either.
He wasn’t hard on the eyes.
It didn’t hurt to look at him.
Not at all.
And since he seemed content to drink in a good gulp of her, she did the same for him. Standing at least six and a half feet tall behind the bar, he towered higher than even the shelves of liquor behind him. Strong lines made up a face that didn’t have a hint of boyishness anywhere—not in the scruff that dotted a jaw and cheeks carved from stone. He was all man, all over. A thick brow quirked up when her stare slammed back into his, and a sexy grin stretched his thin lips wide to show off the white teeth that made up his smile.
And God.
What a fucking smile it was.
“Well, have they?” he asked.
Gigi had enough sense to swallow before she spoke, lest her next words come out in a girlish rush of hormones and stupidity. It wasn’t often a man could make her tongue-tied, and certainly not by only his approach.
But here she was.
Suddenly, this celebration was looking way better.
“It’s not the first time I’ve heard that line, actually,” she replied.
A laugh burst from his mouth, and yes, she somehow managed to feel that sound all over her body. The noise of the bar began to disappear all around her as the good-looking bartender with a body that looked more suitable to be in the ring than behind the bar leaned in. Edging a bit closer to her, he used his free hand to toss a yellow-checkered bar rag over his broad shoulder.
The action had her swallowing.
Again.
Because she’d noticed his fingers. Their length, the roughness of the digits like he used them a lot, and then their proximity to her when he dared to point one at her.
“But the better question,” he said, “is whether you’ve ever actually been on a magazine, hmm? Something familiar about that face.”
“Really? Because everyone likes to say they’ve never seen one like it.”
Those blue eyes of his blinked.
Then, he smirked.
“Maybe that’s it—never seen anything like it.”
It also wasn’t the first time she had been told that line, either. Except there was something about the way he said it and how his tone dipped at the end. Like his gaze roving down her throat when his tongue peeked out to lick along the seam of his bottom lip.
“Hey, are you gonna get us a fucking drink or—”
The bartender held up one large hand to the left, his palm stopping all of two inches away from the face of a beefy guy leaning across the bar top. “I’m only mixing for front tables tonight—fuck off to the other side of the bar before I move you there.”
Gigi grinned.
He hadn’t taken his eyes off her.
“I’m Gigi,” she said.
He opened his mouth to reply, but the announcer standing at the DJ’s booth just a few feet away from the boxing ring stopped him from saying anything at all when the man’s voice filled the speaker. His attention drifted to the man as he straightened up to his full height, allowing him to easily stare over the crowd of people.
“Next fight—Lev Arsov versus Draven Kinley. Ten minutes to start—one ten-minute round. Betting begins now.”
His gaze came back to her, sharper and sexier than ever. This time, that grin of his was a little more sinful and tempting.
But also dangerous.
“Looks like I’m up next.”
Gigi’s head snapped to the side, and she was sure her face reflected the shock radiating through her gut in that moment. He was just a bartender, right? “What?”
He winked. “Lev Arsov—that’s me. Stick around, Gigi. See what happens next.”
And what might that be?
Three
SOMETHING WAS up.
Lev knew it the second he stepped inside the ring to fight. Not because he recognized the name of his opponent or even saw the guy before he was in the ring himself. No, he knew something was up because Nickie, who always stuck to the shadows during the fights, made his way to Lev’s side as he neared the ring.
Just long enough to lean in and say, “Andino wanted me to let you know he’d make it worth your while to end it in a knockout within three minutes.”
Then, his boss was gone.
Just like that, Nickie slipped back into the crowd while Lev was left searching for the back of his boss’s head or any other sign of the man. He found none as he slipped under the ropes. His gaze scanned the front tables and soon he landed on the man who had apparently