And wouldn’t that make a clusterfuck of a clusterfuck?
Especially since there was a chance she would rip my dick off for trying to take things further.
My animosity toward myself wasn’t helped by the fact that Lo was clearly unaffected. She’d strolled in for her shift like it wasan ordinary day. Like the kiss never happened. Like it hadn’t been the best damn kiss of my entire life. I’d spent the nightandthe morning replaying it—each time with my dick in my hand—but she didn’t seem to give one single iota of a fuck.
She hadn’t avoided me when she’d arrived. Instead, she’d thrown me attitude about my car being over the yellow line. There’d been no blush. No sneaking glances. No change at all.
And I’d been watching for one. For anything. During the meeting, but also right then on the security camera behind the bar.
She was getting ready to open with Harlow, moving without a care in the world. Smiling. Laughing. Swaying those hips as she worked. I had no clue what she was saying because MayCo had extended my no-microphone request from the break room to my bar.
Something I would have them fix ASA-fuckin’-P.
For safety. That was all.
In the meantime, I would return to my original plan.
Ignore her as much as possible.
Easy.
Luna
That was neat.
Who the fuck says that after a groundbreakingly good kiss?
Every time I let my guard down, that thought weaseled its way to the front of my brain. It was permanently seared there. Itwould be the embarrassing story I shared after too many drinks. It would be the thing that haunted me just as I was falling asleep. It would be there when I was on my deathbed, waiting to follow me into the afterlife if I was sent to Hell.
An eternity of that moment, played over and over to torture me.
I pushed the thought down as I worked hard to control my features—something that was crucial right then.
I was spreading the awkward outward, and I was dragging Harlow down with me.
“Can I ask you something?” I whispered quietly to her.
Piper had claimed the Hyde men were the gossipy ones, but I didn’t understand how that was possible.
Because at that innocent question, she abandoned the bottle she was opening and eagerly moved closer. “Yes. Of course.Anything.”
“You mentioned Rhys has, um, kinks.”
With each word I spoke, Harlow made three things abundantly clear.
One, she’d been sincere when she said I could trust her.
Two, I knew it for a fact because she had zero poker face and would last all of thirty seconds undercover.
And three, she was seriously misreading my question.
I rectified that last one before she could start planning the wedding I was never interested in having. “Whoa, I’m not asking for myself.”
Liar.
I kept talking over my treacherous brain. “If I’m going to be believable as his girlfriend, I need to know.”
Her face fell even as she nodded. “That’s true. Okay.” She drummed her fingers on the bar. “Kinkmight be the wrong word. And this is all hearsay, so who knows, you know?”
