Confessing any of that will make her even more skittish than she is right now so I swallow the words. But I can’t stop the next words from spilling free. “That song you sang. I wanted to ask for an encore.”
Her eyes sparkle…sparklewith pleasure. “Really?”
“Yes, really. It was incredible.”
Those amazing lips widen into a smile so sweet I want to dive right into it. Drown in it. “Thank you,” she says, a hot blush flowing into her cheeks.
Sweet heaven, what was a girl like her doing in a place like this?
The thought that any of those bastards out there would feel entitled to talk to her…hell,touch her…makes me crazy.
Every inch of my skin itches with the need to snatch her up, toss her in the truck I rented to blend in, and drive her the hell out of here.
But I play it cool. Try not to fixate on that lush mouth when she speaks.
“I don’t normally do repeats. There are too many amazing songs in the world to sing the same song over and over, unless they’re absolute classics, you know? But…umm…maybe, for you,” she says, biting her lip, and I stifle a groan.
“Yeah? And why am I so special?” I ask, my voice a gruff mess.
She shrugs shyly, sending me another furtive glance through her thick, beautiful lashes. “I think you took care of that douchebag yesterday?”
“Hmm,” I reply, noncommittal from old habits.
She stares at me until she gets that I won’t be adding any more to that. Then she nods. “You didn’t stick around long enough for me to thank you.”
I shrug and choose not to tell her that I was right outside in the parking lot, watching over her as she hopped on the night bus to the shitty motel she’s hiding out in.
That I had done that since I found her five days ago.
I had fucking cramps in my shoulders and back from sleeping in my car outside her motel door, waiting till the early hours to return to my own hotel to sleep once I knew she was safe.
“If you want to thank me, you can have a drink with me after you finish.”
She flushes and then shakes her head. “Oh… I don’t think I’m allowed to fraternize with customers. Barry’s rules.”
I keep my jaw loose and shove my hands into my armpits so she won’t see them bunch with fury.
I’ve been around long enough to know that the bar owner doesn’t follow his own rules.
He helps himself to whichever waitress is desperate enough to suck his dick at the end of the night.
Just as I know it’s only a matter of time before he turns his beady eyes on Aria.
Yeah, that was going to happen overhisdead body.
Hell, he’d tried to sell her to me minutes ago.
“We’ll go somewhere else. And I won’t tell Barry if you don’t,” I force out, then follow it with a wink. Because I’m harmless. And friendly. Right?
I hide a snort as she blushes again and her gaze rushes quickly over me.
The lighting in here isn’t much better than out in the bar—probably someone’s idea of mood lighting—so I’m not certain if she misses the hard cock pressing against my fly or she’s just that innocent and is too polite to look.
But I am partly thankful that as she raises her gaze to mine again.
After a few beats of hesitation, she says, “I finish at eleven. Is that okay?“
Something wild and untamed kicks in my gut but I breathe through it. “Sure. I’ll still be here.”
She stares at me for another few seconds before she nods. “Okay.”