“No, it’s my...” He frowned as if confused so I answered, “third.”
“Right.” He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “It’s my third...and it’s my last, mother.” After a quick scowl to Ten, he asked me, “You want another?”
“Mmm. Okay. Uno más.” I slid my empty toward Ten, who shook his head.
“Huh?” Ten only blinked. “What the hell does uno más mean?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s Spanish. Means one more. Por favor. But this should be my last drink, too. I’ll probably end up driving Jodi home...if she hasn’t already left with someone else.” But when I glanced around for her, I was surprised to find her still hanging around Galloway and his table full of women.
“You know, I took like two years of Spanish in high school,” Asher said from beside me. “And I learned jack shit.”
I turned back to him and was blasted with a fresh wave of lust. Damn, but he was too pretty. And those green, green eyes...so frigging intense.
“Well, my entire family is from México, so I grew up with plenty of people who don’t know anything but Espa?ol,” I explained. “It’s pretty common for me.”
“Really? Huh. I never would’ve guessed that about you. You seem so...American.”
I arched an eyebrow. “I am American. Born and raised right here in Illinois.”
“I mean...” He rolled out a hand and his eyes flared as if he was worried he’d offended me.
“My dad was American,” I explained. “But since I don’t remember him and grew up with my mom’s side of the family raising me, yeah, you could say my heritage is very deeply embedded in all things Latino. I probably fell in love with the type of music I did because to me, it was so much more exotic and exciting than what I was used to my family always listening to. Plus, it was kind of fun to be the rebel in the group.”
With a laugh, Asher nodded. “That makes sense.” He opened his mouth to say more but two girls approached, one sliding up right against his side and running her fingers along his chest. “Hey, you’re Asher Hart, aren’t you? We loved your performance tonight.”
The smile he sent her was friendly enough as he said, “Thanks,” but then he leaned away, obviously uncomfortable with her proximity.
I couldn’t keep my narrowed gaze off her red painted fingernails as they kept traveling lower and lower down his chest and over his stomach, steadily making their way toward his lap. “You have the most amazing voice ever.”
He caught her wrist before she could get a handful of little Asher but still managed a tense smile. “Glad you liked it.”
“Hey! You two.” Noel pointed at the two women and waved them off. “This is a VIP area. You need to move along.”
The women huffed out their displeasure but Noel narrowed his eyes, and they finally slunk away. As soon as he was relieved of the girl’s grasp, Asher spun on his stool so he was no longer sitting sideways to face me but now had his legs tucked securely under the counter space...so no more women could climb into his lap.
“Thanks, man,” he told Noel.
“Aww...anything for our delicate little cupcake.” Noel went to pinch his cheeks, but Asher slapped his hand away and called him a dirty name.
As Noel moved off, laughing, a blushing Asher slanted a glance my way. “Sorry about that. They can get really...forward.”
Again, he surprised me. Fisher would’ve already been all over those two girls—a very sad fact I hadn’t learned until after I was engaged to the douchebag. Yeah, it’d been kind of downer to hear he’d slept with a new girl pretty much every time he’d gone out into public without me.
I took a small sip of my beer as I studied Asher’s face, watching him glance over his shoulder at the ladies Noel had shooed away. His expression confused me. I saw the flicker of interest; he definitely didn’t mind what he saw. But there was also a wariness that didn’t mesh with his initial attraction to them.
“And...you don’t like forward?” I couldn’t help but ask.
He zipped his gaze to me, his green eyes filled with surprise. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know. I just...” He shifted his shoulders again. “I guess I just like to be the one pursuing, you know.” With one last glance at the women he’d rebuffed, he added, “And I haven’t had the chance to do that in a while.”
“I can imagine.” I’d definitely experienced the same draw to him every other female tonight had. He was probably constantly chased by a horny mob.
Shifting closer, he lowered his voice and admitted, “It’s embarrassing as fuck. They all crowd around me as if I’m something, I don’t know, amazing, and they don’t know jack shit about me. I’m just a regular guy, and I can’t help but think they’d only be disappointed if they really got to know me.”