Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Britta
The bar still smelled like smoke.
Not as strong as it had been a few days ago, not thick and choking like it had been the night everything went to hell, but it lingered. It clung to the walls, the floor, the wood behind the bar like a reminder that nothing about this place was the same anymore.
Kind of like me.
I wiped down the counter slower than I needed to, dragging the rag across the same clean spot twice while my mind went in circles. Things had been… off between Swift and me, and I couldn’t decide if it was my fault or not.
He’d pulled back.
Not completely. He was still there. Still watching me. Still hovering just enough that I knew if I tripped, breathed wrong, or blinked too slowly, he’d be at my side in a second.
But something had shifted. Something quiet. Something that made the air between us feel tighter than before.
Maybe I’d pushed too far, and maybe I’d crossed a line when I told him change didn’t seem so scary anymore.
Maybe… I blew out a breath and dropped the rag onto the counter. “Stop it,” I muttered to myself.
Tempi glanced up from where she was restocking bottles. “Stop what?”
“Overthinking everything,” I said.
She smirked. “Good luck with that.”
Before I could respond, she pointed toward the back. “I’m running to the bathroom. Don’t burn the place down while I’m gone.”
“No promises,” I called after her. The door swung shut behind her, leaving just me and him.
I didn’t have to look to know where Swift was; I could feel him. He was by the wall near the edge of the bar, watching everything like always.
Watching me.
I swallowed and grabbed the rag again, pretending like I was suddenly very invested in cleaning. “I’m gonna go get the cleanser from the storeroom,” I called.
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
I could feel his attention follow me as I turned and headed toward the back.
The storeroom was a disaster. Boxes stacked everywhere. Bottles shoved onto shelves wherever they fit. Things that had been pulled from the main bar during repairs now crammed into every available inch of space.
I stepped carefully around a crate and scanned the shelves.
“Where the hell…” I muttered.
Then I saw it on the top shelf. Of course it was.
I sighed and stepped closer, stretching up onto my toes and reaching for it.
Almost there, just a little more.
“What the hell are you doing?”
I gasped. The voice came out of nowhere, sharp, right behind me, and it startled me enough that my balance went completely off.
My foot slipped, my shoulder twinged, and suddenly I was falling, but I didn’t hit the ground. Strong arms caught me mid-drop, hauling me back against something solid and warm before I could even process what was happening. My breath left me in a rush.
And when I looked up, it was Swift.
His face was right there, close to mine.
Too close.
His eyes were dark, stormy, locked on mine like he was trying to make sure I was still in one piece. For a split second, I thought it was anger, but then I saw it.
The way his chest rose a little too fast. The way his grip on me was just a little too tight.
His pulse was racing, and so was mine.
“You caught me,” I whispered.
His jaw tightened. “You think I’d let you hit the ground, sugar?”
I shook my head slightly. “No.”
“Damn right,” he muttered.
I swallowed. “Thank you.”
Neither of us moved.
His arms were still around me. Mine were… somewhere between braced against his chest and gripping his shirt without me remembering deciding to do that.
Everything felt still.
“Swift,” I whispered.
His eyes dropped to my lips, then back to my eyes.
“You should run away from me, sugar,” he said, voice low and rough.
I shook my head. No hesitation. No doubt.
“Last chance,” he murmured, leaning in just a fraction.
My heart slammed against my ribs. “Kiss me, Swift.”
That was it.
That was all it took.
I saw it happen. Saw the exact second his restraint snapped.
His mouth was on mine before I could take another breath.
Hot and demanding. Not gentle, not hesitant, and not careful in the way he had been before.
His hand came up to the side of my face, fingers threading into my hair, tilting my head just enough to deepen the kiss. My fingers tightened in his shirt as my body melted into his, heat rushing through me so fast it made my head spin.
I felt it everywhere.
The pull.
The heat.
The way his body pressed into mine like he couldn’t get close enough.
Like he didn’t want to.
My lips parted under his, and the kiss deepened, slow and consuming, like he was taking his time even though everything about it felt like it was right on the edge of losing control.
My heart pounded so hard I was sure he could feel it.
I didn’t care.
I didn’t care about anything except the way he felt, the way he tasted, the way every nerve in my body lit up the second he touched me.
His grip tightened slightly, pulling me closer, and I made a soft sound against his mouth before I could stop it.
That seemed to snap something in him again.
The kiss turned sharper. Hungrier. Like all that control he’d been holding onto had finally broken loose.
And God, it was everything.
Everything I hadn’t been ready for before.
Everything I wanted now.
We pulled apart slowly, like neither of us really wanted to. Like we weren’t done.
I was breathing hard, and our foreheads were almost touching, with our eyes locked.
“Britta?” Tempi’s voice cut through everything.
Reality crashed back in hard.
“Uh—I’m just getting… something!” I called, not taking my eyes off him.
“Britta,” Swift whispered.
I shook my head. No. Not now. Not if he was about to ruin that. I stepped out of his arms before he could say anything else.
If he apologized, if he acted like that hadn’t just been…
Yeah, no. I wasn’t surviving that.
I turned, grabbed the cleanser off the shelf, and headed for the door.
His hand closed gently around my arm. “Britta.”
I looked at him, and there it was.
That flicker.
That hesitation.
That regret trying to creep in.
“I need to get back out there, Swift,” I said, keeping my voice steady even though my chest still felt like it was on fire.
He let go, just like that, and I didn’t wait.
I walked out of the storeroom and back into the bar, forcing myself to move like nothing had just happened.
Like my world hadn’t tilted on its axis.
Tempi glanced at me. Then at the cleanser, then back at me. Her eyes narrowed just slightly. But she didn’t say anything.
Thank God.
I went right back to wiping down the bar, my movements just a little too precise, a little too careful.
I was trying not to think.
Trying not to feel.
Trying not to replay every second of that kiss in my head.
It didn’t work.
Not even a little.
A few seconds later, Swift walked out of the back, and if I hadn’t known better, if I hadn’t just been in his arms, I would’ve thought nothing had happened at all.
He looked exactly the same.
Calm.
Controlled.
Like that kiss hadn’t rocked his world the way it had mine.
I swallowed and focused on the bar in front of me. On the rag in my hand. On anything that wasn’t the man ten feet away from me.
Because I had no idea what he was thinking.
Maybe I should have been terrified of the change.