“That’s because I’m not trying to turn you on,” he said. And that at least was true.
“I wish I could say it was working.”
“Me not turning you on?”
“Yes,” she said, looking down at the bar.
“Are we flirting?”
She looked back at him, her pulse beating hard at the base of her throat, hard enough that he could see it. “I don’t think so.”
“You’re probably right. I don’t think I know how to flirt.”
“You’re just trying to keep me from getting flirted with.”
“Sounds about right.”
Ace came back over to their end of the bar and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “He’s not bothering you, is he, Sadie?”
Oh, for God’s sake.
Sadie looked at Ace, her lips quirked into a funny smile. “You know he’s a deputy sheriff, right?”
“I know who he is,” Ace said.
Oh, great, the jackass was in the mood to be tough, and Eli wasn’t in the mood to compete for Sadie because he didn’t even want Sadie. Or at least, he didn’t want to want her.
But there was no way he was going to be able to let it slide. He knew that there was no way because he’d crossed the room to stake a claim on a woman he shouldn’t want just because she’d put her hand on another man’s arm.
He already knew he was too far gone for common sense. He already knew his head wasn’t in charge of this one.
“Then you know that I’m more likely to protect her than drag her off and throw her into my trunk,” Eli said.
“What is it they say about cops and the domestic abuse rate?” Ace asked.
“Cute. Did you take an online class?” Eli asked.
Sadie giggled and they both looked at her. “I’m sorry,” she said, her smile barely suppressed. “Please go on. I’m enjoying the novelty of two men warring for my affections.”
“Outside,” Eli said.
“I’m sorry, are you ordering me around? Do you honestly think I’m going to obey like a lapdog? I, sir, am a cat person, and I’ll probably just bite your hand.”
“Out. Side,” he repeated.
She arched a brow but slid away from the bar and started to walk toward the exit. He turned to Ace and shot him a look before he dared glance at Jack and Connor, who were staring at him openly. Connor looking a little annoyed. Jack looking annoyingly impressed.
Bastard.
He turned away from them and followed her out the front door, rounding on her as soon as it swung shut behind them. It was dark outside, the waves crashing against the shore nearby the only sound, the moon glinting on the water like silver fish swimming over the surface. Every pitch of the surf casting white light over Sadie’s face.
She was so beautiful it hurt. A real ache that started in his head and pulsed through his teeth, all the way down through his gut and to his cock. Just from a little light across the bridge of her nose. The bridge of her nose. He needed his head examined.
But not by Sadie. Because the little therapist was the person causing all of his mental and physical unrest.
“What is going on?” she asked.
“I’m...not sure,” he answered, pacing the sidewalk in front of her. “I’m really not sure. I came out to drink and maybe eat some fish-and-chips and definitely not to talk to you, or see you, or think about kissing you.”
“Hey, I came down here to talk microbrews, not to deal with you and your chest-beating, rawr rawr, he-man routine!”
“Then why are you dealing with it?” he asked.
“Why are you talking to me?”
“Hell if I know,” he said.
“Then consider that my answer. Hell if I know!”
He moved toward her and she backed up, the wood-shingled wall of the bar stopping her. Eli took a breath and pressed his palm flat to the wall, just by her head, his eyes locked with hers, heat arching between them. He couldn’t have looked away if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to. He wanted to keep looking at her. He wanted to kiss her.
And then some.
He wanted her more than he could remember ever wanting any woman. More even than his first, on a spring night after prom.
Right now he was beyond himself. Beyond control. And Eli Garrett was never beyond control.
Somewhere, in the depths of his thoroughly bent brain, it registered that that was a problem. That he shouldn’t have ever let it get this far. That he needed to get a grip on things and stop it before it went further.
