Daring Devlin (Lost Boys #1) - Jessica Lemmon Page 0,18
Then I caught his profile.
A pair of black pants with white pinstripes hugged Devlin’s incredible ass. A white chef’s coat covered his upper half, buttoned to the neck. A black cap shadowing his features completed the uniform.
“Hey,” I said on a breath. Because he looked damn fine. His jacket was cuffed, revealing the same naked forearms he’d showcased under his T-shirt sleeves last Friday. His handsome face was still battered, but the swelling had gone down. Even bruises couldn’t mask his painfully beautiful face. My gaze flicked to his lips.
“What?” He brushed the side of his mouth with the back of his hand and I realized I was staring.
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “You look… better.”
His tongue darted out to wet the corner of his lips. My thighs clenched.
“Working the back?” My plan to fill the dead air by stating the obvious was going swimmingly. Without waiting for an answer, I pulled my apron over my head and turned for the doorway. He was in front of me in an instant.
“Thank you. For Friday,” he added in a whisper, as if it was an afterthought. His mouth dropped open like he was going to say more, but he didn’t.
We stood there for the longest time, me watching him, his shadowed eyes under the bill of his cap watching me watch him.
“Have a good shift,” he said, finally.
I tried for “okay” but only managed a nod. Turning away from his powerful presence, I walked out but felt the weight of his gaze on my back the entire way.
Chapter Five
Rena
The next day was better. For my tongue, anyway. It managed not to trip over my teeth and collide with my palate when I ran into Devlin in the back. He was slicing vegetables with a huge knife and dropping them into a tall stockpot.
“Soup?” Ah, yes. My superpower of pointing out the obvious was still strong.
“Vegetarian.” He wrinkled his nose. “Tell me you’re not one of ’em.”
My eyebrows went up. Was Devlin Calvary… talking to me? And not only talking, but actually, maybe, possibly joking.
“What if I were?” I teased.
The spark in his eyes hinted at something not nice going through his mind. Probably a juvenile “meat” remark. I’d learned in my short stint as a waitress that kitchen guys had filthy mouths and even filthier minds. I assumed Devlin was no exception.
“I’m… I eat…” Don’t say meat. “Whatever,” I finished lamely. Cringing, I turned and walked into the storeroom where I slid my coat from my shoulders. Two warm hands caught the collar and pulled it off the rest of the way.
“Flexibility,” Devlin murmured. “I like that in a girl.” His breath warmed my neck. He was close enough that he’d barely had to raise his voice. Close enough that his body heat blanketed my back. If I faced him, where would his delicious lips be in proximity to mine?
A girl could have a heart attack just thinking about it.
Putting distance between us in the storeroom, I walked to the other side and dropped my purse onto a shelf. He tossed my coat over it and assessed me, arms crossed. Trying not to fidget under his scrutiny was akin to breathing underwater—I couldn’t force my body to comply. My hands shook as I looped the apron over my head and pulled the ties around my back.
He unhooked his arms and took the ties from my hands, his warm fingers brushing my cooler ones. He turned me around, pulling the strings hard enough that I nearly backed into him.
“Rena.” His voice was sexy and husky. My legs began to shake. I was a living, breathing pair of maracas around him. I heard the canvas-on-canvas swish as he crisscrossed the ties at my back. “I have a question for you.”
The contents of the storeroom blurred, then disappeared as my lids slid over my eyes. He was leaning in without touching me, making every cell in my body dance.
Bow knotted, he freed my hair from the neck of the apron, and a zillion goose bumps popped up on my skin from my neck to nipples to kneecaps. I hadn’t wound my hair into a for-work ponytail yet, and wow, was I glad. My lack of preparedness was worth it to feel his fingers sift through my strands.
Le meow.
“What was your question?” On the inside I was melting into a puddle. On the outside I stood ramrod stiff, waiting. And knowing, regardless of what he asked of me, my answer would be yes.