Page 21 of Wrecked By You
This woman was… something else.
The guy pulled out his wallet and handed over a fifty-dollar bill. “Keep the change. And thanks. I like coming here. I’d hate for a misunderstanding to ruin what’s fast become my favorite nightclub in the city.”
Fuck. Me.
“You’re welcome.” She gave him a small smile. “And thanks for the tip. Enjoy your night.”
Ella skirted past me and returned to her place behind the bar. The guy gnawed his bottom lip and winced as he looked over at me. “Are we cool, man? It won’t happen again. I promise.”
I glanced at Ed, then nodded. Ed retreated.
“We’re cool.” I loomed over him, leaning down to put my mouth close to his ear. “But you so much as fucking touch her again, and we will have a major fucking issue. You feel me?”
The guy backed up, nodding furiously. “Got it.” He spun around and disappeared into the crowd.
I sought out Ella. Almost as if she felt my attention on her, she turned her head and gazed right at me, a small curve to her lips, her mossy-green irises almost black under the dim lights. Regardless, they sparkled. And then she winked.
She winked!
At me.
My stomach flipped, and a long-forgotten sensation swam through my veins. It took me a few seconds to pin it down. Desire. Too bad I didn’t fuck my staff. Banging an employee would just end up awkward, and Ella was far too good at her job to risk losing her over something as pointless as sex.
I made my way over to the bar, bracing one elbow on top, and watched her as she dashed from customer to customer. I must have been there about fifteen minutes when Stan tapped her on the shoulder and jerked his chin toward the door that led to the staff quarters, signaling her turn for a fifteen-minute break. But instead of heading that way, she sashayed over to me and set a fresh bottle of ice-cold water on the bar, even though I hadn’t finished my current one.
“Here. You look like you need cooling down.”
She smirked, and I found my lips forming a half smile.
“Just so you know, I’d have done the same for any of my employees. Male, female, or nonbinary. Doesn’t matter to me. No one gets to put their hands on my staff without their express permission.”
She clasped a hand to her chest. “Wow. And here was me thinking I was special.” She winked again, and my insides twisted in a knot.
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“I’ll live.”
“Aren’t you due a break?”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“Not at all. It’s your break, not mine. If you want to spend it standing there, that’s your call. It’s a free country.”
“Is it, though?”
I arched a brow. “A political statement? Hmm. Wouldn’t have thought politics interested you.”
“They don’t. It’s just an observation. Are any of us truly free? Aren’t we all slaves to our landlords, or our need to put food on the table or gas in the car? To clothe ourselves and feed our kids? Women aren’t even permitted to own their bodies. The government does. Freedom is an illusion, one created to keep us all in line, to sell a lie that moving forward will result in a better life.”
Whoa.
I blinked. “Deep.”
“Maybe.” She hitched a shoulder. “Depends on your perspective and your experiences that have led you to this point, I guess.”
I flattened my lips. My experiences had led me to distrust women, but this probably wasn’t the best time to raise that point. Besides, I distrusted myself to a far greater extent. If I’d paid more attention, maybe I’d have read between the lines and figured out what Sadie had intended before I’d walked right into her trap.
Nor could I understand what it meant to struggle to make ends meet. Neither I nor my entire family had ever had to worry about where the next meal was coming from. I counted myself extremely fortunate, as did my entire family. Money didn’t always buy happiness or good fortune, but on my dark days, I tried to remind myself that there were so many out there who had it far tougher than I did. I was proud of the fact that my family donated huge sums of money to various charities each year, although it never quite seemed like enough. There was always more to be done.