He was the ultimate bad boy, she reminded herself. But not in the flirty, mischievous, funny way her romance novels usually described. He was arrogant, and super confident and she knew that he didn’t give a damn what anyone thought of him. Rough, tough, dangerous, hardass. He was a bad boy on steroids.
And she wanted to do him, right here, right now, right on the bar. She barely suppressed a moan.
Crap, she was in so much trouble.
Pippa jammed her elbow into her ribs. “Did you just whimper?”
“No!” Flick yelped and although there was no way he could’ve heard her from across the room, Kai turned his head to look at her. His golden eyes clashed with hers and Flick felt all the air being sucked out of the room. She tried to haul some in but there was none.
“Breathe, you idiot.”
Pippa slapped her between the shoulder blades and, startled out of her trance, Flick pulled in some desperately needed oxygen. Dragging her gaze from Kai’s face, she blinked at Pippa. “What the hell? That hurt!”
“So would falling flat on your face when you pass out,” Pippa hissed. “I thought you said he was leaving.”
Flick glared at Kai’s back. “That was Plan A. Thegoodplan.”
“What’s the bad Plan B?” Pippa cocked her head.
“I’m going to pretend that yesterday didn’t happen and go back to my original plan of avoiding men.”
Pippa’s laughter rang out loud and true. “Yeah, don’t know if that’s going to work ‘cos he looks like he wants to eat you up in one big gulp and you look like you’ll let him so...Good luck with that.”
She needed more than luck, Flick thought. She needed a damned miracle.
Kai had come out for a beer, to shoot some pool and unwind, but because he was currently having shitty luck, his latest wet dream was sitting across the bar looking far too take-me-to-bed amazing.
He took a sip of his beer as his heart rate inched upwards. That long hair he’d plunged his hands in was pinned to her head in a tangled knot and her outfit of skinny jeans, a pale pink tee, and a black vest was conservative, but she still managed to look hot and classy.
He glanced at a blonde in a tiny skirt and tight shirt walking past them and thought that there was a great deal to be said for going for the “less is more” look.
Kai sighed and looked down into his beer glass, resisting the urge to look at Flick again. She was everything the blonde wasn’t; subtlety sexy, stylish. Men didn’t toy with her, they didn’t bang her and disappear, didn’t take what they needed, and then piss off. As he’d intended to do as of twelve hours ago. If he’d thought for one second that his plans might change, he would never have slept with her.
Flick was the type of woman that men stuck to, held on to, and worked for. All the things he never did and wasn’t prepared to do. But he was here and so was she and they’d have to deal with each other, just for tonight. Somehow he’d find an opportunity to explain that he’d be in Mercy a bit longer than expected; he’d keep it short and simple.
Sawyer nudged his side with his elbow. “Hey, Jack’s behind the bar, and he’s talking to Flick and Pippa. And he’s sending you his death glare.”
“I haven’t been in here for over four months. How can I have pissed him off?” Kai demanded before slapping the heel of his hand against his forehead. For a moment he’d forgotten that he was temporarily living in a town where gossiping was considered a community event. “Flick and Jack are siblings.”
“There you go,” Sawyer replied. “This is a small town, Kai, and its residents have active imaginations. Two plus two is never four.”
“For all they know, we could’ve spent that time inside, just talking.”
“Did you?”
Well,no. Although their bodies had a lot to say.
“It figures that Flick would have a big brother looking out for her,” Kai muttered and then wondered whether there were more Sturgiss men that he might run into. “How many brothers does she have again?”
“Four, five if you include me.”
“All in Mercy?”
“Nah. Two half-brothers, and she barely knows them. Her youngest brother died a long time ago.”
Kai wasn’t going to ask—it had nothing to do with him. He definitely wasn’t going to ask...
“How did he die?”