Heart's a Mess

  "Hey, Violet," a voice said from behind her.

  A truly lovely male voice with just the right amount of rough dwelling in its seductive depths. The things that voice had said to her last night. Take it off. Touch me here. Don't stop. You feel soooo damn good, sweetheart. Her temperature spiked at the memory, as if she were baking beneath the summer sun. Alex apparently loved to talk and she definitely loved to listen.

  But this was bad. What she needed was to remove her shoes. Remove her shoes, get a drink and then to bed. But not with him, never ever, ever again with him. Because that would be asking for trouble. She'd had enough of that in her life.

  "Hi, Alex," she said without turning. The visual stimulus wasn't required. Nor was him catching sight of her suddenly all-too-obvious straining nipples. Stupid, perky pricks. "I thought you were behind the bar until closing."

  Sunday through Thursday the restaurant closed at nine and the bar at eleven. Her hopes and dreams of a smooth and speedy getaway had rested upon it. Her need to get the hell away from him sat right up there with her need to remove her shoes. Escape couldn't be more than nine, ten meters away at most. She only had to get out into the hallway and then through the back door. Her car couldn't be another five or six meters after that. Fifteen meters say, and she'd be home free. She could do it. She could and she would, whilst keeping her job, because he didn't remember.

  On one level, his drink-induced amnesia niggled. But on a hundred more she felt profoundly grateful for the fact. All night she'd taken her drink orders to Duncan, doing her best to avoid Alex. Her eyes, however, had strayed toward the man every chance they got. He'd given her a few bland smiles. Comforting, impersonal nods and nothing more. She'd felt safe, up until now.

  "No," he said. "Duncan and I take turns closing up. Tonight's my night off. Normally I'd have been out of here an hour ago. But I was waiting."

  "Yeah?" Violet threw open the locker to grab her handbag, doing her best to listen.

  And stopped. There was her bra. Neatly folded and sitting atop her bag.

  "Yeah," he said, his voice coming closer. "I thought we could talk."

  Motherfucker.

  She'd forgotten all about the stupid thing. Getting away had been her priority the night before. Forgetting it ever happened had featured predominately throughout the day. Evidence of their sexual escapades had skipped her mind entirely.

  The bra wasn't one she wore often. It had been a gift from a friend and the band was a bit tight. Losing it hadn't worried her anywhere near as much as it should have, clearly. When she'd gotten home, she'd torn off her clothes and dumped them in the laundry basket, doing her best to forget what she'd been up to. Who she'd been all over. Worry about the possible repercussions had filled her mind. Missing lingerie had been the least of her concerns.

  "How?" she asked, dry-mouthed.

  "I remembered your perfume."

  Violet closed her eyes, shutting it all out. It didn't work. He stood close enough now that she could feel the warmth of his body, the weight of his stare. And her job, her beautiful job, it was slipping away like sand through the hourglass. Shit.

  "I think it might be best if we talk at your place, yeah?" he said.

  "Not in the office?"

  "No," he said. "This is personal. I don't want this affecting work."

  Her eyes shot open. "You're not going to fire me?"

  "Absolutely not," he said. "No, Vi. I wouldn't...look, whatever happened or happens in the future stays between us, outside of this place. It doesn't impact your job. We can both be professional about this, right? We're both adults."

  Her heart had a mini seizure. Just in case. "It's really okay?" she asked.

  "It's perfectly fine. I promise."

  Her ribs loosened their pincer grip on her chest and she took a full, happy breath. It felt like her very first for the day. "Oh. Good."

  Alex smiled back at her, blue eyes warm. Really warm, bordering on smoking, smoldering hot. They were packed full of affection and the promise of good times ahead. And holy shit, reverse thrusters, because there wasn't a single chance of that happening. She couldn't let it.

  "In that case, we have nothing to talk about," she announced. "I think it's best if we just pretend this never happened."

  "Wait--"

  "It was a mistake, a huge mistake that will never be repeated." Violet grabbed her handbag and stuffed the bra deep inside. "I'm really glad we could sort this out."

  "No," he said. "We haven't sorted anything out. We need to talk."

  "This definitely doesn't affect my job?" she asked.

  "Definitely not."

  She nodded. "Then that wasn't an order from my boss. This never happened. None of it. Good night, Alex."

  Chapter Two

  Like hell she'd get away from him that easy.

  Alex stood behind the bar staring at Violet. Chillingly cold, foamy beer gushed over his hand, startling the crap out of him as the glass overfilled. "Damn it."

  "That's the sixth time you've done that," said Duncan helpfully.

  "Shut up."

  "This hour."

  Alex gave his smirking customer, luckily one of the regulars, an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Let me get you a clean one."

  "I gave up keeping count for the day," Duncan told the customer.

  "He would have had to take off his shoes. Math was never his strong suit," said Alex, finishing up with the fresh drink and placing it on the bar. "That one's on me, Reg."

  Reg nodded and smirked some more, moving back to his table.

  "Why don't you just go talk to her and put us all out of our misery?" his brother asked, throwing him a towel to mop up the mess. "Go on. They're finished serving dinner. It's a quiet night."

  "Didn't ask for your opinion."

  "Think of it as a gift. Catch her before she heads out the door."

  Alex shook his head. "No."

  "For fuck's sake," Duncan moaned melodramatically. "If I have to spend another day with you making cow eyes at her it's not going to end well."

  Alex ignored him.

  "She looks hot in that low-cut top tonight."

  His hackles rose. "Don't."

  "Maybe I'll go talk to her. Since you don't have the balls, and all." Duncan grinned at him, amusement lighting his eyes. Though Alex could only see the one. His brother had plastered his fringe down over half his face to cover the black eye from two days back. "She looks like a lot of woman to handle, if you know what I mean. Might be best if I take charge of this particular staff situation."

  Alex had advanced on the little prick, fists clenched tight, before he even knew what he was doing. "You want another black eye?" he growled, loudly enough to make the closest pub patrons cast curious looks in their direction. Shit.

  "No, numbnuts. I want you to grow a pair and go woo the girl already."

  "She wants to be left alone."

  "Right. That's why she's sneaking looks at you every time you're not looking at her."

  That stopped him. "She is?"

  Hope grabbed him by the throat.

  Until John rapped his knuckles on the other side of the bar. "Service."

  "What do you want?" Duncan barked at him.

  With one raised brow, John leaned across the bar. "You two idiots are making a scene. Again. Cut it out. And give me a bottle of the '01 Mount Cooma. I've got some truffles that I want to try it out with."

  "He won't go talk to her," Duncan said, reaching for the requested bottle of wine.

  "That's coming out of your pay," Alex informed his older brother.

  John just shrugged. "It's worth it. Who won't he go talk to?"

  "Are you kidding me?" Dunc asked. "How could you possibly not have noticed him drooling over Violet?"

  "Violet?" John accepted the bottle, checking the label with care. "That the new girl?"

  "Yes," said Dunc. "The one Marie's training up to manage the restaurant so she can have time off. You might recall we had a meeting about it?"
r />   His brother just looked at them blankly. Which shouldn't have surprised Alex but did. John's range of focus was amazingly narrow. If it didn't directly involve him or his kitchen then the man remained oblivious.

  "You know, Johnny. Your world is a small, pathetic place," said Dunc.

  "Wherein I am God." John's smile was all teeth. "Marie doesn't need help running the restaurant. What would she even want nights off for? This place is her life."

  "I guess she wants more of a life," said Alex.

  "Yeah. Right." His older brother scoffed and wandered away, bottle of wine in hand. "Bye."

  "You really want to end up like him?" asked Duncan. "Spending your free time alone, jerking off to a bottle of wine and some fungus?"

  "Are truffles fungus?"

  "Fucked if I know." Duncan shrugged. "Go talk to the girl. Please."

  His gaze zoomed straight to where she stood wiping down a table. Didn't matter where in the room she might be, he could feel her whereabouts and immediately put his eyes on her. It was a hell of a super power and a little scary, to be frank. Since when had he been so tuned in to any woman?

  Tonight she had on a plain black dress that fit her just right, and as Duncan said, gave him amazing glimpses of an expanse of creamy cleavage. It had short sleeves and the flowers tattooed on her arm peeked out from underneath. Her hair was up in some fifties-style 'do and her cherry-red lips shone like the sweetest ripe fruit. He had no idea how the woman had gotten beneath his skin so fast but he wanted beneath hers, constantly.

  Marie said something and Vi threw her head back, laughing raucously, completely unselfconscious. Something low in his guts tightened. His dick knew exactly what it wanted and no one else would do. Fuck she was pretty and what a gorgeous laugh. But as if conscious of his voyeurism, she quickly stifled the sound and pinned her lips shut. Then she picked up the cash bag and some paperwork, and headed toward the staff exit.

  "Go get her, tiger," Duncan said before moving down the bar to serve a customer.

  His feet were already moving.

  Not following her was out of the question.

  The office door clicked closed and she heard the lock turn.

  Violet wasn't particularly surprised. What with all the hot-and-heavy glances of the last few days, she'd known this had to be coming. Unwise as it was, a part of her had even yearned for it.

  She closed the safe door and spun the dial, tugged once to test it. Then she got the hell off her knees and stood, smoothing down her dress. "I was just finishing up for the night."

  "Hey," said the tall, beautiful man.

  "Boss."

  "Cute." Alex chuckled and sat himself down on the long leather couch pushed up against a wall. "See, the thing is, Vi. It's driving me crazy, not knowing what happened between us."

  "Nothing happened between us."

  "Now that's a lie."

  "All right, we fornicated."

  He licked his lips and gave her a halfway smile. "I get that. But I'm going to need more detail from you."

  "Oh, no..." She demurred, a hand rising in protest.

  "Please."

  "Such as?"

  "Why don't you come sit down so we can talk about it?" He patted the seat beside him in invitation. "You've been on your feet for hours."

  "True." Vi grabbed the back of one of the chairs situated in front of the big old desk, turned it to face him and sat down. Her hands wrapped around the chair arms, fingers holding on as if she expected takeoff to be imminent. Letting them roam free would be far too risky. She wanted to touch him again too much.

  "What do you want to know?" she asked.

  Another small smile from the man. "How did we end up in bed together, fornicating, Vi?"

  Meeting his eyes seemed impossible. She studied the wall over his left shoulder, the whiteboard to his right. It had been wiped perfectly clean, not so surprisingly. All mention of women's breast sizes and the lovely rendition of lingerie was gone. "Duncan invited me upstairs along with everyone else for a drink after work," she said, an innocuous enough place to start. "But I was tired, so I was just going to say good night and go. There were heaps of people and he was in the middle of a conversation with some guy, so I decided not to disturb him."

  Alex nodded and stretched his muscular arms out across the back of the lounge. Damn a hot man in a fitted t-shirt. He wore it far too well.

  "Go on," he said.

  "I was leaving when I saw you sitting on the end of your bed. The door was wide open. Obviously." Her thumbs rubbed at the smooth polished wood of the chair. For days she'd done her best to wipe all of it from her memory but now there it sat in full color, filling up her mind. "You were just kind of staring into space, lost in your own thoughts. I knew you'd obviously had a few but you were perfectly coherent when you spoke."

  "What did I say?"

  Vi swallowed and studied her shoes. Confessions had never been her strong point. "You just kind of looked at me. Then you asked me to come in and shut the door."

  "And you did," he said.

  "Yes."

  "Because I was your boss?"

  Her gaze shot to him as embarrassment and anger rolled about inside her. And a good amount of mortification. "No! Shit, Alex. I wouldn't do that."

  "Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. But I had to know."

  "And now you do." It took all her willpower not to peg one of her shoes at the jerk's head. Version two-point-oh, the good girl, was less than impressed. Her heart bounced about inside her chest. "You didn't order it, as if things would be all doom and gloom if I didn't comply. You just asked me. All right?"

  "Yes. I'm sorry," Alex said. "So why did you do it?"

  "Well, you looked so lost. So alone."

  His brows pulled tight and he gave her a pained look. "Please don't tell me it was a mercy fuck."

  A startled laugh escaped her. "No. It wasn't a mercy fuck. Unless it was a two-way mercy fuck, I suppose. I just..."

  "You just what?"

  She felt horribly exposed. This was too big a revelation, especially when she barely knew him. Her knees were pressed so tightly together there'd be bruises later.

  Alex didn't move. He just watched her, waiting her out. His short brown hair stuck up and his five o'clock shadow had kicked in. The man had the most sublime face. Not classically handsome but stunning just the same, long with a lovely jawline, the sort that beckoned to fingers and lips. In her head she had a hundred and one reasons for why it had happened.

  No, a million.

  "Tell me," he ordered softly.

  And it was an order, not a suggestion. She felt it clear through to her bones. Her sex certainly knew the difference. She crossed one leg over the other, all the better to rub her thighs together. "I couldn't walk away from you."

  "So what did you do, Vi?" he asked.

  Damn it, she was completely under his spell. Her mouth fell open and out it all came, beyond her control. "I closed the door and I walked over to you. You were sitting with your legs spread, like you are now. But you weren't leaning back."

  "What was I doing?"

  "You were looking at me."

  Alex's eyes narrowed on her mouth. "Where?"

  "My face. My breasts."

  He shifted slightly, widening his legs a little more. "Did that bother you?"

  She shook her head. "No. You didn't look lonely anymore. You, ahh...you looked hungry, I guess. It was a rush."

  His gaze fell from her face to the twin areas of her anatomy in question. But that was okay, hers had glued to the growing state of his groin. Something serious had happened behind the zip of his jeans. Something that made breathing an issue.

  "What happened next?" he asked.

  Vi licked her lips, her mouth impossibly dry. "You ran your hands up the back of my legs. From my ankles up to just below the hem of my skirt."

  "You were wearing a skirt?"

  "Yes. A skirt and a blouse."

  His gaze dropped to her legs. "Did you have stockings or pantyho
se on, or nothing?"

  Her cheeks heated. They couldn't do this. They shouldn't do this. Also, a hell of a time to have to admit to control-brief pantyhose. Maybe a lie would do. But no, version two-point-oh didn't approve. And screw him, again, he could take her as he found her. This hadn't been her idea.

  "Pantyhose," she blurted out.

  "Pantyhose, so they went all the way up. Okay. What happened next, Vi?"

  "I pulled my blouse out of the waist of the skirt and I undid the buttons. You just...you kept your hands around the back of my knees. You watched."

  "You took off your top?"

  Vi nodded. "Yes, I took off my top."

  Her eyes were locked on his groin. His cock looked huge, trapped inside his pants. The ridge made a stark contrast to the flat of his belly and hips, the curves of his thighs. Her words had done that to him. Nothing else. Knowing he'd gotten so hard eroded her mind. She had no other excuse for what came out of her mouth next.

  "Take it out."

  He held perfectly still. "Take what out?"

  "Your cock. Take it out. I want to see," she said, her pride demanding she brazen it out. "If you want me to keep going, then I want to see."

  Holy hell, the smile that curved his lips had her stomach dropping from four floors up. She had the worst feeling she'd just lost the battle.

  But not the war, damn him.

  "Keep talking," he said, and his hands went to his waist. Belt, unbuckled. Button, undone. Zip, lowered. He raised his hips and shuffled his jeans down. Dark boxer briefs strained to cover him. The woman's eyes were all over him, exactly how he wanted. Damned if she would keep him at a distance. He'd seduce Violet if it was the last thing he did.

  "You're not talking," he said.

  She licked her lips. "I took off my top and you undid the zip on the back of my skirt. You pulled the skirt down over my hips. And the pantyhose."

  "Did I say anything?"

  "You told me I was beautiful."

  He slipped his hand beneath the waist of his underwear. Taking it slow and putting on a show for her. He'd never done anything like this before. But with her pretty face full of focus, and all of it for him, it was kind of fun. "You are beautiful. Did you feel beautiful?"

  She nodded, her eyes tracking his hand's progress. "Yes, when you looked at me that way."

  Beneath the fabric of his boxers he moved his hand. "Thong, bikini or boy-leg?"