Page 39 of Code Violation

Blue eyes drop to his beer glass. “Is that your way of telling me that you aren’t interested?”

I take a sip of my martini. “Is this your way of telling me that you’re trying to pick me up?”

Drew giggles from beside me, and the guy closes his eyes, pained.

“This isn’t your first rodeo, is it?” he asks.

I’d almost feel bad for him if he hadn’t acted so cocky and presumptuous when he first approached me.

“First rule of trying to pick a girl up: Make sure she isn’t a bartender because chances are, she’s heard all the lines before and she has more responses at her disposal than you could possibly imagine.”

“Who’s trying to pick who up?”

With my cocktail glass to my mouth, I freeze at the deep rumble of Silas’s voice. Other than on the ice earlier, when the Rogues won two to one, I haven’t seen him in well over a week, and I’ve missed him way more than I anticipated.

“Oh, Beer Guy here is moving in on your girl.”

My head snaps to Drew, eyes wide with horror.

What are you doing? I mouth at her.

She just winks.

Beer Guy holds up a hand. Not only does he clearly work in corporate, but he obviously knows his hockey, too, and I’m guessing the last person he expected to bump into was the Rogues captain.

“Shit, sorry, man. I didn’t realize she was your girl.”

“Vesper.”

When Silas replies with my name, I tip my head over one shoulder.

His deep blue eyes burn into the guy. “Her name is Vesper, and, yeah, she’s with me.”

I think Drew squeals, although it isn’t loud enough for me to be sure.

Beer Guy scratches at the back of his neck, wincing. “Isn’t it a thing for a hockey player’s girl to wear his name on her back?”

Silas’s eyes lower to my back. “And I don’t see Prick written across your forehead, but you’re still acting like one. Funny how that works, eh?”

Beer Guy doesn’t hang around, swiping his glass from the bar top before disappearing into a sea of bodies.

I turn to the rugged Rogues captain, ready to ream him out for being a cocky bastard when I take him in fully and stop short.

Tonight, he’s wearing a gray dress shirt with a few buttons open at the collar, along with black jeans and brown loafers. He’s combed his usually disheveled hair into a sweep-back style that I want to run my fingers through. It looks effortless on him and the total opposite of Beer Guy’s attempt. Everything about Silas screams dark and mysterious, and I want to peel away his layers so I can take full advantage of the possessive way he’s looking at me.

“So, I’m going to make myself scarce because the tension right now is heating my seven-out-of-ten cocktail to an unacceptable temperature.”

Drew kisses me on the cheek, throws me a flirtatious wink, and heads for her doting fiancé, who watches her all the way across the room until he wraps her in his arms.

Meanwhile, when I reset my attention back on Silas, I’m ninety percent sure he never took his eyes from me.

He leans down and whispers in my ear, prickling my skin in a delicious way only he can illicit, “You look really beautiful tonight, Ves.”

I fidget with the cocktail stick and green olive resting on the side of my glass. I’m acting all coy, and I can’t help it. When it comes to men in bars, I’ve always behaved just like I did with Beer Guy, but Silas disarms me, to the point where I’m putty in his hands, and I don’t know what to do with that.

Hence why the olive attached to this cocktail stick has now seen better days.

Silas smiles knowingly at me. I wish I could read what’s going on in his head.