His gaze jumped from my chest to my face. “Do that one more time for me, Alex.”
“Haha.” Demonstration completed, I sat back on the stool and consumed a healthy mouthful of my drink. I’d reached the fun stage of alcohol consumption. You know, when your body feels a little loose and sadly, so does your tongue.
“Thank you for calling me hot,” I said. Not meeting his eyes, because there was just no need to get all emotional.
“Thank you for noticing the women hitting on me.”
“Nine pairs of breasts versus one guy who wound up with ice on his crotch. Not much of a competition.” I popped the cherry into my mouth and started chewing. Sugary goodness. “I’d understand if you wanted to disappear with one of them. Or a set of them.”
Not that I’d like it.
He stopped, stared. “I’m a guy so it’s kind of hard to tune out breasts when they’re right there in front of me,” he said. “But if you think any other woman here tonight has my attention besides you, you’re an idiot. We’re hanging out together. That was the agreement.”
I blinked.
“Okay?”
“Relax, Joe. It’s not like I was jealous or something.” And I blinked again, my suddenly leaden tongue going nowhere. He did not mean that the way I thought (just for a moment) he meant it. But still. Whoa. His smile, holy shit. White teeth, pink lips, and golden beard. It nearly knocked me off my seat. There was definitely wobbling.
“Are you getting tipsy?” he asked.
“No.” I laughed. “I’m just slightly happily inebriated. Totally different.”
“Right.”
“I won’t get sloppy. Promise.”
“You can do what you like. It’s good to see you relax.” He leaned in closer. “Between you and me, you can be a little high strung sometimes.”
“Which is completely cool and super-desirable, thank you very much.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” The laughter in his eyes was beatific. Delightful. Much more of this and I’d write the guy a sonnet or something, sing him a love song. “I was just about to say that.”
“Just as well.” I fluffed up my hair. “I wouldn’t want to have to get rough with you.”
“Oh, I think I could handle you getting rough with me,” he said with a sexy-ass smile.
For one long loaded moment, we just looked at each other. Neither of us said anything, but mostly I was just confused. Then without another word he walked away to chat with Eric.
Motherfucker.
What was that? No, seriously. I hadn’t even begun to drink enough alcohol to deal with this sort of shit. The two brothers talked about whatever they had to talk about, then he turned back to me, rubbing his big hands together.
“We’re good to go,” he said. “Unless you wanted to stay a little longer?”
“No, no. Fine with me.”
Mind reeling, I climbed down off the stool and gathered my things. We waved goodbye to Lydia and Nell and so on as we wound our way through the maze of tables toward the door. Outside, the crescent moon was high, the stars bright and the air cold.
“Have an okay night?” he asked as we walked toward his truck.
“Yes.”
“Good.” He unlocked the passenger-side door and held it open for me.
“Thank you.” I climbed inside, the seat chilling my ass despite the layer of material supplied care of my pants.
“You’re welcome.”
In no time at all, we were cruising through the dark quiet streets of Coeur d’Alene, heading toward the hotel. The heat blasted, warming my hands and face. Which reminded me … “Nell said her place still had no heat.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s okay. I’ll crash on the lounge at home. Think I’ve pushed your hospitality far enough.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Sure you don’t want some privacy?”
“Nuh, I’m good. Keep me company.”
“All right.” He smiled.
I watched the streetlights cast shadows on the angle of his cheekbone, the furrow of his brow. Strange how his manly beauty had grown on me, redefining or rather stretching my usual boundaries. Perhaps some people’s allure came from the inside out. A good thing. Their ways and their words did the wooing instead of their physical appeal. Not to diss Joe’s impressive physique. As nice as a pretty face was, though, the personality, the person beneath the skin, should matter more. Anything else was pretty shallow and unlikely to last. Guess that was the difference between my scratching an itch with a stranger and the way this man had me tied up in knots. And not even neat, sea-worthy knots. I’m talking, haven’t washed or brushed your hair in forever and there’s a big old mess back there.
Shit.
At the bar, he’d flirted with me. Full-on flirted with me, his supposed platonic friend who was not his type. No way did I know what to do. Normally Valerie would be first on my hit list of people to call. But she’d just tell me to jump him, regardless of what else was going on, or any possible consequences. Plus, with him beside me it would be kind of uncool. But a couple of whisky sours or no, I was pretty certain I hadn’t imagined his interest.
As Mom had always said, however, best to be sure.
“What are the renovating plans for tomorrow?” I asked.
“Rip out the old fittings and prepare the space for new.”
I nodded. “So we’ll be doing some pounding and screwing?”
“Ah, yeah.” The man cast me a look out of the corner of his eye. “Sound okay?”
“Absolutely. Can’t wait to get my hands back on that big hard hammer.”
“Great,” he said, throwing me another questioning look.
I gave a nice bland smile.
Yeah, pal. Two could play at the what-the-fuck-is-going-on flirting game. I turned in my seat, all the better to face him. “Did you want to bang, Joe?”
“What did you say?” Wide eyes flashed my way.
“Like I did on that wall today. That was fun,” I said with all due sincerity. “Will we be doing more of that?”
A pause. “Sure.”
“Awesome.”
Another quizzical look.
“Something wrong?” I inquired politely.
“No.” His Adam’s apple dipped as he swallowed hard, shifting in his seat, gaze decidedly unsure. The poor fool couldn’t begin to understand the crazy he’d unleashed with his little taunt. Get rough with the man? My starved libido was well beyond the rough-and-tumble stage. No more hiding or denying, sticking to the sidelines of life. It was my time to step forward and be brave. When it came to Joe Collins, I was more than ready to say yes.
“I just…” he started. “Never mind.”
Neither of us spoke as he pulled into a parking space a short walk down from the hotel. I leaned over, placing my hand on his denim-covered thigh. The muscle tensed beneath my fingers. Shame on me for straying a little close to his loins.
“Thanks so much for tonight, Joe. I’m so glad we decided to be friends. Because you, sir, make a great friend.”
“Right. Good.” A frown. “How much did you have to drink again?”