Kat’s already halfway up the stairs, and she leans over the banister and waves her finger at me. “Make him sweat, Amelia.”
That’s so not what I expected her to say that I’m following her before I can stop myself. “What?”
She smirks and leads me up to the apartment and straight into a small kitchen with ancient, mismatched units. “My brother hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you all night. It’s hilarious. Are you leading him on, or are you really not interested?”
This is the kind of conversation you have with best friends and sisters, not a chick I’ve only known for a couple of hours. The irony isn’t lost on me. If I were still going through with my plans for payback, getting friendly with Kat would be a massive bonus.
I imagine a big pair of crossed fingers in my mind’s eye. “I’m really not interested in him.”
Kat pulls a couple of bottles of beer from the fridge and offers me one. My head’s already pounding, and I glance at the coffeemaker. She sighs and pours me a cup, and the prolonged silence grates on my nerves. Does she know I just lied?
She sits on the counter, her ankles crossed, and waits until I take a sip of the strong brew. How long’s it been standing in the carafe? All day by the taste of it.
“So you didn’t screw him in the cellar, then.” She’s matter-of-fact, as though she’s asked the same question a hundred times in the past.
She probably has.
“No, I didn’t.” I’m not lying this time, but I feel like I am, whether I’m blushing or not.
She takes a long swallow from her bottle, her gaze sweeping over me from head to foot. When she’s done, she rocks the bottle on her knee. “What happened then?”
“Nothing.” I stare her out because it’s the truth, even if in my head a whole lot ofsomethingwent on under the surface. “I don’t know why you think anything did. Unless of course that’s his M.O. with every girl who starts work here.”
She shrugs, but I’m not sure she believes me. “He has this rule about not fucking girls who work for him. I thought he’d broken it tonight. Shit, that would’ve been fun to ram down his throat.”
Well, that doesn’t quite fit with what Rex told me. Although I’m starting to think he got more than a few facts skewed. Gage might be a douche, but not in the way I was led to believe.
I decide I need to make things crystal clear. “In any case, I don’t date guys who are already seeing someone.”
Kat looks as though I’ve just said something funny. “I never mentioned dating. And Gage isn’tseeing anyonethe way you mean. Wow, you’re kind of adorable, aren’t you?”
It’s not a compliment, but I give her a stiff smile so she doesn’t guess I’m pissed off by her remark. It’s not that I believe in fairy tales, or think for one minute Gage is the type todate. But I do like a happy-ever-after, and while I don’t mind my sisters laughing at my romantic notions, there’s no way that extends to a virtual stranger.
If that isn’t bad enough, Gage strolls into the kitchen, and a little piece of me just about dies. Did he overhear our conversation? Shit, what exactly did I just say about him?
He glances from me to his sister, and there’s no way to tell from his face whether he thinks I’mkind of adorable,too.
“I don’t pay you to sit on your ass half the night, Kat.”
She slides off the counter, drops her bottle into the sink and gives her brother a sweet smile. “Just getting to know Amelia better while you were busy with Ruby.”
“I wasn’t—” He cuts himself off and shoots me a glance. I take another sip of the foul coffee to show him I don’t care what he was or wasn’t doing withRuby, and he lets out an impatient breath. “Kat, get back downstairs before Tod has a fucking heart attack. You”—he rounds on me when I place the cup on the counter—“stay right there.”
Kat struts from the room, but the look she slings over her shoulder at me before she pulls the door shut is triumphant. Did sheplanthis?
The kitchen’s a narrow galley, and it shrinks dramatically once Kat leaves and Gage takes a couple of paces toward me. I refuse to back up against the counter, so instead I cross my arms and give him my what-the-fuck-do-you-think-you’re-doing-invading-my-space glare.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t appear to understand my nonverbal demand for elbowroom.
He stops right in front of me, so close I can smell his intoxicating cologne, and the scent of leather and motorbikes and everything I’ve never wanted in a guy since I was thirteen years old invades my senses like a malignant drug.
His gaze roves over my face as though he’s searching for something. Has he somehow discovered the reason why I took this job?
Of course he hasn’t. I try and ignore my racing heart and clammy hands. Not even my sisters know. Rex said the fewer people who knew the truth the better, and I agreed.
“Everything all right?” He’s frowning as though he knows something’s wrong but can’t figure out what. If he thought for one second I was here to help bring his precious Bastards down, there’s no way he’d be asking questions. He would’ve thrown me against the wall already, with dire threats of God only knows what.
I wait a couple of seconds for my pulse to slow, but of course it doesn’t. Not with Gage all but devouring me with the heat from his body.Laterisnow, and there’s no mistaking that he’s abandoned his hands-off approach from the cellar.
