“Then why is it so crowded?”
“No idea. Maybe word of your outfit got around.” Astrid laughed. She slid her hand along his waist as she walked by. Shivers of lust lit up his body.
They could make it work, right? Aladdin managed to get the princess and he was a thief. Or something like that anyway. Maybe Shrek was a better example.
Reaching the end of the bar, Astrid bent over slowly to get a clean rag. She looked over her shoulder with a wicked smirk. Was she making sure he was watching? As if there was any doubt he would be. His hard-on went from under control to raging in under sixty seconds.
“Damn,” he heard one of his regulars groan behind him. Turning around, he found all three of the fifty-year-old men leaning over the bar. Their eyes were taking in the same thing he was.
“Hey,” he barked, stepping in front of them. “Sit your old asses back down.”
Astrid laughed. She gave him a wink as she passed back by. He closed his eyes briefly when she grazed her hand across his chest. Yeah, no fucking way in hell he wasn’t tapping that. He had never wanted something so bad in his life as he wanted Astrid. Under him, on top of him, in front of him, none of that other shit mattered as long as she was with him.
Spinning back around, he was met by three cheesy grins shining back at him.
“Shut up,” he growled, walking back down the bar. Hopefully, his last thought hadn't been expressed out loud.
Sometime around midnight, his brothers headed upstairs. They both disappeared anyway, so he assumed that’s where they went. At one in the morning, he sent Andrea home to her family, leaving just him and Astrid in the bar. He finally chased the last customer out at two. He found Astrid slumped in one of the booths in the back corner.
“Did you want to head up? I can close,” he said.
“No, I’ll help. That way we can both be done faster.” Standing, she pulled her tank top away from her body, working at getting any kind of breeze to cool her skin. “I’m so gross. I think I lost twenty pounds in sweat.”
“Yeah,” Parker agreed, pulling his shirt over his head. “This is my second shirt tonight. It’s rank.” He laid it on one of the tables after using it to wipe his chest off, then he started gathering the few remaining glasses left on the tables.
Astrid followed behind him, wiping off the tables. When he moved to the bar to start cleaning, she got the broom to sweep the floor. They finished cleaning half an hour later. Parker pulled the cash drawer out of the register to lock in the office safe.
Astrid sat behind his desk with the adding machine as he stood on the other side and laid out the cash. It was a routine that had become a habit on nights they closed together. He would read the count of each denomination to her as she calculated it.
Attaching the tape to the cash, he would secure everything in the safe before they headed up. The deposit went to the bank the next day before they opened. Except on the weekends when it stayed in the safe.
While Parker was at the bank, Liam reconciled the take from the night before. He printed out the profit-and-loss statement at the end of every week for Parker to review with their dad.
“How were your tips tonight?” He asked.
“Good. I haven’t counted yet, but it feels like a lot.”
Parker had a smaller safe next to the big one in the office for each server to empty her tips into throughout the night. It had an easily changeable code system that he could customize for each server. He had done his best to keep them from being robbed. Tips left on the credit cards were pulled from the register as each tab was closed so they didn’t have to wait for someone to calculate them later.
“Ready?” he asked.
With a nod, Astrid took the hand he proffered to her. She let him pull her out of the chair. He dragged her behind him as he led them through the back hallway. When they reached the stairs to the apartment, he spun her around and pinned her to the wall.
“God, I’ve wanted to do this all night,” he growled as he kissed her. He pulled away only to feel himself grow even harder at the lust in her eyes.
“Is that all you’ve wanted to do tonight?” she asked with a whisper.
“Not even close,” he answered, leaning back in to kiss her again. He could spend all night right here feeling her soft lips against his, but he knew she was about to drop from exhaustion. Reluctantly, he took her hand again.
“Come on, let’s get you in bed.” He smirked when she began to giggle. “You know what I meant.” He opened the door and gently pushed her toward the shower.
ChapterThirteen
Astrid walkedinto Parker’s bedroom, easing under the covers. She listened as he turned on the shower. It wasn’t hard to imagine the water gliding over all of that inked muscle. When the bathroom door opened, she felt her stomach flutter with butterflies waiting for him to walk into the bedroom.
He lay down on the couch for the night and she rolled her eyes. How were men so clueless? She knew after hearing about her friends' experiences with their SOs that it wasn’t just Parker. Seems cluelessness was carried on theYchromosome. She climbed out of bed and headed for the living room.
“Is everything okay?” Parker asked when she entered the room. He had sat up partially, letting the blanket fall to his waist. She took a moment to study him in the ambient light from the bathroom. Yeah, she wasn’t passing up a chance to trace those tattoos with her tongue tonight.
