“Gimme,” he said to Sawyer, pointing to the chocolate cupcakes. “Black coffee and two of those.”
“Only if you agree to keep the business in Mercy,” Sawyer demanded, grinning. They were all strong-minded and stubborn and they used whatever they could to get their own way.
Kai gave him a discreet middle finger as they made their way up to the counter. Kai shook his head as the people in front of them walked off with their coffee and donuts. If you were going to overdose on fat and sugar, why mess around with donuts? Go big or go home. Chocolate, at least, had some antioxidant properties.
Sawyer, being Sawyer, turned on the charm and his drawl, and Kai rolled his eyes when he all but batted his eyelashes at the young server.
“Flick around, Tiff?” Sawyer asked after placing their order.
“She went in the back to get more cupcakes She should be out in a sec.” Tiffany pulled her eyes off Sawyer, gave Kai an intense up-and-down look, and when she met his eyes again, he noticed that hers were far too adult for that fresh face. God, all he wanted was a cup of coffee and a cupcake and not to be eye-screwed by a woman ten years younger than him.
He could read the invitation in her body language as easily as he could the specials on the brightly colored board behind her head. She was young—too young—but she looked like she knew what she wanted.
And it looked like he was the only item on the menu. Kai wasn’t even remotely tempted. Yet again. There was seriously something wrong with him; what the hell was up with his hesitation? He was thirty-four and single, he woke up every morning with a hard-on tenting the sheets, and his relationship with his hand was at an all-time high. Women still found him attractive and weren’t shy about letting him know.
Hell, he could’ve re-joined the Mile High Club somewhere over the Atlantic yesterday if he’d been willing to take the sexy flight attendant up on her offer to blow his mind.
“I’ll rock your world,” she’d whispered in his ear as her fingers tap-danced their way up his thigh. She’d been gorgeous, tall, blond, and stacked, and, because he wasn’t a saint, he’d considered it. But while his dick had been jumping up and down yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!” his brain had rolled over, yawned, and gone to sleep. His heart, as it had been taught so long ago, just stayed the hell out of any decision that involved a woman.
He’d thought about it for about ten seconds while he looked into those bright blue eyes before gently refusing her. He hadn’t the energy for the contortions required for sex in that rabbit-hutch space. It would've been quick and clinical and, frankly, he could get quick and clinical from beating off in the shower. Without the risk of popping a disc in his back.
He’d refused a lot of offers of sex lately.
He’d lost his virginity at fifteen and after nearly two decades of regular sex, he wanted it to be more than a one-time encounter with an empty-headed stranger who liked his packaging and his package. But his new resolve to avoid casual sex was problematic since he wasn’t interested in a relationship and he didn’t want to—or know how to—make space in his life for a woman. He’d always found it difficult to trust, to let anyone inside the fortress he’d built around his thoughts and feelings.
Besides, no self-respecting woman would have anything to do with the man he was beneath his muscles and his okay-looking face. Behind the façade of being a civilized entrepreneur, he was still a street rat, a teenage hustler, a double-dealing pseudo-gangster, and the special-ops soldier who’d seen, and done, far too much bad shit far too early in his life.
They’d run like hell.
“Stop distracting my staff, Sawyer!”
Kai whipped his head around to find the source of the melodious voice and saw a woman holding a tray of freshly baked red velvet cupcakes. Resisting the urge to stuff his face, he looked up and saw the sexiest mouth he’d ever laid eyes on. He had a vague impression of long, tawny hair pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail, a trim body, and light eyes, but his own eyes were having trouble moving off her mouth. It was wide and unpainted with a natural pout that had the blood in his head rocketing south. Images of exactly where he’d like to see those lips started flashing through his head and Kai forced himself to do a few rapid multiplication tables to keep from embarrassing himself.
He stood and stared at her, knowing that his own mouth was half open and that his eyes were probably glazed. He wanted her. Under him, over him, any damn way he could get her. As soon as possible.
She might be, he realized with fascinated horror, the one woman he’d have difficulty saying no to.
Kai felt Sawyer’s elbow in his ribs and he blinked, slowly turning his head away from her mouth and back to Sawyer’s face. “What?”
Sawyer lifted his eyebrows. “Flick Sturgiss, meet Kai Manning, one of my partners.”
Flick Sturgiss? This was the Sturgiss brothers’ baby sister? From the way Sawyer talked, Kai had expected her to be about fifteen, plump with baby fat, and wearing braces. Not this woman in her late twenties who had him desperately wanting to adjust his pants. Not certain that he could enunciate the right words in the right order, Kai just lifted his sweaty head in her direction. Aqua-green-blue mermaid eyes locked onto his and, once again, the room and everyone in it simply disappeared.
His thoughts immediately went to those long legs wrapping around his waist, his hand fisted in that long hair, pulling her head back so that he could ravage her mouth, her throat, taste that flawless skin. His other hand would be on her ass, sliding up underneath those denim shorts. . . .
Kai felt himself hardening at the thought, and only years of practicing self-control over his body kept him from tenting his athletic shorts.
You have to keep it tidy, Manning.
Flick looked away from him and placed her tray on the counter and Kai pulled in some much needed air.What the hell just happened?He felt like he’d just stepped on and detonated a landmine.
“Nice to meet you, Kai,” she said in a neutral voice, her eyes looking just past his head. Neutral or not, that voice sounded like it was designed for a bedroom, for phone sex, for a bordello.
“Tiff, can you put these in the display case, please?” She turned back to Kai. “Did Tiff take your order?”
Since she was looking at him, Kai scratched the side of his head and tried to think. Had she? He had no idea.
She lifted her eyebrows at Sawyer. “I think it’s a bit early for your friend. Order? Is it in?”