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“Notin the last few weeks.” Lux hesitated at my side, then thrust something at my chest.
Light reflected off it, glaring out my vision. “Whatthe—girl, are you trying to damage me?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” she sassed me back.
I let my grin spread across my face this time. “Truth.”
She’d made a point when she first started working at Fray of tripping me whenever I encroached on her bar space until I took the belated hint and backed off. After that, the little emu shifter sassed me whenever I tried to give her an order, and a sort of impasse sprang up between us.
“Are you working all night again?” She asked her question in a soft tone thatdidn’t fool me for an instant.
“Again? Taking notes, Little Bird?”
A hot pink flushed straight to her cheeks, complementing the pale pink she’d dyed over what I thought was her natural blonde. I wondered if it matched her nipples.
“No—” she stuttered, then cleared her throat. “No. But don’t fuck with my bar while I’m notaround. I spent all night restocking the thing and cleaning all the mirrors.”
“I promise I won’t touch it.” I held my hands up in surrender, the key to the back of the club gripped in my fingers. “Are you expecting a delivery?” I checked my watch. Well after midnight, on an early close. My lips pursed. The fuddy-duddy protector in me wanted to tell her she should have been in bed long ago.
The sadist in me wanted to take her into the bowels of the club and show her what I could do to satisfy her own twisted cravings. Maybe if I…
Cold night air assailedmy face. I sucked it deep into my lungs, praying to an unseen god for clarity.
Nope, I still want to fuck the feathers out of her tight little body.
This was why I needed rules. And maybe an adult.
“Maybe.” She ran her fingers through her hair, twisting a few strands so they caught at the back and stayed off her face. “There’s a few late orders, but nothing urgent. Yet. I need—” That same hesitation again, and a sideways glance through her lashes my way.
“Need what?” I brushed my knuckles against the back of her hand. “Lux?” I coaxed.
She didn’t answer me, but her speed increased.
I frowned, matching her stride. My long legs wouldn’t allow her to getaway from me that easy. She might be tall for a woman, her height increased by the spiked-heel ankle boots she favored, but in her usual form she was no match for my mid-six-foot frame.
“Come on, Little Bird. No need to run from me.”
She shot me a sharpglance, and I knew the barb hit home.
For all the stories Lux earned, the secrets she collected, her story was known to one person at Fray, and in our community, as far as I knew. My best friend held firm to his silence, pushing that it was her story to tell when she wanted to share. He called it resolve.
I called it arrogant hogwash.
Despite my efforts,over three years into working with Lux, I still hadn’t cracked the tough exterior she kept wrapped around her.
“I’m not running,” she bit out. Her step increased until her walk resembled a jog.
We neared the corner. Fray took up an entire block, half amile up from Reserve, one of the reasons we frequented the gym. That, plus Reserve remained one of Melbourne’s few shifter-safe environments.
Fray wasanother.
Except for the assholes peddling the drugs Rafe hated and the bigotry that riled me. If we could eradicate those things, I’d be a happy shifter.
But that corner kept on getting closer, which meant I was about to lose her for the night. What bothered her about the club at night? She wasn’t afraid of the dark. I squeezed my eyes shut tight for a moment and prayed I was wrong.
“You got yourself a stalker, Little Bird?”
“Stop calling me that.” She straightened and glared at me from beneath thick, curled lashes she’d dotted with bright pink jewels.
