“Did your knight in shining armor say anything to you? Like, why he punched the guy?”
My skin warms at the memory.
“He said he’d done it because the guy touched me.”
“Touched you?” Those eyebrows are going to disappear if they reach any further into her hairline.
“Yes. So? He was just being a gentleman.”
She stares at me, her eyes narrowing. “That’s not the behavior of agentleman,” she frowns. “It does sound as though he’s a little too interested in your safety. Did you say anything back to him?”
“Yes. I said ‘you’ll get me fired’ and he said ‘you get fired when I say you get fired’ and I said ‘oh right, so you own this place?’ and then he snapped.”
“He snapped?”
I nod, afraid to recount his words out loud.
She tilts her head to one side. “Erin…”
I couldn’t blush any deeper but I don’t think there’s any getting away from telling her now. Plus, she might be able to help me make sense of it, seeing as it was totally inappropriate, untrue and utterly tied to the moment.
“He asked me if I knew what that kind of adrenaline does to a man’s dick…”
Mallorie’s mouth falls open and she grips her stomach like her womb might fall out if she’s not careful.
“He said, word for word, ‘It confuses the body so much that when it sees something it wants, it isprimedto get it. So, I suggest you step away from me now, before I order everyone the fuck out of this establishment, bend you over this bar, and make you come so hard you forget your own name.’”
I know those are his exact words because I have played them over and over about one thousand times since.
Now, Mallorie has always been a bit of a drama queen, but when she staggers backward, misses the thing she was aiming to hang onto, and falls flat on her ass, I know she’s genuinely floored. In more ways than one.
I wait patiently as her mouth opens and closes like a fish. I’m just relieved I’m not the only one stunned by the promise that fell from his lips that night.
“He really said that?” she asks, breathless.
“Yup.”
“A-and you? What did you say?”
I shrug, exasperated. “Nothing. He just stormed out and hasn’t been back to the bar since.”
She drops her gaze to the floor. “I didn’t think real men said things like that.”
Her lashes flick up again and her voice takes a devious turn. “Or maybe onlyrealmen do.”
Shaking my head, I pocket the keys and head for the door.
“It doesn’t matter. I doubt I’ll see him again. As soon as I get this payment from Gerard I’m quitting the bar. The late nights are killing me. I’ll… I don’t know… I’ll deliver sandwiches or something.”
“Honey—”
The warning in her voice makes me turn.
“Real or not, I don’t thinkanyman drops a comment like that with no intention of taking it any further.”
Something flutters in my stomach at the thought before I shut it down. I’m a forty-four-year-old single mom trying to earn a living so I can get out from under my mother’s roof. I simply don’t have the time, nor the patience, frankly, to entertain the thought of taking anything anywhere.
“I better go before the light disappears.” I throw her one last smile before I close the door. “Twenty beheaded corpses coming up.”
