pretty face of yours.” Rocker presses his fingers between my eyes in an attempt to smooth away the creases forming there. “Why does your mind go straight to catastrophe?”
“I haven’t had many good things happen in my life,” I tell him bluntly.
The smile that was teasing the corner of his mouth disappears as his hand lifts to cup the side of my face.
“That’s all going to change.” He takes a step closer, but he never fully eliminates the distance between us. “I never want to see a frown on your face. What’s it going to take to make that pretty mouth smile?”
“Probably a few of those millions of things you hinted at yesterday.”
His grin widens, and my own mouth mirrors the image.
“In time.” Leaning in, he presses a chaste kiss to my lips, chuckling when I try to take it further.
“You keep those dirty thoughts in your head. I just came to tell you that I have to go out of town for a few days.”
“Work?” He stops smiling, his eyes darting back and forth between mine. “Don’t lie to me.”
“It’s personal.”
My throat clogs with emotion, and just like he observed earlier, my thoughts race right toward bad things rather than the hundreds of other things that could force him out of Farmington.
“Another woman then?”
Wanting to date me doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to be monogamous.
“Never,” he whispers. “Why would I leave town for another woman when I have the perfect woman right here?”
My eyes continue to narrow. He answered the question exactly how I hoped he would, but his response seems too perfect for my taste.
“You think you’re slick?” His brow furrows. “That’s a very cheesy answer to give.”
He shrugs. “I’m a cheesy guy.”
“Slick,” I mutter.
“You make me crazy.” His words come out on a growl before he presses his lips to mine.
My back is pressed to a wall in the hallway before my body even registers that it’s being moved. His lips never leave mine, his hands gripping my hips until I’m flat against him, my body absorbing every thick inch of his. God, how I’ve missed and longed for the feel of him.
“Rocker,” I warn when his fingers tease the hem of my shirt, periodically brushing against the skin on my side.
“Fucking crazy,” he whispers against my lips. “You drive me mad.”
“The feeling is mutual,” I pant.
“I’m going to Vermont.”
He keeps his hands on me, so it’s no wonder he feels me stiffen in his arms.
“We’re going to make sure that you don’t have anything to worry about.” A soft kiss brushes my lips before he pulls his head back. I easily get lost in his warm, blue eyes.
“We? As in more than just you?”
“Jinx and a couple of the other guys,” he confirms. “We’ll be gone two days, three at the most.”
“I blocked his number again.”
“It’s not enough. He can’t threaten you and get away with it.”
“He’s a violent man,” I remind him. I never witnessed Mr. Murphy in action, but the way his wife flinched around him every time he raised his voice would become how I reacted around her son, so I know she was abused as well. Like knows like and all that.
“I’m worse,” he whispers, his lips brushing mine a final time before he pulls away.
He coughs, and I ignore the way he has to readjust his jeans as I straighten out my own clothes.
“Three days,” he says again. “Be ready for our date.”
We walk back toward the bar, hand in hand.
“This beer is shit,” Mike hisses as he pushes the empty glass away from him. “Hey, pretty girl. Why don’t you get me a real beer?”
Rocker presses a kiss to my lips before walking toward the door. “Keep an eye on my girl, old man.”
“I never take my eyes off her,” Mike jokes with his bushy eyebrows waggling up and down.
“Easy there, tiger,” I tell him as I grab a glass to pour him a new beer.
Drake eventually shows up for his shift, which only keeps me busier than I would be if I were alone. Several Cerberus guys show up, but that’s nothing new. There hasn’t been a night I’ve worked in months that one or two of them haven’t been posted up in the far corner. At any given time, I can look up and tell that they’re keeping an eye on me.
I’ve never been afraid working here, but the extra sense of security is nice.
“Miss me already?” I grin at Cannon as he leans on the bar. I