Page 35 of Made for You
And if I hadn’t become familiar with the typical female responses to Kieran, I would’ve laughed at the way her gaze hung on him and her mouth stayed open, like it’d lost its way home.
“Yeah. Kieran’s the most piratey, but Gem…” Kenny’s voice faded out as his own gaze snagged on the female bartender. Kieran had a dark-haired, dark-eyed look that made him appear a little rough. His lighter skin and Gem’s dark arms were both tattooed intricately… really, Gem’s standing next to Kieran gave her the pirate vibe, but Kenny had nicknamed them after hearing my friend Dahlia Wallace mention that Kieran’s romance hero trope was pirate.
“It’s busy tonight. I wasn’t trying to rush them. I was gone for, what, five minutes total?” I said, pushing back against Kenny’s attempt to make it seem like I was lingering.
“Whatever, Jaws. I know where your head’s at.” Kenny’s ensuing wide-mouthed smile and wink had me this close to shoving him off his stool.
But as the evening wore on, I did nothing to dissuade them from their suspicions that I had my mind on Nikki. I couldn’t, because there she was, front and center. So when she, Catherine, Dove, Jo, and Elise wandered over, all giggly, every atom of my existence stood on alert.
“Well, hello, ladies,” Kenny said, because of course he did.
Catherine smiled and blushed instantly, and the other three giggled. But Nikki sidled right up to the table and stood next to me, the curve of her hip against my side. This effectively lit me on fire internally, not unlike how it feels to dump quick-clot powder into a wound. The burn, the heat… and yet none of it wrong or painful like the battlefield medical tool. No warning signs or flashing awareness of how this would hamper my efforts to complete a mission.
Nothing but a pure kind of pleasure-pain that made me grit my teeth to keep from tracing the belt around the edge of her jeans and tucking my thumb into the waist at the other side, close and proprietary.
I wouldn’t do that, because she wasn’t mine to touch, even if that flare of wanting made it feel like she should be. Even if her nearness made it feel like she wanted to be.
Then her eyes were on me, those long lashes blinking in at a lazy clip that unlocked the riddle—her inhibitions were lowered. Maybe not all that much, but more than they’d been an hour ago when we’d talked. Enough that she didn’t mind leaning into me, or staring into my eyes without breaking, a little longer than she ever had before.
“Hi,” she said, so quietly no one else heard it over Kenny’s questions for the others.
“Hey. You feeling okay?” My arm did what I’d wanted to for a while now and made contact, my hand sliding to her lower back. I’d touched her there before, so it seemed okay. It wasn’t possessive—not exactly. And everyone at the table already knew I liked her.
Her teeth caught her lower lip, eyes still on mine, and flames licked through me. The intensity in her gaze, the lazy calculations happening inside that mind, captivated me.
One corner of her mouth pulled up into a little grin I’d never seen before.
“I’m good. You?”
“Very good. How are you getting home?”
Her brow furrowed a touch. “I’d planned to drive, but then I had two beers on an empty stomach, so, probably not.”
“I’ll take you.”
“No, you don’t have to do that. I can—I’ll call a rideshare.” Her gaze shifted around, and her cheeks flagged with a blush.
The look I gave her spoke for me, and she huffed silently as I stood. Without breaking eye contact, I asked, “Ready?”
Her lips parted, but Kenny interjected before she could speak. “You leaving, Nikki? You and your girls don’t want to pull up a chair?”
My gaze shifted to him, and I’ll admit, I glared at him. Because the instant I’d offered, the desire to be the one to take her home clutched at me, and there was no going back. To have her in my car, in my space, and to deliver her safely had become a mission I’d assigned myself and would certainly not fail.
“These two have to get up early, and Bruce offered to give me a ride, so I’m at his mercy.” She glanced at me, then smiled at the table.
“Have a good night, then. Drive safe, Jaws.” The taunting lilt in his voice would’ve made me roll my eyes if he hadn’t followed up with more. “And ladies? Always a pleasure.”
I could’ve sworn his eyes lingered on Elise, but then he winked at me just to piss me off, and I urged Nikki to follow after her friends.
“Be good!” he yelled as I exited, my own cheeks heating as I held the door for them.
Normally, I wouldn’t be affected by their razzing, but they’d touched a nerve. Not by harassing me—they were idiots, though they were also supporting me in their own weird way. It wasn’t their commentary that bothered me.
It was the brutally vivid imagination I had and one that revealed that, when alone with Nikki, I had absolutely no desire tobe good.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Nikki
