“Speaking of family, I’m guessing you chased your hardheaded boy over here because he doesn’t have a lick of common sense,” I ask. Actually, I understand the reason he came for Roxie now more than ever before in my life. Never have I felt the urge to chase a woman, let alone love one.
“Well, yes and no. He’s hardheaded all right, but he loves Roxie, and the right love is worth moving mountains for or even making extremely long, painful journeys for.” She grabs her glass and drops her head back, drinking the rest in one long gulp as if to swallow up her words with the liquid.
“Do you have someone like that? Someone you’d travel for?” I need to know more about her without flat out demanding that she tell me everything because she’ll be running a million miles a minute to get away from me, and I just can’t let that happen.
“Only my boy.” That’s good to know that she doesn’t have a fucker I’d have to kill and bury while attempting to make her forget he’d ever existed. Mental images of destroying this imaginary man flood my brain, which is sick and insane since we just met.
Straightening up my long frame, I press my hand to the bar top and stare into her light amber-colored eyes.
“We’re going to have to change that,” I reply, leaning in a little bit closer, itching to step around to the other side of the bar and forget all about work, manners, civility, and decency. All I want is to feel and taste her until we’re both sated and unable to move and then do it all over again.
“Are you flirting with me?” If she wants to take it that way, it’s fine, but I’m stating facts. There’s no doubt I’m coming on strong, and even I know it. Still, she has no idea that inside my head, I’m well past flirting and we’re onto the “she’s mine forever.”
“I thought that was obvious. I must be getting rusty in my old age.” I don’t know when the last time I intentionally flirted with a woman was, and I don’t care to remember. All I can think about is getting to know my woman here and making sure she knows I want only her.
“Old? You’re probably younger than me,” she exclaims, which is total bullshit.
“Nah. Can’t be, beautiful.”
“Again with the flirting, Liam,” she says. My name comes off her lips like a purr, and I want to lean in and taste those soft pillows, biting down and marking them as mine and then kissing them gently to make up for being so rough.
“Damn, Boss. Keep your dick in your pants.” I’m going to kill him. Whipping my head to the left, I growl and glare at the beefy bastard standing next to Esperanza.
“Blade, I love you like a son, but you’re this close.” He throws his hands up, inching slightly back with a grin. He knows he’s playing a dangerous game with me right now. He may have never seen me with a woman, but he’s seen me angry, and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of my wrath.
“Well, then, get me a beer and run me a tab. I’m gonna sit at that table over there when you’re ready, Ms. Martin.”
I pull a beer out quickly and hand it to him, knowing damn well I ain’t charging him shit. He takes it and heads over to the corner to probably think about the woman he’s really interested in.
“So, Anthony tells me you’re like the rest of them, a Steele Rider, and that you’ve served as well.”
I nod, pouring her another glass. “Yes. I’ve led them in and out of missions for a long, messed-up time and thankfully brought them all back, but not always in the same pristine way they came in.”
“I’m sure that’s the case. You hear all the time on the news and read about those who serve coming back with all sorts of trauma, both physical and emotional. I’m sorry that any of you have to face such grief when you give so much.”
“I suppose we all carry our own burdens. So, you said you live in Vegas?”
“Yes, I have a home outside of the city. Emiliano does a wonderful job of spoiling me rotten to the point that I am a lady of leisure these days.”
“As you should be.”
“Hardly. Still, I love to spend time in my greenhouse, tending to my vegetables.” There’s a sense of pride that beams in her eyes at the accomplishment that makes me want to kiss her. Who the hell am I kidding? I’d make any excuse to kiss her.
“Boss, I need you down here,” Sam calls out, and I can see he’s fucking swamped. Fuck, I grunt internally because I want to devote every minute to my woman, but duty calls.