Well, that couldhave been a lot worse.
Normally, I wouldhave been shocked by how angry I felt all of a sudden. It was as if the two days of working with this asshole and thelast ten years of my lifehad suddenly joined together in a tsunami of pissed-offness that threatened to drown everything in the world. Normal Iris wouldhave and shouldhave just continued to ignore Dex Locke. Pretend like his words hadn't bothered me but that Iris was a victim of the tsunami, apparently.
He didn’t say anything for a long minute, an ink covered hand pulled at the sleeve of his crew neck shirt. His tight gray crewneck shirt. Guh. It seemed so friggin' unfair. It should be a standard that attractive men be just as nice on the inside as they were on the outside. But they weren’tand it sucked big time.
“Ritz?” he asked in a softer tone than I’d ever imagined hearing from him. The dry, bored tone seemed to be a staple in his vocal cord usage.
I groaned. “My name’s—“
“Ritz.”
“No,” I told him—well, his neck.
“Look at me,” he said but it sounded more like an order.
I didn’t want to, and I knew he knew it too.
“Babe, look at me,” he repeated the command, still in that lax, casual voice.
Slowly, like a snail making a long trek, I rolled my eyes over to his face, taking in the flawless bone structure staring back at me from over demon flesh incarnate.
When my eyes landed on his bluest of blues, he frowned. That handsome, angled face shifted in uncomfortable displeasure. Should it have been a surprise that a look that resembled guilt seemed so foreign to him? No. “Chill out, yeah?”
I forced that same look he'd copyrighted onto my face. Flat, plain, and emotionless. “Sure.”
He blinked. “You’re lyin’.”
I tried to take a step back. “Goodnight.”
Dex's hand whipped forward to grab the hem of my shirt, stopping me. “Ritz.” His tone was insistent.
“That’s not my name.”
He chose to ignore that. “Will you look at me?” he growled, exasperation dripping from his words. That soft voice disappearing in an instant.
I looked at him but felt a million miles away.
Dex cut the distance between us, towering over me. His brilliant eyes searched over my face, resting on my mouth for a brief moment before looping back up to my eyes. "Son already bitched me out."
I tugged on my arm. "Goodnight."
“Babe," he said, tugging on my button-down. "I got a bad temper and that was acrapday for me. I say shitty things when I'm pissed."
Sure, because it was that friggin’ easy. He had a shitty day so he could call me names behind my back. Right. Made total sense.Not.
Dick.
I just stared back at him.
“Just let it go, 'kay? It drives me fuckin' crazy you won't look me in the eye,” he breathed. "I don't do this awkward shit, babe."
“If I look at you from now on will you leave me alone?” I asked him in a whisper.
Something shuttered across his eyes. “You’re not gonna let this go?”
My chest flared with white hot anger. Getting fired would be better than quitting if I was standing up for myself,wouldn’t it? Sonny was my brother, he’d understand in a heartbeat if I explained. Then afterward, some kneecaps would be busted.
There was always the job at the damn strip club. Lord.
