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of the same. Her goal is clearly to get wasted, and they all look pretty much there. The best friend can hardly stand, he looks like he’s about to fall in the pool. I find the head brother of the fraternity and suggest he makes dick take his friend home before he has an accident and it comes down bad on the house. He thanks me for the heads up and makes his way towards Clive, throwing his keys in his direction. “Take my truck and get your buddy home. He’s wasted.”
    “Sure, man.”
    I shake my head and follow them to the front of the house, take the plates and call it in. Clive forces his friend in to the truck and turns. “You coming Melody?”
    I walk up behind her and place my hands on her shoulders. Her body stiffens under my touch.
    “Tell him to come back for you.” Her breathing accelerates.
    “Come back for me,” she chokes out. He narrows his eyes and taps his fingers against his leg “Why not just come with me? We can go somewhere quieter. Talk and stuff”
    “ And stuff” the little piss ant . “Just come back for me” she reinforces. “Don’t leave this spot then” he commands before sighing, jumping in the truck and taking off.
    Her body trembles under my hand.
    “Hey, calm down.” I turn her to face me. There are tears in her eyes and her chest is heaving from her deep breaths. Green eyes roam my face, her head tilts then she lifts her hand to slap me.
    “You can’t just come up behind people like that you, you ass.”
    My eyebrows shoot up as I hold her wrist up a few inches from my face. She’s panting now, eyes searching mine before dropping to my lips, and her tongue darts out to wet her own. I drop her wrist and step back. “I was stopping you from being stupid.”
    Her brows furrow. “What?”
    I point in the direction the truck took off in. “He was drunk driving, so unless you wanted to end up as road kill, you can thank me and stop trying to fucking hit me.”
    She rubs her delicate wrist where I’d gripped her. “I wasn’t going to go with him, I can’t stand him.” Her green eyes bore into mine. “You’re him, aren’t you?” My heart beat stops for a brief moment. I stand mute. “The guy I bumped into a couple of weeks ago?”
    I release the breath I was holding. Fuck, what is wrong with me?
    “You’re not weak.” I speak without thinking it through. Her eyes soften and a small smile tilts her lips.
    “Yeah? I feel pretty weak and I’m sorry for calling you a fuck.” She chuckles then looks away, abashed. God, hearing the word fuck coming from those lips makes my dick stir.
    “Fucking dick, I think it was.” I raise an eyebrow.
    She smiles and nods. “Not my finest insult. I think you knocked the sense out of me that day.” She looks off into the night; she’s gone somewhere in her mind. That’s when I realise she’s gone back to that day, that night her world changed.
    I checked and re-checked the details on that hit. If her brother wasn’t the only family she had left, I would have killed him for the mess.
    “Hey.” I reach out and stroke her arm. Her olive skin feels like silk under my fingers. “I’m sorry.”
    She shakes her head, mistaking my gesture as affection when I just wanted to pull her back from her memories so I didn’t have to feel the aggression and unsettled pandemonium rattling around in my mind when I think of her and why she still has a pulse.
    “So, is this your house?” she asks.
    I smirk. She thinks I belong to a frat house. How wrong she is. I shake my head. “No I don’t go here.”
    “Then why are you here?”
    I look around, taking in the overflowing party goers, the loud annoying music that is just a beat and an out of tune bitch hollering into a mic. “I was looking for someone.”
    She fidgets, kicking at imaginary dirt. I take in the length of her bare legs. She’s stunning but seems insecure. How can she not know how attractive she is?
    “Oh, okay. Well I’ll let you go find them.” She smiles but it