Chapter One

Lucas wasn't one who was fond of clubs and anything that had to do remotely with a club.

But today he felt different about his principles.

Today the loud music, cheap and expensive perfume, closely packed heating bodies and the smell of booze were like a comfort to him.

It helped him stray away from the bad thoughts that had been playing on his mind all day.

He was sitting alone on one of the bar stools, minding his business, and as he took shot after shot of whiskey, it felt as if no matter how much he drank, nothing could get him drunk enough.

Lucas was starting to feel irritated. What was the point of coming to the club, and in turn betraying his principles if he couldn't even get drunk..

He needed to get drunk. It would serve as a respite from all the pain and anger he was feeling deep inside.

He ordered another whiskey and while the bartender moved off to pour him the drink, he looked around the bar.

It was flooded with purple disco lights and a lots of people dancing and grinding on the floor.

The place was making him feel a bit claustrophobic. He looked away from the throng of closely packed bodies on the dance floor and sighed.

He constantly had to remind himself that the reason he was actually here in the first place was to drink his worries away as the night faded away.

The bartender returned with his drink and passed it to him across the table.

"This is your sixth one now. Are you sure you're alright?"

Lucas stared up at the man and shook his head slowly.

"None of your fucking business."

The bartender raised his hand in a sort of surrender and walked off to attend to another customer.

Without thinking, he downed his drink in one go and felt a fuzzy feeling move through his head.

Lucas smiled. He was finally feeling the drink take over.

He turned to look at the closely packed dancing bodies once more and his eyes caught something.

At first sight one would think that it was just a normal dance that was going on between two lovers. Nothing harmless there, but Lucas had enough experience to know that what he was seeing wasn't in mutual consent.

A man was dancing close to a woman who had her back to him and he was grabbing her ass repeatedly as he tried to lift the skimpy gown that the woman was wearing up to her thighs.

The woman repeatedly pushed his hands away as she struggled against his grip.

As Lucas stared at them both, he realized that the woman was drunk. In fact, both of them were drunk, but the man was a bit clearer eyed because his movements seemed a bit fluid.

The woman, on the other hand, was struggling to stay on her feet . She knew what the man was doing to her and was trying to resist him, but whatever it was she was doing; it wasn't enough.

The man had gotten her gown up and was running his hand in a straight line on her thigh. He had pulled her closer to him and his other hand was now groping her breast.

Lucas felt disgust roll though him. Some menb were just gullible.

He closed his eyes at the sight and turned back to the bar to look at his empty bottle of whiskey.

Whatever was going on behind him wasn't any of his business; it was better he just stayed away from it.

But he just couldn't help it. There was that part of him that wanted to move toward theat dance floor and sucker punch the hell out of that guy.

That part of him that always played the hero got people into trouble.

The image of the woman mishandled by the horny man flashed through his eyes and he grimaced.

"Fuck it" he muttered under his breath as he pushed away from the bar stool and headed over to the dance floor, towards the place he had spotted the man.

By the time he reached them the woman was struggling furiously now and the man had clamped a hand over her mouth preventing her from screaming.

He walked over to them quickly and with a quick fluid motion he pulled the man's hand away from the woman's mouth and using his left hand pushed the man back.

Without missing a beat he switched and used his right hand to pull the woman closer to him. In her drunken state she fell atop him and began sobbing lightly.

Nobody had noticed what just happened. Everyone kept dancing like nothing was even happening around them.

"Who the fuck are you?" The man slurred, approaching Lucas on shaky feet.

Lucas looked at the man up and down, sizing him up. In a real fight the man didn't stand any chance against him but he wasn't ready to chase a scene right now.

All he wanted to do this night was just get drunk.

Was he asking for a lot honestly?

"She's with me and I'll suggest that you get the fuck away from my face before I remember that you were just groping her right in front of me."

"Do you know who the hell I am? If you do, you wouldn't stand in front of me telling me this crap" the man said, stepping up to Lucas who towered over him with a few feet.

He placed a small smile on his face.

"Get the hell out of my face."

"Or what?" The man challenged.

Lucas' head shot down faster than the man could react. He powered his forehead into the man's nose and there was a snap of broken bones as bone struck cartilage.

The man went down to the ground and was instantly swarmed by the throng of bodies on the dance floor who just kept on dancing and swaying.

Lucas pulled the woman out of that area and marched her towards the bar. She seemed to have regained some of her sense of reality for she wasn't staggering anymore and her eyes were wide open.

She was beautiful in a strong type of way. Her lips were pink and luscious and she had a smooth defined jawline with a pert little nose.

The remnant of tears that were drying on her face gave her an angelic look and he could see the curves of her body pushing against the skimpy cloth that she wore.

He felt blood rush to his groin and he let go of the woman.

"The restroom is to the left, you can go and get changed there and clean yourself up."

The woman nodded and walked off in the direction he had indicated.

Lucas returned to the bar stool and chided himself. What the hell was going on with him all he wanted to do now was get drunk and forget about his problems.

He stared at the empty whiskey cup in front of him and grimaced. It was safe to conclude that his plan of getting drunk wasn't going as planned.

Lucas thought about ordering another drink and decided against it.

It was no use anyway he just better abandon the idea.

He got up from the bar stool when he suddenly felt a hand touch him on his shoulder and he instantly went into alert mode.

It wasn't his fault, it was just what years of military training had done to him. He spun around quickly moving with his empty glass of whiskey to smash it on the person's head.

He stopped halfway to lifting the glass when he saw who it was.

It wasn't an attacker but the same woman he rescued from the man who'd been molesting her.

She had dabbed her face clean of all the tears and had probably washed her face because it had a little bit of shine as opposed to when he had rescued her from the molester.

He lowered the glass cup immediately and apologized.

"I'm sorry about that but I thought you were the guy I had just saved you from."

Now that he had a good look at her he realised that she wasn't fully a woman. It had just been the club's disco lights that had been playing tricks on him.

He placed her age around eighteen to nineteen, he wasn't really sure but she was definitely not a woman.

He wanted to yell at her, ask her why she'd been so naive that night to even come to a club dressed that way but he didn't instead he felt proud that he had been able to intervene in time.

"I'm sorry for startling you but I just wanted to thank you for helping me back there. I actually don't know who that man is. I agreed to dance with him not really knowing his intentions. Seems like I had a bit too much to drink."

Lucas wanted to chide her for being so naive and at the same time he caught his gaze slipping to the skimpy clothes that she was wearing. It outlined her curves naturally and he felt blood rush again to his groin.

Hesitantly he tore his gaze away from her body and threw her a weak smile.

"It's alright, you're just lucky that I happened to see what was happening at the time that I did."

The lady nodded and extended a hand to him. "My name is Cassie."

Lucas took her hands in his and grimaced. Her hands were small and soft and he felt like holding onto them forever.

"I'm Lucas."

He needed to get away from Cassie. He didn't like where his thoughts were heading him to.

He let go of Cassie's hands and turned towards the bar and ordered another shot of whiskey.

From the corner of his eyes he could see that Cassie was still standing there watching him. He wondered what had happened to getting drunk.

Finally she moved and took the next bar stool close to him.

In that instant Lucas knew how it was going to end but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't exactly tell her to get out, it was a club after all.

Cassie ordered a beer and turned to face him and he was amazed at how beautiful she looked. The disco lights from overhead played on her face giving her an angelic look.

He wanted to take her there and then, feel how her body felt. Touch her in places she had never experienced.

Hell, he wanted her to scream his name in pleasure.

"I'd like to know more about you, Lucas," she said softly.

They talked and talked and slowly but surely he started to soften up to Cassie. In the back of his mind he kept on wondering how he was able to connect with this woman so easily.

It was a red flag at that moment but he didn't care.

She laughed at his jokes, she talked theatrically and whenever a lock of her hair fell to the front of her face he wanted to shift it just to feel her, how good soft skin would feel against his hands.

"Do you want to go somewhere private?" She'd asked him after they had spent almost an hour talking.

Lucas didn't want to agree, didn't want to get ensnared in her trap but in the end he agreed.

That was how he found himself in a hotel room kissing her passionately as she returned the kisses.

Sex with her had been the best thing that happened to him since leaving the millitary and every single fantasy that had been in his head at the bar had actually come to fruition.

In the morning Lucas woke up and stared at Cassie as she had an arm draped around his chest.

She looked so angelic and so pure and he felt something stir in his stomach

He slowly started to realise that he didn't deserve a woman as pure as her. He had too many demons in his life and he didn't want to drag her down with him.

He gently shifted her hand away from his chest and lightly kissed her forehead. Stepping out of the bed he changed quickly and crept out of the hotel room and out the front door.

Cassie would do better without him.