The Wounded Love novel Chapter 5

"Yes, because that's not creepy at all."

Sean laughed. "Nah. I haven't been stalking her. She's been down while I've been down here, it's purely coincidence, Dante. Point is I want her, but that big dude is always around her."

I couldn't help but laugh. "So you want me to use my Italian Mafia ties to scare him away, is that it?" Sean thought I was joking.

"Exactly. You use your naive foreigner act to charm her away from him then pass her onto me."

I sighed. "Fine I-? Stopped talking the second my eyes landed on her. She looked so sad but so beautiful. She was mesmerizing. I then noticed that the strange girl was mumbling to herself and was surrounded by many empty glasses.

Please tell me she didn't drink all of those by herself. Tell me that Alex, the bartender didn't actually serve her all those drinks, I silently begged.

"What the f@ck are you looking at?" Sean followed my gaze to the little brunette in the pink dress. A dress that hugged all of her curves perfectly. "Or should I say who are you looking at?" He laughed at his sad attempt at a joke. Could that even be considered a joke?

"Shut up." I blurted out, quickly looking away.

"She looks pretty wasted. You could probably-?

"I could and probably would strangle you if you finish that sentence." Most people are scared of me, even though they don't usually have any reason to be. I've been called 'intimidating' many times by many different people. Even on a good day, I'd get told to 'cheer up' and 'smile'.

Sean just laughed off my threat. "Go kick that guy's ass. The girl is mine."

So I did. I walked up to both of them and just started talking to the girl like her friend wasn't even there. Usually acting like the lost foreigner who barely knew any English worked wonders.

And this girl was no exception. She waived her friend off and told him that she would meet up again with him later. He left without question, making me wonder who he was in relation to her. Maybe they were just friends, although Sean had a reputation of going after taken women. If I had a dollar for every guy I had to scare away so my best friend wouldn't get his ass kicked...

"You know, principessa." I told her. "I have this friend." Lay on the accent thick. "He thinks that you are very... What's the word again? It is like very pretty."

"Beautiful." She offered.

I wasn't remotely interested in her. She was pretty and looked like an easy lay, but I felt nothing. There was only one girl in this bar who had my attention. I wanted to find out what was wrong. Maybe make her feel better.

"All done." I patted Sean's shoulder. "But you gotta go over to there." I didn't even wait for him to thank me before going over to her end of the bar.

She finished off her glass, but didn't look over to me as I pulled the stool out and sat next to her. "Just a beer." I said to Alex. He silently gave me one. I motioned to the girl, but he just shrugged his shoulders and mouthed No idea.

"You like soccer?" Lame, I know, but the conversation needed to start somewhere.

"Me?" She asked still not looking in my direction. It was kind of frustrating. I wasn't sure why but I was desperate for her took look up at me. Maybe it was because I just wanted to see her face. Was it as beautiful as the rest of her?

"Yes you." I said taking another sip of the ice cold beer. I didn't bother playing games with her, I didn't change my accent or tone of voice.

"I'm not much of a sports person." Even though she was drunk and her words were slurred I could still hear the sweetness to her soft, feminine voice. "My daddy did like baseball though."