Sinister fire that flickered and sparked, threatening to consume everything in its wake.
I wished it would.
I wishedhewould.
But he didn’t move. Not an inch. He just stared me down with his arms crossed over his naked chest.
God, he was hot. It made no sense that he was so in his head about being too old for me. Not when he looked like that. All the time on his feet, lifting heavy deliveries, and whatever other manual labor he did hadn’t given him gym muscles. He had work muscles. Cut and defined and hot. I wanted to run my fingers through the light hair that coated that tattooed chest and traileddown the cut muscles of his abs. And then I wanted to tease my tongue along the deep indents at his hips.
It might not even be a want at that point.
I was fairly certain it was growing into a need.
Staring at his body wasn’t helping.
Him staring right back at mine wasn’t, either.
It rebuilt the restless ache I’d just soothed. If he was any closer, I would worry he could see the arousal that coated my thighs and threatened to drip down my legs.
I wasn’t sure he didn’t know because when he tore his focus away from my bare legs, his jaw was clenched.
Maybe I should’ve been embarrassed at being caught by the star of my fantasy. And maybe I would be in the clear light of day. But I’d learned long ago to never show weakness.
So I kept my chin held high and met the intense eye contact without flinching. “Should I moan your name louder next time, barman?”
And then I walked into the room and closed the door behind me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
NSFW: NOT SANITARY FOR WORK
LUNA
Iwas right the night before.
I would be embarrassed in the cold light of day.
I was fairly certain I’d pushed Rhys too far. Maybe even made him uncomfortable. He’d barely spoken to me all day. Getting ready for work at the same time hadn’t been a problem because he’d seemed to be doing everything in his power to avoid me. It was a wonder that he hadn’t run outside of the car to get farther from me when we’d left for Rye.
Like always when we got to the bar, he started getting everything in the back of the house up and running before going to his office to deal with that stuff. I’d taken over the front of the house stuff, so I headed that way to get it going. I was halfway through my checklist and was about to restock the garnish trays when I spotted them.
Paper umbrellas.
And little dagger things.
Both.
In the absolute brightest colors that didn’t match the vibe of Rye in any way, shape, or form.
Of course he’d overheard.
Of course he’d done something so ridiculous.
And of course all this happened just after I ruined things.
Despite the regret that twisted in my chest, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at the dumb things. I wasn’t even sure when he’d put them out since they hadn’t been there the day before…
When he went back in before we left.
