“Want some company?”
“I really don’t.” She couldn’t even regret the bite to her tone.
“Oh now, don’t be like that.”
“I’m waiting for someone.”
An expression of yeah sure flickered over his face. “I just wanted to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.” Please, please let Sean get here soon.
“I know we didn’t part on the best of terms.”
“You cheated on me. And unless something’s changed, you’re still with Gina.”
Bryce dialed up the sleazy smile. “She never has understood me as well as you did.”
This man represented the worst time of her life. She didn’t want him back. Didn’t want to associate with him. She didn’t want anyone to even see them together because that would just start the gossip engines up anew. She’d worked too hard and too long to overcome all that.
Seeming to realize his current tack wouldn’t work, Bryce shifted gears. “You’ve been doing well for yourself. I heard you went back to school.”
Delaney’s fingers pressed so hard against her glass, she wondered the thing didn’t shatter. “Why do you care?”
“I always cared about you, sugar. And I just wanted to say how proud I am of what you’ve done with yourself the past couple of years.”
So he’d destroyed her life, and now that she’d started to get everything back together, he was sniffing back around? Words, harsh and hateful, clogged in her throat. But she didn’t let them fly. That would make him too important, and giving them voice would draw to much attention to herself and the situation. With a dawning horror, she watched him reach out a hand to brush the hair from her cheek. She wanted to stumble back, not to let those fingers skim over her skin. He didn’t have the right to touch her anymore. But the bar was packed and she barely had room to move. Warring with the cringe was an equally strong desire not to cause a scene. As her instincts battled, her feet remained rooted in place, and she understood that despite the bar full of people, she was utterly alone, with no one here to save her.
Sean was late. Almost unforgivably so. Wishful wasn’t even big enough to be able to blame it on getting caught in traffic. Well, unless there was some kind of funeral procession. Which there hadn’t been. He’d spent way too long at county headquarters, going over the map he’d been maintaining of the fire threats in the region and trying to convince the powers that be to take an offensive rather than defensive position in the face of the months-long drought. The best he’d managed was to get the boss man to temporarily reinstate use of the fire towers to watch for threats. It was a small victory, but he’d take it.
The interior of The Mudcat was loud. Exactly the kind of atmosphere Sean knew Delaney hated. He hoped she hadn’t given up on him and bailed already. He’d spent too many months coaxing her out of that shell to blow it now. He scanned the throngs of people, searching her out. There, on the other side of the bar. The red hair that had been haunting his dreams shone in the dim lights. His automatic smile froze as he realized she wasn’t alone. Some guy was all up in her personal space, reaching out a hand to touch her. Every muscle of her body was poised to flinch away, but she didn’t move, seeming frozen like a deer in the headlights. This guy was the kind of asshole who wouldn’t back off without a fist to the face or some other guy pissing to mark his territory. Since he didn’t think Adele would appreciate a bar fight, Sean went with Plan B.
Cutting through the crowd like a hot knife through butter, he reached Delaney’s side in a half-dozen strides, managing to insert himself between her and the douchebag, as if he hadn’t seen the guy reaching for her, hadn’t been able to see anything but her.
“Hey, babe.”
He caught the flash of relief and gratitude in her eyes, the confusion at the endearment, then saw the flare of surprise when he didn’t simply stop. Riding on instinct, he slid his hand beneath the fall of that hair, tipped her face up to his, and kissed her.
Sean meant it to be just a gentle peck. Something chaste, like a high school freshman at the end of his first date. But the moment his lips touched hers, Delaney gasped. Her mouth opened under his and Hercules himself wouldn’t have been able to resist taking just a little taste. He got a hint of sharp apples and spice, like an apple pie. Sean freaking loved apple pie.
For one beat—two—he waited to see if she’d push him away. Instead, Delaney’s body, which had been straining away from the other guy, melted into him, her hand coming to his chest before skimming up over his shoulder to curve around his nape. His body was giving a whole lot of Hell yeah. And then she sighed—a contented purr of a sound that absolutely did him in and made him forget that they were in a very crowded bar and this was about proving a point to somebody else.
It was the cheer and wolf whistle that pulled him back, had him lifting his head.
Delaney’s big blue eyes slowly blinked open. Her pupils were blown wide and her kiss-swollen lips parted in a way that had him wanting to taste her again.
There was a reason he shouldn’t be doing that. Sean was sure of it. While he waited for his brain to finish rebooting, he just said, “Hi.”
“Hi.”
God, he liked knowing he’d caused that slightly breathless tone.
“Sorry I’m late.” Remembering why he’d started this, Sean shifted, sliding an arm around her waist as he turned toward the douchebag. “Is this guy bothering you?”
Delaney cleared her throat. “He was just leaving.”
Douchebag eyed him with considerable hostility. Sean just arched a brow in a You-wanna-try-me? gesture. Years of wrangling fire hoses and hauling other heavy equipment meant Sean easily had an extra thirty pounds of muscle on the other man.
Douchebag took a step back, gaze shifting to Delaney. “I’ll see you around.”
“No, you really won’t. You lost whatever shot you had with me a long time ago, and as you can clearly see, I’ve moved on. Get lost, Bryce.”
Sean pulled her a little closer and flashed a smug smile at Bryce to back up her words. Nostrils flaring, he turned away. Sean didn’t move, watching as the guy moved through the crowd and straight to the exit, metaphorical tail between his legs. Good.
As soon as Bryce was out of sight, Sean reluctantly let Delaney go.
She was looking everywhere but at his face, and spots of color flew high on her fair cheeks. “So, um…not that I’m not grateful for the assist but…why did you do that?”
Damn it, he’d embarrassed her.
“I’m sorry about that. I saw him bothering you when I came in. I know his type. They won’t back off just because a woman asks, and that seemed to be the most expedient means of shutting him down that wouldn’t end up with me getting arrested for assault.”
“Oh. Well, thank you?” It came out more of a question than an expression of gratitude, and she was frowning somewhere in the vicinity of his left shoulder.
Sean told himself to leave it there and say something to get them back on even footing. To the friends they’d slowly become over the past several months. But then he thought about how she’d kissed him back.
“And at the risk of coming off like an opportunistic asshole, I also did it because I’ve been thinking about it for the last four months.”