“Yeah, but you were thinking it.”
“I was thinking that in high-octane sexual situations, it’s easy to get caught up in feelings,” Bailey corrected.“And you should be careful.”
Chloe shifted to stroke cream down her arms and rolled her eyes.“Yes, Mom.”
“Fine, I’ll shut up.When are you seeing them again?”
Chloe struggled to set her annoyance aside.Bailey was just looking out for her, after all.“My next night off, which I think is Sunday.”
Bailey dug back into the potato chips.“I’m going to need more details.”
Chloe smiled, annoyance gone.“I’ll take notes.”
“Recordings would be better,” Bailey suggested.“Video and audio.”
Chloe refused to laugh.“Absolutely not.”
“Spoilsport.”
* * * *
Her next night off was indeed Sunday, which meant she had to wait nearly a week before she could get naked with Knox and Jesse again.
She wasn’t sure she was going to make it.
It would have been easier if she didn’t have to see them on the days in between, and could just put the whole thing out of her mind and concentrate on tending bar and making jewelry, and only think about them at night with a fully charged vibrator.But they were in and out of the pub almost every day, or the apartment next door, and now that the ice had been broken, so to speak, the gloves were off.
If she’d thought Jesse was flirty before, it was nothing compared to now.The winks and the looks and the deliberate brush of his body against hers if they passed each other in the back hall were a maddening distraction, a tortuous game with no winner.And Knox, somehow, was worse.
He didn’t flirt like Jesse, didn’t rachet up the inuendo or invade her personal space.But his eyes glowed when he looked at her, with that hint of a smile curling his lips, and somehow it reminded her, even more than Jesse’s bold winks and sly words, of what it felt like to be spread out on that couch, coming her brains out with his face between her legs.
And Mo noticed.
“What’s wrong with you?”she asked on Friday night, her eyes on Chloe’s flushed face.
“Nothing,” Chloe said, polishing a glass that didn’t need polishing.
“You’re all flushed,” Mo pointed out, pitching her voice over the Friday night din.“You’re not getting sick, are you?”
“I was just in the kitchen, that’s all.”Chloe explained.She set the glass down, picked up another.“Carrie had me check the chili, so I was standing over the stove for a few minutes.”
It sounded better thanJesse caught me at the back door when I was taking out the trash and kissed the back of my neck, and now my panties need changing.
Mo’s eyes narrowed the same way Chloe’s mother’s did when she was about to say “I’m not buying that for a hot second, young lady”, but a shout from the end of the bar for another round saved her from having to answer any further awkward questions.
On Friday nights the pub had live music, which meant she stayed busy until closing, and it took an extra hour to make sure the bar was well stocked for the following day.She was half asleep by the time she dragged herself upstairs to her apartment, and it took her a moment to realize the yellow thing stuck to her front door was a piece of paper from a legal pad, folded in half.
She tugged it down, blinking away the gritty fatigue, and unfolded it.
Chloe,
We’ll be working next door tomorrow.Stop by and see us if you can?
Xoxo
Knox & Jesse
P.S.your neck is delicious—Jesse
