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“Perfect. I hate an easy crowd.”
“I’m seriously not looking for company.”
“I’ve gathered. Hence the approaching bodyguard and the sheathed gun.”
Ah! Observant, too.
I held my hand up, signaling Enrico to stand down. I was curious now.
“Very perceptive.” I smoothed my leather jacket, adjusting it to hide my weapon.
Still, I must have done a poor job because he stood up and came to stand behind me. “May I?” he asked.
I was confused but nodded anyway. Matt placed his hands under the waistband of my jacket before yanking on the straps of my holster, tightening them and almost molding the damn thing to my body. I gasped in surprise. My breath caught in my lungs while a sudden thrill ran down my spine.
“Thank you,” I muttered, needing to somehow mask the strange sound that had come out of my mouth.
“This is how you wear it. Tight, as if it’s a part of you.”
I swallowed hard, pulling my mind from under this spell he’d put me under with such an intimate yet innocent gesture while he sat back down beside me.
“So even with a gun and a bodyguard closing in, which are not the best of odds, you still decided to make a move, and without a pickup line. I can’t deny that’s refreshing.” I had no idea why I was poking the bear.
After the news of my upcoming wedding, I could crave to have everything I’ll be missing out on for the rest of my life. But somehow, romance, sex, and any kind of hookup were the last things on my mind right now. Even so, here I was, giving in to this man’s game.
“I wasn’t aware women appreciated the pickup line kind of approach. Besides, I wasn’t making a move. If I wanted you in my bed, I would have led with that. I’m not a beat-around-the-bush kind of man.”
“Really? Straight up ‘I want to fuck you’ approach? Does it ever work?” I couldn’t doubt it did. By the looks of this man, it worked every damn time.
“Something like that.”
“Well then, I’m sorry for assuming.”
“A man approaches a woman drinking alone at a hotel’s bar, it’s only natural that you would. I saw an empty glass in the hand of a visibly anxious person and asked for a refill.”
“Right! My mistake.”
The waiter placed the two tumblers in front of us, and I watched as he stood up, his fingers wrapping around the glass and swiping it off the counter. “Enjoy.” he cooed, tipping his head back and gulping the whole drink down. No scrunch, no flinch, no exhale of relief from the fire the whiskey surely lit down his throat. No reaction at all.
I watched his lips tip up into a sly grin, his hand smoothing down the lapels of his suit jacket, straightening absolutely nothing because all of him was utter perfection. Without another word, he turned his back to me and walked away, leaving me to cuss my decision not to give in to such a glorified specimen of a man.
???
I was all geared up, camo suit and all, kneeling between a large, fallen trunk and an ancient oak tree in the middle of the woods, taking a breath. After our loss the day before, we were taking the game seriously, not caring for another day of shame from those two.
I was tired from the long sleepless night, and the news about my forced engagement had thrown me off my game.
I had taken my helmet and my gloves off, my second water bottle in hand, since the first was long gone to quench the thirst from my hangover.
After Matt left me sitting alone at the bar, I drank enough whiskey to numb my mind, but the effect it had on the rest of my body was quite the opposite. Every time I thought about that stranger, I wished I’d settled my mind on taking advantage of my freedom before I’d be forced to endure the old, fat, and dirty mafioso my uncle sold me off to.
Rustling in the leaves behind me pulled me out of my head. I stilled, searching my periphery without taking a single breath. I’d been too quick to judge and too eager for a break to be thorough as I secured the area.
“If this were a real situation, you’d find yourself in a tough predicament,” I heard from behind me, that same husky voice that had lulled me into a turbulent sleep last night after one too many glasses of whiskey.
I shot up, back on my feet, facing those shards of steel that slashed right through my gut. As soon as I faced him, he shoved me back against the tree, staring right at me for a moment too long before he leaned in.
God, I was immediately lost in that manly scent of his. Fresh mint and definite hazard mixed in equal measures. His lips grazed my ear while the lowest grunt traveled down my spine and straight between my legs. The sound only intensified as he took a sharp inhale, his nose grazing the length of my neck.
