One King's Way (On Dublin Street 6.5)

Craig grunted. He and Stevie had been friends since high school, and Stevie had been with Audrey just as long. Neither Audrey nor Stevie believed in marriage, but after ten years together they showed no signs of wanting anybody else either.

Her closeness with Stevie meant Audrey couldn’t understand why anybody would want to remain single. She’d been trying to set up Craig with her friends for almost as long as she’d been with Stevie.

“Thanks for the heads-up, and I’ll pass.” He rubbed his eyes as he sat up, trying to fully wake up.

“Oh? Seeing someone? And by someone I mean your usual casual fuck?”

You’d be surprised, mate. “Nah, I hooked up with a lassie a week or so ago, but I’ve not met anybody since.” Not entirely true. He had met someone but she didn’t do one-night stands. He scowled remembering Rain’s words: I don’t do one-night stands, Craig. I’m not that girl. He’d fucked up by making it about sex right off the bat.

But if it wasn’t about sex, then what was it about?

Did he actually want to date this girl?

She got under his skin, aye . . . but dating? He wasn’t so sure about that.

It was probably best she’d walked out of the bar last weekend and not come back.

So why did he still feel so bloody disappointed?

“You there, mate?”

Craig jolted out his reverie at his friend’s voice. “Sorry. Still waking up.”

“So I’ve to tell Audrey you’re not coming? Have you got an excuse I can use? Because if I tell her I told you about Natasha she’ll be pissed off at me.”

He thought of the text he just got. “Tell her my mum’s going on a date this evening and I promised I’d be on call if she needed me to come get her. Plus I’m working at eight. Not really enough time for a proper dinner date, is it?”

“So your mum’s really going to do this Internet-dating malarkey, then?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Well, hope it goes alright, bud. I’ll let you go.”

“Speak to you later.”

They hung up and Craig reluctantly got out of bed to face what was left of the day.

*   *   *

“You’re checking your phone more than Jo does.”

Craig glanced at his colleague Alistair. It was back to the usual Friday team of Craig, Alistair, and Joss. “My mum is on a date. I said I’d come get her if she needed me.”

Alistair grimaced. “A date? Your mum?”

He groaned. “A date.”

“That’s fucking awful, mate.”

“Ugh.” Joss strode by them. “You men need to grow up. Mothers have sex lives too. How do you think you were born?”

“Like Jesus,” Alistair said straight-faced. “And no other fucker is telling me different.”

“I’m telling you different.” Joss poured rum into the glass she was holding and grinned evilly at him. “Your mothers had hot sweaty sex with your fathers . . . and better yet . . . they loved it.”

Craig thought of the vomit he had to clean up in the men’s bathroom last week because the cleaner had called in sick that night. It did the job of pushing out the imagery Joss was trying to plant in their brains.

“You’re a sick lady, Joss.” Alistair tutted. “A mean, sick, sick lady.”

She laughed at them and wandered back down the bar to her customer.

The bar wasn’t bouncing yet since it was still early on in the night, giving Craig plenty of free time to glance at his phone every five seconds.

He was busy staring at his phone when he heard Alistair ask a customer what he could get them.

“A glass of Fuligni, please.”

Craig’s head jerked up at the voice and he felt this overwhelming lightness in his chest at the sight of Rain sitting at the bar. “I’ll get it, Alistair,” he said automatically, and Rain’s gaze flicked uneasily to him.

He didn’t blame her, he supposed. She’d made it clear she wasn’t up for a one-night stand. Surprisingly that hadn’t put him off. He wanted to know why she was coming to the club every weekend. He wanted to know who she was looking for and what she was up to.

He wanted to talk to her. She was singular in that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so eager to be around a specific someone.

Alistair raised an eyebrow at him.

Craig shrugged. “I know her.”

“Right.” Alistair grinned and drifted off down the bar, probably to gossip with Joss. He was worse than a woman sometimes.

Trying to act casual when he felt anything but, Craig set about getting Rain her glass of wine. He caught her eyes as he turned back to her, and held her stare as he placed the glass down on the bar in front of her.

She lowered her long lashes, hiding her gorgeous big dark eyes from him.

Fuck, but she was beautiful.

His eyes drifted over her. Her hair was styled in much the same way as before but tonight she was wearing a forties-style dress that was a pinky-purple color. This dress showed more cleavage and she wore a silver necklace with an elaborate key as a pendant that nestled invitingly between said cleavage.

His eyes drifted up as a hot blood rushed to his dick.

Her full mouth was painted the same color as her dress.

He’d never wanted to kiss someone so badly.

Rain’s gaze was still on her glass so she hadn’t read the thoughts he was sure were clear in his eyes. And he wanted her to. He wanted her to know just how goddamn stunning he thought she was, even if she did think his opinion meant nothing.

“How have you been?” He leaned against the bar and her fruity-floral perfume drifted over him, making him want to nuzzle her neck to find the point of origin.