Dark Secrets(19)

"Ever have it?" he asked as she poured him three fingers, as Vin preferred his guests be given.

"I have," she said with a nod as she turned to put it back on the shelf. Vin insisted she taste test every bottle that they chose to have on their shelves. It was a somewhat wastefully expensive idea on his part and she had refused to train any of the other bartenders that way.

"And?" he asked, reaching for his glass as she pushed it toward him, making their hands overlap and in her peripheral, she saw Danny move closer.

"And it's great, but I'm more of a Grants 18 kind of girl."

"Well, as long as you didn't say Johnnie, I can't complain. You have a good night baby-doll," he said, giving her a smile full of promise before walking away. "I'm Max by the way," he called, not even turning to her to do so.

"Was that some bar foreplay?" Danny asked, catching her attention. But his attention was on the retreating man.

"What?"

"The Balvenie 40 and Grant 18 shit. Was that some kind of foreplay?"

"That's a weird question," she said back, turning to watch the guy, Max, take a seat, his profile visible to them. Only then did Danny's attention turn back to her.

"But a valid one. Baby, your tongue was on the bar."

"Oh please," she snorted, shaking her head, taking the rag out of his hand and cleaning up a spill someone left on the bar before leaving. And only dropping a two dollar tip when they had been parked for three hours. The assholes. "Look, you're new so you don't know this about me. But I don't fuck around at work. Work is for working. Play happens outside those doors and outside those doors only. And that means I don't screw around with coworkers, bosses, or associates of my bosses."

"So, what your saying is, you want me to walk you home tonight."

He said it so easily, so deadpan, without even a hint of hesitation that she was taken aback for a second, sure she misheard him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You don't screw around with anyone inside these doors. I heard you loud and clear," he said, devilish little smirk in place.

"That did not mean that once we walk outside that we can screw around."

"Really? Because it kind of sounded that way to me."

"Then you're just hearing what you want to hear, slick," she said, distracting herself by picking up all the bottles in the speed rack and praying one of them was empty so she could have an excuse to go fill one and get away from him.

She had no such luck. 

"Do I want to hear that I have permission to put my hands on parts of you that wouldn't be appropriate in public," he started, coming up behind her so that when he spoke, his breath tickled her ear. "Fuck yeah, I do," he said and she could feel the edge of his lips at the top of her ear, making her insides do a small, entirely too delicious shiver.

"It doesn't work that..."

"And, what's more," he cut her objection off, both of their eyes meeting in the mirror behind the bar, both of them looking heavy-lidded, eyes heated. "You want that too."

Faith shook her head, swallowing hard before she could manage a pathetic, "No, I don't."

"So, when I do this," he said, his finger running across the sliver of skin between her jeans and tank top, making her body do a hard shiver, this time not only internally, "and you do that... that's you not wanting it?"

Lord, how she wanted it.

She was pretty sure in that moment that she hadn't wanted anything like she wanted that in years. Or, at the very least, in ten long, dry months.

"Baby," he called, his voice prompting a response.

"Yeah?"

"Those panties," he said, leaning close so that his lips were against her earlobe. When he spoke, she could feel the graze of his teeth on her earlobe, "bet you they're close to puddle status right now." With that, he dropped his hand and moved back and it took every bit of strength she had to not slam her hands down on the counter to keep upright on her suddenly wobbly legs. "In case you were wondering, Faith, that was my game."

"You..." she started, whipping around, anger a welcome replacement for desire, though for her, the two often went hand in hand. Nothing got her hotter than a good argument.

"Another thing maybe you should know about me. When I play, I play to win."

She pressed her lips together, fighting back the urge to say something heated, choosing instead to go for cool. "Get used to disappointment, Danny."

"Right about now, sweetheart, I bet disappointment is coursing through your system, not mine."

"Get over yourself."

"Faith, being your charming self as per usual," another voice said behind her.