Page 30 of Old Flame

She then pointed at me. “You, go. To the back. Just away.”

I cocked an eyebrow. Was she fucking serious? I wasn’t her goddamn lap dog. I narrowed my gaze, then walked right behind the bar where she was and snatched up a glass while she watched me.

Salem’s eyes following me felt like an electric current. It wasn’t that I could just feel her; there was energy pulsing through me because of it.

“Get your whiskey and go,” Pepper demanded. “Micah!” she then shouted into the phone and walked out of the space behind the bar as she began to ream him a new one.

I lifted my eyes from the glass to meet Salem’s. Damn, that face. Jesus, it was still like a kick in the gut. Would I ever be immune to it?

“You got the job,” I said, then picked up my glass and took a drink.

She nodded and began to fidget with the stem of the martini glass in front of her. “Yes.” Her voice was soft and unsure.

I studied her hand and saw the wedding rings were still gone. Just like they’d been at the art gallery. Why? Had she been leaving her husband? Was that why she’d come back south?

Her hand moved away then, and she stuck it in her lap, out of my view. My eyes lifted slowly back to hers, and I took a moment to memorize how good her tits looked in that shirt. The creamy mounds peeked from the top, tempting a man like Eve with her fucking apple. Her swift intake of breath made them slightly bounce. I smirked and set my glass down, then met her eyes.

“How long have you been here?” I asked her.

Her tongue came out and licked her lips. That bottom one a little bigger than the top. I used to bite it until she cried out. I’d been obsessed with it.

“Almost two months,” she replied, then cleared her throat. “I, uh…we should be going.”

We? I cut my eyes to the woman beside her. A blonde, wearing a pair of orange glasses, was staring at me with a mixture of surprise, interest, and I thought amusement.

She gave me a small smile. “Hi, I’m Marlana. I work with Salem,” she said brightly.

“We should go,” Salem told her. “I think Pepper has some, uh, issues to deal with.”

“Just her brother trying to keep her safe. She’ll be back in a moment,” I said, not wanting her to leave. “I didn’t know you had been back around. Pepper didn’t mention it.”

She dropped her eyes, and a tight smile touched her mouth. “Yeah, well…” She lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

She’d asked Pepper not to tell me.

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to avoid me, Angel Face,” I drawled, using the name that I had called her back then.

Like I’d intended, her eyes snapped back up to meet mine, and along with the anger displayed, I could see hurt. Even now, all these years later, there was an instant unsettling inside me at theidea that she was hurt.

“Don’t,” she said, then took a deep breath. “Don’t call me that.” She turned to her blonde friend. “Let’s go.”

When her eyes didn’t meet mine and she stood, slipping a purse over her shoulder, I grappled with the panic that she was about to walk away again.

“Still not wearing those wedding bands,” I said, knowing that would get her attention. “Trouble in paradise?”

Salem stared at the floor for a moment as her shoulders rose and fell with each breath she took. Then she straightened, and I thought she’d look at me. But she didn’t. She said nothing and started toward the exit. Running from me again.

Fuck!

“What did I just hear you say to her?” Pepper’s voice sneered behind me.

My hand gripped the glass tightly. “You obviously heard me,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant and not like I was debating smashing this glass against the wall.

“You son of a bitch,” she snarled.

“Watch it, Pepper,” I warned, my entire body on edge.

I didn’t need to be pushed anymore. There was a fucking limit, and I was at mine.

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