Page 85 of Burn for You

I laugh. “You look like you’re doing fine. Don’t worry about her. Just give me a nod if you need help and I’ll come over.”

“Thank you,” she sighs. “Now go! Enjoy your night off for once.”

I smile at her and pick up the tray of drinks before I begin winding my way through the bar over to our regular booth in the corner.

As I make my way closer, I notice an extra person at our table. I nearly trip at the sight of Rafael’s big build taking up my spot in the booth. I thought the fact that he hadn’t shown up yet meant he wasn’t coming at all, and I was relieved. Because now that he’s here, all I can think of is our nights together at Olive&Vine.

I should never have opened up to Rafael, but once I opened the gates, it all came flooding through and I couldn’t stop it if I’d tried.

And then I left. I ran. Bolted. I pretty much jogged back to Rosemary Cottage, not giving myself time to even process what I’d just done. But after a cold shower and a hot chocolate, when I was all tucked up in bed, it started. The replay of those last two hours. Over and over again, it ran through my mind. The adrenaline that pumped through my body when I held that sledgehammer in my grip. The feeling that quickly turned to liberating and then changed into me letting go of all my frustration and anger and then…he opened up to me. Telling me about his family, trusting me with parts of himself he hasn’t given to anyone else. My resolve is quickly waning, and I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. Switching constantly between wanting to keep my guard up and wanting to fall into Rafael’s arms and let him hold all of me, including the broken parts.

“How’s Molly doing?” Marina asks before I even make it to the table.

I shake my head, trying to make these feelings disintegrate. “She’s fine. Your obvious staring is freaking her out.”

She gasps. “I just want to make sure she’s not going to mess up.”

“She’s been here for nearly a month, Marina. She’s not going to mess up.”

I start unloading my tray, avoiding all eye contact with the man sitting right beside me.

“Did I take your seat?” He asks, uncharacteristically quietly, drawing everyone’s attention towards the two of us.

I look up at him and the look in his eyes leaves me frozen. He’slooking at me differently. His eyes hold sympathy, not the fire that I’m used to. I don’t know what to do with that. Every time I’ve seen him lately, we’ve been peeling back each other's layers. Opening up to each other in a way I haven’t really done with any man, not in a long time. And in peeling back those layers, I learned that every single person in Rafael’s life, apart from those in this room, has either left him or let him down, and I don’t want to be one of those people. I don’t want him to have expectations of me that I can’t live up to.

I can’t commit to a long-term relationship. I’m not sure if that’s even what he wants out of this, but I refuse to be another person that hurts him. So I need to keep my cool. I need to stay unattached, even when he’s making it almost impossible to do so.

“That’s alright,” Leo says, breaking the silence. “You can sit on my lap. You’re small enough.” And then he pulls me right into his lap.

I look up and there’s no sympathy in Rafael’s eyes anymore. Oh no. Just fury, and it makes me settle right into place on Leo’s lap. He’s got one arm casually hooked around my waist, and Rafael’s eyes are fixed on it as the table returns to normal conversation.

“How about an escape room, but with strippers?” Leo suggests.

“What?” Rafael coughs.

“We aretryingto come up with bachelor party ideas,” Heath says.

“Yeah, and that one is a no,” Caio chimes in.

Leo throws his hands up. “Why not? Dark room, we have to escape, strippers dressed up like cops, they handcuff us…” He looks around at the other guys looking for interest, but he doesn’t get any.

“Next idea,” Caio says.

Leo’s hand falls back into my lap. He’s not paying any attention to it, but it’s sitting really close to where it shouldn’t be, and Rafael is paying way too much attention to that.

“I don’t know,” I say. “Handcuffs could be fun.”

Leo scoffs. “See!”

But it’s not his reaction I was looking for. It’s the dark eyes that are boring into me from across the table. A smirk creeps up my face the more and more furious Rafael gets.

This is what I’m used to. Furious I can handle. Sympathy? I’ve never had that from Rafael. It doesn’t need to start now.

I shuffle my ass back on Leo’s lap and his hands grip my hips. “You better stop moving like that or this very well may be my last day on this earth,” he warns, quiet enough that only I can hear him.

My eyes don’t leave Rafael’s as I lean back and whisper, “Come on, Leo. I thought pissing Raf off was your favorite pastime? We can work as a team.”

“Usually, it is,” he whispers back. “But when you’re involved, it feels more like the guy actually might wrench my balls off just for fun.”

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