Her friend’s eyes zip between the two of us as we hold each other's stare; Myles never looks away from her, completely taken despite her not having said a word.
Reaching my hand out but keeping my focus on Jade, I introduce myself to her friend. “Hi, I’m Tieran. This is Myles.” I finally look at her and then nod my head in his direction.
Her friend turns to greet mine, grasping his palm in hers, her breath catching. “Hi,” she stutters out.
“Hey…” His voice trails off in question.
“Aanya,” she supplies.
“Beautiful,” he whispers, and she flushes scarlet.
They’re still holding hands, and now it’s our eyespinging back and forth between our two friends. If love at first sight exists, I’d say I’m witnessing it right now.
“I’m going to go get a drink. Aanya, do you want to come?” Jade says, trying to break the trance they seem to be in.
“Nope. But I’ll take a Negroni.” She sits in the empty seat next to Myles, leaning against the table.
Jade snorts and turns on her heels to walk back toward the bar. I watch as her hips sway in the tiny dress clinging to the curve of her arse, hypnotizing me into standing and trailing after her.
When she gets to the bar, she wheedles her way through a crowd of people, fighting for a spot at the front. At least five different men are leering at her, some of them working to press in closer, before I walk up, shoving them away with a push of my hand and settling in behind her, too close to be casual.
I lean into her ear. “You’re about to incite a brawl, Hellfire.” Gooseflesh dances across the skin around her neck.
“Alert the media,” she drawls sarcastically. “Men always do stupid things when they think with their dicks instead of their brains.”
I laugh, and my breath coasts across her skin, making her fidget in place.
The barkeep is frantically flying back and forth, oscillating between taking orders, making drinks, and cashing people out. It’s going to be impossible to get their attention with all these people around.
Or so I thought, because not a minute later, she leans forward just as the man handling the bar is walking by, gives him a friendly smile that strikes me a little dumb from a side view, and he stops dead in his tracks, walking over to her.
“What do ya need, gorgeous?” He throws the towel he uses to wipe down the bar over his shoulder.
“Can I please get a Negroni and a Mojito,” she ordersbefore glancing back at me. “Did you or Myles want another?”
The man tending the bar doesn’t pull his eyes off her, resolutely ignoring everyone trying to get his attention. I can’t even blame him; she’s all I can look at too. But right now, she’s looking at me, and I feel like a lucky bastard for it.
“Another Fuller’s and an Old Fashioned.” I set forty quid down on the bar top. “Thanks, mate.”
He’s still looking at Jade, and I have to resist the urge to wrap my arm around her waist and pull her into me, a move that would surely earn me a jab to my solar plexus. Tonight is the closest she’s even come to acknowledging our tryst; no way in hell she’d react well to me touching her. I wouldn’t do that without some sort of sign from her that it’s what she wants, no matter how much my fingers are itching to reach out and stroke her silk-covered hip.
He shifts away to make our drinks, and Jade turns in place to face me, leaning lightly against the bar, the movement making the scent of warm vanilla with a hint of bourbon drift over, and my head goes light and my cock stirs from the memory of the last time she was this close.
The King’s Swan is getting progressively busier as the night wears on and the hour creeps closer to the live entertainment starting. The crowd is bustling, pushing at my back as I hold my place to make sure Jade has room.
“You following me then?”
She raises a perfectly arched brow at me. “Excuse me?”
I list off on my fingers. “First the pub, then the team, then the market, and now back to the pub. That’s a lot of coincidences.”
“One could argueyou’refollowingme.”
“I would follow you,” my voice pitches lower. “On hands and knees if you told me to.” I stare down at her, knowing I’ve said too much but unable to take it back now that the words are out there.
“Don’t.”
Her eyes blaze—in anger or arousal, I don’t know, but the skin on her neck flushes pink, begging for my mouth.
