Chapter 15
Phoenix
She’d let her guard slip for just a moment.
Told me about Riley and what a loser father he was.
How he hadn’t been there for Braden. Her voice was shaking before she snapped the wall back into place.
I should be happy she put her walls back up because mine were crumbling from the broken tone of her voice, from the way the love for her son dripped from her every word.
If she’d looked at me one second longer, if she’d let the silence stretch between us, I might’ve told her things I hadn’t said out loud in years.
I might’ve admitted I wanted to take her problems on, carry some of that impossible weight she refused to set down.
Instead, she squared her shoulders, tossed me a cool thanks for dinner, and that was the end of it.
It was for the best. At least that was what I told myself all night as I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling until I drifted off into a restless sleep.
By the time I walked into the brewery the next morning, I already felt wrung out.
Dominic spotted me first, grinning from ear to ear as he polished the bar top. “Well, look who’s finally smiling these days.”
I was scowling, so I didn’t know what he was talking about. “Not smiling.”
“Sure, you’re not,” he muttered, sharing a knowing glance with Cooper, who was lugging in a crate of bottles.
Cooper smirked as he set it down. “So, did you two have a cozy night then? She settle in all right?”
I slammed a stack of invoices on the bar harder than I needed to. “We’re not talking about my night.”
That shut them up for a minute. But every time I glanced toward the door, like maybe I’d catch sight of Elyna walking in, both of them caught me. Smiles twitching, eyebrows raised, their amusement at my expense was thick in the air.
The whole shift went like that. Me trying to focus on work while last night’s dinner filtered through my mind. It wasn’t just her vulnerability I couldn’t stop thinking of, but the way her nipples pressed against the thin cotton of her shirt.
She wasn’t on the schedule today and I was thankful, until Dominic mentioned she was coming in to cover a shift for another server.
“Why? Who is going to watch Braden?” My voice came out clipped.
Dominic’s lips tilted at the corner, amused at my expense. “Relax, boss. Luc, her younger brother is watching the boy every afternoon. He’s been working the a.m. shift for Eric in the orchards.”
“And how do you know all this?” I asked, wondering how Dominic knew everything about her.
“She doesn’t need Angela’s help anymore with babysitting. That brother of hers is a good guy,” Dominic stated.
“Luc is a good guy,” I confirmed. Bean was head over heels for him and she didn’t love easily, so it was a testament to the man he was. And the fact he was stepping up and helping Elyna said a lot.
“I could tell,” Dominic said. “Speaking of which. . .” His gaze drifted to the front entrance as Elyna walked through the door. Our eyes locked across the room. Just a glance, no more than a second. But it knocked the air right out of me.
She looked different. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, cheeks pink from the hot air outside, her smile faint but real as she greeted Dominic. And me? I stood rooted, invoices in my hands like an idiot, pulse thudding like I’d just run a sprint.
Cooper caught it instantly. “Blimey, you’re transparent,” he muttered under his breath, grinning like the devil.
I ignored him, but Dominic wasn’t any better. “Stop staring,” he whispered as Elyna went to the back and put on an apron.
I turned away, focusing on the stack of numbers in front of me, but every sound she made cut through me. The shuffle of her shoes on the wood floor, the quiet laugh she gave one of the customers.
The whole time, I felt her glance brushing over me, the same way mine kept darting to her without permission. A back-and-forth we weren’t acknowledging but couldn’t seem to stop.
By mid-shift I was on edge, wound so tight I snapped at Cooper for stacking crates too close to the cooler door. He just smirked. “You’ll have to do better than that, mate. Your problem isn’t the bloody crates.”
I muttered a curse, retreating to the stockroom before I said something worse. Because the truth was, he was right. My problem wasn’t the crates or the invoices or the brewery. My problem was Elyna Chabot moving through my space like she belonged here, making me feel like I was unraveling.
By closing time, most of the staff had cleared out, laughter fading down the street as the door shut behind them. But Elyna stayed behind, wiping down tables.
I told myself to keep busy, to mind my own business, but somehow we both ended up in the back hall near the stockroom at the same time. I rounded the corner just as she stepped out, and we collided shoulder to chest, her hand catching my arm for balance.
The air shifted.
For a second we just stared. Her lips parted and she took a quick intake of breath that did nothing to steady me.
My gaze dropped to her lips. I couldn’t help it; the soft curve of her mouth made my mouth water.
It felt like every instinct I’d ever buried clawed its way up, fierce and demanding.
Neither of us moved. She was too close. This was too dangerous.
The hum of the walk-in cooler filled the silence.
“Sorry,” she whispered but she didn’t step back.
My chest rose sharp. I should’ve apologized too, but instead I found myself leaning like there was a magnetic pull drawing me to her. Her eyes flicked to mine, wide, searching. And then something inside me tethered to any ounce of restraint and control I had shattered.
Our lips crashed together, hard and hungry, years of unspoken words and buried tension exploding in the space of a heartbeat. She tasted like heat and defiance, and when her fingers curled into my shirt, pulling me closer, I didn’t fight it any longer.
The world narrowed as her breath, her touch, and the way she pressed against me like we were both starving consumed my entire being.
Her mouth opened under mine, soft and demanding. I groaned into the kiss. The sound came from somewhere low in my chest. My hands found her waist, fingers digging into the curve of her hips like I needed proof she was real, here, and pressed against me.
She arched closer to me, her full breasts brushing against my chest, and that simple contact sent a spark down my spine. My back hit the wall before I realized I’d stumbled us both there, her body flush against me, her palms sliding up my chest and around my neck.
“Phoenix…” she whispered against my lips, half a warning, half a plea.
I swallowed it, kissed her harder, teeth grazing her bottom lip before I sucked it into my mouth. She gasped, nails scraping the back of my neck, and it nearly undid me. She was everything I ever fantasized. Sweet and sexy, fire and spice.
Every barrier I’d built, every wall I’d bricked up inside myself, burned away with the taste of her.
She wasn’t some girl from the past anymore, or the woman who constantly picked fights with me.
She was Elyna, warm and fierce, stubborn Elyna.
And I wanted her more than I’d wanted anything in years.
My hand slid up her side under the thin cotton of her shirt.
I felt the heat of her skin, the quick rise and fall of her ribs beneath my fingers.
She shivered and her lips parted as if she might stop this, but when our eyes met, hers were dark with the same hunger that was tearing its way through me.
I kissed her again, but this time it was deeper, rougher.
Like we’d been putting it off for too long.
Her body fit perfectly against mine. And for the first time in forever, I didn’t give a damn about consequences.
Her kiss turned reckless and greedy as my hands roamed over her hips, down her waist, to the curve of her ass as she pressed harder into me.
Every soft sound she made just wound me tighter.
“Elyna…” I rasped against her lips, but she only pulled me deeper, her tongue sliding against mine like she was done pretending she didn’t want this too.
My hand slipped lower, beneath the hem of her shirt, rough fingertips skating over smooth skin. She shuddered her hips, tilting into my touch, and before I knew it my knuckles were brushing the damp heat between her thighs through her panties.
“Phoenix. . .” she gasped, her nails clutching my shoulders.
I shouldn’t be touching her like this. Where was my self-control? Her hips rocked into my hand, seeking and desperate, and any logic or control I had flew out the window. My fingers shifted her panties to the side, and I pressed my finger, grazing her clit.
Her lips parted as she moaned. “Please… don’t stop.”
She was begging me. The sound went straight to my spine, and I swallowed her cry with my mouth as I slid my finger between her folds, pumping inside her tight pussy while my thumb drew circles over her nub. She came apart trembling against me like a firecracker exploding in my arms.
She sagged against my chest, and I could feel her heartbeat wild against mine. Her breathing was fast and hot against my neck. I held her close enjoying the feel of her body against mine. I was dizzy with the taste of her, but I’d just crossed a line I couldn’t uncross.
And then the door creaked open.
“Bloody hell.”
Cooper’s voice.
I jerked my head toward him, every muscle in my body seizing. He stood frozen in the doorway, a set of keys dangling from his fingers, his eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.
Elyna went stiff against me, then shoved away like I’d burned her. “I-I have to go,” she stammered, tugging at her shirt and bolting down the hall without meeting my eyes.
The silence left in her wake felt heavier than stone.
Cooper blinked. “Well,” he said slowly, “that explains a lot.”
I dragged a hand down my face, my pulse still thrumming. “Not a word, Coop.”
His lips twitched like he was fighting a smile. I wanted to be annoyed with him, but my head was spinning over what I had just done. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
But the damage was already done.