He stared at me for a minute, and when it was obvious that I wasn’t able to speak just yet, he went ahead and leaned in ever so slightly, touching his lips to mine. I could feel the cool metal from his lip ring against my lips, and it made a fire inside me come alive.
It was the lightest kiss, but it had my body feeling like a live wire. Like an electric current was rolling off me. I felt him pulling away, and disappointment from the loss of contact of our lips filled me. But that feeling was short lived—he came back in hard and fast, crushing his lips to mine once again.
His eager tongue traced my lips, begging for entrance into my mouth, which I happily obliged. His warm tongue slid into my mouth and massaged my own. I could taste beer from his kiss, but it only made me want to devour him that much more.
My breathing was shallow and ragged when he pulled back and rested his forehead against mine. At this point, I wasn’t sure if I would ever really breathe right again.
He finally pulled his head back and lightly ran his thumb across my cheek bone. I automatically leaned into his touch and realized I didn’t know if I would ever really be able to be without his touch ever again. Kane was addicting, plain and simple. He was like a hard drug I couldn’t get enough of.
“That was better than all the times I have dreamt about it,” he finally whispered.
Deciding I would have to try to converse back before he thought I was a lunatic, I did my best to gather the strength to speak. “You’ve dreamt about kissing me before?”
“I’ve dreamt about a lot more than just kissing you, Kelsey.” He stared into my eyes as he said this, and I could feel my chest grow warm and tight just from the thought of him dreaming about me.
“I’ve dreamt about you too.” I couldn’t believe I had been so bold as to tell him that.
My dreams were far from just kissing him. In my dreams we knew each other on intimate levels. This friendship thing was nonexistent when I was sleeping.
Kane slowly closed his eyes. “Kelsey, you shouldn’t tell me stuff like that right now. Not when all I want to do is drag you out that door and up the stairs to my apartment so I can….”
Before Kane could finish his sentence, a shouting match interrupted him and another fight broke out. People were pushing and shoving and I could hear a few girls screaming. This was nothing like the fight that had taken place the first night we had met. This fight was much larger. When I scanned the room, it looked as though everyone was throwing punches left and right. More girls were screaming and crying by the minute, and I was scared that maybe a few of them were receiving some of those blows in all the chaos.
“Come on,” he said as he began dragging me away from the madness, but in all the commotion, the grip on our hands broke and we lost each other.
“Kane!” I screamed. I didn’t want to be left in the middle of all this. It brought back way too many memories. I could feel the panic ceasing up my lungs. “Kane!” I yelled again, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.
I felt am arm wrap around my waist from behind, and I thought, finally Kane has found me. It wasn’t until the face of the person holding me leaned in, and I could feel the scruff of his facial hair against my cheek did I realize this person was not Kane.
“Here now little darlin’. It’s gonna be all right, let ol’ Rick getcha outta here,” he breathed into my ear. His breath alone was enough to turn my stomach, but the thought of him holding me was making it worse. I grabbed hold of his forearm and tried to pry myself loose but there was no use. He was too strong.
“You just keep real quite now, and we will slip on out this door over here where it’s less crowded.”
I tried to remember some of the self-defense moves I learned in a class that Jessi and I had taken our sophomore year in high school; but with the panic and adrenaline coursing through my veins, it was making it harder to clear my head and think.
When he started pulling me back toward the door, some of the smoke in my head finally cleared. Thinking quickly, I brought my knee up and stomped as hard as I could on his foot. This caused him to loosen his hold on me, enough for me to break away and run.
Pushing my way through body after body, I just kept going. Terrified that he was right behind me … coming after me. I heard my name being called about the time that I was scooped up into another set of arms. Panic flooded through me again before the smell of Kane’s cologne filled my nose, and I took a deep breath. With my face buried into his chest I tried to control my breathing.
“I lost you, Kels, I’m so sorry! I tried to get back to you, but you weren’t there and I have been calling out your name trying to find you. Are you okay?”
I shook my head no into his chest—unable to form words right then. He placed his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back a little bit so he could get a good look at my face.
“What happened, Kels? What is it? Did someone hurt you?” His voice was calm and steady, but I could hear the pure rage laced within it.
“Some … some guy grabbed me. Said he was going to slip me out some back door.”
He immediately started to walk away from me, but I hurried to grab hold of his hand and stop him before he could get too far.
“Where are you going?” I asked him. Not wanting him to leave me alone for another second in this madhouse. People were still shouting, and I wasn’t even sure if the bouncers had put a stop to the fight yet.
“I’m going to find him, Kels. And when I do, I’m going to beat him within an inch of his life.” He went to turn again and I gave his arm another tug.
“Please don’t leave me again, Kane. You don’t even know what he looks like. Just get me out of here … please,” I begged him.
His face softened and he paused before nodding. I know what he really wanted to do was find that man and follow through with all of his threats, but the night had been a roller coaster of emotions and I really just wanted to get out of there.
Kane gently took my hand and began leading me back toward the doors. He pulled his phone from his pocket, and tapped the screen a few times before putting it to his ear.
“Hey, I have Kelsey. I’m going to take her up to my apartment for a little while. Some dude tried to grab her in all the commotion and she’s pretty shaken up,” he said to the person on the other end. “Okay. See you guys in a few.”
He slid his phone back in his pocket, and then looked at me. “Landon. He and Jessi are going to meet us at the stairs to my apartment. I just live above the bar.”