herself a mental shake.
Somehow she’d coaxed a smile and a joke out of him and now they were sitting there, the air around them buzzing with tension, and her thighs tightening.
Damn, he was gorgeous. He knew it too, but his confidence had enough humor that he came across as charming and not an asshole. Every girl in the office had a crush on him, and he was winning the guys over. Those mesmerizing light blue eyes reminded her of a blue zircon ring her mother had owned, and his mouth…holy hell, the firm shape of his lips and the way they curved into a smile made her girl parts squeeze.
He was also getting married. Although others in the office seemed to think differently.
“That night at the hotel,” she began.
He grimaced. “Yeah.”
“Was that your bachelor party?”
His forehead creased. “No. It was for my buddy Jacob. Christ! I’m not getting married!”
She nodded. So he was single.
“You thought that was my bachelor party?”
She shrugged. “I assumed, yeah.”
“You know, it really was pretty innocent.”
“I was there, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember. But I don’t know what you heard. We hired this topless waitress from the Kitten Club—Scarlet. She came and served us drinks and did a few lap dances. We played some games, but there was no sex. There are strict rules when you hire a girl from the Kitten Club. It’s a classy place. You can’t even touch her.”
For some reason, this earnest speech made her chest go weirdly soft and warm. She tipped her head to one side and slowly shook it, smiling. “You’re serious.”
“Yeah.” The notch between his thick eyebrows deepened.
“I believe you,” she assured him, and she did. What had she really heard? Although she’d been listening for any sounds of trouble, there’d mainly been a lot of laughter, including from, er, Scarlet. “It’s just sort of…cute.”
Now his eyes flew open. “Cute? Uh, that wasn’t what you were thinking that morning when I ran into you in the hall.”
“No. It’s cute that you say it was all innocent when really, anything could have happened. I mean…sure, they have strict rules, but come on. Who’s there to enforce them? That young woman was there all alone in a hotel room with a group of men she didn’t know. Completely vulnerable. Anything could have happened to her.”
“Not with us,” he protested. “We’re great guys.”
His firm belief that that girl had been completely safe with them touched her. She huffed out a little laugh. “I did hear…something about…” She stopped.
“What?”
“She told someone he could come on her breasts.”
He grimaced. “Uh, yeah. That was Jacob. The bachelor. But he couldn’t touch her. He was just, you know…pumping gas at the self-serve island.”
After a beat, she burst out laughing. “Oh my God.”
He grinned. “If you get my meaning.”
“I get it.”
Their eyes met again and the way he looked at her, the focused intensity of those pale blue eyes, made her stomach do a slow roll of lust. Heat built between them. She picked up her beer and took a big gulp of the cold brew.
“My buddy Tucker was the one who hired her,” Levi continued. “I booked the hotel room. I wasn’t sold on the idea, but Tucker and Cam insisted we had to do something really good for Jacob’s bachelor party.”
“So that was you who dealt with hotel security?”
One corner of his mouth kicked up. “Yeah. I kept trying to get them to quiet the hell down, but they were all hammered and having fun.” He paused. “I’m sorry we disturbed you.”
“You said so that morning.”
“It was thoughtless and stupid and a whole lot of alcohol and testosterone and…what can I say? We were having fun. Guys are idiots.”
She smiled, more heat pooling low in her belly. She licked her bottom lip and when his gaze dropped there, she realized that had been a mistake. The way he looked at her mouth, as if he was famished, made her toes curl.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
“Uh, no.” He met her eyes again. “Why?”
She closed her eyes briefly. “I just wondered.”
“I thought maybe you were going to offer to buy me dinner and a drink.”
“I just had dinner.”
“Oh.”
She’d thought he was teasing but was that a flash of disappointment in his eyes? “But you should probably eat something.”
“Yeah, probably.”
And she should probably leave him to it. “So, order something. I’ll keep you company.”
He reached for a menu, leaning closer to her so that his chest brushed her shoulder. Again the air crackled with excitement and ripples danced through