“You sure you want another?”
“Yes please, I’m fine. I danced it all away.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything other thanfine,” I say, filling a wine glass halfway up.
I spin around when music starts playing, a deep eleven wrinkling my forehead. Bianca’s still on the kitchen island, my phone in hand, eyes cast downward.
“No one told you that stealing is a bad thing?” I trade her a glass of wine for my phone.
“You gave me your jacket,” she reminds me. “The phone was in your pocket, so it’s not stealing.”
“How did you unlock it?”
Another small smile curves her lips, not half as cute as the other. This one is more calculated, more measured.
“You’re very careful aboutmysecurity, but not your own. I saw you tap out the pin at least a dozen times. I’d have to be particularly dumb not to memorize it. Worried I might’ve seen something I wasn’t supposed to?”
Save for at least a dozen pictures of her saved to my camera roll, there’s nothing important there. My sensitive data is stored on a secure server, the password twenty-four characters long, a combination of numbers, letters, and punctuation marks.
She wouldn’t memorize it even if I spelled it out.
There’s another one to get into the remote connection I use for the apps running on my laptop.
“You can dig through the whole thing for all I care.” I lean against the cupboard opposite the kitchen island.
It’s a struggle not to let my gaze wander, not to trace the shape of her body instead of meeting her gaze. The swell of her breasts might have gotten me addicted. Just like her waist dipping in the most sinful way before her hips curve.
“Had fun tonight?” she asks, ghosting her lips over the rim of her wine glass like she did back atScarlett.
It’s as if she has a front-row seat into my thoughts, as if she knows that move sends my pulse into overdrive.
Fun? No, Winter, I most definitely did not have fun.
I wasn’t far off ordering Arthur to hold me back while she danced with that blond guy. During those ten minutes, I planned a thousand ways to kill him. Each more painful than the last as I watched his hands grope her body. When he dipped his face into the crook of her neck, kissing her skin, I wasthisfucking close to grabbing my gun.
“I do this every weekend, Winter. It gets old. You, on the other hand, looked like you enjoyed the evening.”
She shrugs, taking a silent moment to drape her brown hair over one shoulder. “Can I ask you a question?”
“You just did.”
“What’s your flavor, Ryder? Men? Women? Both?”
Now it’s my turn to cock a brow. “I didn’t realize there was room for doubt.”
“I don’t like assuming, and after you completely ignored me earlier, I started wondering. So? What is it?”
“When have I ignored you?”
“After you zipped up my dress.” She taps the wine glass twice, brushing her index finger along the rim. “When I said there was a time and place forhot, Iwas coming on to you. Don’t tell me you’re so clueless you didn’t realize.”
I’m not that clueless. But I’m surprised she brought it up. Women don’t usually admit their failures.
“Women.” I answer her question. It’s safer than getting into the other topic.
Bianca slides off the counter, bare feet touching cold tiles. She’s a touch shaky as she sips her wine, holding my eyes hostage. Her dark lashes cast shadows over her pink cheeks, adding a few points to how hot she looks.
Uncertainty shadows her features, barely a hint of it. If I hadn’t paid so much attention to her expressions over the past week, I wouldn’t know it, but I’ve spent every waking minute in her flower shop, studying her face.
