Page 8 of Teach Me Your Ways

The door opened, a wave of heat and heavy air washed in. And so did a woman. A real, full-fledged woman. She looked around like she wasn’t sure if she belonged—but not in the way most people do. No self-conscious tugging at her shirt, no glancing around for familiar faces. She walked in like someone deep in thought and in desperate need of a drink. She wasn’t here to chill with friends or any of that shit.

I sized her up in about ten seconds. Red hair, jeans, simple light pink shirt. Not dressed up. Shit. If she dressed up, she’d look like a fucking siren from Greek mythology. She had hips you could grab a hold of. A woman you could pin to a tree in the middle of a rainstorm and not worry about breaking. She had that kind of presence. Solid. Real. So fuckable. My cock jerked like someone had just tapped it on the shoulder and pointed.

Felix followed my gaze and snorted. “Oh god.”

“What? I’m not doing anything.”

Felix smiled and shook his head. “You’re staring like you’re in love.”

“I don’t fall in love. I fall in lust.”

“Equally inconvenient. Besides, that woman wants none of your bullshit. Look at her. She’s confident. Independent. Not your type.”

I frowned at him. “First of all, you can’t tell all of that from looking at her. And second, that is my type.”

He snorted and shook his head. “You want easy. Quick. No strings.”

I thought about it. Again, he wasn’t entirely wrong, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy a woman with a little spice.

Felix moved to take her order. “Cock block,” I murmured under my breath. He shot me a look telling me he heard me.

The woman ordered a beer then walked off to a corner table like she had no interest in being seen, only in thinking her thoughts and sipping her drink.

“I haven’t seen her around,” I said casually.

“Maybe she’s new,” Felix said, equally casual. “School is starting up again.”

“Not undergrad,” I said. “Too old. Not by much but enough. Maybe a new grad student.”

I couldn’t stop glancing her way. Not staring. Not obvious. Just very casually monitoring the room like a responsible co-owner should.

That was when I noticed them.

Three guys near the back. Loud enough to be noticed, but not loud enough to be kicked out. The kind of guys who wore baseball caps backwards and probably played some kind of concussion-inducing sport. Rugby. Not football. They’d clocked her too.

They were watching. One elbowed the other. A joke was made. I didn’t have to guess what was happening. It was the classic high school nonsense. They were daring each other. Making bets about who was going to get between those thick thighs.

A muscle in my jaw twitched.

“Problem?” Felix asked, following my line of sight.

“Just some dickheads trying to decide if they want to bother her.”

“You going to do the white knight thing?”

“I’m going to do the bartender thing. Make sure everyone feels safe.”