Page 77 of Set Me On Fire

“Haven’t noticed.”

If this was my pub, I’d be giving him a talking to right now, making clear he could either improve his attitude or get the fuck out. But it wasn’t. I didn’t often miss being the person in charge, but I did right now.Focus on the job at hand, I told myself,he’ll get the message.

He did in a way.

“Maybe you’ll notice now.”

I shouldn’t have looked up. Blokes did this shit to me all the damn time, like they were little boys wanting Mummy’s attention. The only solution was to either fix them with a withering stare or ignore them completely. Instead, I was treated to the sight of him ripping his shirt up and over his head, putting his entire chest and all of his tattoos on display.

I couldn’t help but compare. Knox was broader, Noah leaner, and Charlie had that golden tan, whereas Dave was just showing off. Desperate, that’s what he was giving, so I just turned back to the box I was working on.

“Don’t wanna look, huh? What if I got a couple of my mates to strip down at the same time.” And that was the problem with ignoring them. Guys like Dave, they always found a way to force you to give them the attention they craved. His dark eyes glittered as he watched me frown, one eyebrow jerking up as I gripped the handle of my pocket knife tighter, but as my mind raced, trying to come up with a snappy comeback, he continued. “Think I didn’t know about that?” His eyes felt like intrusive hands, running all over my body. “Figured that’s how you got the job. Did you do Brent?—?”

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Knox’s voice was a lifeline thrown out when you were drowning, and I grabbed onto his quiet outrage with both hands.

“I think he was trying to flirt?” Scorn dripped from my tongue. “I mean that’s what it sounded like, kind of, though I have no idea how he thought that line would work with any woman, but hey.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “Ten points for trying, right?”

Dave was the one scowling right now.

“I just came to grab a new shirt.”

“Looks like you have one.” Knox snatched the old one from Dave’s grip and tossed it into a box of old uniforms. No freaking way I was folding that one up. “So head back to the training room.”

“Brent wanted some of us to give Millie a hand,” Dave spluttered.

“Brent asked me to do the job.”

If this was Knox being professional, I was down for it. He stepped into Dave’s space, getting right up into the other man’s face until he was either forced to back down or make an issue of it. I let out a long breath when Dave made a sound of disgustthen shoved himself away, to go and slither back into the hole he came from.

“You OK?”

The woman who ended up becoming Mrs. Knox was going to be very lucky indeed. Not only was he packing Cockzilla in his pants, but he was all growly and protective too? Right then, I wished that he was the daddy. He wouldn’t fight to keep me safe, but knowing that my little girl or boy had him to care for them? Yeah, I wanted that real bad. Instead, I smiled politely. Professional, I reminded myself, keep it professional.

“I’m fine. If I got the vapours the moment a guy flashed his tits at me, I’d be like one of those fainting goats.” I brandished my knife. “I also have three brothers who wouldn’t let me go outside the house without at least some kind of weapon on me.”

His lips twitched, ready to smile, but he pursed them instead, shaking his head slowly.

“So, you wanted to talk?”

I’d burned through fear, disbelief, denial, and was now in a state of flat acceptance. The plan with Noah was a good one, but I knew that the minute I dropped the news on him, he’d report back to the others. That wasn’t fair. I’d unblocked Charlie’s number this morning and sent him a message, inviting him to dinner and asking him to pass a message along to Knox.

“Dinner,” I said brightly, like this was all perfectly natural. “My shout, at Piccolino’s, that cafe?—”

“By the beach.” He nodded. “I know it. I walk my dog past it all the time.”

Which meant I might have stumbled into him one afternoon as I went for a walk. What would’ve that been like? For a second, I let myself fantasise, about him jogging past, looking like a total specimen, a cute dog in tow. Maybe I’d get tangled up in the dog lead, tripping over and he’d be forced to grab me lest I fall…

Instead, I got drunk and banged him and his mates.

I let my eyes drop to those full lips for just a second, smiling when I remembered exactly how they felt, before meeting his eyes. They were grey, the colour of ash, but it looked like some hidden embers were stirring to life the longer I stared.

“You’re not paying for my dinner,” he insisted.

“But you’ll come?” I didn’t have it in me to quibble about who was paying for what. Just a small nod, that’s all I got, but I took it as a win. “OK, we’ll meet at the cafe at six?—”

“I’ll pick you up.”

---