Page 25 of Twisted Hearts

“Here for a drink,” Shawn replied.

He leaned in, crossing his forearms over each other, resting them on the bar. The move had the lights shining down on the blond locks I’d more than once thought of running my fingers through…tugging on…

“What can I get for you then?”

Maybe he was here on business. Maybe he was here as a friend of the team or whatever, probably looking for a woman who would happily go home with him for a night. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t be happy about it…it just wouldn’t be smart. Not now.

And I was done with dumb decisions.

He scanned the wall and shook his head, grinning as he found whatever he was looking for.

“I’ll take two bottles of the Angry Boss IPA.”

He gestured to a bottle several rows high on the back bar, and right before I turned to fill his order, he reached out and put his palm flat on the bar. Close to me. So close I could reach out and hold it.

Stupid.You’re thinking stupid.

As I handed him his beers, he grinned down at the label. That twist of his lips, the humor in his eyes…it pulled me in.

“What’s so funny?”

“Mybossasked me to order one for him, but he lifted it in the air and I didn’t see what it said, just the label.”

Angry Boss. I was intrigued, especially since Shannon had suggested I call Jaxon. I hadn’t stopped thinking about it, but I hadn’t yet made the call. Maybe there was a chance Daniel would let me walk away. After all, it’d been a week.

“So does he have a sense of humor, or is he a jerk?”

He frowned down at the label and shot me a smile that was so pure it threatened to steal all my good sense. “I think it’s his attempt at a sense of humor. I should get this to him before I find out for sure, but can I get one more thing?”

The gleam in his eye told me it wasn’t a drink.

“Your name and number.” He did that sexy man thing, tilting his chin up, the kind of move that made all girls go crazy. What was it about that stupid gesture? I froze, waiting for him to say more, and when he didn’t, I realized it was because he’d tossed the ball to me.

My turn.

I grabbed an empty from the bar and stepped back. This guy. He had confidence in spades, but he didn’t quite seem so arrogant anymore. Maybe I’d been mistaken about that; after all, he’d just been doing his job, and he hadn’t liked a woman being alone in an alley.

Did that make him a good guy?

I wasn’t sure I trusted my instincts anymore.

I thought of all this. The pros. The cons. Reality sank in like a thundercloud as I dumped the empty bottle into the garbage.

I was a woman hiding from her fiancé, not a woman on the market.

Which meant I needed to stay far away from Shawn, who made my insides feel twisty-turvy. “Twelve dollars for the beers, please.”

Shawn slowly reached back into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, retrieving a twenty like he was trying to seduce me with his small movements.

Unfortunately, it was working. Strong hands, thick fingers, calluses I caught on his palms that told me he was a man who wasn’t afraid to work with his hands and did it often.

Reluctantly, I dragged my eyes off the cash and his hands, up to his face, and when I did, my breath stalled. God he was gorgeous, and his expression had turned heated. No…not heated.Wanting.

For me.

He slid the cash toward me and, when I reached for it, didn’t remove the pressure of his fingertips.

“There was something else I ordered.”

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