But maybe this man knew a little bit of what I felt. I could see it in the details he’d brought to this project. Maybe it wasn’t just a job.
Hope fluttered in my chest as I savored the long, slow, and dizzying way he kissed me. Like I was the best part of his day.
Then my phone buzzed against his thigh. Insistently.
“Do you have a vibrator in your pocket, Mace?” he asked against my mouth. “I’d figure you’d be less surly if you had a pocket rocket.”
I dug my fingers into his stupidly firm pecs. “Shut up. Ignore it and go back to kissing me like you mean it.”
He laughed into my mouth and cupped my face, but the stupid phone started up again. I was prepared to ignore it. Brewed Awakening was fucking closed.
“Do you need to get that?”
“Nope,” I mumbled against his mouth and pulled my phone out to silence it.
He grinned and looked down. “Shit. Is that the time?”
“Got somewhere to be?” I took a step back. The phone went silent again.
Gideon shoved his hands into his hair. “Shit.” He dug into his pocket then frowned and went back to the bar. He did something on his phone, and suddenly, it started buzzing and ringing as well.
My little bit of happiness and hope popped like a soap bubble at the way his face went from smiling and sexy to serious.
“Hello? Karen? Is everything all right?” He turned away from me.
Actually, he may as well have planted one of his big boots into my now too tight chest. Something was very wrong. Who the freaking fuck was Karen?
He listened for a second, his big shoulders sagging as he tunneled his fingers through his hair. He shifted around and those worried eyes caught mine.
Dear God, not again.
This could not be happening to me again.
Two
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
No wonder I’d had so much time to work in peace. Only my phone being turned off by some fluke would allow me that respite.
I’d caught one of Karen’s texts as it whizzed by mentioning Dani’s sprained ankle. What the hell?
Goddamn dad guilt was about to choke me. And Macy was waiting for an explanation.
This was exactly what I had not wanted to happen.
Swallowing hard, I pointed at her. “Give me a couple, then we’ll talk.”
Macy crossed her arms and stared at me with fire in her eyes. A different kind than I’d seen pre-kiss. As a wise man, I knew that meant my ears were about to be blistered.
We’d danced around each other for so long that my brain was still trying to understand how we’d even found ourselves in this position. We spent the bulk of our time arguing and exchanging hot looks. A few times, I’d wondered if the heat between us would ever boil over or just fizzle out entirely. If she would find someone and I’d be left with a whole lot of tension in her direction and not much else.
Not all sparks were meant to burn into something significant. Often enough, they just extinguished themselves.
Tonight, all of that had changed. Well, kind of. A kiss was a start. A beginning. Not a stopping point to fight, unless you were us.
Even right no
w, looking at her with her wild, fraying braid and her narrowed eyes, I wanted to drag her onto that bar.