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“Solids,” Noah called to Bobby, then said to Natalie, “Cole’s got something better to do with his evenings than hang out here with us confirmed bachelors.”
“Oh, and what’s that?” she asked, curious.
He moved around the table, and spying a straight shot into the corner pocket, he lined up his cue. “Spending it with his fiancée, Melodie.” He scored another point.
She crumpled up damp cocktail napkins and stuffed them into the empty glasses on her tray. “That’s right. Aren’t they getting married soon?”
“Next Saturday, actually.” He glanced up before making his next shot, his expression heated and hopeful. “Care to accompany me to the wedding?”
There was that temptation again, and she steeled herself against his sensual allure. “Sorry, but I have to work that night.”
He hit the cue ball, which barely grazed a solid. He sighed, the sound tinged with the barest hint of defeat. “Can’t blame a guy for asking.” He moved away from the table to give Bobby his turn, and strolled slowly over to join her where she stood in the corner of the room. “One of these days I might get lucky and you’ll say yes.”
“Gina would be happy to go with you,” she suggested without thinking, and nearly bit off her tongue. While she knew she’d never accept a date with Noah, she hated the idea of him getting close and intimate with anyone else. God, she was pathetic. She had no claim to him, other than her nightly erotic dreams.
He stopped inches away, so close she could feel the warmth of his big body, could smell the scent of his woodsy aftershave. It struck her just how big he was, how tall. How overwhelmingly male in every way. And if he so much as inhaled a deep breath, his chest would graze her full breasts and taut nipples.
She held her own breath.
He bent his knees until they were face-to-face, his mouth a kiss away. His dark blue gaze locked with hers, and in a low, rumbling voice he said, “Sweetheart, it’s not Gina I’m interested in.”
Her legs turned to rubber, and her heart thumped hard and fast, pumping with a need that was almost painful. He hadn’t touched her physically, so why did she feel as though he’d caressed her intimately with his hands, from breasts to thighs?
She managed a smile, along with a stubborn tip of her chin. “Then it looks like you’ll be attending the affair solo.”
He lifted a brow at the subtle challenge in her tone, but before he could say anything more, or seduce her completely senseless with his eyes and voice, she slipped past him. Shaken, she made her way back to the bar, asked Gina to deliver Bobby’s bottle of beer, and received the okay from Murphy to leave for the evening.
She headed to the storeroom to get her jacket and purse, grateful that her shift was over. And so very disappointed that she couldn’t bring herself to say yes to Noah.
CHAPTER TWO
“Better luck next time, buddy,” Bobby said, and slapped Noah’s back in a show of sympathetic male camaraderie.
“I wouldn’t count on it.” Noah pulled his gaze from where Natalie had disappeared down a short hallway to the storeroom, certain his luck wasn’t going to improve anytime soon where she was concerned. “Melodie put a curse on me, and I’m beginning to think she’s a true witch.” His tone was wry, but the words his soon-to-be sister-in-law had spoken to him months ago haunted him now.
Bobby chuckled and continued their game of pool, sinking a striped ball into the side pocket. “Why do you say that?”
Thrusting his fingers through his thick hair, Noah alternated his gaze from his friend to the back hall, waiting for Natalie to reappear. “One day a while back when Melodie was trying to get my brother’s attention, she took her frustration out on me. Not only did she call me a rake, but she also said she hoped I’d find a woman I absolutely had to have, and that woman makes me work for her affection.” Some woman who’ll reform you and your playboy ways, she’d added.
His stomach knotted at the recollection. At the time he’d been amused with Melodie’s comment and had responded with a teasing “It’s a novel thought, isn’t it?” But now that he was in that exact situation, trying to get the attention of a woman who aroused and intrigued him beyond his normal span of interest, his predicament wasn’t so funny.
Natalie had gotten under his skin and kept him coming back to Murphy’s on a regular basis. For months now he’d flirted with her, trying to coax her into a date, but she always turned down his invitations, despite the subtle longing he’d seen shimmering in her eyes. Initially, he’d been baffled because no woman had ever resisted his advances for so long, and admittedly his male ego had taken a direct hit. Then she became a challenge to him, and now an obsession.
One he couldn’t seem to shake.
And at the moment, his aroused body was making that fixation known. Just standing near enough to touch and kiss her had made his blood run hot and his dick tighten in awareness. It had taken every ounce of willpower not to taste her parted lips, and judging by the desire he’d seen flash across her features, he knew she hadn’t been immune to their close proximity, either.
Undoubtedly, he was highly attracted to her, but it was more than just her incredible body and their sizzling chemistry that drew him. While she was outwardly intelligent, gorgeous, and sweet, there was more to her than met his trained eye, a vulnerability he’d glimpsed a time or two. She was very private, very reserved. And there were emotional barriers she’d erected that gave him the impression she was hiding something deeper than feigned disinterest.
“My game.”
Noah turned around and frowned at Bobby, who was grinning triumphantly. “Huh?”
“The game’s over. I won.” His friend leaned a hip against the pool table and shook his head. “Man, you really do have it bad for her if you can’t concentrate on a game of pool.”
It would be ridiculous to deny the obvious, so Noah didn’t even try.
Bobby jutted his chin toward the front of the establishment. “She’s on her way out, Romeo. Here’s your chance to impress her with your chivalrous charm and open the door for her—which in turn might open the door for you, if you know what I mean.”
