Page 71 of Protect

“Might have to start ordering those all the time,” Rowan says, setting his empty daiquiri glass down on the bar in front of me.

I laugh. “Well, isn’t it my humor that made you want to make me your girlfriend, darlin’?” I ask him.

He smirks at me, it’s a bit of a tipsy smirk, but it should be considering I made his drink pretty strong. Rowan’s a big guy though so it would take more than a daiquiri, even a good sized one, and a couple of beers to bowl him over.

He leans his elbows down on the bar, his face only a few inches from mine in the noisy crowd.

“Truth, Vi?”

I lean forward. “Truth, Kingsley,” I challenge.

“I think youlikethat I called you my girlfriend.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask, pulling out a shot glass and setting it on the bar, feeling a little free. With Hollie sleeping at my parents tonight, and Rowan in my space with his eyes on me for themajority of the night, I feel like a stiff drink is in order. I pour a double of Jack and knock it back, licking my lips as I do. When I set the glass on the bar and look back up at Rowan, he’s staring, his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Never wished I was whiskey before so that’s a first,” he says. My core aches with just his touch as he tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. The stolen kisses when Hollie wasn’t looking or after she’s gone to bed have been the only contact I’ve had with him between my busy work days, but they’re just enough to make me want more, to want it all.

He leans over the bar and brings his lips to the shell of my ear. The crowd is noisy dancing to Zach Bryan’s Revival but all I can hear is him.

“You’re so fucking sexy, Vi, and you’re damn lucky this bar is full or I’d be propping you right up on this bar top.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask. “Then what?” I taunt.

Rowan chuckles in surprise with my forward question, looking down to gather his thoughts. When he returns his eyes to mine, they’re smoldering, like he’s teetering on the edge of losing control. I never realized it until right now, but I think Iwanthim to lose control.

His lips brush my earlobe and my neck breaks out in goosebumps, as he rises to my challenge.

“Well, since you asked, I’d be pushing your panties aside, the ones I just know would be soaked for me, and then I’d fuck your tight little pussy until you were tired and spent from screaming my name.” My breath hitches with his words. He slides his fingers up my forearm, and his voice is a hoarse whisper. “But, like I said, this bar is way too full for that, and I definitely don’t share.”

I tilt my lips up to his, feeling almost desperate and breathless. I swear I hear a growl leave his chest.

“Pool?” Opp asks, wrapping his arm around Rowan’s neck, breaking our connection.

“Hey, Little T,” Opp says. “This fucker bothering you?”

I shake my head, trying to regain my composure and grin at Opp. “Not any more than usual.”

Rowan knocks his fist on the bar once as he starts to back up. “One more hour until you’re off, yeah, Vi?” he asks.

“’Bout that,” I say without looking up to meet his gaze as Opp pulls him away.

“I’ll be here. Just what kind of a boyfriend would I be if I didn’t make sure you got home safe,” he calls out, cupping his mouth through the crowd just as the music ends. The people in the nearby vicinity stop what they’re doing and glance between us. A few of them start to laugh when they see embarrassment on my face.

“Let’s fuckin’ go, loverboy,” Opp says, fake punching Rowan to the kidney, and I turn and smile to myself. I most definitely liked it when he called me his girlfriend.

As luck would have it, the last hour of my shift I end up taking over for Lou in the back for the rest of my shift—he can only enter in data so long before his arthritis kicks up.

When the noise hasdied down, I’m convinced Rowan has probably given up and gone home, but I can’t be sure because I left my phone under the bar. I take a deep breath, I’m not a chicken, but the idea of being alone with him has made me, well, a bit of a chicken.

I tidy up my logbook and plug in the bar iPad, checking the time. It’s just after 2 a.m.

Music still plays through the sound system as I make my way to the front, and I wonder why Lou left it on, he usually hates the noise after the bar is closed.

It’s dark when I get out of the back office, the Christmas lights that hang from the ceiling are the only lights still on when I come through the long hallway at the back of the bar. I wonder briefly if Lou is even still here or if he left, but my question is answered the moment I round the corner and see Rowan, sitting alone in the dim light, waiting for me.

I stop dead in my tracks, not saying a word, just watching the easy rise and fall of his chest sitting at the bar, his large hands folded in front of him like he has all the time in the world.

I look around and try to appear like I have it together as he stands and makes his way to the front door.

---