I wasn’t oblivious to the hardship he was enduring by staying celibate while he married me as a favor. I mean, I’d feel relieved if he was getting sex regularly on the side, wouldn’t I?
But for some reason, that thought actually just made me feel worse.
He gritted his teeth, eyes quickly scanning the room. “You shouldn’t be joking about it. What if someone heard you?”
I laughed. “We’re stuck at work so often and so late that people already refer to you as my work husband. No worries there. They just take me for what I love to do best—joke around.”
He rolled his eyes again. “It’s not the only thing you do best.”
Before I could reply, I noticed that, since it was lunch hour, other employees had entered the warehouse and were watching the proceedings with interest. Some of them were pointing at the guys and I had to admit, they were quite an impressive sight for any person who was into the mountains of man muscle.
Soon we were helping the guys out of the gear and the clusters of people now crowded around us. Some of them were quite obviously star struck. I bit my lip and asked my co-tour host, “Did Adam and Jordan say anything to you about them signing autographs for the employees?”
Lucas’s eyes narrowed, scanning the room as he wound a long cord around a headset in preparation for packing it away in its cozy storage container. “No. We should probably get the guys out of here and up to the atrium. Adam and Jordan should be back from their meeting soon if they aren’t already.”
Not a bad idea. Hiding them in the CEO or CFO’s office would be a handy solution. However, before we could squirrel the astronauts away from the crowd, the men had waded in. They were now talking to our work colleagues, kindly signing autographs and posing for selfies. Too late.
It was a half hour of that goings-on before Adam and Jordan showed up and did their magic to break up the crowd. The guys thanked Lucas and me for our help and fun tour. The Russian had murmured something quietly to Lucas which had him glaring in return, visibly upset.
Hmm. That was interesting. Then the Russian approached me and, after thanking me, asked for my number.
I blinked at him in surprise, heart racing, opening and closing my mouth a few times before squeezing out an “I…”
He was hot in a way that the younger version of me would have jumped on in a second. But the reality of going out on a date with him was not as appealing as the fantasy of it—as handsome as he was.
“I, uh, don’t even know your name… or I didn’t remember it,” I stuttered.
The Russian astronaut grinned. “I’ll teach you how to say it over a drink. What do you say?”
I blushed, flattered, but ultimately, not super interested. These guys were fun to ogle, but they just weren’t my type. It didn’t help that Lucas was staring daggers at me from a few yards away while he conversed with Hammer, presumably about game ideas. “I, uh. Thank you, but I can’t.”
The Russian raised a brow and slid a glance at Lucas out of the corner of his eyes. “Ah I see, not available. Well, maybe you will change your mind. Then...” He pulled out a card from his jeans pocket and handed it to me.
My fingers numbly closed over the card and I smiled, thanking him. My eyes followed the guys out and when I turned, Lucas was practically in my face.
“Well?” he snarled.
I blinked. “What?”
“You gonna throw that away?”
Scowling at him I said. “You’re not the boss of me. I mean, not of my personal life.”
One dark brow arched over his large brown eyes. “You can’t date.”
I scowled back at him. Sure I had no intention of going out with the guy, but Lucas didn’t need to know that. “He just asked me out for a drink!”
“You can’t drink. Not with other men.”
I folded my arms over my chest. His eyes flicked down, lingered a little too long on my rack then he pulled his gaze away with an evident struggle.
“Now, now. Don’t be sexist. I told you that you could go find yourself a date. You have your wifey’s permission.” I held up the card as if to read it just to tweak him a little further. His hand flew up and wrapped tightly around my wrist.