“I have a deep appreciation for it.” Fuck it. I closed the distance between us, and Nicole’s breath caught as I slung my arms over her shoulders to cusp the back of her head. Her eyes sucked me in, and electricity rippled just under my skin as her softness pressed against my leather jacket. “You’re a piece of artwork, Nicole.”
“O-oh . . . th-thank you.” She was so hot, and calloused fingertips crept under my open jacket, almost as if she couldn’t help herself. “W-we should go inside . . .”
“I will, but first, I’m gonna be real with you, Nicole. I can’t stop thinkin’ about you and your perfect ass, and I gotta ask, was that ‘mistake’ last week an invitation, or a thank you?” Bewilderment masked Nicole’s expression, and a laugh escaped her that rattled each rib on its way to my groin. She immediately covered her mouth with one hand and waved hastily with the other, and I held my breath as she shook her head.
“It wasn’t a mistake. I did it on purpose.” Blushing at her own admission, Nicole cocked her head, and her smile made my heart thunder. “Sorry if I caused you trouble with your friends.”
“Why would you care about them? Are you a non-confrontational people pleaser?” Nodding miserably, Nicole screwed her nose before she noticed the smile that stretched my mouth. She really is captivating. My mouth dried at the thought, and I slung my arm down around her waist to hold her firmly against me. Her eyes flashed, and I inhaled a shallow, short breath before speaking up. “So, if you’ve got some time, I wanna go home with you, Nicole.”
Her jaw almost hit my sternum from the force of her surprise, and Nicole tinged bright red up to her ears. Hope blossomed in my chest, making it a little easier to breathe, but I tried to keep my eagerness off my face.
“U-ehm . . . I . . . o-okay . . . did you come all . . . all the way up here just to get in my pants?”
“No. I had to come up here for the bank, but I invited you out, hoping I’d be able to shove my face between your legs. Maybe I can get in you later,” I grinned broadly at her starstruck expression, tightening my arm around her waist. “So? Does brutal honesty get me some points?”
“L-let’s start with coffee . . . yeah?” The same red color covered her entire face and spanned down her neck, only making me smile as I opened the door for her. Little did I know just how interesting things would be.
Chapter Ten
Nicole
“So, what happened with that guy?” Popping the top off my coffee, I dumped a generous amount of sugar in it as Bruiser posed his questions. Scrunching up my face in residual embarrassment, my gut coiled in lingering mortification before I met his eyes. “He obviously proposed, and you dumped him. How long were you goin’ out?”
“Like, ten months. My sister’s new husband decked him, then my brother and my dad dragged him out. I was horrified. I left. I got the hell outta there. Jackie’s been blowing up my phone, but I can’t talk to her yet. I’m sure I’ll have to talk to her when she gets back from her honeymoon.” He frowned under tightly knit brows, propping his elbow on the table to hold his chin and stare at me intently. “Tom’s texted me a few times asking for a second chance. Then he had the audacity to ask for the ring back. My family’s ring . . . the nerve. What about you, Bruiser? What were you doing so far up on the mountain?”
“Ah, I had to go pick up my little cousin. He’s stayin’ with me in Margot for a bit. My uncle’s really . . . eccentric, and I guess Rook finally got sick of it.” My interest piqued, and Bruiser sat back to rub the back of his head with a little, sour chuckle. His muscles flexed his cut-off, patched up . . . jerkin’ . . . thing . . . tugging at the neckline of his shirt tantalizingly. “He’s nineteen. Bit of a shit, but who isn’t at that age?”
“I wasn’t. My sister got all the brazenness in the family. When I was nineteen, I was in college for the arts. Just the community program to see if I liked it., Thankfully, I realized pretty quickly I didn’t wanna pay tens of thousands of dollars for something I could Google. Did you go to college?” He nodded, and my brows rose. I couldn’t see Bruiser going to a university. A trade school, maybe? “For what?”
“Business Logistics and Analytic Consulting. I basically figure out how much money places can make or lose and how it all gets done. I graduated decently, but I burned out after a few years and decided to do something . . . a little more salacious.”
“Salacious? What do you do now?” I had never heard someone say their job was ‘salacious’ I had never heard that word at all, actually. Taking a sip of his brew, Bruiser grunted in acknowledgment as he set his cup on the table to flex his hand. The little scars there shimmered in the light, catching my eye, and I pursed my lips thinly in concentration.
“I gamble. I do a lot of racing, but I also go down to Vegas sometimes and play some roulette.” I could tell he was leaving some stuff out as he rubbed his knuckles absently, not realizing he was doing it. But, whatever. Bruiser must live up to his name. “Have you been to Vegas?”
“I was for my sister’s bachelorette party last year. I was babysitting Jackie’s drunk
