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“You don’t know me. I’m a complete stranger.”
“Is that true? Feels like we’ve been in a compromising situation that broke through that barrier. My dick’s already your friend.”
Another laugh sprang from me unbidden. “Are you always this candid?”
“Naw, only with people I like.”
He grinned and took his leather tie to his dark hair, binding it up in a practiced move. Ready, easy lust slid through me, heating my belly in a coil. His relaxed flirting made me like him in far shorter a time than I should’ve. Nobody was this straightforward—I didn’t kid myself that I knew him—but I had the feeling his depths were more of the same.
Decency and kindness. Carefree and determined.
“What are ye thinking over there?” Valentine asked with that same devilish smirk in place.
“That you played with your hair so I could imagine running my hands through it.”
Where the heck had that flirting come from?
He poked his tongue into his cheek, the smile growing. “Guilty. And there was me promising this wasn’t a date.”
I raised a shoulder. “I’ve seen you naked, and we got engaged within five minutes of arriving at the bar. I think that ship sailed.”
His gaze held mine. His eyes twinkled. “Touché, little spy. How about we get out of here?”
The food was done. Our stories had been left unfinished. In an instant, I couldn’t care about anything other than getting back to the bunkhouse and seeing where the draw to him led.
Tension pulled me tight, the sense of feeling alive blooming inside me and dancing over my skin.
On the table, my phone lit.
Molly: She’s fast asleep, no trouble tonight. I’ll message in the morning.
“All okay?” Valentine asked.
“Just my friend telling me Tobi’s gone down well.”
“Thought you’d have to leave.”
I shook my head slowly, tapping out a reply saying I’d see them tomorrow. Then I put away my phone.
My daughter didn’t need me right now.
Other things were possible.
Valentine rose and offered me a hand. I took it solely for the excuse of touching him, a delicious play of electricity tingling over our connection. He kept me with him through the tables of other customers and to the door. I had to break the link to shrug on my coat.
Outside, a frosty wind swept over the car park. Valentine didn’t make for the cars, instead, turning to face me in the entranceway.
The noise of the bar fell away with the door snicking closed.
My pulse beat loud in my ears.
“In case I forget to say, I’m glad ye came to dinner with me. You’re good company,” he said.
I watched him, a quip on my tongue about why he’d forget left unsaid.
His dark eyebrows merged, and he set a hand on the wall by my head, leaning in. “Also, in case it needs stating, I am blessedly single, and I think ye are, too.”
“Very,” I managed in a breathy rush.
