“I’m gonna go restock the IPA in the back. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Ben nodded as he made a Moscow Mule for a cute girl at the bar. “Yeah, okay. No problem.”
Ben had seen the flirting between us for months, and how it had suddenly stopped. I never told him why. Just said it wasn’t like that between us. Not sure he believed me.
Without sparing another glance at Preston, I tossed my bar towel into the bin under the bar to weave my way through the tables to the back. I ran my hand down the front of my favorite Fallen Angel t-shirt that fit me like a glove to make sure it wasn’t damp from leaning over the bar. Right before I reached the hallway, the man I was avoiding called out to me.
“Hey, Nick.”
His warm, velvety voice poured over me before I stopped and turned to find the sexy man looking me over.
I smiled, even though he still made my heart race. “Hey, Preston. What can I do for you?”
There were all kinds of answers I’d once hoped for, but I tried to push them away. He stepped closer.
“Do you know where Alejandro is?”
I wanted to say ‘in his skin’ liked I’d done in middle school, but I stopped myself before I said something that stupid. I’d just go with snarky instead.
I gave him my standard non-flirty smile that I’d give any customer. “He’s usually back in his office. And unless he moved it during the Pub Crawl, it’s probably in the same place it was when you were back there last night.”
I was tired, and he brought out my sarcastic, smartass side for some reason. My guess was it kept me from saying something I’d really regret, like ‘why are you wasting my time again’.It was either sarcasm, or punching him.
Preston narrowed his deep chocolate eyes as a smirk crossed his beautiful mouth. He was trying so hard to glare at me, but I just put my hands on my hips and smirked right back. There was no way in hell I’d let him know how his glaring affected me or my dick.
Nodding, he rubbed his fingers across his unshaven jaw as he sized me up. “Yeah, well, it never hurts to ask. Who knows where the asshole could have wandered off to?”
I nodded, then tipped my head toward the back hallway, even though he knew exactly where Alejandro’s office was.
Before I could move away, Preston stepped into my personal space to close the distance between us. Placing his hands flat on the wall above my shoulders, the fucker leaned in, bringing his stubbled cheek millimeters from my face. I could feel the static current between his stubble and mine. When his right hand went to my hip, I fought an epic battle to stifle any reaction to his touch. In that moment, if he’d told me to come for him, my goddamn body would have complied.
My pulse sped up and my eyes closed as the smell of his woodsy cologne and warm cinnamon scented breath wreaked havoc on my senses as they danced along my nose, neck, and ear. “Maybe I just needed an excuse to talk to you again. It’s been a while. And I’ve missed it.”
Preston lingered for only a moment after dropping that bomb before pulling back. I opened my eyes and looked up into his dark brown irises as he stepped back, giving me room to breathe.
“Uhh…” I motioned over my shoulder to the stockroom. “I’ve gotta…” And that’s all the fucking words that would come out. I just blinked at him as he turned his sexy scowl on me, like there was more to say. But there wasn’t.
“We’ll talk later,” he murmured over his shoulder. There was no hint of a smirk or any teasing from him. He was serious. And I was conflicted. I wanted to tell him to fuck off, but that didn’t happen.
I stood there, in the middle of the floor, just blinking at him, trying to process the last ten seconds. Why would he want to talk to me? Was he done with her, and now he wanted my attention again?
Stunned, I didn’t know what to do with that new information, so I’d save that to overthink later. My brow furrowed as I made my way to the storeroom to do my job.
What I wanted and my reality were two different things. My life was full of work, my family, and school. I prided myself on being focused and didn’t have time to play games with Preston James, or to jerk off to thoughts of him in my dreams. No matter how much fun it might be.
So I pushed away my thoughts about the man who’d had my undivided attention until a month ago and focused on my job. I wasn’t going to think about how much I wished things could be different. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t turn off my attraction to him.
CHAPTER6
PRESTON
“Fucking smooth, asshole.”
As I strode toward the office, I cursed myself for how I’d handled that little interaction with the man I couldn’t get out of my head. There was something about Nick that made me nervous and drove me fucking crazy like no other person ever had. He was like a goddamn siren singing a song only I could hear to lure me in. He was under my skin and I hadn’t even touched him. Yet.
But things weren’t going the way I planned. I’d fucked up by waiting too long, and then there was Eliana. Now he wasn’t interested in me. No matter how many times I came into this bar on the pretense of seeing my friend, Nick continued to treat me like every other customer. Like tonight.
I sighed as I flopped onto the love seat in Alejandro’s office. My friend just looked up at me with raised brows, then smirked at me as he sat back in his big office chair.
