But I don’t have to see it.
I can feel her intense gaze sweeping over me.
Taking me in.
Assessing me.
Analyzing every little move I make.
I reach for the new beer the bartender brought me, willing the tremble in my hand to go away, and take a long sip of the cool liquid, hoping that it might calm my libido and my racing heart.
Because damn…
I never thought getting taken down like that by a woman could be so fucking hot, but with her—good God—I almost came in my pants the second I realized who was straddling me and wrenching on my arm.
The pain she inflicted only made me harder and more interested in the woman I should be avoiding, who made it very clear she doesn’t trust me and isn’t interested in anything I have to offer.
Except maybe my exit from the club and her life.
Which would be better for both of us.
I sense her approach, my entire body stiffening in anticipation, and the stool next to me scrapes against the floor before she takes a seat on it.
It’s a true struggle fighting the grin that pulls at my lips.
She didn’t walk away…
Maybe she couldn’t.
The same way I can’t seem to stay away from the club—or her.
She motions toward the bartender for something, and he brings over what appears to be soda water with lime for her. Slender dark fingers with short nails painted a deep red wrap around the glass, but she doesn’t take a sip, peeking at me out of the corner of her eye. “This isn’t your first time here.”
I slowly turn my head toward her.
It wasn’t a question.
She noticed me the other night, too. I wasn’t merely imagining her intense gaze on me, and that should make me want to leave even more than the attention that’s already been drawn to me tonight.
But that jasmine scent wraps around me with her this close and prevents me from moving.
“No”—I shake my head—“it isn’t.”
Her fingers drum against the glass lightly, matching the beat of the music thumping through the speakers. “You were here a few nights ago.”
I nod. “I was. That was my first time.”
She raises a dark brow. “How’d you find us?”
Fate…
Good. Bad. Or otherwise.
Fate seems to have brought me to this place at this time, knowing she would be here.
I allow the grin to spread across my lips. “I asked around for the best club in New Orleans, and I was told that The Hawkeye Club was the only place to go.”
She nods slowly, her head tilting slightly, as if she isn’t quite sure she’s buying my explanation and might be able to see the truth if she looks at it from a different angle, even though I deliver it as smoothly and confidently as possible.
