When she looked toward the table again, Owen was gone. Trying not to let that bother her too much, she returned to her usual tables with a spring in her step. Taking this job was the best idea she’d had in alongtime.
5
OWEN
The weekend flew by, and Owen was busy nearly every minute of it. He had another shipment coming up soon, and he needed to be ready. That meant making more plans on top of his normal responsibilities. The organization was big, with a lot of business dealings - both legal and illegal - and he oversaw it all.
It could get a bit overwhelming at times, but there was nothing he could do about it other than focus his attention where it was needed.
Sitting in his office, he stared at a paper of numbers that Declan had dropped off earlier in the evening. It was a rundown of the profits from the gambling ring. He liked to keep a close eye on the money there because it was easy for people to get greedy and try to skim a little off the top. Wasn’t that exactly what he’d caught the bartender doing just last week?
But everything looked good on the report from Declan. The gambling ring was one of the organization’s most consistent money-makers. It was all because Connor had a brilliant idea two years ago to start a high-stakes poker game with a half a million as the buy-in. Owen had been reluctant, but it turned out that rich assholes liked to feel like they were being risky with their money. It gave them a rush or something, and it lined his pockets.
Glancing at the time on his phone, Owen put the report away and stood up. It was just after ten at night, and he had developed a new habit of going downstairs around this time every night. At least, he’d done for for three nights in a row now.
Stepping into the dining room, he saw that there were still four tables occupied by diners, even though the restaurant stopped serving food at ten on weeknights. The rest of the patrons were sitting at the bar, but it wasn’t too busy yet.
Owen’s eyes landed on Ruby as he approached the bar and took a seat on a bar stool at the end, nowhere near where anyone else was sitting. She looked great tonight, with her shoulder length blonde hair down in waves and red lipstick that he’d never seen her wear before.
Not that I’m obsessed enough to notice the woman’s makeup every day.
But then she saw him and flashed her bright smile his way, and he knew that he was lying to himself. This woman had gotten right under his skin, and he couldn’t help noticing just about everything about her.
Reaching behind her, she grabbed his favorite scotch and poured him a measure into a glass before coming over.
“Hey, Owen,” she said, and he thought back to when she’d called him Mr. Walsh. That had been almost cute, but he preferred this. He liked that she was comfortable with him. “How are you tonight?”
She asked him the same thing every night. He knew it was nothing more than an innocently friendly question, but he wished he could answer it honestly.
My day was stressful because I’m planning the best way to ensure the fucking Italians don’t get their hands on my drug shipment in a couple of days.
“I’m good,” he said, accepting the glass from her. Their fingertips brushed, and he felt like a sap for the thrilling excitement he felt at the contact. He took a sip of the alcohol before speaking again. “What about you?”
“I’m really good. I found a birthday present for my friend at the place you recommended I check out.”
“I told you Joe would hook you up.”
Ruby had told him yesterday that she was trying to track down the first edition of a book for her friend’s upcoming birthday. He got an unprecedented burst of pleasure from knowing that he’d helped her, even if he’d just done something as simple as giving her the name of a man that ran an independent bookstore that might have what she needed.
This was the reason that he’d developed the habit of coming down here in the evenings. He liked to sit here at the bar for a half an hour or so, have a couple of drinks, and talk to Ruby. He still thought of her as a ray of sunshine, and he liked to bask in it. She was always chatty, but he still didn’t know much about her.
He knew he shouldn’t care about that. It was one thing to be attracted to her, but this interest he had in her as a person was something he’d never experienced before. Usually, when he wanted a woman, he took her to bed a couple of times and moved on. It didn’t mean anything. It was just a way to satisfy his needs.
Ruby was different. He was drawn to her in a way that he couldn’t understand but was helpless to deny. It was a bad idea to get too close. Not only was he her boss, but they came from different worlds. She’d never accept him if she found out who he really was.
So, he could get to know her, but he couldn’t let this go beyond that, no matter how much he wanted to strip her out of that uniform and lavish every inch of her body with his tongue. Just the thought of it made his cock grow heavy in his pants. He wanted to hear her cry out his name in ecstasy.
Owen took a long pull from the glass of scotch and tried to push those thoughts out of his mind. He already knew that sex with Ruby wouldn’t be like his casual flings in the past. He was pretty damn sure that once he got a taste, he’d never let her go.
She had moved down the bar to help someone else, but she came back to him a minute later.
“You want another?” she asked when she saw that he’d nearly drained his glass. He drank it too fast to distract himself from wanting her so badly, and he could already feel it going to his head, but he nodded anyway.
“Where did you work before this?” he asked as she opened the bottle of scotch again.
He already knew the answer, of course. His curiosity about her had him seeking her employee file on her second day of work. He’d seen her resume and the forms she filled out when she started. But that was all facts and information she chose to share professionally. He wanted to know more.
“In a little cafe in Toka Hills. Have you heard of it?”
