I felt like an unexploded bomb ready to detonate at the slightest movement.
Something lethal stirred in my veins as I drank at the bar with my teammates, a little too attuned to the door as I waited for Mary to walk through it.
I couldn’t place my agitation, couldn’t figure out how I’d managed to be completely fine around Mary until tonight. I’d survived that night in my room with her naked in my bed, kept my hands to myself and didn’t push her when she said she didn’t remember a thing. I had been content to live in this somewhat stable peace between us, knowing that was all I’d get from her.
But seeing her in that dress tonight, watching the way she took me in, how her skin tinged pink… it had wired me up tight enough to combust.
I had to have her.
At the very least, I had to shoot my shot, to tell her that I wanted her and not back down. I wouldn’t let her hide, either. If she didn’t want anything to do with me, she’d have to say it to my face — and the way she looked at me, I knew even if she could get the words out, they’d be a lie.
I was usually up for playing the cat and mouse game. I found it fun, enticing, and loved to lick my chops before finally devouring my prize in the end.
But with Mary, I didn’t have the control to play the game any longer, to act unaffected by her.
I was completely fucking feral.
The chamber around my ribs eased up a bit at the sight of her swinging through the door with Riley and Giana, the three of them running straight to the bar for drinks. I took a long pull of mine as I watched them, taking in Mary in that goddamn dress again.
I’d seen her wear it before, but it was when she lived with Julep and wanted nothing to do with me. Back then, I’d taken one quick look and thought damn. But now, I knew what that body looked like in baggy sweatpants and a loose-fitting t-shirt. I knew what she looked like with messy hair and no makeup on.
And for some reason, that made my blood pump even harder to see her all dolled up, to know both versions of her.
I vibrated with a possession I had no right to feel.
“So, are you actually going to make your move tonight, or are you going to make us suffer through another month of the awkward tension between you two?”
I blinked, tearing my gaze away from Mary to find Braden smirking beside me. He drained the last of his beer with an expectant gaze.
“None of us are stupid, Hernandez.”
“We’re not blind either,” Kyle added from where he was in a game of darts with Blake. “Although, sometimes I wish I was so I didn’t have to witness you pining so damn hard.”
Braden chuckled, hand reaching up to squeeze my shoulder. “For our sakes as well as yours, tell the girl how you feel.”
“If you don’t, I’ll move in first thing in the morning,” Kyle added with a smirk before he threw the dart and hit a perfect bullseye.
“If you want to keep that hand you just threw with, you’ll reconsider.”
He and Braden both laughed at my threat, sharing a look like they’d won just by me admitting his little comment got to me.
I shrugged Braden off and turned back to find Mary again, steeling myself to go over and talk to her. But when I found her, she wasn’t with Giana and Riley anymore.
She was with a guy.
Not just a guy, but a group of them, and some girls, too. I didn’t have to look them over more than once to make an educated guess that they were her co-workers, every single one of them covered in ink and metal.
The one talking to her was tall and massive, with long hair pulled into a bun and a thick beard. She laughed at something he said, which made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, my blood pumping a bit harder.
Then, he put his hand at the small of her back.
All the noise of the bar muted at that contact, my eyes sticking to where his palm splayed over her skin. I noticed a couple girls standing to the left of them noticed the intimate hold, too. One of them narrowed her eyes, nudging her friend and nodding toward where the guy was softly, almost imperceptibly, pulling Mary a little closer.
I nearly broke a tooth with how hard I gritted my teeth, and I spun away from them before I could torture myself with watching any longer.
Who the fuck was that?
She’d never mentioned a boyfriend, or even anyone she had a crush on at the shop. In fact, the only time she’d talked about a guy was when she said her boss hit on her.
Wait, was that her boss?
I snuck a look over my shoulder, trying to remember if she’d said anything about what he looked like — but she hadn’t.
And it didn’t matter who he was.
He had his hands on her, and that alone was enough to make me consider jail time.
I forced an inhale, blowing out my frustration and stepping up to take the next game of darts. I just needed to wait until she was with Riley and Giana again, or alone, and then I could go talk to her. I didn’t need to be a fucking asshole and storm over now, especially not when I was seeing red with that guy so fucking close to her.
My plan worked — for about an hour.
But when I’d played enough darts to make my arm burn and had another bucket of beers only to find her still surrounded by the same group, I lost patience.
Fuck it.
I weaved through the crowd with her as my target, ignoring Clay when he tried to call me over for shots, and a girl I’d fooled around with last season who tried to catch me by the arm as I passed her. I had just slipped her off of me when Mary turned mid-laugh and saw me approaching her.
Her smile stayed in place.
She didn’t turn away from me, didn’t give me a look that said she didn’t want to be bothered or go back to whoever she was talking to. She just held my gaze as I made my way toward her, smiling and tucking her hair behind one ear.
It was like the parting of the sea, the way the crowd seemed to move for me then. And all the music, the conversation, the laughter and sound of glasses clinking together — it all faded into the background the closer I got to Mary.
By the time I reached her, she’d all but turned away from the group she was with, and the guy talking beside her paused at her lack of focus, following her gaze to where I stood.
God, she was breathtaking.
The green fabric of her dress hugged her in all the right places, showing me every spot I could grab her and hold onto. It set the emerald of her eyes ablaze, too — and those irises flashed with curiosity the longer I stood there.
“Hey,” I said.
Stupidly.
She smiled down at her boots before peeking up at me through her waterfall of hair. “Leo, these are some of my friends from work.”
Mary gestured to the guys and girls around her, who all tipped their chins at me as she rattled off their names.
“This is my boss, Nero,” she finished, and sure as shit, it was the guy who’d been blatantly hanging on her all night.
His jaw was hard as he extended a hand for mine. “You must be the roommate.”
“One of them,” I said, reminding him I wasn’t the only guy looking out for her in this bar. I probably should have felt intimidated by how he towered over me, but I didn’t, and I squeezed his hand just as hard as he squeezed mine. “No one to tattoo tonight?”
“Had some appointments cancel, so some us decided to take the night off,” he said, then smiled down at Mary before throwing his arm around her. “Just serendipitous that we ended up at the same bar as Mary J here.”
I thought I saw Mary’s smile slip into something a little more uncomfortable, thought she looked a little stiff where he held her against him. That bomb inside me started ticking again.
“Nero was just telling me that he thinks I’m ready to start bringing in my own clients.”
My anger subsided a bit at her words, and I smiled genuinely at her. “No shit?”
“She’s been ready,” Nero said, beaming. “Every skin she’s had walked away happy. But now, she’ll have her own spot.”
I didn’t take my eyes off her. “That’s… amazing,” I said, wishing I had better words for the pride swelling in my chest for her. “Congratulations, Mary.”
She flushed. “Thank you.”
I felt that same hold on us that we’d both succumbed to in my room earlier, like we didn’t give a shit that anyone else was around us. We just stood there, staring, waiting for the other to say the first word.
I wasn’t going to lose my shot this time.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
But Mary didn’t get the chance to answer before Nero was all but putting her behind him like he was some sort of barrier. “Actually, we were just about to play a game of pool and Mary’s on my team.”
“I’m pretty sure Mary can answer for herself,” I said, still keeping my eyes on her.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut in again before she could.
“And I’m pretty sure you don’t need to be an asshole about it.”
“I’m not being an asshole, I just asked if we could talk,” I said, finally looking at him.
He laughed. “Yeah, I bet you want to talk. Your face tells a different story.”
“Nero,” Mary said, tugging on his sleeve. She looked like she couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “It’s fine, I’ll just be a second.”
“No, it’s not fine,” Nero sneered. “Because this guy is pretending to be a gentleman offering you his bed when it’s clear as day he has another agenda.”
“That’s fucking rich, coming from you,” I shot back.
Mary’s eyes grew wide. “Leo,” she scolded.
Her co-workers were tuned in now, and I saw a few of them share questioning glances at my comment. The two girls who’d been watching Nero’s hand on Mary’s back earlier seemed particularly intrigued, and it made me wonder if Nero wasn’t just a creep to Mary.
“What?” I asked Mary, but my eyes were still boring into Nero’s. “Don’t want them to know that your boss crosses the line and puts you in uncomfortable situations when no one else is around?”
I barely got the words out before Nero was rushing me like he was ready to fight. We met in the middle, chest to chest, both of us seething as his friends crowded behind him and my teammates began to flank my sides. Clay and Zeke were the closest, and knowing they had my back only kicked my confidence up another notch.
“That’s enough,” Mary said, slipping between us and shoving me hard until I had no choice but to step back. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“Me?” I almost laughed, but when I looked at her and saw sincere anger, my mouth hung open in disbelief. “Really?”
“I think you’ve outstayed your welcome, kid,” Nero said from over her shoulder. He crooked a smile at the word kid, and when I looked back to Mary and found her staring at the floor, avoiding eye contact, and not saying a fucking word in my defense…
I realized he was right.
What the hell did I expect?
Mary hated me. She’d made that much clear from the moment we met last year when she lived with Julep. It didn’t matter what I did to prove to her I wasn’t who she thought I was. Even now, she tolerated me at best, shutting me down any time I tried to cross the line she’d drawn between us.
But that night, in my room…
She was drunk.
She was drunk and didn’t even remember a second of it.
I tongued my cheek, nodding as I stepped back, all the while willing Mary to look at me. I pleaded silently for her to stop me, to take my side, to stand up for me and for herself.
But she didn’t.
And when I couldn’t bear to watch her reject me any longer, I turned, blowing through the crowd for the exit so I could detonate without taking anyone down in the carnage with me.
