She rolled her eyes and polished her water off. When she turned sideways on the stool, I straightened.
"Fine, take me anywherebutto your bed where I could ride you until the sun came up."
Well, shit.When she put it like that, I started second-guessin' my plan. The air felt thicker suddenly, heavy with heat and spilled lager and the kind of tension that usually ended in either a kiss or a fistfight. At The BP, odds were fifty-fifty.
"I mean, we could still?—"
"Nope. Moment's passed. I reeled it in." She stood, tossed a twenty on the bar, and took off toward the back door.
"Now, wait a damn minute," I called, chasin' after her. I'd be a fool not to. Boots thudded against warped floorboards as I followed. I caught up to her quick, but I'd learned from my mistakes. I didn't grab at her. Just spoke at her back. "Calvin."
She whirled on me beneath the dim hallway light that flickered almost as bad as the neon out front, shadows cuttin' sharp across her face. And that's when I saw it. Saw what it cost her to all but ask to go home with me and have it thrown back in her face. She said nothing. Just stared up at me, a heady fuckin' mix of fury and vulnerability colorin' her face.
"I'm sorry," I said.
She started to roll her eyes and turn back around, but I reached between us and gripped her hand. Her skin was warm, pulse jumpin' under my thumb. It wasn't the jump-attack I'd made when I'd reached her outside the bunkhouse. It was somethin' different.
A claiming, maybe.
She paused, but didn't meet my eyes. If she wouldn't see me, I'd have to make her hear me…feelme.
I crowded her against the wall of the narrow hallway as a couple passed us, the woman shootin' us a knowing smirk. The drywall was faintly gritty where the paint had chipped from years of drunk shoulders. When I leaned in, the dark strands of her hair tickled my nose. "I didn't mean it like that. I want you. YouknowI want you."
Her scoff told me she didn't believe me, but I couldn't understand why. Somethin' to pick apart another time, I reckoned. The bass from the jukebox thumped faintly through the wall, steady as a heartbeat.
I took her hand—the one I still held in mine—and placed it on my strainin' cock. She squeezed me on instinct and I hissed in a breath, the sound swallowed by the hallway and the distant crack of pool balls collidin' on that damn crooked table.
"I've been hard as steel since the moment you kissed the tip of my finger, viper. Wished it had been the tip of my dick. Want you to paint me red with those lips."
The words hung between us, thick as the air in that bar.
She finally—finally—looked up at me. The fury had softened into somethin' soft but molten. "Take me somewhere," she nearly whispered. "Anywhere."
She letme hold her hand for the entire six-block walk to the house. It woulda been faster to drive, but neither of us was in any fit state to get behind the wheel.
We didn't talk.
There were no barbs, no jokes, no confessions.
Just quiet comfort.
It was new, and it was nice.
"Here we are," I said as I turned to walk us up toward the house.
"And here is… where?" She looked concerned, and I had to laugh.
"I ain't here to murder you, viper." She raised a brow and dropped my hand before she took the rickety steps up to the front door. "Bought this dump a few months ago," I said with a shrug. "Been fixin' it up."
"Dumpis a strong word." She looked around. One of the porch lights flickered. A couple windows along the front of the house were boarded up with plywood. "It's a fixer-upper."
I barked out a laugh.
"You said you bought it a few months ago…" Her words trailed off as she continued scanning the space. Was she hesitating? Why? "Was that before or after you, um, called off the wedding?"
Well, ain't that fucking interestin'.Seemed like my viper was suddenly far more interested in my relationship history than she'd let on. But, once again, I was a quick study. I wouldn't toss her words back at her when she had her shields down.
I cleared my throat. "Before. It was meant to be, uh, a surprise for Sassy." I gripped the back of my neck with a rough hand. "A wedding present, I guess."
