“What did you think we were talking about?” I held his gaze as long as I could without cracking a smile. He didn’t know that I was the master of being deliberately evasive, so I’d known exactly how he’d take my double entendre.It was a little payback for staying away this week. God, I was such a mess.
Preston blinked at me before narrowing his eyes. Leaning forward, I matched his movements until we were only a few inches apart. “You asshole. You know exactly what we were talking about. And it wasn’t my building.”
I threw my head back and laughed. When I could look at him, I leaned back toward him. “You were building something down south, weren’t you? Thinking about what I said about the bar…”
Preston’s pupils swallowed up his now dark chocolate irises just the way I wanted to swallow him. But I had to remind myself that this was a job first and foremost, and I’d almost been successful until his big hand wrapped around my neck and pulled my lips to his.
Lost. I was just lost in his kiss as his tongue explored my mouth and sucked on my tongue. It might as well have been my cock, because if he kept it up, I’d make a mess in my jeans.Untouched.
Throats clearing and clapping broke the spell he’d used on me. Pulling away quickly, I wiped away the saliva Preston left behind as I looked over to find Alejandro and Ben grinning at us.
“Oh, fuck,” I hissed. “Look what you made me do.” I furiously began to wipe down the counter while willing my cock to deflate. I tried to remember what Christian said one night about how he deflated quickly when Alex’s kids were around.
Preston laughed as Alejandro walked behind the bar to face him. “Why are you distracting my bartender like that?”
He smirked at his best friend as he reclined on the bar stool. “Because I can. And you fucked up my surprise.”
Shit, I’d forgotten all about his surprise. I furrowed my brow and turned my attention back to him again. When I looked at him now, everyone and everything dropped away. All I saw was him. And that was going to be a problem for my pants.
“What surprise?”
Preston sat back and stretched his long arm over the back of the barstool as he leveled me with another smoldering gaze that re-inflated my cock. “I’m taking you to New York, Nick. I want you to see firsthand the places I was telling you about so you can figure out the design.”
I stood with my mouth hanging open like some kind of fish out of water. When I was finally able to put words together, I replied as calmly as I could. “Preston, I don’t have to see them in person to figure it out.”
He stared into my eyes with some unspoken emotion as he spoke. “But it would be easier, wouldn’t it? You can’t see the flow of traffic and how the space is utilized from a photograph, Mr. Reed. You need to taste the food and experience the wine pairings. You need to see how the servers move in and around the dining area. How the kitchen is adjacent to the serving area, but not too close for patrons to have their dinner disturbed by the noise. We can’t do that from a picture. We need to experience that to make this work.”
I swear the man could sell water to whales. Big honking oceans, not those little kiddie pools.
When I continued to gape at him, his smile was undeniable. “We can’t see all that from Portland, Nicholas. We have to be in New York to see it.”
“I’ll go if he doesn’t want to go,” Ben added, suddenly making me aware that we were still in the bar.
“You can’t go,” Alejandro replied. “You have to stay here with me…and the bar.”
New York City. The week after Thanksgiving. Romantically decorated for the holidays. He was doing this on purpose.
I narrowed my gaze at him. “Can’t we wait until after Christmas to go? Seems like it wouldn’t be as crowded then.”
Preston sighed as he stared into my eyes, trying to look remorseful. “Sadly, no. Your proposal for your professor is due by the fifteenth of December, and I’ve closed the restaurant for the week to prepare for the holiday season. It’s the only time I can get away. And we need time to compose a detailed list of properties and make a choice here in Portland before the end of the year. For tax reasons, of course. So the sooner the better.”
He had me nailed left to right, andnotin the good way.
I looked over at Alejandro, who stood marveling at my… my… whatever, as he shot down every obstacle I threw his way. The truth was, I was dying to go to New York City. I just didn’t trust myself alone with him for five minutes during the most romantic time of the year. But it also looked like I didn’t have a choice.
Resigned to my plight, I looked at the devastatingly handsome man who had single-handedly rocked my world. “Fine. As long as the bar is covered.”
Preston glanced at his best friend, prompting me to check with him.
“Yeah, it’s fine, Nick. Like I said, I reworked the schedule. Ben here is going to be working long hours.”
Ben waggled his eyebrows at me and grinned. “You’re welcome.”
I dropped my head back and looked at the ceiling as the three of them ganged up on me. I appeared ungrateful for the opportunity I’d been given, and I needed to fix that immediately.
Looking over at where he was casually seated across the bar, I leaned in. Without taking his eyes off me, Preston wordlessly told Alejandro to go away with the wave of a hand. Thankfully, he took Ben with him. I didn’t want an audience for my apology.
“I apologize for appearing ungrateful for the opportunity. If I embarrassed you with my questions, I apologize. I’d love to go to New York with you. Just tell me when, so I can buy my ticket.”
