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“Yeah,” I admitted grudgingly. “Now, are you going to tell me what this supposedly amazing surprise is before my ears start bleeding from this music?” Britney had finished, but now we had some fucking awful dance remix of what might have been Katy Perry or Taylor Swift or some other singer I never wanted to hear again.
He rolled his eyes. “Stop being so sulky. Wait here.” When he turned away from me, his attention on whatever drink he was making, I took the time to study him, unnoticed. He was wearing a tight black sleeveless T-shirt with the club logo splashed across the front, which nicely showcased the lines of his fit body. His dark hair was artfully tousled, and his deep brown eyes were sparkling with humour as he smiled to himself. I bet he got hit on all the time working here. He was so fucking sexy.
When he returned, he placed the drink down carefully in front of me. “I call this one the Huxley,” he said.
“Excuse me?” I glanced down at the…whatever it was. A cocktail of some sort, in a tall glass with crushed ice. Smooth, jet black in colour, and garnished with a strawberry. When I looked back up at Cole, he was biting down on his lip in a really distracting way.
“Uh. The Huxley. It reminds me of you. Same colour as your nails. Bitter coffee for your broody personality, a bite of ginger for your, uh, fiery moments, and sweet blackberry and raspberries for your sweet tooth. And vodka, because of those vodka shots we did at the wedding. It’s supposed to be garnished with blackberries or raspberries, but I used a strawberry because they’re your favourite.”
I wanted to kiss him more than I’d ever wanted to kiss anyone in my life.
I had to stop myself from wanting things I couldn’t have. Tearing my gaze away from his, I studied my drink. “Is this…how did you get it to be so black?”
“It’s a secret,” he said, leaning across the bar. “But if you behave, I might tell you.” Was he flirting with me?
Before I could come up with a response that didn’t involve me grabbing his stupidly tight T-shirt and pulling him all the way across the bar to attack his mouth, he was flagged down by one of the club patrons, a hot, shirtless guy with an amazing body. I watched as Cole gave him an easy smile, which the guy returned, batting his lashes at Cole, and jealousy coiled low in my gut. Fuck this. I didn’t want to be feeling this way.
To distract myself, I took a cautious sip of my drink.
Wow. It was good. Really, really good. After taking another, bigger sip, I pulled the strawberry from the rim of the glass and placed it in my mouth. Mmm. When I’d finished it, I glanced back over at Cole, still mixing drinks for the hot guy, and swiped my tongue across my lips. The bottle of white rum he was in the process of tipping up stilled in mid-air, his eyes darkening as his gaze went to my mouth.
Fuck. I discreetly adjusted myself in my jeans, glad I was pressed up against the bar so no one, especially him, could see the evidence of how he was affecting me. The hot guy said something to him, laughing, and he shook his head with a grin, returning his attention to the drink he was making. He swiped at the guy’s arm jokingly, and I gritted my teeth.
When he came back over, I’d managed to get myself back under control. Mostly. “Do you flirt with everyone like that?” I immediately wanted to take the words back.
He raised his brows. “What’s it to you?”
“Nothing,” I muttered. I shouldn’t have said anything.
“I flirt because it adds to the positive experience for the people that come here, and it comes naturally to me while I’m working. It’s fun. But that just now…that was JJ. He comes here a lot, and he flirts with everyone, not just me specifically. He’s one of my cousin Elliot’s housemates.”
“Have you two ever…” I trailed off, not sure I wanted to know.
“Nah. I always thought it would be a bit weird, with him being my cousin’s housemate.”
Not as weird as wanting to fuck your stepbrother, though.
“He’s not my type, anyway,” Cole added after a couple of seconds.
I swallowed hard. “No? What’s your type?”
We stared at each other for a moment, Cole gripping onto the bar counter so tightly I could see his knuckles standing out in sharp relief.
He cleared his throat, his dark gaze fixed on me. Damn those pretty fucking eyes. “Did you like the drink?”
My dick was hardening again, and I pressed into the bar, unable to adjust myself with his full attention on me. This was so fucking unfair, that he could affect me like this. “Yeah. What was the secret ingredient?”
He leaned right across the bar, his lips brushing against my ear, and I couldn’t stop the shiver that went through my body. “Activated charcoal,” he murmured, and those two words had never sounded sexy until he said them in that low, husky tone.
“I wouldn’t have guessed that. What’s your type, Cole?”
His lips touched my ear again, his breath hot on my skin. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
* * *
“Hux, meet Tom.” Cole’s voice cut through the stupor I’d fallen into. I’d had three of those cocktails now, and to my horror, I’d found myself humming along with yet another Britney throwback. I couldn’t believe it.
I was sitting on a stool at the very end of the bar, away from the crowds, and I’d spent ninety percent of the time I hadn’t been drinking just watching Cole work. I saw several people try to get his number, but he turned all of them down, which shouldn’t have made me feel as good as it did. Now I turned to the new guy. He was tall and pale-skinned, with jet-black hair that I was pretty sure was dyed. Tattoos snaked up his arms, and metal piercings glinted in his ears. He grinned at my perusal, sticking out his hand. “Huxley. Nice to meet ya. I’m Tom.”
