach as my pulse jumped.

  “You broke another rule by asking me more questions, so we need to even ourselves out again, love,” he said in a low, husky voice.

  Before I could come back with a smart-ass reply, he pecked a small kiss to my lips, and then led me out of the pub.

  “Consider us even,” he said with a smirk.

  A dreamy smile I couldn’t contain hovered on my lips as we walked hand in hand, and I wished for once that I didn’t like breaking rules.

  “DO YOU HAVE TO HEAD back to the inn now, or are ye up to a bit of fun?” Charlie asked, throwing his napkin on his plate. He leaned his elbows on the table as he cast a curious look over to Charlotte, and then Cherry.

  “Depends on what you have in mind,” Cherry answered with an impish grin, her arm looped around Violet’s neck.

  Hannah pushed her plate away from her. “Not to be the bearer of bad news, but we can’t stay out too late. We have a bout tomorrow.” She leaned forward to give a stern look at Cherry and Charlotte.

  Both girls bobbed their heads.

  “What time is it?” Cherry asked, looking around for a clock.

  Violet pulled her phone out. “It’s only half past six, so plenty of time before we have to see ye off to your beds.”

  Hannah fidgeted beside me.

  I leaned in, my lips hovering near Hannah’s ear as my fingertips brushed against her neck. Damn, she smelled good.

  “We don’t have to go. I can walk you back to the inn if ye’d like.” I kept my tone light while I secretly hoped she’d like my offer better than whatever it was Charlie planned.

  The shudder that ripped through her body when my breath moved against her ear was enough to tell me how much I affected her.

  Her bright blue eyes met mine, and I saw the flush to her skin my words brought on. Saw the need burning like fire in her irises. It made me want to take her right then and there. Take every rule she tried to make, and toss them into the flames our bodies joining would surely create.

  She was gorgeous—so honestly beautiful. It tightened my chest and took the breath right from me. I didn’t care who saw us together. Didn’t wonder what they thought and, as she leaned a little toward me, her full lips nearing mine, I wasn’t sure she did either.

  “Oh come on, Hannah,” Charlotte interrupted, killing the moment.

  Hannah jerked back.

  “You blew us off at Big Ben today. Don’t blow us off again.” She batted her overly made-up eyes. Hands folded neatly under her chin.

  Hannah cleared her throat and tugged at her bottom lip, the internal war raging inside evident in her facial features. “Fine,” she finally said, sighing heavily as she rolled her eyes when Charlotte bounced in her seat while clapping her hands.

  Charlie, sitting to Charlotte’s right, hooked his arm over her seat and put his hand on her shoulder with a familiarity I hadn’t seen in them before. She stilled immediately. I thought she might slap him, but she turned to him, giving him a very saucy wink, and giggled.

  What the hell had we missed after leaving them on their own the short time we had?

  “Then it’s settled! I know this place just down the street…” Charlie said, helping Charlotte from her seat while the rest of us followed.

  “I hope ye know what ye’re getting us into,” I whispered to Hannah as we slid our jackets on. “Charlie’s version of fun could rival the creepiest of fun houses at a fair.”

  Her wide eyes implored mine, telling me so many things I didn’t want to hear. “Anything is better than the two of us being alone in a room, right?”

  I didn’t want to agree. Not when every part of me ached to touch her. To take her, uncaring of who knew or what the consequences would be. But, in her eyes, I knew that wasn’t what she needed from me. She needed safety. Reliability.

  She needed a casual friend.

  So I gave it to her.

  “Right,” I said, and then headed past her for the door.

  “AN 80’S CLUB?” VIOLET ASKED, following it up with a painful groan.

  Charlie gave her a friendly push. “Mind yourself. And what’s wrong with 80’s music?”

  Violet shoved her hands deep into her pockets, mouth hanging wide open.

  “What?” Charlie asked as he shook his head.

  “What do you mean—what? 80’s music? Are you stuck in a time loop, mate?” Violet fired back.

  “Time loop?”

  “Yes, ye bloody wanker… a time loop.” She laughed at the shocked look on Charlie’s face.

  “Ingrate,” Charlie shot back as he advanced on her. “That’s the trouble with the younger generation; ye wouldn’t know good music if it bit you on the arse.”

  Violet’s hands came out of her pockets before she darted to the left, out of Charlie’s grasp, saying something about his sucky taste in music. She wasn’t quick enough.

  He grabbed her arms with both hands and gave her a shake. “I have brilliant taste in music. And ye should be respectful to the greats who built the foundation of music. Nothing compares to the birth of rock and roll, but the break out of hair band rock… there’s nothing else in the world like it!”

  Violet giggled as the rest of us watched with a mix of general humor when Charlie spun her in a circle and, in a high falsetto voice, tried his hand at singing Nothing Compares to You.

  “Stop. For the love of God, stop! My ears are bleeding,” she pleaded, trying to cover her ears.

  “Don’t like love ballads? Okay, how about this one?” He spoke over the top of her as he broke into a little dance move that had his fingers snapping as he did his own rendition of the chorus of Billy Idols, Rebel Yell.

  “Okay… Okay, I give! 80’s music is the best music in all of music history! Will that make ye stop?” she shouted.

  Charlie stopped singing mid-word and lifted her up in his arms, carrying her past us with a jerk of his head. “I’ve got her where I want her. Best we get inside before she does a runner.”

  Hannah clapped her hand over her mouth to contain her laughter as we fell in behind everyone.

  “He’s a right mess,” I said, putting my hand around Hannah’s back and pulling her close as a double-decker tour bus pulled up, dumping a slew of tourists onto the sidewalk beside us.

  Inside the club, music pumped through the speakers into the cigarette and beer-scented air like a pseudo rock concert. The place wasn’t packed, but it was pretty close. Bright, neon lights sliced through the room in different angles, separating bodies into shapely patterns. The bottom of my shoes stuck to the ground as if they were walking across partially dried glue.

  I fought to hear a single thought in my head over the music, but it was Hannah who had my heart on the edge of beating right out of my chest. The way she leaned against me, her lips moving to the words of the song filling the club. The small, secret smile brushing her lips, making me wish I knew what she was thinking.

  We were in a room full of people, and all I saw was her. All I cared about was her. I just wish she felt the same.

  Following Charlie, we snaked our way toward the back where it was a little less crowded. Not only did it put us close to the bathroom, but also to the billiard tables and a dartboard.

  There was a single table in the far corner that stood empty. Charlie led us over to it, peeling off his jacket along the way. Once his jacket was draped over a chair, he pulled me to the side.

  “I’ll go put a drink order in,” he said, leaning in as he shouted over the music.

  I nodded, shrugging out of my jacket.

  The interior of the club was eclectic. Old concert posters, guitars, and framed candid photos of music artists from Prince to Joan Jett plastered the walls with no sense of symmetry. I couldn’t help but think it looked like the bloody British Invasion all over again, or a form of it. Some of the patrons were dres
sed in their regular street clothes, while others… they were a sight dressed in full rigged-out 80’s gear. Bright neon colors with bracelets up to the elbow on the girls. Leather pants, chains hanging, metal-studded collars, and punked-up hair for the blokes.

  I nodded along with the music, relaxed by the beat as I people watched. Hanging my coat over the back of Hannah’s chair, I helped her out of hers and put it over mine. With only four chairs at the table, I let the girls sit and moved to stand behind Hannah.

  While the music might not be to their taste, they made the most of it. Even Violet danced in her chair. Maybe there was something good to come out of Charlie’s plan after all.

  As if I’d called him out of thin air, he parted through the crowd and came to stand beside me. Leaning in, he shouted at the vicinity of my ear, “Damn me if it isn’t crowded tonight. Usually it isn’t this busy, or loud.”

  I nodded as he clapped me on the shoulder. “A table just opened up. Care to play?”

  I shook my head no and dipped my head in Hannah’s direction.

  “Right,” he said, moving over to bend in between Charlotte and Cherry.

  Cherry looked over her shoulder in the direction of Charlie’s thumb before popping to her feet. Her eyes met mine, and then moved to her seat. “Sit,” she said.

  Moving around, I pulled out her chair, putting me directly across from Hannah.

  Her eyes darted everywhere before settling on me in surprise. “Where’s Cherry?” she mouthed, her head bobbing to the music.

  I pointed over my shoulder, and her eyes followed before settling back on me.

  “Are ye all right?” I mouthed to her.

  She nodded, leaning to close the space between us, and said something that disappeared into the noise.

  I shook my head and grabbed my chair, moving it to the end of the table as she scooted her seat closer to the corner.

  When I sat down, she leaned close enough that her lips brushed my ear. “I said I should have just let you walk me home. I’m just… I’m not in the mood tonight. Not with knowing tomorrow will be a defining moment in my derby career. I can’t even hear myself think.”

  Before she could move back, I pulled her close, giving her ear the same treatment, and smiled when I felt her shudder. She angled her neck, inviting me closer. Tempting me further. “How ‘bout this…” I said, moving my lips over her ear. “Don’t think. Just feel.”

  A burst of hot air hit my neck like she’d been holding her breath, waiting for me to tell her to relax. Waiting for someone to tell her it was okay to let loose.

  “Maybe you’re right. All these rules and priorities,” she said, laughing uneasily, “they’ve made me a little hard when it comes to fun.”

  “It’s a good thing I’m here to remind ye of that then.” A warm, fuzzy feeling filled me as the smile I’d searched for since I saw her that night in the alley finally surfaced.

  “Yeah… a good thing,” she repeated, blowing out a trembling breath.

  Our drinks showed up a few minutes later, and Hannah clutched hers with both hands as she brought it up to her lips and downed half of it with one long gulp. When she set the cup down, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  Noticing I was watching her, she hitched her shoulder with a twist of her lips.

  I pulled her chair in close. “Do ye want to leave? Ye look a bit rattled.”

  She shook her head, turning to answer me. I didn’t move back, not wanting any space between us, and her lips brushed my cheek, leaving a blazing path along my skin.

  She jerked back, eyes wide and cheeks freshly bloomed with color.

  I tapped my finger against my lips as if to say, do it again, but here instead. It was the small bit of humor she needed from me.

  Hannah rolled her eyes, pushed my face to the side, and then leaned in. “I told them I’d come. I can’t leave now or they’ll give me hell about it later.”

  I doubt they’d even miss her, I wanted to say, but I didn’t. Instead, I took her hand in mine, linking our fingers together under the table, and waited for her protests.

  I couldn’t help it. There was only so much time left, and I had so many more rules of hers to break.

  She looked over at me, a storm of conflicting emotions brewing in her eyes. She held my gaze with such strength as the music faded around us. As the room went quiet, and the only sound I could hear was my own pulse beating in my ears.

  Something heavy lifted from my heart when she didn’t pull her hand away. When she squeezed it, and then let my gaze go, resting her chin on the palm of her hand as she watched the sea of bodies across the room from us.

  We sat like that for a while, watching Cherry and Charlie move around the pool table. Charlotte and Violet carried on their own conversation across from us, but there was no telling what they said. And really, I didn’t want to be caught up in a conversation with anyone else so long as Hannah kept rubbing her thumb against my palm. Each stroke undid me a little more.

  Violet and Charlotte, probably tired of sitting, hopped out of their chairs and did some sort of hip shimmy to the music, dancing their way around the pool table, lost in the music.

  I watched them, laughing along with the silly show they provided, until Hannah’s fingers clenched hard against mine.

  My eyes snapped back to her and watched the color in her face drain to a sickly shade of white.

  My pounding heart cranked to full throttle.

  I tugged at her hand, trying to get her to look at me as my insides prickled like a hundred angry hornets stabbing my central nervous system in warning.

  She wouldn’t. She was too busy staring at something over my shoulder, her eyebrows pressed into a crooked V.

  “What is it?” I asked, more demanding that time. “What’s wro—?”

  She jerked hard, dropping my hand and shooting from her seat. Her head shook back and forth, her lips moving, repeating the word no, over and over again. Every word repeated was a bullet to my heart. A swift kick in the ribs.

  I came out of my chair and was in front of her in one swift move, ready to face whatever it was that put the look of terror in her eyes.

  Across the room from us, in a darkened corner, was a bloke who had a girl cornered. He was shouting down at her, and all I could make of the girl was her arms up in the air, shielding her face from his assault.

  Hannah pressed herself against the length of my back, shaking so hard it vibrated me all the way to the bottom of my feet. It shook loose the realization of just what had Hannah scared out of her mind.

  Her chin pressed hard into my shoulder, her breath hot against the side of my neck as she pleaded, “Stop him, Ed. Oh, God, don’t let him—”

  The bloke brought his fist back and, like a viper, it shot out into the darkness. The girl bent in half like a broken flower stem as he towered over her, snatching her arm to force her back up.

  I shot across the room, all thoughts gone to the wind. The need to put a dent in his skull sizzled through me, hardening my fists.

  When the girl didn’t move, he brought his foot back just as I slammed into him, ramming him against the wall.

  The girl dropped to the floor and curled into a tight ball like one of those roly-poly bugs I’d seen before. There was nothing to be done about her at the moment. Not with a hundred-and-fifty-plus pounds of pissed-off bloke coming up for a swing at me.

  His punch caught me in the jaw, snapping my head back hard enough for me to see white dots explode across my vision. I staggered back a step, shaking it off, all set to give him back a taste of his own medicine when Charlie popped up out of nowhere and slammed the guy to the ground, pulling his arms back behind him as he put his knee somewhere in the vicinity of the bloke’s kidneys.

  The fight caused a stir, and a few guys parted the crowd and helped Charlie get the bloke off the floor, moving him toward the front of the club where he could be properly dealt with.

  The coppery tang of blood filled my mouth. I forced myself to
swallow it down since spitting it out on the floor wasn’t an option.

  “Nothing like a little scrap to wake the blood cells up, yeah?” Charlie shouted over the music as he made his way back over to me.

  I choked out a laugh, wiping the blood from my mouth onto the napkin he handed me.

  Something like a shadow darted past me to the darkened corner and, the next thing I knew, Hannah had the girl tucked under her arm. She turned a desperate glance at me as if unsure what to do next. She couldn’t walk her through the front, or we might take the chance of running into her attacker.

  I put my hand up, telling Hannah to give me just a minute. Slipping off to the bar, I caught one of the girls who worked there and asked if there was a back entrance we could use. She looked at me as if I’d lost my mind, so I spun a quick story about my girlfriend not feeling very well, and how it would be easier to get her out the back since she was prone to puking on anyone and anything in her path.

  With a slightly queasy look, she’d given me the directions straight away, probably relieved she wouldn’t have to be called in to clean up a foul mess.

  Heading back to Hannah, I grabbed our jackets, setting mine over the waif-like creature who refused to let go of Hannah, and then tried to put Hannah’s jacket over her. She waved me off, so I held on to it and led them out of the club.

  Cherry, Charlotte, and Violet took note of where we were, but stayed put when Hannah shook her head at them and waved them back when they tried to follow us.

  A cold burst of air slapped us when we made it outside. My ears throbbed in the silence, making it almost as deafening as the music had been inside.

  Hannah moved away from me, pulling the girl alongside of her until they were a distance away from the back door. I moved slowly behind them, knowing if I made any sudden moves, the girl might take off.

  I hated the distance driven between us because of fear. Hated how fucked up the night had turned, but I was grateful we’d been there to help the poor lass.

  After a few minutes, Hannah gestured for me to come closer and I blew out a sigh of relief.

  I drew up close, treading as if I were on eggshells, and held Hannah’s jacket up, helping her into it as I tried my hardest to sound soft-spoken. “Everything all right?”