Heart Beats (Joker's Sin #3) - Davidson King Page 0,11

and taught him how to talk. I thought, I dunno, if he thought he was a big, scary predator, he’d have some confidence.” It was adorable when Ledger blushed as he sipped his beer.

“That’s amazing. And while you’re gone or working, he’s fine?”

Ledger nodded. “Yeah, I have food for him, and he has a fountain that supplies him with fresh water to drink and stuff. African Grey Parrots are the most intelligent parrots in the world. Sometimes he’s smarter than me.”

“He’s beautiful,” I said.

“I am, thank you,” Lion answered, and Ledger and I laughed.

“He’s confident, all right.” I reached my finger out and Lion poked it with his beak.

Lion seemed to get bored and flew away, and the silence in the huge place was unsettling. When I looked over at Ledger, his gorgeous eyes were locked on me. That intense feeling I got when I’d make eye contact settled in my stomach, and I both wanted to move away from it and jump him.

“Shane,” he whispered.

“Yeah.”

He opened his mouth, and maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like he was leaning toward me. Oh, my God, are we going to kiss?

“I…”

Definitely leaning, we were so going to kiss.

“Want.”

I want too, I so want.

“To.”

I felt his breath against my face…just a second now, and we’d—

“Get a room,” Lion interrupted, and suddenly Ledger was pushing away. Fuck.

“Uh…I wanted to thank you, for helping me at the con, I really appreciate everything.”

I wondered if I strangled the bird, would Ledger still want to kiss me? Because I knew he’d been about to before the interruption.

“Oh…” I hopped off the stool. “Of course, no problem.”

“So, you want a ride home?” He was moving away now. No chance of a kiss. I did want him to drive me home, but I also wanted to die a little inside and jack off.

“Nah, I’ll call an Uber.”

“You sure?”

I nodded and scrolled through my phone. “One is just three minutes from here. By the time I get outside, it’ll be here.”

“I’ll walk you out.”

I wanted to say no, but I didn’t want to be rude, and he was already halfway to the elevator. As predicted, by the time I made it down, the car was there.

“Well, I’ll see you at work,” I said as I opened the door. Ledger had left my suitcase by the entrance and I gripped it, happy to have something to focus on other than him.

“Work, yup.” He had his hands in his back pockets, and there was no mystery that whatever happened upstairs, we’d both felt it. Why’d this have to be so hard? Speaking of hard…

“See ya.” I shut the door, and when Ledger was out of sight, I breathed. He was intoxicating.

Chapter Six

Ledger

I wouldn’t say I spent the week avoiding Shane, but I would say I didn’t go out of my way to talk to him. That night at my place I almost kissed him, and that played over and over in my head until I drove myself crazy. It would absolutely complicate things. But then again, maybe one night was what we needed. I scoffed at my own logic. I’d seen enough movies and read enough books to know the whole “fuck them out of my system” thing didn’t work.

“Are you on medication?”

I looked up and saw Max. He was the manager of the bar area and one of my closest friends. He was a great-looking guy with short dark hair, stubble, and a sexy body. I once thought about making the moves on him, but that thought didn’t last. Now, his heart belonged to Sparkles, aka Lane. Those two were complete opposites: Sparkles with his pink hair, loud clothes, and snarky sass. Max with his normal clothes, dark hair, and zero sass.

“No, why?” I slipped the headphones off my ears. I was doing sound checks, getting ready for tonight at the club.

“Well, I’ve been watching you for five minutes. You keep scoffing at yourself, and you’re laughing at nothing.” Max walked over to me. I had a booth on the stage, my own space, and most of the time no one invaded it…This wasn’t one of those times.

“I think we need to talk about you staring at me for five minutes. It’s fucking creepy,” I said and smiled. “Just thinking about things.”

“What kind of things? Sexy things?” He looked behind himself to where Shane was cutting up limes. “Shaney sexy things?”

“Shaney? Does he know you call him that?”

“Don’t change the subject. You’ve both been weird all week. What’s