Now or Never

no. Brick dropped the guy to the ground and came to her.
    “What the hell just happened?”
    “I’m sorry you had to see that. I don’t want you to see me like that.”
    “Why did you hit him?”
    “He pushed Mason,” Brick said and looked away.
    “Pushed him? I didn’t see anything are you sure he didn’t just bang into him? This place is packed.”
    Some of the guys were crowded around them now and pulling them to the other side of the bar.
    “We need to stay over here in case the cops come. You busted that guys jaw. He’ll probably have to have it wired back together.” Danny said over the music.
    Grayson was confused, and more than a little freaked out. Unless she had missed something completely there was no need for the show of violence, and she was pretty sure Mason could take care of himself anyway.
    Mason looked embarrassed. Grayson pulled away from Brick and walked over to Mason.
    “Did that guy start a fight with you?”
    “No, Brick overreacted as usual. The guy thought I was hitting on his girl and came over to confront me. It was nothing. I had it taken care of. “
    Grayson looked back over at Brick, and he was laughing with his friends. What the hell? That seemed like something a high school kid would do. Not a grown ass man.
    “He does that a lot?” Grayson asked frowning. She really didn’t know anything about Brick after all.
    “He loves bar brawls. It seems like he gets in at least one every time we go out of town.”
    Great.
    “At least he stopped when you told him too. It could have been a lot worse. “
    “Worse? The guy’s jaw looked shattered,” Grayson said, suddenly feeling ill and wanting to go home.
    Brick waved her over. Grayson looked around for Luna, but didn’t see her anywhere.
    Grayson made her way back to Brick. He leaned down and said, “Sorry.”
    As if she was the one he should be saying he was sorry to. About fifteen minutes later a couple of cops walked in and scanned the bar talking to a few people. No one pointed towards them. Grayson wasn’t sure if they were afraid to or just didn’t want to help the cops, but either way Brick was lucky. Eventually, the cops walked out and some of the guys fist bumped Brick. Grayson rolled her eyes.
    She had drunk too much to drive home, so she ended up going back to the hotel with Brick. Even though she suddenly found him less attractive.

CHAPTER 31

    A week passed, and she hadn’t heard anything from Derrick. She’d sent him a couple of emails and messages, but he didn’t reply. They really were over. It made her feel sick. Deep down, she’d really thought they had something more than just sex.
    Brick went back to Virginia last night, and she was glad he was gone. He was exhausting. She barely got any sleep for two weeks, and he turned out to be obnoxious. The sex was incredible, but that was all there was to it. She could never see herself in a real relationship with him. He wanted to keep in touch, but she told him it was two weeks of fun. The fool tried to tell her he was in love with her. Grayson had laughed and said he loved fucking her, and he didn’t know the first thing about her. Which was the truth; they were truly pure sex.
    Although, hadn’t she thought the same about Derrick? Love really was an overused word. Hell, she didn’t even know if she comprehended the full meaning of love. At one point she’d thought she was in love with Josh. Maybe what she felt for Derrick wasn’t real either.
    As she wiped down the kitchen counter Grayson got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach so bad that it almost dropped her to her knees. She felt like she was going to crawl out of her skin, and Derrick’s name screamed through her head. A wave of nausea washed over her, something was wrong, and Grayson was scared shitless.
    Ever since she had been a kid, Grayson got feelings when something bad happened to people she was close to. Once a friend of the family had been in a car accident, and she ran in the house crying that Uncle Mike was hurt. Her mom tried to console her. She finally got hold of his wife, and Cindy informed them Mike was in the hospital and might not ever walk again. Another time her father was out on the ship, and Grayson knew he’d hurt his arm. She told her mom and when her mother talked to her father, she found out he had badly burned his arm, and the worst was when she knew her grandmother was dying. That was what this feeling she was having felt like.
    Tears streamed down her