Page 22 of Secret Twins for My Ex's SEAL Best Friend

Kassandra was behind the bar, looking confused by Robert’s presence. I shot her a look like ‘Don’t ask’ and said, “Whiskey coke.”

“Bourbon,” Robert corrected me.

“Oh! Shit, bourbon coke,” I told Kassandra, and she knit her eyebrows together before taking the glass and dumping it into the sink.

When she turned around, I whipped around to finally face Robert and looked him in the eyes.

Disarmed, momentarily, by the blazing green they were, I shook my head and said, “You don’t have much room to talk, Robert. If you find this job sodegrading, what are you doing demanding its services? Assuming you aren’t stalking me, you’re here to drink, right? Someone has to serve you that drink. You know that, right? Unless you want a self-serve bar, in which case, that would be at home.” I tilted my head at him. “So why don’t you just go home, Robert?”

His mouth dropped open, and he didn’t say anything for a moment.

He stepped away from me, just one foot back, but I looked down at his feet and then up at his face. I could see regret in them, and he said, “Sorry to bother you.”

Instantly, guilt swarmed me. I knew why he was acting this way.

I had doubted his intentions earlier, but looking at him now, I saw it on his face. I had worked with enough veterans to recognize that trauma was doing this to him.

He had an avoidant attachment style. He was afraid to be hurt, and I had hurt him. Now, I’d hurt him again. But his judgment stung. He needed to know he couldn’t talk that way to me, even if he was hurting. He needed to know that his traumas weren’t an excuse to be an asshole.

I reached for his arm and said, in a quiet voice, “Maybe we should talk about what happened today.”

“What’s there to talk about?” he asked, not looking back at me.

I was looking at the curls on his head. I could see a few grays intermingled, a reminder of how much older than me he was, even older than Jeremy. Not by a lot, but still older. He had to be twenty years older than me at least.

I walked around him so that I could stand in front of him and said, “The kiss? Maybe we should talk about how you kissed me?”

He closed his eyes against my accusation and said, “So you’re still going with that? You’re going to pretend you didn’t kiss me, too? And now I’m stalking you, right?”

“No, I just—”

He opened his eyes and grabbed the inside of one of my elbows. His grip was hard, and my skin felt electrified by his touch again.

I glanced at his hand, cleared my throat, and looked up at him.

His jaw was tense, and he demanded, “So, say it. Say that you kissed me, too. And say that you liked it.”

I licked my lips and whispered, “I kissed you, too.” My voice cracked on ‘kissed’. I held my breath.

His hand snaked down to my wrist, and I felt the muscles in my pussy tighten. “And?”

“And I…” my eyes darted around the room. I caught Kassandra’s eyes, and she held up her hands, wondering if I needed help. I shook my head at her and looked back at Robert’s intense eyes. “I liked it.”

He exhaled out of his nose sharply and twisted his lips. “I know,” he said, and then continued walking to the door and out, leaving me standing at the bar alone.

I dropped my shoulders. I felt stupid. For just a moment, I’d thought that maybe he liked me.

Now, I was thinking that maybe I’d been wrong about his motivations for kissing me. Maybe it wasn’t about me at all. Maybe he was testing the waters for Jeremy, seeing if I was really loyal.

Or maybe he just wanted to hurt me. Maybe he liked the power.

Kassandra’s voice sounded behind me, “Here’s that bourbon coke.”

I looked back at her with tears in my eyes and took the drink. “Thanks.”

“Are you okay?” she asked me.

“Not at all,” I responded honestly, and then I went back to work.

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