The night he first met me, I had gotten dressed up to the nines. Tonight, I was probably more of an eight or maybe even a seven if I had to be honest. I’m sure I had bags under my eyes and my foundation had long worn off, but I didn’t care at all.
I walked in and immediately spotted him sitting in a booth in the corner sipping on a beer. He looked a little out of place at the Brass Monkey in his leather jacket with his neck tattoos sticking out from his shirt collar. If he wasn’t so fucking crazy, I’d have actually thought he was hot right then.
His broad shoulders were hunched over and his elbows rested on the table while he took sip after sip of his cool, amber beer. I took a deep breath and strolled over to him, flashing my biggest, fakest smile.
“Hey,” he said as he spotted me. His eyes widened and his face lit up. Despite looking halfway like a homeless person, he seemed happy to see me.
“I see you had no problem finding the place,” I said as I scooted into the booth. “I’m shocked you made it here before me.”
“GPS, baby,” he said as he sipped his beer. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me since I got there.
“So,” I said, trying to fill the awkward silence.
“Let’s order you a drink,” he said as he flagged down a server.
I thought about saying no, and telling him I didn’t plan to stay long, but that would’ve defeated the purpose of why I was there.
“What would you like?” he asked. “My treat.”
“Gin and tonic,” I said. I was dying for something blue and fruity, but I didn’t want to seem too girly-girl. I wanted a serious drink.
“My girl here will have a gin and tonic,” he said to the server. “Top shelf.”
My girl? I wondered. How on earth was I his girl? And top shelf? He must be trying something.
I was intrigued by his choice of words, but I still tried to stay on my guard. He was acting so nice. So normal. This wasn’t the guy who picked me up in a bar in Tulsa and within twenty minutes was fucking my brains out. This wasn’t the guy who pulled a surprise three way with me in my hotel. This wasn’t the guy who drove all the way to St. Louis to find me despite me never telling him my last name.
The drink came quickly, thank goodness, and I got busy working on it. I hadn’t eaten anything since one that day, so my stomach was pretty much empty. I knew it was only a matter of minutes before I’d start feeling the drink, which could either be really good or really bad. I suddenly felt nervous around him. He was throwing me off a bit with his nice and normal behavior. I didn’t know what to think.
“So,” he said as he stared at the table between us. “There’s a reason I had to find you.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked as I took a few sips.
“First off, I just wanted to apologize,” he said.
“For what?” I asked.
“I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you in Tulsa,” he said. His dark eyes looked up and met mine, and in that moment he seemed one-hundred percent sincere. “You’re a nice girl. You didn’t deserve to meet a jack ass like me, and I shouldn’t have included my friend. That was beyond disrespectful. I feel sick about it.”
I jerked my head back, taken aback by this tattooed, crazy, bad ass biker dude who is feeling remorse over the way he fucked some random woman. Who does that? Maybe I was wrong about him.
“I know it seems crazy that I found you here,” he said, his eyes shifting nervously. “But I had to. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t apologize.”
“You could’ve just called me,” I said. “If you can find out where I live, I’m sure you could find out my number.”
His face fell, and I instantly realized I was being a jerk in the middle of his apology.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Sure,” he said. “I could’ve called you. But the thing is, I can’t get you out of my head, Molly. I had to see you again. And I wanted you to know that I genuinely think you’re a kick ass person. You’re different from every other girl I’ve ever met. When I realized that, I couldn’t believe what I’d done.”
“I see,” I said. My face was beginning to turn numb, and I knew the drink was kicking in. I felt my guard slipping little by little. He was being so kind. I was starting to have my doubts about my first impression of him.
“More drinks?” the server said. She came out of absolutely nowhere.
Before I had a chance to object, Blaze nodded and held up two fingers.
“This night’s not over yet,” he said with a sexy wink. “At least hang out with me a bit longer? I came all this way.”