Page 84 of The Barkeep and the Bro

I shrugged my shoulders. I’d rather him stay pissed off.

“Just needed someone to dance with, huh?”

“Yeah,” I grumbled.

Charlie gave me a cold, hard look. Hurt flashed across his face, softening his eyes, making his bottom lip tremble. I could tell he was working up the nerve to say something, the words building in his chest. Preparing to tell me off and curse me out for crossing every conceivable line with him.

“I’m glad you asked me to dance.” He heaved in short breaths and clenched his fists. “Iwantedto dance with you.”

He slumped his shoulders, his body deflating. It was alarming to watch someone usually so alive and extroverted fold into himself. He shuffled into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

I was an idiot. I was a damn idiot.

Hewantedto dance with me.

It took me a good, long moment to get my behind out of bed, march into the bathroom, and yank back the shower curtain. “I wanted to dance with you, too.”

29

CHARLIE

Mitch stared into my eyes with an intensity and vulnerability that would’ve stripped me naked had I not been naked already. I tuned out the water hitting my body.

“I wanted to dance with you,” he said again.

I gulped back a nervous, boulder-sized lump in my throat. It seemed like Mitch had one of those, too.

“I like you, Charlie. I really like you.” Mitch’s eyes crinkled at the sides. “I feel like I’m a teenager again.”

I turned off the water. “I like you, too. It’s not just physical with me. Though that part is...really good.”

“You don’t have to tell me. You have the heart of an angel and the mouth of a hoover.” Mitch knocked his fist twice against the wall. “But...dammit, this is wrong. You work for me. And if Ellie ever found out…”

I had the same concerns, but they seemed the size of jellybeans at this moment. “We’ll figure it out. We can try, can’t we? I can always get a new job, and you can get a new daughter.”

Thankfully, Mitch laughed, his sense of humor still intact.

“Is that what you want? To get a new job?”

“No. But I can sign a waiver?”

“A waiver? For what?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t actually know what those are, but they sound official.”

Mitch let out a deep chortle that made his ridiculously sexy body rumble and let me know things would be all right. Like dinosaur life at Jurassic Park, somehow, we would find a way.

Right?

Mitch broke up my train of thought when he dragged a hand down my chest and pinched my wet nipple. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your shower.”

“It’s big enough in here for two, as we previously discovered.” I raked my eyes over his chest and the chubby poking from his boxers.

Mitch’s eyes traveled down to my out-in-the-open boner. His finger drifted over my pubic hair, sending glorious shivers rippling in me. “Why don’t you turn that shower back on?”

He stripped out of his boxers, unleashing his thick cock. The shower jets sprayed hot water across my chest, but that heat was nothing compared to when Mitch pushed me against the wall and devoured me in a kiss.

My moan echoed at the perfect pitch in the shower. His wet body slicked against mine as he made like Jesus and took the wheel. His large frame towered over me, making me feel delicate and precious, not small. His hands brushed my lips, then traveled down my body, pinching my nipples and tumbling down my stomach. I clenched with need. I could’ve come right then and there, but I wanted to stretch this out.

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