He shook his head and stepped back so I could leave the cellar. "She left half an hour ago. Something about needing lobster."
"Right. You didn't leave with her?"
"Are you kidding?" He followed me out to the bar. "If I left with her, I'd have to drive her home then come back."
"Why do you need to come back?" I spun and stopped right in front of him. "You're not staying here."
His eyes widened. "Uh, slip of the tongue." He side-stepped me.
I moved with him. "Ryan."
"I have a date tonight, all right?"
I grinned again. "Are you bringing her here?"
"So I can scare her off with my insane sister? Yeah, why not?" He snorted and physically moved me to his side so he could step past me. "I'm done here. Later."
I stuck my middle finger up after him.
He looks back and catches it. "By the way," he said slowly. "Did you do something to Parker? He's in a really shit mood."
"Why do you assume that's me?" Aside from the obvious.
"Because it's always you."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Parker
"It is not always me," Raven snaps. Something bangs from the other side of the door, and I'm guessing it was her fist against the bar.
"It's generally you," Ry replied.
"It's not me! If he has a cactus up his ass about something, go fucking ask him. I'm his boss, not his keeper." There was a pause. "I thought you were leaving."
Scuffles and mumbles followed, then the door slammed shut.
I didn't mean to listen, but they weren't exactly quiet. In fact, I could barely remember a time they were able to be quiet.
I picked up the dish that needed washing and took it back out to Alex. He didn't look at me as I dropped it on the side with a little too much force, and it was obvious he was avoiding making eye contact with me.
I couldn't blame him. I'd been in a foul fucking mood since I'd left here last night. I'd slept like complete shit. I'd even paid the extortionate fee to the gym in an attempt to break out of the shell of frustration I was wrapped in. It hugged every inch of my body, except I couldn't separate sexual frustration from plain ol' annoyed frustration.
Raven had ruined me. One accidental kiss had become one deliberate one, and nothing I did could shake the memory of that. Nothing shook away the memory of her body pressed against mine or her mouth yielding to the pressure of my own.
By kissing her, I'd thrown myself into some kind of fucked-up, self-made torture.
I wanted more.
I wanted her mouth on my neck.
My chest.
My stomach.
My cock.
And I wanted her to tell me how much she fucking hated me while she did it. Because then I'd have justification for the anger I felt. I'd have a lie to feed myself.
I didn't know when I'd stopped hating her, but it was recent. Somewhere between looking into her big, blue eyes and pinning her against the bar, I'd come to respect the woman she'd grown into. I'd come to respect her mind for business-her ruthlessness and accuracy in everything she did. Her creativity was second-to-none. I'd watched her create a cocktail out of absolute thin air.
Anyone who could pluck something so solid from nothing deserved respect.
More than that, I knew I respected her as a human being. I respected her strength and her vigor and her passion. Her snark and her stalwart approach to everything. I respected her control and her need for it.
I respected the woman she was, and that was something I never thought I'd do.
I wanted her, too, of course. Because of all those things. Because no matter how much she pissed me off, no matter how much the way she looked at me sometimes fucking grated on me, Raven Archer was one hell of a woman.
I wasn't surprised by it, not really. She'd been a force as a child. It only made sense that she'd defy physics as an adult.
"Can you make the hummus?" I asked Alex, grabbing the order folder.
"Sure thing, Chef."
I threw a thumbs up over my shoulder and, swallowing my feelings, stepped into the bar. Raven was standing behind it, her hair now pulled into a scruffy ponytail on top of her head, revealing the bright, white earphones that were in place in her ears. She hummed along to something that sounded suspiciously like Ed Sheeran.
Her hips swayed with it. She was wearing a plain, white tank with a floral skirt that moved with each flick of her hips. She'd changed from earlier, and I guessed she was ready for work, because the skirt had a thin, black belt that went around the waistband and it was a few inches shorter than should have been acceptable for working behind a bar.
Then again, I'd seen her work behind this thing, and she was the best damn tender I knew.
I put my finger and thumb in my mouth and let out a long, loud whistle.
Raven screamed, yanking the headphones from her ears and jumping back halfway across the bar. "What the fuck?" she shouted. "Are you stupid? I could have killed you."