Page 44 of Brew
“My favorite.”
I glare at him. “Why are you lurking around in here?”
“Lurking?”
“Yes.” I jab a finger into his chest. He follows the movement, glancing down at where I poked him. “That is what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
His nostrils flare just a little. “I was up early, as it happens. Couldn’t sleep. Last time I checked, I still own the joint.”
“So you thought you’d hang out at my desk?”
He shrugs. “I thought you regretted what we did.” When I don’t answer and look down at my shoes, he tips my chin up. “Doyou?”
“I told you last night, we work together,” I whisper-shout, even though nobody else is here. “That complicates things.”
“Only if we let it.”
This man talks in riddles, that’s when he is talking to me. Half the time it’s grunts and hand signals. I don’t know why I’m so angry, maybe because I know this is all wrong, but I still want it anyway.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I don’t say things I don’t mean.” His gaze is piercing. “Ever.”
“You want what you can’t have,” I blurt. “It’s human nature?—”
He blanches. “You sayin’ I can’t have it?”
My mouth opens like a blowfish, but no sound comes out. “That’s not what I meant. I just meant, it’s a game to you. Why do you want me when you can have any woman who crosses your path?” I fling my arm out to nowhere.
He stares at me for a few long seconds, then says, “Idon’tplay games. And it doesn’t matter aboutotherwomen. I’m a one woman at a time guy. That’s one thing you’ll learn about me as we steer our way through this.”
My eyebrows shoot up. I know I don’t know himthatwell, but I’ve got eyes. I see how women at the club eye him up whenever he walks into a room. There’s something ungettable about Brew, something mysterious. He turns heads.
He’s broody.
Grumpy.
Catch me if you can. That’s the vibe he gives off.
I doubt he knows he’s doing any of those things, it’s just how he is, but women respond to it. I’m a classic example of knowing I should run away, but finding my feet glued to the ground, unable to move even if I wanted to.
I fold my arms over my chest. “Throughwhat, exactly?”
He motions between us. “Us.”
My eyes are round as I laugh. “Brew, there is nous.What happened between us shouldn’t have happened?—”
“So you’re denyin’ we have chemistry?”
I never knew Brew could articulate himself so well. Again, he confounds me. He’s not dumb, obviously, I just didn’t realize he had more than a three word vocabulary.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re worried about other women? Don’t be. I haven’t looked at another woman since your hair was longer and you wore those tight, dark blue pants and brought sugared almond cookies to work.”
I’m a blowfish again. “What tight, dark blue pants?” I think back. Wait. It was months ago because the weather was cooler, and I haven’t made those cookies in forever. I narrow my eyes. “That’s a little creepy.”
“Not from where I was standin’.”
