I quirked an eyebrow. “I know perfectly well what your name is, Raf,” I said. “I just think my version suits you better.”
He tilted his head. “Why?” There was something breathless about his voice after I’d said his nickname. It was only one word, so I couldn’t be sure, but I thought maybe he was coming around to me using it, after all.
“Because it’s cute,” I said with a cheesy grin. Then I ducked my head and scratched the back of my neck. “And because it’s short and quick, and I know how much you love efficiency.”
He laughed, such an unexpected sound. It was light and free and utterly intoxicating. He glanced around the empty, dark parking lot, and back over his shoulder to the restaurant. Just once.
“Any regrets?” I couldn’t help but ask. He’d just walked away from a job I knew he cared a lot about, after all.
“Sure,” Rafael shrugged. “I regret that Grey is such an asshole. And I also regret not standing up for everyone in that kitchen and making a statement sooner. Then, maybe Beau might not have gotten hurt.”
I shook my head. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”
“Believe me,” Rafael said with a wry smile. “I am perfectly capable.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What are you going to do now?” I asked.
I meant it like, what are you going to do about your job? I expected him to tell me he was going to apply to local restaurants in the morning, or that he already had a hookup with a friend of a friend of a cousin who owned a place in the next city over, or that he was throwing it all in to go back to school.
I wasn’t expecting the gleam that came over his eyes at the words, or how his tongue flicked over his lower lip, drawing my gaze down that way.
“What areyougoing to do now?” he asked. The way he said it, the lust in his eyes, and that tongue on his lip all made the intentions of his question clear.
I felt like my brain was short-circuiting.
Rafael wasflirtingwith me.
No – not just flirting. He was… he was actually coming on to me, wasn’t he?
I looked him over and met his eyes. The question had changed. Notwhat are you going to do with your life?, butwhat are you doing tonight?.
“Well,” I said. “I figure I could see how the night goes.”
Rafael took a step closer to me. I hadn’t really noticed it before – despite all the time we’d spent in the kitchen, we’d only been inches away from each other that one time face-to-face in the walk-in, and I had been leaning over him, hunching my shoulders and bringing us to the same height. But he was a little shorter than me. Short enough that he had to tilt his head back just the tiniest amount to look me in the eye from this close.
“Are you gonna do that alone?” he asked. His voice was low and husky now.
I gulped.
“Nope,” I said.
And before I could blink, his arms were around my neck, his lips pressed against mine, the heat of his body warding the chill of the night away.
I relaxed into his touch and parted my lips, leaving the way clear for his tongue to sweep into my mouth. Along with it, Rafael swept away everything I had assumed about him – that I would need to take the lead, that I would set the pace, that it would be me pressing him up against a wall. Instead, he backed me up until I was leaning against my bike, his tongue vying with mine so hungrily that he was like a man who hadn’t eaten for a hundred years.
His hands dropped to my hips and gripped me tightly.
Maybe a thousand years.
My head swam under his touch. Everything around us faded away, swallowed by the blackness of the night despite the streetlights and the vibrant nightlife scene just feet away. Kissing him felt like the most urgent thing in the world. Like there was never going to be an opportunity after today. Like tomorrow wouldn’t exist.
A sudden fear gripped me that this was it; that his intention was to fuck once and then never see me again.
“Hey,” I started, breaking away for a moment, but Rafael shook his head and interrupted me.
“Just kiss me,” he ordered, and I found myself powerless to resist.
