Then in walked Reid Hayes, all cockiness and swagger.I had heard of him and his brothers.They each had a reputation.Aside from the Carters, they were legends around our end.
An old friend had hooked up with Reid once, and afterwards, she became obsessed with him.I would spend time flipping through my phone whilst she banged on about him.I never understood how a man could enthral someone that much—until he sat down on the stool next to me.
A day’s growth shadowed his jaw.He had a bit of dirt on his cheek and had clearly been grafting hard at work because he still had sweat beading at his temples and work attire on.But I didn’t care.Because when he shot that smirk in my direction, I became the blithering idiot my friend had been after he returned one of her calls.
If I believed in love at first sight, I would have called it that.
He was a work of art.Literally.He was covered in tattoos, and I wanted to trace every single one of them.
Then he leaned over the bar to get the bartender’s attention, and seeing the veins bulge on the inside of his arms, I became hot and bothered.I’m pretty sure I moaned.
We talked.
We flirted.
And then...
I close my eyes, not wanting to go back there.Going through it once nearly made me die of embarrassment.
“Get lost, Reid,” I snap.
“You know him?”Liza questions as they move around the hot tub to get a better look at me.
“You know me?”he asks, his eyes squinting down at me.
“Unfortunately,” I mutter, ignoring Freya’s gaze on the side of my face.
She doesn’t know what happened either, and I trust her with everything.And I know not knowing is killing her, especially right now.
He cocks his leg up on the step used to get in the hot tub and leans in, his muscles flexing.
I will not look.
Fuck, I looked.
His grin is cocky, sure, when he glances down at me.“I’m pretty sure I’d remember a pretty face like yours.”
I die inside with embarrassment.“Yeah, you would think that,” I retort, tilting my head.“Now go away.You’re killing the energy.”
He chuckles.“Nobody says energy anymore.”
I hold my breath.That’s what he said the first time I met him too.I had told him I didn’t care that my ex had broken up with me publicly because I wasn’t feeling the energy with him anyway.He had laughed and teased me over my choice of words.
I arch an eyebrow.“Clearly they do,” I respond, repeating the same line I said to him years ago.
His eyebrows pucker together before he shakes himself out of it.“No, seriously though, where do I know you from?”
I shrug.“Does it matter?”
His mum, clearly used to this reaction, sighs.“Reid, why don’t you go and find some food.”
“I’m good right where I am,” he replies, but his eyes never leave mine.Or they don’t until they wander down to my chest, where my cleavage floats above the water.“Damn shame it’s warm in there.”
“Reid,” Liza hisses.“Behave!”
“I will when she tells me where she knows me from,” he taunts.
I groan, knowing he won’t go until I tell him or someone forcefully removes him.“How much will it take to get you to leave?”I ask.
