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It all came out of him in a rush; the careful speech he had practiced was a jumble of likely incoherent thoughts. “I don’t want to make things awkward, and I don’t want to jeopardize anything for you at work. If you want me to pause my appointments for the time being, I will. But I’d like to get to know you outside of the farm, and I hope my feelings aren’t one-sided.”
He finally came up for air, relieved to find that she had not fixed him with an expression of disgust. He paused, grinning down at her, sucking in a breath and exhaling it slowly.She hasn’t left yet. She hasn’t cut you off, isn’t looking at you like you’re her pervy uncle. Don’t stop now; you’re almost there.“But I don’t think they are. Would you like to have dinner with me this weekend, Violet?”
The entire world ground to a halt. The moon ceased her rotation, the tides stilled, and the air in his lungs froze, quieting his heartbeat as he waited. Nothing existed but the lovely young woman before him and whatever answer she gave.
“I’d love that.”
***
Khash and Lurielle were sitting outside when he pulled into his driveway a short while later, his hooves barely touching the pavement. He didn’t bother going into the house. Up the narrow walkway, shimmying past the trash bins, stepping over the hedgerow, he flopped into a chair without waiting for an invitation.
“Well, I did it. I asked her out.”
Lurielle instantly perked up. “Wait, the girl? The work girl? The girl from work?”
Khash turned to him with a look of disgust. “You’re asking out one of your employees?” He shook his head disdainfully, making a low sound of disapproval in his throat. “Rourke, I sure hope you have a big dick, because Gra’lak knows he didn’t see fit to call your name when they were passin’ out brains.”
Rourke glared at the big orc as Lurielle dissolved in laughter, sitting up in the chair to fix them both with a stink eye. “No! It’s not one of my employees, I would never — she works at — I know her from — you know what? Fuck you both.”
Khash had joined his girlfriend in laughter, and the two of them had completely lost the ability to speak as their shoulders shook.
“I’m going to start sharing all my news with the mothman on the corner. Start closing your bedroom windows when you have sex; no one wants to hear that.”
“Oh, my stars, stop, you big baby! Have you always been this much of a whiner? I want to know exactly what you said. Did you do it somewhere romantic? Tell me everything.”
“No, I don’t think I will.” He pushed back to his hooves, giving one last glare before he stepped over the shrubs. Lurielle was protesting his departure in between her giggles, and Khash still belly laughed at his expense.
With friends like these . . .The thought brought him up short. Khash and Lurielle were his friends. Cal was his friend. Madoc and the other bulls of the Minoan society were his friends. Now he had a date, the first date he’d truly been excited for in almost a year.
Things had changed without his notice, without any of his careful planning and micromanaging, but he couldn’t say he was unhappy with any of the results.
HEA For The HBIC (Head Bull In Charge)
Chapter 10
Witheveryhumanthatpassed him, the coil of tension that had taken up residence in his stomach winched a bit tighter, pulling the rest of his innards along with it. As a result, he was tense and breathless, a bull on the edge. It was the opposite of the way he wanted to feel before the evening even started.
Rourke wasn’t sure what was going through his head when he suggested coming to Bridgeton for their dinner date. He didn’t like the city, had never liked the city. He’d liked the image in his head a decade and a half earlier, and he’d thought that version of himself — financially successful and sophisticated, the envy of his peers back home, with an inexplicable amount of free time to be a fixture in Bridgeton’s trendiest hotspots — was the one he wanted to become.
He’d attained most of it, he was forced to admit. Although his younger self hadn’t accurately assessed the number of hours it would take to achieve that financial success, nor that to attain it, he’d need to eschew his other interests and hobbies, making him less interesting to the people who populated those trendy hotspots and an outsider to the friends and family he’d left behind back home.
He liked to think of himself as sophisticated — not despite his humble origins but partially because of it. He was comfortable conversing with folks of all species from all walks of life, breaking bread with them, and making deals with them. He preferred his wardrobe classic and well-tailored, which often meant adaptive garments cut to his measurements and his accessories understated and timeless. He was well-read and stayed abreast of current events around the globe, even when those events only seemingly applied to the human population, for growing up on the settlement had taught him that unrest in the human world had a way of spilling into the existence of their hapless neighbors with little warning or recourse. He appreciated good food and wine, despite his penchant for sweets, and he’d found the farm-to-table restaurants and gastropubs of Cambric Creek far superior to any he’d patronized in the city. He’d visited all of Bridgeton’s trendiest hotspots with Veleena and had usually found himself out of place — wincing at the noise, struggling to see in the deliberate darkness, and making excuses for an early departure.
His younger self would have been crushed at the boring old bull he’d become, but Cambric Creek was much more his speed, and there wasn’t anything he missed about his former life in the big city. He’d only suggested Bridgeton to be solicitous to Violet, knowing well that she had to commute every day for work. When she mentioned an Italian place near her apartment, he’d agreed without so much as blinking.
Never mind that this was a restaurant he’d dined in a dozen times before. Never mind that it was another woman who’d sat across from him in the dimly lit dining room. The city was ever-changing, and it had never sunk its hooks into him, so none of that mattered.You’re still a farm boy at heart, and here you are, going out with another city girl.The notion that this was her neighborhood, so close to the place he’d once lived, where his ex-wife still lived, only added to the band of tension.You could have walked past her a hundred times in a different life. Would you have even picked your head up to notice?
“I hope you found the place without any problems.” Dark curls spilled over the shoulder of her dress, and his stomach flipped at the sight of her upturned, plum-painted lips, the overhead streetlight outside the Trattoria making her eyes shine.Taking things slow.“I know you lived in the city, but I wasn’t sure if you were familiar with this area or not . . .”
“I am. I didn’t live too far from here. There are some really excellent pubs just a few blocks away and a great sushi place. It’s a nice neighborhood.”
“Oh, I think I know the sushi place! I went there once with some people from my old job for someone’s birthday.”
Rourke grinned down at her as the maître d’ led them to a table. “Have you been to Cacao? It’s maybe two blocks from here, right across the street from that occult shop with the crows on the sign. They only serve dessert and cocktails. It’s the best chocolate martini you’ll ever have in your life.”
He watched her lip disappear between her teeth for the space of a heartbeat, her eyes widening. “I’ve passed it before, I think? But I-I’ve never been there. We should have gone there instead, I forgot to take your sweet tooth into consideration. How thoughtless of me. I . . . I don’t really eat out that often, I guess.” She laughed uncomfortably, absently tugging the sleeve of her dress. “That probably seems silly. What’s the point of living in the city if you’re not experiencing what it has to offer, right?”
He watched her eyes turn down, her hands fidgeting nervously with her hair and wished he could insert his hoof directly into his big, clumsy mouth.She’s struggling to find a job in her field and probably has university loans to pay back. And here you are, going on about twenty-dollar martinis like an asshole.
