In the…in the best way.
Heat now filled her chest and cheeks. Good God. Since when had her body been so responsive toeye contact?
She cleared her throat audibly, happy when the bartender handed her the gin and tonic across the counter so that her hands had something to do. She took a quick sip. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Moreau do the same. He put the beer bottle to his lips and took a deep pull. As his Adam’s apple rose and fell, her grip on the glass tightened.
Anna was doing her residency at a facility specifically geared toward sports injuries. Every day, she was confronted with muscular men who shamelessly flirted with her. She was immune to good looks! At least, so she’d thought.
“You’re Lucas Moreau, aren’t you?” she asked in an unpleasantly hoarse voice, just to fill the silence. “The Hawks goalie.”
He didn’t react, apart from slowly letting the beer bottle sink back onto the counter.
“Well, I’m…” she continued.
“Anna,” he said calmly.
She opened her lips and a shiver ran down her spine. It had been just one word. Her name. But his voice… It was rough, as if he rarely used it, but at the same time, so soft and dark. It felt like black velvet wrapping around her shoulders.
“Yeah, that’s me,” she replied slowly.
He nodded. “I know.”
“How do you know my name? Do we know each other? I don’t think we’ve…” She broke off and her shoulders sagged. “Oh my God. Dax showed you a photo of me and warned you that I was coming, right? So that no one would even think of flirting with me.”
Moreau didn’t answer, but there was no need.
“Fantastic,” she said through her teeth and downed the rest of her gin and tonic in one gulp. Tonight was one ofthoseevenings. “The asshole gave me a de facto chastity belt!”
Moreau’s mouth moved toward a smile, but he remained silent.
“And none of you heroes flipped Dax the finger and explained to him that I’m an actual person, not his pet?”
“No,” the man next to her replied indifferently.
“Why not? Are you all afraid of him?”
Moreau only commented on that with a soft chuckle, followed by a shake of his head.
She sighed. For one thing, her brother was truly the worst, but also, Moreau’s laugh was sending tingles up the back of her neck. The bottom line was that she urgently needed another drink! She tapped on the counter to signal to the bartender that she wanted another gin.
“Sorry, but we’ve run out of gin, ma’am. We’ll probably have some inside at the main bar, but…um, should I get some more?” he asked hastily when he saw her dissatisfied expression.
“Yes. Two bottles would be best.”
The young man nodded and abruptly left the bar.
“He called me ‘ma’am,’ did you hear that?” she asked Moreau. “Women who get called ma’am can decide for themselves who they want to go to bed with, right?”
“That’s certainly one plus of being a ma’am,” the goalie replied dryly.
She suppressed a smile. “Exactly! And if I wanted to fuck around as much as you stupid hockey players, I could!”
He toasted her. “Thanks for that vote of confidence.”
Anna grimaced. “You know what I mean.”
He said nothing, and silence reigned again.
Anna wasn’t good with silence. In her youth, it had always been the calm before the storm. So she asked, “Aren’t you going to join the party?”
