Page 7 of The Yeah Baby Series: Vol 3

“Fuck,” Rhys groaned, his head dropping low as a muscle in his cheek jumped.

“A dessert!” Owen cried out, trying to look innocent with his hands held up in front of him. “Geesh, what kind of a guy do you think Iam?”

“The playboy kind.” The answer just popped out of my mouth, since I was thinking about everything I’d heard about the famouschef.

“Don’t believe everything you see in the papers, beautiful.” I felt bad because the twinkle in his eyes had dimmed, but I didn’t have time to apologize before Rhys climbed out of the booth and was tugging me along withhim.

“We’ll have to take a raincheck on dessert. I need to get my angelhome.”

I tossed Owen a little wave and smile over my shoulder as Rhys practically dragged me through the empty dining room to thedoor.

“He was just being nice,” I chided when he stopped to open the passenger side door of his car forme.

He smiled down at me as he helped me into the seat and leaned over to belt me in. I tried to bat his hands away but he ignored my attempts. “You keep thinking that, angel,” he whispered against my lips. “Because if you keep on missing the looks other men send you, I might not have to kill anyone.”

I didn’t have a comeback for that, so I kept quiet when he climbed into the car and pulled away from the curb. Full from our amazing meal and tired from a long day, I fell asleep only a couple minutes after we left the restaurant as Rhys drove me home. Or, at least, that’s where I thought he was taking me until I woke up when the engine cut off and I found myself staring up at a huge house I didn’t recognize.

“Where arewe?”

“My place.”

Sharp disappointment stabbed through me. Even with all the sparks flying between us at dinner, Rhys had acted like the perfect gentleman. He hadn’t even so much as stolen a kiss, even though there had been a few moments when he’d come awfully close. He’d lulled me into a false sense of security, only to show his true colors by assuming a dinner date meant I’d go home withhim.

“Just because I work at a sex toy shop doesn’t mean I’m easy.” My voice cracked at the end, the hurt I was feeling coming through loud and clear.

“No! Shit. Fuck,” he hissed, jumping out of the car and rushing around to my side to throw the door open and bend down next to me, taking my hands in his. “I never, not for even for one second, thought you wereeasy.”

“Then why did you bring me to your house?” I asked softly.

“Because I don’t know where you live, angel. You fell asleep before I asked, and I didn’t want to bother Weston. If I interrupted him and Aspen again tonight, I’d probably find myself in a shallow grave come morning.”

The breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding rushed out of my lungs in relief. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh,” he chuckled. “You were awfully quick to jump to the conclusion that I made assumptions about you because of where youwork.”

“It happens sometimes.”

“What happens?”

“Guys figure that I’m a certain kind of girl because of where I work,” I explained. “I’m probably just feeling overly sensitive because I had a male customer yesterday who asked me if I was a bad girl. He didn’t wait for me to answer before he told me I must be one since I worked in a place like Dirty Players. And then he made it clear how much he likes bad girls."

I was rambling and it didn’t occur to me that it was a bad idea until Rhys abruptly dropped my hands. He yanked his phone out of his pocket, jabbing his finger at the screen while he muttered to himself.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a note to myself,” he murmured distractedly.

“A note to dowhat?”

His eyes pierced through me when they lifted to meet mine. “To go through the security tapes so I can figure out the name of the guy I’m going tokill.”

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