‘I’m afraid it’s just you and me tonight,’ Cal revealed. ‘Kitty fell and twisted her ankle on the way in and I can’t get anyone else. To say I’m annoyed is an understatement, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Except apologise to you. It’s going to be a full-on night.’
That’s it?Bea thought.A busy night on the bar with Cal Butler didn’t sound bad at all. There might be some awkwardness after last week, but they would probably be so busy that it wouldn’t be noticeable.
‘Not a problem at all. I’d rather be busy.’
‘I’ll make sure you’re well compensated.’
Bea imagined the perfect compensation: Cal wrapped around her, naked, huskily divulging his deepest desires into her ear in that rich Scottish accent. She nearly said, ‘I look forward to it,’ but stopped herself in time and issued her body with a strict reminder that Cal was her boss and not interested in such indulgences. More was the pity.
Chapter 23
Cal
Cal was holding it together. He’d spent the week since his kiss with Bea congratulating himself on his professionalism and for doing the right thing by stopping things from going any further. Telling himself that this was why he’d come so far in the business world, because he knew that muddling his personal life into his professional life made for a dangerous cocktail.
But as soon as he saw Bea, Cal realised it would be a tough night. And not only on account of Kitty’s absence, but because watching Bea walk through the door of the bar, fresh as a spring morning in a silk blouse, the early evening light catching her porcelain skin and making it more luminous than ever, he was struck sideways by how much he still wanted her. Out of sight was almost out of mind, if you put your mind to it, but when this woman was in his sight she did nothing but take over his mind. At her mere presence, sweat prickled at the back of Cal’s neck. And when she stepped behind the bar, her intoxicating, spicy floral scent made his body ache in places that were entirely inconvenient when working.
Bea seemed fine, though. She was acting as if nothing had happened. ‘Okay, boss, let’s do this thing,’ she said, before approaching her first customer of the evening. Cal knew this meant that she was assuming the role of employee and recognising him as her employer. That was good; he liked being a boss, enjoyed being in charge. He wasn’t a dictator, but he’d built the company up from scratch and believed that acknowledgement of his being at the helm was fair recompense for all the hard work he’d put in over the years. However, none other of his employees addressed him as ‘boss’. Just Bea. And it drove him to distraction. Instead of perfectly delineating the professional boundaries, it blurred them by stirring his longing for her even more. Yes, he was her boss. Yes, he was in charge. And he wanted to be in charge of all of her.
Serving together was like an intricate dance. It wasn’t the first time Cal and Bea had worked the bar alone together, but it was the first time since their kiss and that memory lingered like the scent of an exotic trailing plant. If the memory were a dance, it was one where they both kept getting the moves wrong as their hands kept meeting or overlapping throughout the evening. Bea moved to the till at the same time as Cal, brushed his knuckles as they both went to serve the same customer. And Cal was perplexed as to why he’d done this, but when he’d noticed that Bea had something caught in her hair, he told her and then reached to retrieve it at the same time as she had.
‘Sorry,’ he said before turning back to serve the customers, some of whom were watching intently at the obvious chemistry being played out in front of them by the two bartenders.
‘Not a problem, boss.’ Bea appeared to be far more in control of her reaction to said boss than he to her.
Since the bar was heaving with customers, Cal tried to focus on the crowds. Security on the door could take control of rowdy behaviour, but, as people jostled to get served, there could be things happening that the bouncers might not see.
Tonight, thankfully, the patrons behaved themselves. It meant Cal had time to notice Bea leaning over the bar talking to a male customer. There was something about it that caught his attention. It was normal to lean in to hear what someone wanted to drink, but this interaction was more intimate: the prolonged focus on each other, the almost touching, the fact that when Cal trained his ear he heard the words, ‘Deleted, number, phone’.Who is this guy?
The question burned at Cal as he continued to work. The man hadn’t ordered a drink. Instead, he and Bea had exchanged a few more words and he’d said, ‘See you next week.’
‘Friend of yours?’ Cal asked, after the man had left.
‘What? Oh, that’s Craig,’ Bea said breezily. ‘He and I went for dinner during the week. He lost my number, so he was popping in to let me know.’
‘I see.’ Cal kept his response short, but thoughts were darting round his brain.Bea went for dinner with this Craig guy? Who is he? How does she know him? He clearly likes her since he’s come into the bar to get her number.Although Cal wasn’t buying the losing the number act. The guy was marking his territory. Did Bea like him? From the way she’d leaned her ear close towards his it was his guess that she did.
Cal poured drinks with less care than usual. He got a couple of orders wrong and even made Bea jump when he pushed the till drawer in with too much vigour.
‘You okay, boss?’ she asked.
‘I’m fine, aye. You know, you don’t have tokeep calling me boss. Cal is fine.’ Suddenly Cal loathed the boss–employee divide between him and Bea. There was no such partition between her and Craig and he was taking her to dinner. And who knew where else?
‘Okay, Cal it is,’ Bea said. ‘You okay, Cal?’ This was even more intimate, and Cal’s gut lurched as the boss–employee interaction took on a new dynamic. She was asking how he was? How did he even answer that?I hate the idea of you with other men? Probably best keep that to yourself.
‘Aye. Let’s get rid of these customers, shall we?’ Cal nodded to the crowd on the other side of the bar. Ordinarily he didn’t mind a busy bar and thrived on the relentlessness of it, but tonight, after the appearance of Craig, he wanted them all to go away. He wanted to be alone with Bea. Needed to be alone with her. He’d made a huge mistake turning her down after their kiss, and he had to know if there was any going back from it.
Chapter 24
Bea
‘So, you’re dating?’ Cal asked once the bar was closed, and they were cleaning up.
‘Well,’ said Bea. ‘Craig took me to dinner.’
‘You have a good time?’
Bea couldn’t work out if Cal was being an interested employer or curious for other reasons. She briskly tidied away clean glasses. ‘It was lovely, thanks.’
