Page 38 of Lawless in Leather

Definitely nervous. And maybe looking for things to help her make up her mind about him. Like him not liking her show. Well, she was going to have to look for another reason. He’d watched the show for nearly two hours and though, yes, the most sharply focused parts had been those where Raina herself had appeared between each act, he’d found the acts in between surprising. Funny, sexy, thoughtful. And a little bit intriguingly weird. Unexpected. Much like Raina herself. “I thought it was great.”

“You—” Her mouth snapped closed.

He waited. Waited for her to say something like Tell me what your favorite part was.

But apparently she was too smart to give him that particular opening.

“You’re not drinking?” she said looking behind him to the bar. The bartender had taken his glass a good while ago. He’d switched to soda after the whiskey.

“I was waiting for you.”

“You want to drink with me?”

“I wanted to see you. If you want to drink, we can drink.”

“It’s getting late for a nightcap.”

He shrugged. She was right. It was close to two a.m. And his body was going to hate him in the morning. He had an early start. But he’d been running on six hours of sleep or less for months now. So another night wasn’t going to kill him.

“What’s your poison?”

“Scotch usually. Beer. A good Merlot.” Ally had drunk tequila by preference. He didn’t do tequila anymore. Just the smell of it brought back too many memories.

“And if I don’t care to offer you a nightcap?”

“Then I guess I’ll walk you to your truck or wherever you need to go and we’ll say good night.”

“Just like that?”

He blew out a breath. “Raina, I’m not sixteen. Neither are you. We have something here. Something you’re not sure about getting into. I can respect that. I will respect that. But like you said, it’s getting late. And I’m too old for long convoluted conversations that dance around the subject.”

One side of her mouth lifted. “Convoluted? Now who’s using big words?”

“I told you, I read too. So you decide.”

“Drinking or leaving?” she said.

“Or another option. Whatever you want. Tell me to go, I go.” He watched indecision and something else—something he hoped was closer to frustration—flicker in her eyes. “Tell me to stay I stay. So tell me to stay.”

“That’s not letting me decide,” she protested.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t state my case,” he said.

“You want to give me a list of your pros and cons?”

“Preferably just pros for now. So what’s it to be?”

“I—” She stopped. Swallowed. “A drink. Just a drink. For the sake of not being convoluted, a drink does not equal sex.”

“Thanks for the clarification,” he said drily. “But like I said, I’m not sixteen. I don’t expect sex in return for the pleasure of my company.” He grinned at her, relief pounding his veins. She hadn’t sent him home. That was a step in the right direction. He nodded at the bar. “So, do you want to drink here or somewhere else?”

She rolled her shoulders. “Somewhere else. I’ll be back here soon enough tomorrow.” She rolled her shoulders again. “My place. It’s not far from here.”

He’d known that vaguely. That she lived close to the club. Which made sense. If you were going to work somewhere that involved long days and late nights, not having a long commute made life easier. He’d found himself wishing a time or two that he’d bought a place on Staten Island but Brooklyn was home, so he was sticking for now. He could always talk Alex into getting a company condo or something for nights when one or more of them needed to crash. Hopefully those nights would get less frequent in a month or so. Once they got into the rhythm of the season itself.

“Earth to Mal,” Raina said. “I’m inviting you for a nightcap here, it does a girl’s ego no good if you don’t answer.”

“Well, we can’t have that now, can we?” he said. He nodded toward the velvet curtain and the stairs that were going to lead him out of the club and into Raina’s more private world. “So lead on.”

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