Chapter 7 #2
The question is simple, but the way he’s watching me isn’t.
“I’m fine,” I say a little too quickly.
His gaze lingers, but he doesn’t push.
Of course, he doesn’t. He never does.
Asking a question about me would be too personal. It would be crossing a line between boss and employee. And if it’s one thing he’s made clear, that’s something we’re certainly not doing.
The silence settles over us. I pick up my fork but put it down again before blowing out a breath. “There’s a bar in town, right?”
That gets his attention. Luke’s gaze sharpens, and his posture shifts. “Why do you ask?”
I ignore the question. “Tessa mentioned it.”
He was standing right there when Tessa and I were talking, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t paying any attention. It was pretty obvious he was only tolerating my existence in his house until the month was up. Why would he care about anything I was talking about?
“What’s it called?” I press when he still doesn’t say anything.
“You don’t want to go there.” He looks down at his plate and continues eating, but I don’t look away.
“I do,” I say with a certainty I didn’t feel a minute ago. Maybe it’s childish, but the best way to get me to do something is to tell me I can’t. Or in this case, that I don’t want to go.
He looks up then, and sets his fork down, picking up his napkin and wiping his mouth slowly before he speaks. “It’s called the Rusty Nail,” he says slowly. “But like I said, you don’t want to go there.”
The change in him is subtle, but it sends a ripple of awareness through me.
Somehow, it’s heavier. Even more controlled than usual.
“Why?” I ask, holding his gaze. “Because it’s loud? Or all the way down the mountain? I don’t mind. It might be nice to have a little change of scenery around?—”
“It’s not a place for a girl like you.”
My spine stiffens. His words are too similar to the things Barrett would say when he was trying to convince me not to join the corporate world after graduation and stay home like a good wife. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means the men who drink there don’t always understand the word no.” He pushes his chair back and crosses his arms over his massive chest, his eyes pinning me.
“And yet, you know the place well enough to warn me about it. How’s that?”
“I know enough.”
“That’s not an answer.”
His jaw tightens, and for a second, I don’t think he’s going to give me one. “Cal still spends time down there.”
“Cal?”
“One of mine.”
He says it like those three words will explain everything. They don’t.
“What exactly does Cal have to do with anything?”
“Enough that when he says the Rusty Nail is getting worse and rougher, I listen.”
A chill crawls over my arms. “So just because your friend thinks the bar is rough, I’m supposed to stay locked up on the mountain?”
“You’re supposed to be smart enough not to walk into a place full of men who’ll take one look at you and see easy prey.”
My face heats. “Prey?”
“You know damn well what I mean.”
“No,” I snap. “I don’t think I do.”
His mouth flattens, and he blows a breath out his nose. “Then let me make it clear. Cal can handle himself in that place. I can handle myself in that place. You can’t.”
The certainty in his voice pisses me off.
“I don't think that’s your decision to make.”
“To hell it isn’t.”
My temper flares, but it’s not just anger from being told what to do. It’s the way he’s looking at me like he’s already made the decision for me about what I can and cannot handle, like he knows me better than I know myself. And that is decidedly not true.
“That’s not how this works,” I say, pushing back from the table and getting to my feet. “I work for you. I certainly don’t belong to you.”
I take my half-finished dinner to the counter and stack the dishes next to the sink. Normally, I’d start washing up, but I’m not going to stay here a moment longer than I have to. Not if he thinks he can tell me what to do and control me as if I were his.
“You’re living under my roof,” he says from his chair at the table. When I turn, he still hasn’t moved, his dark eyes still watching me. “That makes it my business.”
“No,” I shoot back, setting my jaw. “It doesn’t. Not unless I’m on the clock.”
His jaw tightens, something dark flickering behind his eyes as he unfolds his massive frame from the chair and takes a step toward me.
“You don’t know what that place is like.”
"With a bravado I don’t feel, I toss my hair over my shoulder. “Well, I guess I’m about to find out.”
He stops, surprise registering on his features. “Now? You think you’re going to the Rusty Nail, now?”
“Why not?” I challenge, refusing to give ground as my pulse starts to race. It definitely hadn’t been my plan to head down the mountain in the dark, but now… “Seems like a good night.”
“There’s no way you’re?—”
“You can’t stop me.”
“To hell I can’t.”
The space between us feels smaller now, charged in a way that has nothing to do with me wanting to go to the bar and everything to do with the way he’s looking at me.
His gaze is focused. Intense and charged with electricity, like he’s forcing himself to hold back.
“Why?” He asks after a moment. “Why do you want to go to the bar so bad?”
I open my mouth and shut it again, unsure how to adequately explain that I need to find a man to…what exactly?
“That’s what I thought.”
The assumption in his voice is exactly what pushes me over the edge.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I snap. “And you most certainly don’t know what I want.”
“So tell me.” His voice is low and measured. “Because I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the conversation you had earlier with my daughter.”
So he was listening.
My heart is pounding now, my thoughts tumbling over each other, but instead of backing down, I step closer. “Feels like you already know.”
He shakes his head. “You have an ex,” he says. “And you think that by going to a bar rougher than any you could actually imagine, full of men who will eat you alive the moment you set foot inside, is going to help you get over him.”
I straighten my shoulders and puff up my chest, not wanting to admit that he’s mostly right, I correct him. “I don’t need to get over him.”
He cocks a brow.
“I don’t,” I insist. “It’s not like I’m all heartbroken and upset about it.” It’s the truth. “I’m just tired of feeling like an idiot for waiting for something that ultimately didn’t matter to him at all.”
His expression shifts, just a little, but it’s enough to make my chest tighten.
I take a deep breath and continue. “I just need to move on,” I say, working hard to keep my voice steady. “And get it over with already. It’s not like it’s a big, meaningful thing anyway. It's just?—”
"Lilly? What isn’t a big thing?”
Silence stretches for a beat, and I consider just closing my mouth and walking away. After all, he is my boss. I shouldn’t be telling him any of this. It’s way over the line.
“I just need to have sex and get it over with, okay? I was saving myself for my ex, and now I feel stupid and…it doesn’t matter. I just need to… never mind.”
My face is burning up with shame, but I don’t plan on sticking around to see what he thinks about my confession.
Luke
For a second, I don’t move.
Don’t breathe.
How could I after that?
I just need to have sex and get it over with.
Every muscle in my body locks down.
There is no fucking way.
The idea of Lilly walking into that bar with all those rough, dirty assholes drooling over her like a fresh piece of meat thrown into the cage…let alone letting some stranger put his filthy hands on her smooth, innocent skin, touching her, taking her?—
No.
No. Fucking. Way.
Something dark and possessive snaps tight in my chest.
When she turns away to grab her phone and head for the door, I know I’m about to cross a line, but there’s no stopping it.
Because there’s not a chance in hell that I’m going to stand by and let her walk into something she can’t take back.
Lilly
“Lilly.”
His voice follows me, low and full of warning.
I don’t stop him.
“Lilly,” he says again. “Stop.”
If anything, I move faster, my fingers already closing around the door handle as I pull the door open.
A heavy, strong hand pushes it shut and holds it closed.
I suck in a breath and turn to face him.
He’s standing so close, his arm caging me in. “Let me leave,” I say slowly.
“No.” His jaw is set as he shakes his head. “Not if you’re going down there looking for sex,” he says carefully. “It’s not safe. It’s not…”
“What?”
“It’s not right, Lilly. I can’t let you?—”
“What?” I tip my chin up, so I’m looking into his dark eyes. My heart is beating like crazy, my breath coming fast, but I can’t stop now. I’m in too deep. “You can’t let me what?”
He squeezes his eyes shut. Just for a moment, but when he opens them again, there’s indecision and something else I can’t quite read in his expression.
“I can’t let you do that.” His voice is rough and raw. “I can’t let you give away your…no. Not like this. Not to a…no.”
“Fine.” My throat tightens, but I force the words out anyway. “Then you do it.”
The words come out before I can stop them, but once they’re past my lips, I don’t regret them.
“What?” Luke’s brow furrows. “You want me to?—”
“Do it.” I hold his gaze. He swallows hard, but I can’t back down.
Not now. Not when every cell in my body is screaming yes.
This is exactly what I want. What I’ve wanted from the moment I saw him standing on his porch with those big, strong, very capable hands.
“If it matters so much to you…you be the one.”