“Well, you heard your friend,” Zach replied, tugging me forward. “She doesn’t want to sit down, so I think you should just let her do what she wants.”

Kyler laughed—a cold, nasty laugh that warned trouble as he caught my other arm, holding me in place. “Yeah, I don’t give a fuck what you think, and I’m sure you already know that, but I can tell you right now, what’s on your mind is not going to happen.”

Whoa. This was weird. For two people who barely knew each other, there was a lot of hostility here.

“Excuse me?” Zach said, eyes narrowing.

“Yeah, you heard me just right.”

I don’t know what happened next. Zach’s grip on my hand tightened, and I yelped out of surprise. The next thing I knew, Kyler had let go of my arm and his hands had slammed into Zack’s chest, knocking him back several steps.

“You don’t touch her,” Kyler growled. “You get that? Not now. Not ever.”

I was pretty positive Kyler was overreacting.

“You don’t know who the fuck you’re dealing with,” Zach warned, taking a step forward.

“He’s a ski instructor,” I felt the need to explain. Yep. Fountain of helpful knowledge right here.

Kyler got right up in Zach’s face. Well, he was much taller, so he pretty much looked down his nose at the dude. “I know exactly who I’m fucking with, buddy.”

“Is that so?” Zach started forward, but Kyler was too fast. He caught the ski instructor by the shoulder and pushed him back into the paneled wall. The checkered dartboard rattled around the nail it hung from.

“Better think again,” Kyler said. “I have no problem with wiping the floor with your face.”

I tugged on the back of his sweater. “Kyler, come on. Let’s go.”

Kyler ignored me.

“You think you little rich fucks can come up here and push people around? Yeah, not happening.” Zach’s eyes flicked over Kyler’s shoulder. “That goes for little cock-teases, too. Seems like your taste in females is the same.”

“What?” Now pissed off for a whole different reason, I tried to get around Kyler. “I am not a cock-tease, you ass-hat.”

“Whatever.” Zach shrugged off Kyler’s hand and edged around him, about to tuck tail and run, but not before he threw out a, “You two have a great time up here.”

Kyler looked like he was about to follow him across the bar, but the unfriendly faces that had started paying attention—probably locals—had him thinking otherwise. “God, where do you find these creeps, Syd?”

“Hey!” I smacked his back. “He wasn’t a creep until you got involved.”

“Whatever. You don’t know him.” He reached down and took my hand. The weight felt different and about a thousand other things I couldn’t figure out. “Come on. Let’s go back to the house.”