AS YOU MELT THIS HEART OF STONE

UNDESIRABLY DESIRABLE

I was seeing red.

No, I am not referring to the red dress.

I was seeing red because blood rushed to my head and a monstrous rage was threatening to take over all of my senses.

She was pressed securely to my chest, unsettled at the events just took place. Daniels was shaking with equal amount of rage, his hand injured and bloody from broken glass.

And

The culprits, two drunkards, still had the nerve to talk back!

Those disgusting leachers had been leering on Charl.... Miss Thorne for quite sometimes before that caught my eyes. She, of course, was totally oblivious to the improper attention she was attracting from those drunkards, as they were sitting behind her.

My whole body froze for a moment and then every fibre of my body got highly alert. And just as one of them extended his hand towards her, I grabbed the first thing I got within my reach, which happened to be a sharp fork and threw it to him. Even in the shearing rage, my aim didn't falter and hit the pervert's hand, eliciting some colourful curses from him.

After that everything happened very fast.

The other drunk trying to hit her with his bottle... Me grabbing her roughly and pulling towards myself, out of the bottle's reach... Daniels trying to protect us... The bottle smashing into his hand... The sound of broken glass shattering everywhere...

It was obvious that Thorne didn't understand what was going on at first. But as understanding downed her, she unconsciously moved closer to me and clutched my lapel tightly with one hand, as if holding onto me for dear life. I felt her shudder at their vulgar comments on her and the look on her eyes that moment stirred something deep inside me.

She was tightly pressed against me, too close to be accepted in polite society in other circumstances... Close enough for her rugged breath to tickle my neck... Close enough to feel her heart hammering madly against my chest... Yet, none of these registered as something sensual in my brain... Rather I felt a strange gentleness and a fierce protectiveness at the same time... Without thinking I tightened my left hand around her in a gesture of assurance and protectiveness.

My other fist was tightly balled to stop itself from killing those vermins just then and there. It wouldn't be wise to make such a scene in public and more importantly frightening her with that dark murderous side of my personality - although that didn't stop me from lamenting over the fact that I should have thrown the fork targeting his eyes.

The waiters hurried towards us - the incompetent fools! The incident would have been avoided, if they were a bit more attentive.

Without giving them any chance to blabber nonsense, I stated, " Tell your manager to put this place for sale within twenty four hours or I shall close this place using my own methods."

The waiter scurried away mumbling some petty apologies again...

*********
Dear readers, believe me when I say that waiting outside the mens' bathroom for a woman to come out in one piece is one of the most uncomfortable positions you can be, well, except for the case if you accidentally enter women's washroom and you're actually not a pervert..... Ahemm....

Well, as I was saying. I was waiting outside that said place for the woman who had recently taken up the determination to become the constant bane of my existence.

Yes, you guessed right.

It was Charlotte Mia Thorne, the soon to be sainted woman who thought it was alright to rush into the mens' bathroom to follow a man who just had a few scratches on his hand! And I am sure that I won't have to tell you who the said man was.