I was in the office when Harlow arrived for her shift that night. I knew she was here because Nash informed me after tailing her to the club; not because she came and saw me. She’d been pissy that I’d insisted on driving her home last night and I hadn’t enlightened her as to the reason why I’d wanted to do it so I presumed she was still shitty over that.
A couple of hours passed by before I left the office to go in search of her. Nash had kept watch while I finished up paperwork and other admin shit that had to be done. As I walked into the club area he nodded at me and left; apparently he had a chick waiting for him somewhere. I eyed Harlow and sucked in a breath at the sight of her. Christ, she looked fucking amazing tonight. The red dress was in place, her blonde hair was out and her face was flushed with a huge smile in place. She leant across the bar so she could hear what a customer was saying to her and when she threw her head back and laughed at whatever it was that he said, a shot of jealousy ran through me.
Fuck.
Some form of instinct took over and I stalked over to the bar. “Harlow,” I barked, and when she whipped her head around in surprise, I continued, “My office. Now.”
She raised her eyebrows but did as I said. I followed close behind, my eyes glued to her ass that was barely covered by the damn dress we made our Indigo girls wear. When we got to the office, she walked in, turned around and crossed her arms in front of her.
“What?” she snapped.
“How’s your shift going?”
“Surely you didn’t call me away from work to ask me that?”
Christ, what the hell was I doing?
I sighed and rubbed my chin. “Can we start over here? I’ve managed to piss you off without even fuckin’ meaning to.”
It took a moment but her gaze softened. “Okay.”
“Clean slate, yeah?”
Nodding, she said, “Yes, clean slate.” The tension had seeped out of her.
“Right, let’s start with the caveman allegations. Not completely true but, I’ve got reasons for everything I do. Your mother mentioned that you’d been screwed over before, and I respect you enough to not want to fuck with you. That was the only reason why I said it’d be a bad idea for us to sleep together. Not because I was taking the decision out of your hands. Fuck, trust me babe when I say that I want a taste of your pussy, but for once in my life I’m not being a selfish prick. As for driving you home, there’s some fuckers out there at that time of night and I wanted to make sure you got home okay.” I paused for a moment and moved so I was close enough to smell her scent that drove my dick wild. My voice dropped to a low rumble. “And as for Nash wanting a piece of your nice? That motherfucker isn’t getting close enough to you ever again. You read me, babe?”
Her chest rose and fell rapidly as her breathing picked up and a smile touched her face. “I read you. On all of it. Now, do you want me to get back to work?”
“Yeah, but that dress is gonna be a problem for me.”
“Ah, I hate to break it to you big boy, but it’s the only option.” She was grinning that sexy fucking grin at me that made me want to rip that fucking dress off here and now.
“Yeah, I know. I fucking know,” I muttered.
She laughed and it was the sweetest fucking sound. Jesus. Where were these thoughts coming from? I flicked my hand towards the door. “Go. And Harlow, I’m driving you home again tonight.”
She rolled her eyes, but simply said, “Yes, Scott.” And then she was gone and I was left wondering yet again, what the fuck I was doing.
Chapter 13
Harlow
I sat at a table and laid my head down, closing my eyes for a minute. After only four hours sleep, I was exhausted. Working at Indigo at night and here during the day was going to kill me eventually. Mum had told me not to come in until later but I knew she had cakes to make for orders so I didn’t want to leave her on her own to do that and serve customers. Thank goodness I had tonight off work from Indigo; me and my bed were going to get very cozy together.
“Harlow, wake up.” Someone was gently shaking my shoulders. I cocked one eye open and peered out to see who it was.
“Go away, Madison,” I grumbled, not really meaning it, “Your brother has worn me out and I need sleep.”
She smirked. “I knew he had a thing for you. How long you two been going at it?”
I snapped my head up. “Oh no, you misunderstood. Crap, I guess I did put it kinda like that, didn’t I? No, nothing’s happening between us -”
She cut me off. “Slow down, honey. Deep breath.”
I did as she suggested and took a very long, deep breath. “I’ve been working at Indigo the last two nights and the café during the days so I’m pretty tired. That’s all I meant.”
She dumped her bag on the table and sat across from me. “Yeah, I heard you were working at Indigo. I feel so out of the loop with all your news; I haven’t had time to come in for my coffee the last few days. Why did you take a job there and how did you know that Scott was looking for staff? I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all because you and Scott didn’t really hit it off at the barbeque.”
“You want a coffee for this?”