Page 28 of The Live-In Temptation (Steele Brothers of Starlight Cove #2)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
XANDER
Group text with Atlas, Xander, Declan, and Lincoln
Lincoln:
We’ve got a problem.
Trivia night was rescheduled to tonight because of a goat thing. Don’t ask.
We’re short-staffed. I need a body behind the bar because I can’t run this by myself.
Declan:
I’ve got back to backs booked till midnight
Atlas:
I’ve got a thing.
Xander:
I’ve got Emma. Chloe has a date.
Lincoln:
brb
Group text with Atlas, Xander, Declan, and Lincoln
4:17 p.m.
Lincoln:
Got it handled. Atlas and Sutton are taking Emma to a movie and she’s sleeping over there.
Xan, I’ll see you at 7
Xander:
Why the hell can’t Atlas just save us all this back and forth and take the shift?
Atlas:
Because I don’t fucking want to.
Declan:
That’s fair
Xander:
That’s not even an excuse.
Atlas:
You’re right. It’s a boundary.
Xander:
When tf did you start setting boundaries?
Atlas:
Love does crazy things to a man.
Lincoln:
Don’t be late, Xan.
And if you want to rake in the tips, the theme tonight is Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy
Xander:
I’m not dressing up as a fucking cowboy.
Lincoln:
Suit yourself. More thirsty women for me.
Declan:
Didn’t know Little Miss Farmer had plans for trivia night
Lincoln:
What’s that? You want to work a TRIPLE next week, Dec? Done.
I should’ve known that text was a fucking trap.
Lincoln was nothing if not a shit-stirrer.
Anything to get his mind off things he didn’t want to be thinking about—namely, his best friend’s little sister who had his balls in a vise and didn’t even know it.
And since he’d seen my reaction to Chloe the last time she’d been in One Night Stan’s, he was like a dog with a fucking bone.
And I was going to kill him.
Because now, I had to stand here for who the fuck knew how long and watch Chloe while she was on a date with another man.
She and that shithead Eli were sitting at a high-top table next to the bar, which meant I had a direct line of sight straight to them. And to what she was wearing.
I’d been hard since the second she’d walked in carrying her summer scent with her, but her outfit sure as fuck hadn’t helped.
A sweater that dipped low enough to show just the shadow of her tits and one of those flirty, flouncy skirts that swished around her thighs as she walked.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, she also wore those knee-high boots and fishnets again.
The ones I wanted to rip off her.
The ones I wanted to fuck her straight through.
With one foot propped on the rung of the stool, her leg crossed over the other, she leaned toward Eli with a smile he didn’t deserve. The ass clown didn’t deserve the laughter she tossed his way either. Didn’t deserve to even be able to look at her, let alone be on a date with her.
They were talking and joking and having a great fucking time like she hadn’t come apart against her hand with my name on her lips just last week.
Like she hadn’t kissed me back as if she was starving for it.
Like she hadn’t begged me to instruct her exactly how to make herself come.
Motherfucker .
I clenched my hands into fists at my sides, fighting the urge to stalk over to them, pour that asshole’s drink in his lap, and drag Chloe straight home where she belonged.
With me .
Because that wouldn’t help anyone, I busied myself behind the bar. Lined up glasses. Wiped down surfaces that were already spotless. Any-fucking-thing to keep myself from staring at them or doing something I’d later regret.
But then Eli leaned closer and said something in her ear, and I saw red. I slammed a pint glass down loud enough to draw Linc’s attention from his end of the bar.
He glanced at me with raised brows. “You good, man?”
“Fine,” I bit out.
I was not fucking fine. I was losing my mind, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
Before I had any chance of getting my shit together or escaping to the back so I didn’t punch that stupid look off Eli’s face, he and Chloe strode straight for the bar.
Straight for me.
He had on that smarmy grin I fucking hated, and I consoled myself with the fact that Chloe’s smile wasn’t genuine. And it slipped entirely when she caught sight of me behind the bar.
“Xander Steele,” Eli said with unwelcome familiarity. “Been a while. Didn’t realize you still pulled shifts here.”
I braced my hands on the bar top and shot him a look. “Didn’t realize you still wore that much product in your hair.”
Chloe sucked in a breath, clearly sensing what was coming.
But Eli was about as sharp as a box of marbles, so he grinned like we were all good. “Still got that sense of humor, huh?”
“My sense of humor and your weak chin are two things that’ve stuck around, I guess.”
Chloe sputtered and covered it up with a cough, while Lincoln whistled under his breath.
I just stared down the douchebag who thought he was good enough to go out with her.
He wasn’t good enough to take out the goat who’d been tied up at the station’s flagpole, so he sure as fuck wasn’t good enough for the equivalent of sunshine in human form.
“Well, uh…” Eli chuckled awkwardly and rapped his knuckles on the bar top. “We wanted to put in an order for some wings and—” His words cut off at the sound of a phone ringing, and he pulled his cell from his pocket.
What a piece of shit. He was out on a date with Chloe fucking Bradshaw, and he was taking a goddamn phone call? I wasn’t sure I could glare any harder at this cheesedick, but I was willing to try.
“Sorry, Chloe,” he said. “I’ve gotta grab this.”
Chloe nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Sure, no problem.”
“Be right back,” he said, already walking toward the door.
I stared at her for a long beat. Long enough that the silence felt like a physical being between us. Long enough that she finally turned to walk away.
Before she could get far, I said, “That’s the kind of guy you want?”
She stopped in her tracks and turned around, lifting a brow in my direction. “What?”
I tipped my head toward the front door wankstain just walked out of. “You think a guy like that has any idea what to do with a woman like you?”
Her spine stiffened as her mouth dropped open, shock written on her face. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Bracing my elbows on the bar top, I leaned toward her, our gazes locked, and dropped my voice so it stayed between us. “You think he’d be able to get you off with just his words? Think he’d even know where to start if you begged him to tell you what to do?”
Her eyes widened a fraction, and color bloomed across her cheeks. But her words didn’t hold a single ounce of embarrassment, only venom and steel. “Since no one else is stepping up to the plate, I guess I’ll take my chances.”
The commotion of the bar echoed around us as she stared at me for a second. Two. Three.
Waiting…
Wanting?
It didn’t matter.
Clenching my jaw, I tightened my hands into fists and forced myself not to move.
Not to do exactly what I wanted to and drag her into the back room.
Fuck her like I’d been dying to since the first day I’d laid eyes on her in those stupid fucking fox slippers and one of those hoodies I couldn’t get out of my goddamn mind.
She huffed out a breath and shook her head. “That’s what I thought.”
Without waiting for a response, she headed toward the bathrooms in the back, her spine straight, head held high.
Five goddamn seconds hadn’t even passed before I followed. Of fucking course I followed. I couldn’t do anything else. I was a prisoner to her gravitational pull.
“Why’d you go out with him, chaos?” I asked into the otherwise unoccupied hallway. Unable to stop myself. “Why did you say yes after everything?”
She glanced back at me and breathed out an incredulous laugh. “What’s ‘everything,’ Xander? The kiss you ignored? The night you’re pretending never happened? Or is it something else?”
When my only response was another tick of my jaw, she nodded. “Right. I can’t keep doing this with you—this back-and-forth, hot and cold. And Eli might not be who I want, but he’s the safe choice.”
I stepped toward her, not stopping until she was sandwiched between me and the bathroom door, focused on the single part of her sentence that made my chest tighten. “Who do you want?”
“You don’t have the right to ask me that.” She darted her gaze over my face, assessing me more intently than I was comfortable with. “And I don’t think you’re ready for the answer anyway.”
With that, she slipped into the single stall bathroom and let the door swing shut behind her, the sound of the lock clicking like a gunshot in the space between us.
I braced my hands on the doorframe and hung my head between my shoulders, staring at the two-inch piece of wood separating us. Staring at it like it held the answers to everything I’d never allowed myself to even ask for.
What the hell was I doing ? Chasing after her. Ruining her date. Acting like I had any kind of claim over her. She was my nanny, and that was it.
And yet, I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t walk back out there, serve drinks, and pretend like everything was fine. Couldn’t watch her toss her head back with that manufactured laugh and not die a little more inside.
Minutes later, when she opened the door, I was right where she’d left me. Hands braced on the doorframe, head hanging, rib cage in a vise…squeezing, squeezing.
She startled and jerked to a stop, her eyes snapping to mine.
Where those eyes normally sparkled with playfulness, now anger and uncertainty and desire all fought for dominance.
But it was the hope I saw brimming there that made me swallow down every ounce of my reservations and throw caution to the wind.
I was so tired of fighting this. So tired of pretending I didn’t want her with every goddamn breath.
So fucking tired.
“Fuck it,” I muttered before cupping her face and kissing her like I was going to lose her before I’d even had the chance to have her.