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The hazel-eyed charmer grimaced at the way the older guys glared at him as soon as they were past the library’s main doors. “I don’t like her that way.” His tone, albeit a mixture of exasperation and guilt, was also faintly underscored by guilt.
Thornton only had one word for his baby brother. “Idiot.”
“It’s your life,” Aidan, always the more diplomatic between the two, simply said with a shrug before catching up with his twin. Since the two were going in the opposite direction, this left Ethan and Slade walking the rest of the way back to their block. The billionaire didn’t waste time asking about Guilia, a childhood friend of the Blackwoods and the girl that Ethan had been dating for almost ten years.
Never mind if, like the Blackwood twins, he also thought Ethan didn’t deserve a bitch like Guilia. The important thing here was for the younger man’s mind to stay as far away as possible from thoughts of Kady.
She was his to torment after all, and it was very important that she only started breaking glasses and dropping plates because of him, and not anyone else.
But then the billionaire heard Ethan say they had broken up a week ago, and Slade couldn’t help wincing, thinking that he should’ve known better than to use the girl as a distraction. It was always bad news with Guilia, and only Ethan believed that could ever change.
“I’m sorry, man.”
“You know how it is.”
Slade did, just as the others did, and that included Anah. Guilia would break up with Ethan every time the latter refused to play her slave, but as soon as she got bored, she would start running after him and begging Ethan to take her back.
By this time, the youngest Blackwood should know better than to even give Guilia the time of the day, but it was as if Ethan couldn’t seem to live without the girl. Just more fucking proof of how shitty love could get, the billionaire reflected, and the thought made him even more determined to steer clear of having any kind of relationship with any woman.
Kady was humming along to Michael Bublé’s Haven’t Met You Yet when she heard a husky voice drawl from behind, “What a lovely voice you have.”
The words, which had Kady jumping three feet in the air, also had a nearby Farica shaking her head while wiping Table 7 clean. “Shouldn’t that be Kady’s line,” she asked archly, “Mr. Big Bad Wolf?”
“Mind your own fairytale,” the billionaire answered even as his blue eyes stayed on Kady, who had once again started fidgeting in his presence.
“G-Good afternoon, Mr. Wyndham.” As always, her Superman-lookalike boss was still too gorgeous to look at, despite the beard that covered about seventy-percent of his face. And yet…
Something’s wrong, Kady, despite her nervousness, couldn’t help noticing. There was no teasing smile playing on his lips, and his gaze was more brooding than wicked. Had something happened?
Slade was still on edge, and even the adorable sight of Kady valiantly working hard to meet his gaze had little impact on his mood.
“I heard you met the Blackwoods.”
“Um…yes?”
“And?” he asked aggressively.
“And?” she echoed uncertainly, not understanding at all what he wanted her to say.
Do you like any one of them, the billionaire wanted to snarl. But he couldn’t, with Farica still watching them with avid interest.
“Never mind.”
Kady bit her lip at the callousness of her boss’ tone. Had she done something wrong? She started backing away and promptly bumped into one of the tables.
The billionaire frowned. Her clumsiness was still cute as fuck, but it was no longer enough. “You’re probably like that with the other guys, too,” he muttered.
“I…um…er…” In truth, Kady had no idea what to say since she equally had no idea about what her boss meant.
“Ignore him,” Farica advised. “He’s just not used to being the most beautiful man alive.”
“I…see.” But in truth, the other woman’s words made even less sense, and seeing that Slade Wyndham was still eyeing her like she was something to devour, Kady decided to make herself scarce and retreated to the safety of the kitchen.
Seeing that Elizabeth and Arden didn’t need much help with their work, Kady decided to resume working on her brewing skills for pour-overs.
Coffee bean grinding, done. Water temp check, done. Contact time between coffee and water, done.
And now it was time to wait, Kady thought as the filter slowly did its work and dark liquid began to drip into the Chemex coffeemaker.
With several minutes to spare, Kady couldn’t help but think back to her boss’ puzzling attitude. Even though she had been working at Redwood Cafe for a few days now, she still hadn’t come any closer to understanding exactly what kind of man Slade Wyndham was.
She had sort of known a lot of good-looking guys her entire life, having been best friends with the one girl all of them had wanted to date. In her experience, handsome guys tended to be insensitive, cruel bullies, something that Kady was absolutely certain her extremely handsome boss, despite his penchant for teasing her, was not. The guys that had competed for Margaux’s attention distinctly lacked the ability to laugh at themselves, whereas Slade even seemed to draw amusement from the insults Farica frequently hurled at him.
