“I don’t think so. He should ask Teresa.” When he scowled, I started to explain. “She’s great. Nice and knows how to be… nice,” I repeated, because I was suddenly starting to feel… nervous around the biker. I made a face. “I’m not the girl you want,” I blurted and felt myself turn red from head to freaking toe.I’m not the girl you want?!I wanted a freaking hole to appear and suck me up.
“You’re not?” His head tilted slightly as the beautiful, lush lips of his started to twitch with a disgustingly handsome smirk.
“I mean, I’m not the girl Stone wants?—“
“Excuse me? He better not.” He strode toward me.
Who the hell was I kidding? The man didn’t stride! He might swagger, but in that particular moment as I stared up at him like some deer caught in headlights, he stalked. Like a predatory jungle cat about to pounce. And like a stupid, weak-kneed gazelle, I would let him because I was too mesmerized by how stupidly handsome he was.
The moment his body was right in front of me, his hand, ever so slowly, rose between us, like he was giving me the opportunity to duck away. But I didn’t, too enchanted and taken in by his green eyes and the way his pupils darkened and grew. His hand made contact with my face, the tips of his fingers soft. Utterly way too warm but crazily comforting.
“I, umm…” My eyes shut. “I didn’t meanwantwant me, like in my pants.” I winced. I was making it so much worse. “I just meant for that position.”
“I have a position for you,” he rasped, and my eyes opened.
“What?” I said, the lust clearing from my foggy head.
“I mean?—“
“Right.” I stepped back, confused and a little icked by him.
I shook my head and breathed in the scent of the room and whatever cologne or after shave Griffin wore. It filled my lungs and made me want to bury my face into the crook of his neck to get a better whiff even after the stupid thing he’d just said that made him just like every other guy out there.
He was a player. That much was evident. He would be fun and more than likely, judging by the bulge he tried to subtly adjust earlier, more than ruin me for anyone else. I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to take the chance.
“I have to head up to the clubhouse. Thanks for hanging out with me,” I said as politely as I could manage. I wanted to push the guy down a flight of stairs as much as I wanted to kiss him.
“What?”
“I have to head up to the clubhouse,” I repeated.
“Why?” he brusquely asked. I stopped and stared at him. Maybe Griffin had used the fact I technically worked for him and the club as an excuse? Maybe he had a girlfriend, or worse, a wife and kids up there? Not that I had ever seen kids living there, but maybe he had a home off the casino’s property. I knew a couple of the guys did.
“Because Mary isn’t here, and she’s usually the one who takes care of things up there mid-week.”
“She is?” I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve never seen her up there.”
“Well, that’s our job,” I huffed, ready to leave and hating the idea of not knowing when I’d see him again. It had only been three days since he’d dropped me off and turned me down, but it felt longer.
“Your job?”
“Yeah, you know, to blend in. Get things done and not be noticed. Discreet.” It was a bitchy thing for me to say. Remind him of what an ass he’d been a couple of days ago just because he had turned me down.
He had done the right thing.
It would be too messy to hook up with one of the Steel Sinners. I’d seen it one too many times. New girls, young, with hearts in their eyes or after some kind of man with money, thinking some big, strong biker would toss them onto the back of their bike and claim them as their own, inevitably changing their lives and living happily ever after.
It usually only ended up in heartbreak and drama with that girl looking for a new job.
Hell no.
I didn’t need a man to make a mess of my life. I liked my life. It was quiet, and I was content.But he could definitely scratch an itch if you let him,a little voice in my head whispered. Touch-deprived. That was my problem. It had been too long.
“Marty—“ His phone rang, and he made a face. “I have to take this.” This was it. The last time I’d see him. I’d worked here for three years; I knew it was possible to avoid one another.