“You did?”
“Yes.” He frowned. “You couldn’t tell that’s what I was working up to?”
“No! I told you that you make me nervous, remember? I showed you how bad my hands were shaking”
“That floors me,” he murmured. “Especially now, seeing that you’re rocking awesome tats beneath the prim-and-proper clothing you wear from nine to five.”
“So it’s my wild side that fascinates you?”
“Everything about you fascinates me—and it has since the first time I saw you ten months ago.”
I struggled with how to respond. I’d worked hard to leave the girl who danced on the bar behind, but that girl was the one who’d prompted this gorgeous, sexy man to approach me and admit he’d known I worked for LI for months.
“But seeing you dancing on the bar clinched it.”
“Clinched what?”
“My determination to get you to go out on a date with me. I suspect you would’ve shot me down if I’d asked you out during office hours. Wouldn’t you have?”
I nodded.
“So seeing you here? I’m taking it as a sign that we’re supposed to try at least one date.”
“What the hell happened to you?” a male voice demanded.
A male voice I recognized. Crap. That was Ash Lund, another one of the big bosses. I turned, ducking my head as if looking for something in my purse—not that I even had my purse with me.
“I’m rescuing damsels in distress,” Brady said coolly. “Why?”
“Time to go. Nolan and Walker are out front waiting.”
Nolan Lund was here too? Perfect. What were the odds he saw my bar-top antics?
“Give me a few minutes and I’ll be right there.” He didn’t offer to introduce us—another point in his favor.
“All right.”
A beat passed and Brady said, “Stop hiding. He’s gone.”
That was a little terse. I looked up. “Of course you’re here with the COO of Lund Industries as well as the son of the CEO of Lund Industries.”
Annoyance flashed in his eyes. “No, I’m here with my cousins and my brother. I never asked who you were here with?”
“No one.”
“Really? You just show up at a bar like this by yourself?”
Now I was annoyed by his skepticism. “A bar like this? I’m sure it’s vastly different from the upscale places you’re used to patronizing, Mr. Lund. But don’t worry—I’ve had enough experiences in ‘a bar like this’ to know exactly how to take care of myself.”
“Don’t patronize me. You know nothing about me or the places I frequent. For all you know, I could be a regular here.”
It took about five seconds before I laughed. “You? Right. You couldn’t convince me of that even if I didn’t have insider’s knowledge that you are most certainly not a regular.”
He quirked a brow that managed to be sexy, imperious and irritating. “You know that . . . how?”
“I worked here as a cocktail waitress for years, and trust me, I would’ve remembered servicing a man like you.” Wait. That wasn’t what I’d meant to say.
Brady gifted me with a grin so hot I was surprised my hair hadn’t caught fire. “Fair warning, dancing queen. I’ll expect you to explain that statement in full detail on our date.”
He’d gone beyond asking, apparently. And apparently I’d lost control of my vocal cords.
Then he stood.
As he turned to walk away, I said, “Mr. Lund.”
He faced me. “Brady.”
“Brady. Thanks for saving me from an ass-buster off the bar.”
“My pleasure, Lennox. I’ll be in touch. Soon.”
I watched him cut a path through the bar until the door opened and he disappeared outside.
What were the odds? And what the hell had just happened?
Maybe he was drunk and he won’t remember this conversation come Monday.
Unlikely. He couldn’t have caught my tumble off the bar if he’d been too impaired.
Maxie wandered over, cigarette dangling from her lip as she carried two mugs of beer. She sat across from me and slid one of the mugs over.
“You’re bringing me a beer?” I joked. “It’s not my birthday.”
She rolled her eyes. Then she set her cigarette in the ashtray. “So you’re rusty on your bar-dancin’ skills.”
“Too much tequila and excitement is always dangerous for me.”
“Never used to be.”
I wouldn’t give her the argument she wanted.
“The dude who caught you.” She sipped her beer. “You know him?”
“No,” I lied. “But he wanted to get to know me.”