Page 61 of Wild Card
I glanced down. “No…”
“Every other day, you walk out of here in a loose gray tee. Half the time, it’s stained or has a hole. Not tonight, though. Maybe it’s not a date, but you’ve gotplans.”
Busted. Damn it.
As much as I kept telling myself this thing with Axel couldn’t go anywhere, my willpower failed me. I wanted to look good tonight.
“Glad I amuse you,” I muttered. “I’m going to be late, so can you just…” I waved her toward the door.
She smirked. “What? Don’t want me to see the tight jeans you’re about to put on?”
“Fuck off, Deputy.”
She laughed. “Yes, sir. Don’t get up to too much trouble tonight. I’d hate to have to arrest my favorite coworker.”
I rolled my eyes, but she had no idea how likely that might be if I was spending the evening with Axel.
Once she was gone, I changed into my tight jeans—fuck it, but she’d been right about that too—and headed outside to hop into my private vehicle and drive over to Axel’s place.
He’d been vague about tonight’s plans, but I knew Allison Prince would be there as a buffer. Nothing too inappropriate could happen when we were talking about grant applications, right?
I pulled up outside Axel’s gate, and he came out, long hair blowing around in the wind. Fuck, but I loved that hair. I could run my fingers through it all?—
Stop it.
I killed the engine and opened my door. “Hey, sorry I’m late. Got busy toward the end of shift.”
“Yeah, shit happens. It’s fine. We should go, though.”
“Where are we going? Over to the house?”
“Uh, no. We’re meeting up for drinks.” He opened the passenger door. “You can be my designated driver.”
I slipped back into the driver’s seat. “Drinks, huh? You didn’t lie to me about Allison Prince, did you?”
“Why the fuck would I do that?”
“I don’t know. To trick me into going out with you?”
Axel’s dark laugh raised the hairs on the back of my neck. “You really think I want your dick that bad? I don’t lie to get men into my bed, Dalton.”
My ears burned with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean…” I sucked in a breath, though it didn’t seem I was getting any oxygen. “I wasn’t. That’s not?—”
“Jesus, don’t have a coronary,” Axel said. “Just drive, okay? We really are meeting Allison.”
I started the car and drove because I couldn’t trust my mouth not to make a fool of me. Axel directed to me to turn right onto the highway. I assumed we’d be meeting up at Ball Breakers, the pool hall Axel and his brothers frequented, but he told me to keep going when I slowed to make the turn.
“Where are we headed?” I asked.
“It’s over by the college.”
“What is?”
He pointed toward the next intersection. “Just take a right here, then a left on Vernon Drive.”
“We’re going toGlitter Balls?”
Glitter Balls was a well-known gay club where they regularly performed drag shows. There weren’t any other bars over this way, so it was the only logical conclusion.
