"Holy shit."

I didn't know whose mouth that sentiment came from but it echoed the thoughts running through my head.

Watching Lydia slug that guy in the face was probably the hottest thing I'd ever seen a girl do before, and it left me running after her to make sure she was okay.

I found her outside with her head tucked between her knees and cradling her right hand.

I knew firsthand how bad it hurt to punch someone with the incorrect form, and from the look of the red swelling wrist hanging limply by her side, it didn't seem like she had the best technique when she punched Nate.

"Are you okay?"

Her blue eyes rimmed in red raised up to meet mine and the flashing headlights of countless cars illuminated the silent tears that had tracked their way down her face.

Shit. I couldn't stand it when girls cried...

"I'm fine."

She sniffed and wiped her cheeks with the back of her good hand, wincing in pain as the slight movement jostled her dangling wrist.

"Here, let me help you with that."

I bent down to inspect her wrist but out of reflex or habit, I wasn't sure which one, she flinched back away from my closeness.

I bit back the hurt that flushed through me when she did that but I could see the pain reflected back at me through her eyes and I knew she didn't do it to hurt me on purpose.

"Sorry..." she trailed off, a guilty expression flitting onto her tear stained face.

I slid down against the brick exterior of the club and sat down with her.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I didn't want to push her, and I knew she'd talk about whatever she needed to with her friend or her brother, I was just trying to offer a supportive ear. I couldn't have her, but maybe I could make her feel a little better. I had to try.

"What's there to talk about? My drunk ex fiancee won't leave me alone even though he's living with my home wrecking ex best-friend and destroyed the only material possession of mine that ever meant anything to me? I hope she chokes on his dick when she's giving him head and gives him an STD."

"Wait, what did they destroy of yours?"

She paused and I could tell she was in deep thought of what she was about to say.

"It doesn't matter. It's gone now, not like I can get it back."

I sighed, resting my hand on her knee but as I did so I felt her entire body stiffen at my touch. I wasn't doing it to come on to her, it just felt natural as we were so close, but I didn't know if she stiffened from annoyance or want.

There was electricity between us, I could tell. I knew she wanted me at least a little bit, probably not nearly as much as I wanted her, but I could change that with just a kiss...

But I couldn't do that. I had to stay focused on my career. I couldn't let a girl interfere with football like I'd allowed to happen before with Marnie, it just wasn't going to happen.

"I'm sorry they ruined your things, but they can't get to you now. I say you let me fix up your wrist and you go back in there and show them they can't fuck with you and get away with it."

A fiery determination lit up her eyes and I felt satisfaction that my little pep talk had at least made her feel a tiny bit better.

She extended her wrist toward me and I gulped, desperately trying not to focus my eyes on the chest her arm was attached to but it was an impossible task given the scant amount of clothing she was wearing.

I patted my pockets and was glad I hadn't washed these jeans the day before as they held the athletic tape I'd used to fix up a small sprain that came from the game.

She breathed in sharply when I gingerly grasped her wrist in my hands and being as gentle as I could I began wrapping the tape expertly around her hand.

"You're probably going to need to ice this tomorrow but this should keep it from hurting too bad tonight. Also, you're gonna need some more alcohol."

She smiled at me ruefully and I swear to god my heart palpitated in my chest.

"Good thing my friend's good at keeping my drink refilled," she said.

Friend, right. I was stupid to think she'd ever want to be anything more, especially after I'd treated her with the whole 'bet' incident. I did it to keep her at arm's length so she wouldn't want to think about me that way, but the way she looked in that outfit had me rethinking my entire strategy...

"Then we'd better hurry up and get in there before the ambulance hauls that ex of yours off to the hospital after that punch you threw him."

She laughed, a gorgeous and lilting sound that left me begging for more of her, more smiles, more stolen touches...

But she stood up and walked back inside, leaving me still sitting in the same spot wondering how the hell I'd let myself catch feelings for her already.

My wrist was throbbing, my head bobbing along to the beat of the song blasting through the heady, stuffy club air and my heart was being put through the wringer.

Emmett had kept his promise to continue refilling my vodka drink and after a while the cranberry juice disappeared and I started downing shot after shot until I lost count and the pain in my wrist around the tape Emmett had placed on it ceased completely.

Nate was nowhere to be found and I was almost positive my bother and Reed had escorted him out.

Amalia was in the corner making out with the girl she'd met earlier but I couldn't for the life of me remember her name, so I supposed the leaving for a different club plan was changed after I punched someone in the face and everyone decided to stick around to see what else I could get up to.

I found myself wrapped around a strong, gloriously muscular body and lost myself in the music, my arms up in the air while firm hands squeezed on my hips causing a surge of lust through my lower body.

I hadn't been sexual before with anyone besides Nate and one other person so far deep in my past that I couldn't bring it out of my repressed memories to force myself to remember.

I looked up into a pair of brown eyes with matching tanned brown skin and matching dark beard cut shorter, and for a moment I panicked because I was almost certain it had been Emmett that I was dancing with, but then the gravity of how inexplicably hot he was dawned on me.

No matter how hot he was, though, I knew I needed to go back with my friends. I just didn't have it in me to dance with total strangers.

"I think I'm gonna go find my friends," I shouted out so my newfound dance partner could hear me.

He backed away respectfully and nodded, though I could see the disappointment in his eyes, and what gorgeous eyes they were.

Weaving my way through sweaty dancing bodies and girls gyrating their butts on the guys behind them, I found my booth with a few angry glares sent my way.

Lucas I could understand, but Emmett was looking at the guy I was just dancing with like he wanted to kill him. I wondered how he'd feel if I told him I thought it was really him I'd been dancing with, not a complete stranger.

"Why are you so pouty?"

A snicker wracked through my body and I had to hold onto the table in front of me for balance. Needless to say, I was wasted.

"Who was that guy?"

"What, brown eyes over there? I just met him."

"Oh, and you always go dance on random guys you just met?"

I laughed at his angry reaction, which didn't seem to help the situation.

I edged through Reed standing in front of the table and found a new seat...on Emmett's knee, and his reaction was not small, a sharp intake of breath with his hands going directly to my hips.

Lucas shot us a confused look but I brushed it off, not wanting to deal with older brother drama.

I leaned down and placed my mouth at his ear, not wanting anyone else to hear what I had to say to him.

"I thought he was you at first, that's why I was dancing on him for so long."

He pulled away and his gaze met mine, the amount heat in them not lost on me.

I desperately needed a rebound from Nate, and if that meant someone as hot as Emmett I didn't think that could be wrong.

I was forgetting something, though...some reason that I shouldn't sleep with him but I couldn't pull it out of my mind.

"You're drunk."

"Captain Obvious over here!"

I leaned down closer to him, the sparks jumping and bouncing around my body wherever we touched.

My body slid down further into his lap and I could feel him through my jeans growing at my actions.

"What are you gonna do about it?" I asked him, my hands roaming on his chest.

It looked like his resolve to not take advantage of me in such a vulnerable position had fizzled out and our lips were two centimeters from touching. Every nerve in my body was buzzing, my body finally feeling alive for the first time since I'd left Nate besides me punching him in the jaw.

"Emmett?"

All of our heads snapped towards the icy tone who'd just uttered Emmett's name...the same guy I was about to kiss. Damn whoever interrupted us.

"Marnie?"

"Who's Marnie?"

And then she came into view. The most gorgeous redhead I'd ever seen, her hair a shining lustrous copper, much classier than the bottle red that Layla touted.

Her legs stretched on for miles in her short mini skirt and her makeup looked professionally applied. Damn.

Emmett stood up immediately, displacing me from his lap and I ended up landing on the hard surface of the booth seat watching as he led the mysterious beauty away from our table, leaving me in the dust.