“What?” I could only mutter, feeling the throb burst deep inside for him.
He saw it. He did. He knew the effect he had on me, and just like that, the whole feel of the conversation turned. It took a one-eighty, and he was giving me a wolfish look, one that had my toes curling, and I could only let out a shaky sigh because I knew he was two seconds away from doing just what he said he wanted to do.
I was going to let him, because as he finished his drink, set the glass aside, and started for me, I knew without a doubt that Zeke Allen had buried himself deep inside of me and I had no idea what to do about it. He stepped to me, his hand moving around my neck, cradling the back of my head, he must’ve hit a button because privacy slides were rolling down over his windows, and I groaned right before his mouth fell on mine.
After that, he did exactly what he promised.
I loved every second of it.
16
AVA
It’d been a month, and well, I knew two things. One, I wasn’t paying rent. Every time I asked, Zeke tried to have sex with me. He mostly won those conversations. And two, I had never understood the sex-obsessed people. The girls who gushed about it in Manny’s at night. The books. The movies. Society.
I did now. Oh, boy, did I understand now.
The other thing I didn’t know, was how my bed felt because I hadn’t slept in it. Every night, we were in Zeke’s. If I informed him I was going to my room, to my bed, somehow I’d still end up in his. He was damned good at it too.
I was just coming from the back section at Manny’s when I heard Zeke’s voice from the bar area. Since I moved in, he’d come in a few times, but not as much as before. Though he and I were… well, he and I. I’d missed seeing him at Manny’s. There was comfort in familiarity, and Brandon clocked me coming from the back. He pulled his hand back, and I rounded the bar, pouring Zeke’s beer myself. I flashed Brandon a grin. “We’re not that busy. You can take off if you want?”
He glanced around. I wasn’t lying. We weren’t busy, but I still had six hours before closing, and there wasn’t another bartender on staff. “I’ll stay till ten, how about?”
“Okay.” I slid Zeke’s beer across the bar to him. “Hey.”
His hand closed over it, over mine before I pulled back. “Hey.”
Brandon was watching us, and chuckled. “Look at you two.”
Zeke shot him a look, tipping his head back.
Oh, no. I recognized that look. It was the one where he wasn’t sure if Brandon was being nice or not, and he was going to bait him to see what reaction he got. Yeah. That was another thing I knew about Zeke.
He wasn’t the simple guy most considered him as. He was layered, and he kept most under the surface, packed under the smiling and charming jackass he could be at times. Case in point as I was bracing myself for what he was going to say to Brandon.
He delivered, “Look at us…what? You got something to say to back that up or just that, ‘look at them’ and see how the room is going to react?”
There was some bite to his voice.
Brandon stopped drying a glass, lowering the towel. “You kidding? What’s that about?”
Zeke leaned forward. “I think that’s the point I’m making. What’s your comment about? You and me, we’re friendly from a distance. We aren’t buds where I can shrug off some needling. The question I have for you is what are your intentions? Friendly or public mockery?”
There was a lot more bite to that comment.
Brandon stood back, his whole face in shock, and I understood. He knew this side of Zeke existed. I knew too, but he hadn’t seen it in a while except when a female got too persistent and wasn’t taking a hint.
Brandon shook his head, slowly, flicking his gaze my way before snorting. “Nice to see you haven’t changed, Allen.” He motioned to me. “I’m taking five.” He gave Zeke a tight look passing by me and heading down the back hallway.
I moved in, frowning. “Did you have to go that hard?”
Zeke leaned back, the tension gone and picked up his beer. “He was walking the line between being kind or making us a joke. Now, he won’t make us a joke.”
Well, there was that. “You don’t know he would’ve done that.”
“Yes,” Zeke said it tightly. “He would’ve because he doesn’t like me. He doesn’t like me for you. And he doesn’t have the place to step forward and warn me off. That was his way of broaching that gray area, but I gave him something to actually bitch about. Except now, he’ll be more careful about choosing his words and what message he’s going to deliver.”
Some customers came in, so I moved to handle their drinks. When I got back to Zeke, he was watching Javalina again. I frowned. “I didn’t know they were playing again. I thought they were off-season now?”
“It’s a rerun.”
“Oh, gotcha.” Still. “Who do you know on their team?” I’d always wondered because he tended to know quite a few professional athletes.
He frowned back at me.
I grinned. “What? You rotate between Blaise’s team, Mason Kade’s team, the Kansas City Mustangs hockey team, and the Javalina hockey team. You watch the Javalina more than the Mustangs, so I can’t quite figure out if you know someone on the Mustangs’ team or just like them, but I know you know someone on the Javalina because you watch them almost as much as Mason Kade’s team. So.” I propped my hip against the counter. “Who is it?” I thought about it. “Please tell me it’s not someone who is currently screwing someone you used to screw?”
He cracked a grin. “I don’t know anyone who plays for the Mustangs, but I like Cutler Ryder.”
One of my guesses was answered. “And the Javalina?”
“I know one of the guys. He’s in a relationship with a friend of mine.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did you screw this friend?”
“No.” His lips twitched again. “She and I were not like that.”
She. I knew it’d been a she. “Are you going to tell me her name?”
He was full on grinning at me now. “I’m kinda liking you not knowing. You’re getting heated. I like this reaction. Are you jealous?”
I growled, but more customers came in, and I went to help them out.
After that, we got swamped. Four baseball teams decided Manny’s was their new hangout after their games, and I was thankful Brandon had decided to stick around. I also forgot all about the Javalina and Zeke’s friend too, that was, until around midnight when I looked over and saw a different friend standing next to him. Standing real close to him.
Penny Lancaster. I didn’t know if she was married, or if she was, what her married name was, but my stomach shrank because I remembered how he and Penny were on-and-off again in high school. She’d been more than a one-night thing, and dammit, but I knew this. I so knew this. This was not a secret. He had a past, a big past, and who was I to even get worked up about it? We were sleeping together and roommates, but beyond that, I hadn’t a clue. We’d not had “the talk,” hashing out if we were exclusive or not, but then again; when would that have come into play? I was the one who left for work, but when I wasn’t, Zeke was around. All the time. In the house, or in another room, or at Manny’s.