“Your father passed?” His tone completely changes with those words. I hear the sympathy in his voice, and it surprises me. It changes everything. The atmosphere, the tension. It’s as if his concern has washed away all else. Stopping where I am just outside his red door and nearly back at the winding iron staircase, he tells me in a murmur, “I’m sorry to hear that.” Glancing up and over my shoulder, I look into his eyes to find sincerity there too.
“Thank you.” Something between us pulls tight, so that I almost lean into him. I would like that, I think. To lean into his strong body and let him hold me up for a minute. His hands move to his tie, tucking it beneath his jacket and for a moment, he isn’t the intimidating man who taunts me, who tempts me. He’s that boy in school I knew was hurting and I desperately wanted to know.
“It’s this way, Braelynn.” He tilts his head and repositions himself so he’s leading the way.
“Right,” I whisper although he doesn’t wait for me. I follow him as we go down the hall, and Declan gestures to a room.
“Oh, wow.” Embarrassment stains my cheeks and I feel about two inches tall. The door is literally labeled “Back room.”
Declan makes a sound that could be a laugh. “Your friend Scarlet didn’t show you the back room?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“So she wants you to get into trouble. Is that it?”
“No.” She doesn’t want me to get into trouble. Scarlet is the person who wants me to keep this job the most, I think. Without her I may never have come back for day two. “Mia’s the one who asked me to come down here; Scarlet isn’t in yet.”
He nods, his hands slipping into his pockets. “Understood.”
It would be the end of the conversation, but Declan’s eyes stay on me, and after a minute I can’t look away. He’s intoxicating. It makes me nervous as hell when he does this, but it also makes my heart pound with excitement.
He tears his eyes from me and opens the door to the back room. “Go in and get your sugar crystals.” Just like that, it’s ended.
It was a direct order, so I enter the room, my knees still trembling and my mind still getting a grip on everything that’s happened. Mia said the box would be labeled with sprinkles, so that’s what I look for. Large shelves hold many, many boxes of supplies for the bar and the restaurant. All things that can be safely stored down here. Declan’s eyes are on me the entire time. I find the box easily enough and pull it off the shelves. If he comes in here and closes the door behind us, then this is the beginning of one of the many fantasies I’ve had about him.
He doesn’t come in and every minute that passes I scold myself for thinking he would. He keeps a professional distance.
I start to think it’s all in my head.
* * *
He waits until I’m taking a step into the hall, and then his large hand wraps around my arm. The box drops to the floor as I gasp. It doesn’t open as it crashes beneath us and he pulls me closer to him. Everything blurs as his face comes into view, his eyes piercing mine.
He controls every aspect, pinning me against the wall with my hand above my head. He leans in close, the warmth of his breath on my ear. “I’m warning you, Braelynn. If this is too much for you, you should walk away, because there’s so much more than this.” My eyes close. Everything he said should terrify me, but all I want is for him to stop warning me. His heated breath tickles along the crook of my neck as he whispers there, “If you don’t want to do this, walk away.”
With his thigh between my spread legs, goosebumps erupt over my skin. Both of us are still as my hammering heart calms, his hard body pressed to mine. It’s only when he loosens his grip slightly and pulls back that I turn my head to look into his eyes, the eyes that see through me, the eyes that I can’t look away from. If you don’t want to do this, walk away.
I plant my feet and stay where I am, even when he lets go of me completely.
Declan stares back at me, waiting. One second passes. Two seconds and the world between us is set on fire.
I think he leans in first, but it could be me. Our lips crash in a devouring kiss. Almost as if he’s pissed off I came down here, and almost as if I’m pissed off that he’s frustrated he can’t keep me down here. Neither thing can be true. I want this too much.