“I didn’t figure a pretty thing like you would be single. But, maybe I could show you I’m a better option.”
“Well, I can say that modesty is not your problem,” I laugh.
“If I don’t know my worth, who will?” he says with a grin, but I got a feeling he’s not really joking. Still, I guess he’s not wrong. His is however, arrogant as hell. He reeks of it.
“I’m guessing everyone will know, because you’re the type to tell them,” I respond, studying him closely for the first time and trying to figure out why he makes me feel so uneasy.
“You make that sound like a bad thing, Ellie.”
“Not always.”
“But sometimes?” he prompts.
I wish I could figure out why he looks familiar. I can’t. I’m still certain I don’t know him, however. I guess it’s possible he’s been in here before. He’s wearing jeans and a faded t-shirt. It’s an INXS shirt, so he’s into rock music, I guess. I never liked the band, but that’s a personal choice, I guess. Plenty did.
“Hey, El? You got a phone call,” Trina calls from out back.
Saved by the bell.
“Excuse me for a minute,” I tell the strange customer, picking up the phone.
“Charlie, you can call me Charlie, Ellie. Our names kind of rhyme. Maybe that’s fate.”
“Charlie…” I repeat.
“You don’t like the name?”
“No, it’s a good name.” It is. Liam hates it, but that’s because his first name is Charlie and he loathes it. “My ex-husband’s name was Charlie.”
“Don’t hold that against me. Maybe you just got the wrong Charlie the first time around,” he says. Then, he puts down a fifty-dollar bill beside his untouched beer. “Be seeing you around, Ellie.”
“Hello?” I hear Fury growling through the phone, pulling my attention away from the man leaving the bar.
“Hey, Liam.”
“What was that shit about?”
“What shit?”
“Why are you talking about my first name, Ice?”
“Some customer said his name was Charlie and I just told him my ex-husband’s name was the same. Geez, did Captain grouchy pants forget his coffee this morning?” I mumble, walking from behind the bar toward my office. “Holler if you need me, Slush.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he responds and I cringe.
“Liam, am I old?”
“What?”
“This new kid keeps calling me ma’am.”
“Ice,” he growls.
“I’m serious, Liam. It’s freaking me out.”
“Christ, woman, you’re not even thirty.”
“I know, but it’s out there, floating around, waiting to drown me.”
“I can’t deal with this bullshit right now. I want to know why you were telling some fucker I’m your ex-husband.”
“Because you are. Liam, please focus here. He called me ma’am!”
“I told you I’d remedy that shit. You want a paper, I’ll come pick you up now. We’ll get you a fucking paper.”
“That’s not how this is done.”
“Seems to me it is.”
I breathe a heavy, annoyed sigh into the phone. “When I drown because I’m old, shriveled and thirty, will you still be this annoying?”
“If you drown, I’ll give you mouth to mouth. No more telling loser-assholes that I’m your ex. I’m your man, period.”
“You’re my ex and maybe my man,” I argue, knowing I’m even kind of lying, but enjoying arguing with him. “Besides how do you know he’s a loser? He could have been a really nice guy.”
“He’s at a bar hitting on a woman who belongs to someone else at ten-thirty in the fucking morning. He’s a loser.”
Okay, it should be said that Liam is kind of smart in an annoying, bossy as heck, kind of way. I ignore that, choosing to concentrate on the other part of what he said.
“Belongs to someone else? You make me sound like an old bag you pack your workout gear in and take to the gym,” I mumble.
“I can give you a workout if you want,” he says, his voice deepening in pleasure.
“Tell me why I like you again.”
“My big dick?”
“Liam!”
“You going to deny it, Ice?”
“Please tell me you’re not standing in the middle of the church right now?”
“What would it matter? God knows he gave me a big dick and he knows you like it, too.”
“I may kill you.”
“You remember the way you used to cry out and moan when I’d fuck you, Ellie? Everyone knew you liked my dick.”
I squirm in my seat, trying to ignore the way his words make my panties wet and my nipples harden. The problem is I do remember and God, I miss him.
“You’re impossible.”
“I’m horny, I need you.”
“You said you were going to give me time, Liam,” I remind him, closing my eyes because I want him just as badly.
“I will, but doesn’t change the truth. I need you, Ice.”
“I need you, too. I just…” I break off, because I don’t know what to say, I just know that taking the next step with him scares me.
“That’s enough… for now.”
I sigh. There’s so much I could say—so much I should probably say. But, I don’t. Instead, I change the subject because that seems safer for now.