Getting Rowdy

“Your ego is showing.”

Knowing he’d hit a nerve, Rowdy dipped his head, brushed his nose over her hair. “You think it was a rejection or something.” He inhaled her scent, and tightened all over. God Almighty, the way she stirred him...

“Honestly,” Avery whispered, “I don’t know what to think.”

“Think about saying yes instead of no.”

She drew back a small fist and punched his ribs.

Grinning, Rowdy hugged her. After the long day at work, it felt better than good to hold her. “I shouldn’t tease?”

“Definitely not.”

“Okay.” He kissed her temple and leaned her back so he could see her face. “Seriously then, I’m sorry if it hurt you in any way. Never my intent, believe me.”

She looked up at him, her blue eyes big and soft, her hands now curled into his shirt—holding on to him. “Then why did you do it?”

At least she wasn’t storming off, Rowdy told himself. She sounded far more reasonable than he could have hoped for. “I didn’t want her in my new place, and she didn’t have any privacy in hers.”

Eyes flaring, Avery finally shoved him away. “Ass!”

To be on the safe side, Rowdy moved to lean in the doorway, but she didn’t try to leave.

She only went to the other side of the table—out of his reach. “That’s not what I meant. Yes, I’m surprised you’d do such a thing here at work. But I was asking...” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

No, he wouldn’t let her do that. “Why was I with her in the first place?”

After a long hesitation, she gave one sharp nod.

He didn’t want to detail the extent of his own failings, but he also didn’t want to end the night with her pissed off. He considered making up a believable story, but he knew he wouldn’t lie to her.

What he saw in her beautiful eyes touched him.

She wanted him to have a good excuse because she wanted a reason to give in to him.

To chase off his personal demons, he’d spent the night in a sexual marathon. He should have been well spent, and he had been.

Before Avery.

But now, with her so close, being alone with her, seeing that particular look in her eyes, he instead felt like he’d spent a month being celibate.

He’d tell her the basics and it’d have to be enough. “Women have usually come easy to me.”

“There’s a newsflash.”

From the day they’d met, before he’d bought the bar, Avery had seen him picking up women. Not something he was proud of, but not really anything he’d try to hide, either. He was a grown man and he more than enjoyed sex.

Determined to stay on track, Rowdy ignored the gibe. “When I get turned down, it doesn’t matter.”

“Why would it?” Like an accusation, she said, “There’s always another woman waiting.”

He shrugged, accepting the inaccurate claim. “That’s not the point.” Once again, he moved toward her. He couldn’t seem to help himself. From day one, Avery had drawn him, not just physically but in other, more disturbing ways—ways he didn’t want to analyze too closely. “I’ll try to explain if you let me.”

She crossed her arms. “I’m all ears.”

No, she was all backbone and pride and, even when trying to conceal it, hot sensuality. “When I get turned down, and believe me, I do, it doesn’t matter because I don’t care enough for it to matter.”

She half turned away. “Guess I should remember that, huh?”

Rowdy brought her back around, and though it unnerved him, he admitted the truth. “With you, it matters.”

She searched his face, but wasn’t convinced. “That’d be easier to believe if I hadn’t busted you just this morning.”

He needed to get her past that. “I needed a distraction, that’s all.”

Dubious, she asked, “Sex?”

“Best distraction I’ve ever found.” He’d still been in his early teens when he’d learned that girls brought light to the darkest shadows. He’d always been big for his age, always looked older, and girls had taken his quiet, cautious nature as maturity.

While other boys were busy playing ball or...fuck, maybe G.I. Joe for all he knew, he’d been running interference for his little sister. He’d defended her verbally, and when that didn’t work, he’d protected her physically. For as long as he could remember, he’d done his best to shelter Pepper from the reality of their lives—which often meant accepting the brunt of the abuse himself. As a result, turmoil sometimes exploded inside him.

Thanks to a high school cheerleader, he’d lost his virginity at fifteen. What an eye-opener that had been. He’d learned that grinding release had a profound way of emptying his mind and body of pent-up tension. With sex as a stress reliever, he could cope with whatever life threw at him.

But none of that had anything to do with Avery.

“Rowdy?”

That gentler tone set him on edge. She’d watched him get lost in thought, and damn it, he never did that. Definitely not with women. “What?”

“Is something wrong with the bar?” Concern softened her expression. She touched his arm. “With you?”

“No.” Did she honestly think he’d go mewling to a woman if he did have a problem?

“Then why did you need a distraction?”

Damn it. He’d said too much. “It’s getting late.” He checked the time. “You’re going to miss that bus if we don’t get moving.”

“Oh, shoot!” Jumping away from him, she shrugged into her lightweight jacket and gathered the new shirts and aprons together. After slinging her purse strap over her shoulder, she rushed to the break room door and...hesitated. “Are you leaving now, too?”

Right behind her, Rowdy took the shirts from her. “I’ll walk you out.”

Her shoulders loosened. “Great. Thanks.”

Expecting an argument more than easy acceptance, Rowdy asked with suspicion, “How often do you take the bus?”

“Always.”

So night after night she left on her own? At two in the morning? And here he’d always thought her so sensible. Had he known, he’d have been walking her out every night.