“Five minutes?” I asked him and headed to the back to hang up my apron.
I hadn’t even realized he’d followed me until I felt his arms around my waist, and he said, right in my ear, “Behind.”
“Did you finish emptying the trash?”
“It’s by the door. I’ll take it to the dumpster when we leave.” His hands slid to the waistband of my khaki pants, and he thumbed the button at the top of the fly. “Stop being the boss. It’s boring.”
“Chase, I have to—” But all thoughts of the last few jobs I had to do before we could get out of here flew right out of my head when he popped the button open and then tugged down the zipper. My brain might have shut down, but my dick wasdefinitely on board. Chase rubbed his palm against my erection and then turned me around and shoved me back against the wall.
His grin was wicked and there was a challenge in his dark eyes that reminded me of the first time we’d kissed, when he’d been nothing but sharp edges, friction, and a bad attitude. As I watched, his grin widened into a smirk, and he dropped to his knees. He stared up at me and then, very slowly and very intentionally, he licked his lips.
“Holy shit,” I said. My dick throbbed, and I grasped at his shoulders, holding him in place. I was ready to let him blow me right where I stood—right until someone rattled the door handle. I froze, listening for the sound of Bobby’s keys, but heard only silence. Still, it was a sharp reminder that the risk of my boss walking in was small but very real, and it was enough to kill my erection.
“We can’t do this here,” I said regretfully and tucked my softening dick back into my pants.
“Why not?” Chase glared at me with enough heat to start a small fire from his spot on the floor.
“You’re kidding, right? Bobby almost caught us once. I don’t know about you, but I need this job.”
He got to his feet, brushing at the knees of his pants, and rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
He’d gone from horny to pissed in four point oh seconds, which was the opposite of what usually happened. Something was definitely going on with him. But I knew better than to ask directly, so instead I wrapped my arms around him and nuzzled at the side of his throat, hoping it would get him to loosen up. “We can go back to your place instead.”
He jerked out of my grip. “That’s not happening.”
“Okay,” I said. “My place then.”
Chase’s shoulders stiffened. “We either fuck here or we don’t fuck at all.”
I blinked and waited for the words to make sense. They didn’t. “What?”
He tugged himself out of my grasp and shrugged. Shot me a look. “It was good, wasn’t it? When we were just fucking around, I mean. It was hot.”
“Yeah,” I said, not sure where this was going and not liking it a single bit. “Why would you ask that?”
“Just, it washot,” he said, one corner of his mouth tugging up. He looked away. “So we should go back to how it was.”
“What?” I asked again.
He folded his arms over his chest and jutted his chin out. “I don’t want you coming to my place again, and I’m not coming to yours, so let’s just go back to fucking like how we started out.”
“Are you breaking up with me?” I asked him over the sudden blast of white noise in my skull.
“Don’t be so weird about it,” he said. “It doesn’t change anything.”
“If this is about Cash, then?—”
“Don’t bring him into this.” Chase froze, his expression hardening. “Fuck you.”
I willed my tone to stay even. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s changed.”
“That’s the point,” he said, narrow-eyed. “Nothing’s changed. We can still fuck.”
I tried to get a read on him, but his walls were back up, and I knew it did no good to push against them. If I tried, he’d only push back harder. I’d thought of him as a feral cat more than once, and he had that same look in his eyes now—the one where I didn’t know, and he probably didn’t either, if he was going to turn tail and bolt or tear me into bloody shreds. I didn’t recognize the guy who’d kissed me and snuggled with me thosefew times. Didn’t recognize the guy I thought was falling for me the same way I was falling for him.
“Okay,” I said. “I hear what you’re saying, but no.”
“No?” If he narrowed his eyes any more, he wouldn’t be able to see a thing.
