Read Back to Life for Free Online Page A

just go to a bar or a club?”
    “That
sounds good to me,” I said. “Why don’t we take you to our favorite club,
Shadow? The drinks are nice and strong, not too expensive, and the music there
is pretty killer.”
    Releasing
himself from my grip, he threw his arm around my shoulder and said, “That
sounds awesome. Let’s go,” he said, and we all headed out into the night.
     
     
     
    Shadow
was really crowded tonight. A really hot local band was playing here, so it was
a little more crowded than usual. Marissa and I came here enough and were
friendly with the bouncers that we got in with no problems. Luckily we found an
empty table, and Brody offered to go get our first round of drinks. As we
walked to our table, I felt a tingle down my spine, like someone was watching
me. Weird. When we sat down, I took this as an opportune moment to talk to
Marissa. “Hey, girl, you doing okay?”
    She
smiled at me, and fidgeted with her hands. “I’m fine.” When she looked at my
disbelieving look, she said, “Ugh, I can’t help it, Rory! He looks so God damned
sexy! I just need a couple of drinks to loosen me up a little.”
    “That’s
the spirit. Just try not to over-do it and start telling him you want his
strong masculine hands all over your naked little body,” I laughed, and she
playfully shoved me.
    “Rory,
will you keep it down? He might hear you, you know!”
    “Who
might hear what?” asked Brody, setting down a bottle of Patron and three shot
glasses.
    Seeing
Marissa’s face redden even in a dimly lit club, I said, “Oh, that guy over
there was checking Marissa out. I was just teasing her.”
    Brody
looked around quickly. “What guy?”
    “Relax,
I think he’s already moved on to some bar skank. Don’t worry,” I said, and
Marissa sighed deeply in relief.
    “Good,
because no one better mess with either one of you, I’m serious,” he said,
wrapping an arm around Marissa and giving her a quick hug.
    “Aw,
that’s so cute,” I joked, and he smirked at me.
    “Not
to discredit your masculinity, but if any guys mess with us Rory usually knees
them in the balls,” Marissa laughed.
    He
grinned at me and held out his fist. “Nice,” he said, and I fist bumped him
across the table. After releasing Marissa, Brody poured the three of us a shot,
and when he set the bottle down, we all raised our glasses. “So, what do we
toast to?”
    I
held mine higher and said, “Here’s to the best looking guy in New York City, to
Brody Shaw!” I shouted, and we all clinked our glasses together and downed the
shot. Marissa coughed a little bit; Patron was always too strong for her. I was
going to have to watch her like a hawk to make sure she really didn’t say or do
anything she’d regret in the morning.
     Just
as Brody was about to pour another round of shots, someone called out from the
table behind us, “Did someone say Brody Shaw?”
    We
all turned to see who was asking, and when Brody saw who it was, his face broke
into a huge grin. “Liam? Hey man,” he said, pulling the stranger into a quick
manly hug and saying, “What the hell are you doing here? I never expected to
see you in New York.”
    When
they broke from their hug, I finally got a good look at his face, and my breath
caught. Holy shit, he was gorgeous. He probably knew it, too. He had blue eyes…maybe
the bluest I’d ever seen, sandy blonde hair that was messy and spiked up just
in the front, and a scruffy shadow of hair on his chin. He wore a tight CBGB’s
tee that clung to his chiseled torso, and his sculpted arms looked like they
were going to tear the shirt open. He had several large tattoos on both arms,
but with the lighting I couldn’t clearly see what they were. He looked like straight
sex on two legs. If I were a normal female on the prowl, this is the exact type
of guy I’d go for. But I wasn’t…I looked away for a moment and my eyes roamed
the room, and it seemed like every single women within a four table radius was