Phoenix Rising(25)

He should’ve fucked her. Then it wouldn’t have mattered if she came back or not.

But he was kidding himself if he thought it was that simple. One fuck wouldn’t have been enough. One fuck, one night, one lifetime wouldn’t have been enough. And he barely knew the woman.

“Hey! I’m sorry I’m late. I had a morning thing with some old friends that took longer than it should have.”

She popped in the front door before Connor could prepare himself. Whirling around, he gave her a cold stare. “You’re a half-hour late.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m really sorry.” She turned to Alex. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do to get ready for tonight. I didn’t mean to leave you in the lurch.”

“No problem, love.” Alex waved off her apology and tossed her a clean towel to tuck into her apron.

Connor was left standing in the middle of the room with a stormy expression on his face and a broiling hot pit of anger in his chest. Alex shot him a quelling gaze from behind the bar, but it did nothing to squash his temper.

“I don’t tolerate lateness.” His deep voice reverberated around the room like cannon fire. Connor wondered if she could hear the tension lacing his guttural tones. But he had no clue whether or not she could read him like he could her.

Jessa frowned. “I’m sorry, Connor. What else do you want me to say?”

He took a few steps closer to her. “Say it won’t happen again.”

“I can’t promise that. I don’t make a habit of being late. But there’s a lot of really bad traffic between here and my house.”

Connor suddenly realized he had no clue how far she had to drive to get to his bar. She’d filled out a form the day before, but he hadn’t taken the time to read it over. He’d been too busy planning Jessa’s seduction to find out the rest of the details about her.

“Maybe you should leave for work earlier.”

His anger had started to recede. But hers was just getting stoked. Connor could see it in the darkening of her eyes. The muscles in her jaw clenched and her delicate nose flared as her heart rate increased. Connor could even smell the difference, a hint of danger in her sweetness.

“I’m sorry, Connor. Maybe I should just quit and find something closer to home. Would that suit you better?”

“No.”

Alex abruptly left the bar area to check a mysterious something in the storage room.

“Is this the real reason why your last waitress walked out on you? You acted nice at first and put her at ease before you turned around and made her feet like a cheap slut on a time clock?”

If her expression was anything to go by, he wasn’t the only one suffering shock at her words. It had never occurred to Connor how she might view his sudden change from solicitous to irritable. She had no way of knowing how close he was to losing his mind about the deepening nature of feelings he wasn’t ready to admit he had.

She rubbed a hand down her face. “Look, I’m sorry.”

Connor closed the distance between them. “No, don’t be.”

Jessa was so small beside his big bulk. Not waif thin or emaciated, but curvaceous and petite. She was rounded in all the right places, a perfect match for him.

“You did tell me never to apologize.” Her voice was whisper soft. Connor had to strain his ears to catch it. But her words forced him to fight back a smile. It amused him that she would turn his own words back on him.

Knowing he’d only say something else he’d regret later, Connor let it go. It wasn’t until he got to his office that he realized he hadn’t refuted the cheap slut comment. He’d have to clarify things before too long, if he could only clarify them to himself first.



* * *



It felt like forever before Connor retreated to his office to bury himself in paperwork. Jessa sucked in a deep breath of relief when he disappeared. She was embarrassed that she’d completely lost her temper. It didn’t happen often. But he’d been such an arrogant bastard.

“You okay?”

Jessa glanced up from the mugs she was rearranging in the freezer and smiled at Alex. “I’m fine.”

“Don’t worry too much about Connor’s mood swings. He just doesn’t know what to make of you.”

“He doesn’t know what to make of me?”

“Your kind doesn’t hang around down here much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Alex leaned back against the counter and rubbed his chin. The expression on his handsome face was unreadable.

“Don’t stare; didn’t your mama ever tell you it’s rude?”

“How in the hell did you end up on this end of town anyway, Jessa?”