A couple of minutes later I was out the front and Amy started showing me how they ran things at Indigo.  I’d worked quite a few bar jobs in my time and I was pretty impressed with the smoothness of this operation; they had it fine tuned.

We spent a good half hour going over procedures before Amy surprised me by saying, “Scott shocked me when he hired you.”

I took in her serious face.  “Why’s that?”

“Well he didn’t interview you and when I asked him about that, he got shitty with me for asking.  He also didn’t get Griff to check you out; another standard procedure for him.  But the strangest thing is that you pissed him off the other night when you were in here drunk and I’ve never seen someone get the time of day from Scott again after they piss him off like that.  Not unless it’s his sister or a Storm member.  People only have one chance with Scott.”

Wow.  And she didn’t know that I’d upset him on more than one occasion now.  I tried to play it off.  “I guess I’d better not piss him off again, huh?”

She smiled at me now; just a small smile, but one nonetheless.  “Oh, I think you’re good to go, Harlow.  From what I’ve seen it looks like you could get away with it.”

I felt heat rise to my face.  “Bloody men.  He just brings it out in me; I don’t mean to argue with him.”

“Story of my life too.  My hubby has this way of pushing all my buttons until I lose my shit at him.  The make-up sex is off the charts though,” she said, winking at me.

I laughed and felt like we’d bonded a little.  It was a good start to a new job; there was nothing worse than starting a new job and not getting along with your new workmates.

She checked the time.  “Okay, we have about half an hour till opening time.  Let’s go over a couple more things.”

***

Four hours later, I was sitting in the staff room on my break.  So far, I’d enjoyed the shift.  For the most part the customers weren’t too bad.  They really only had eyes for the strippers anyway so they didn’t ogle me too much.  Well not anymore than the average man in the street.  What had taken me by surprise a little was the number of women customers; not the ones who were there with their men but rather the ones who were there to check out the strippers.  I shouldn’t have been surprised but I was.

My break was almost over when Scott walked in.  I was standing in front of the locker that each staff member had and turned when I heard him.  He stopped abruptly and took in my appearance.

“Fuck,” he muttered and shook his head.

“What?” Geez, what had I done now?  I placed my hands on my hips in a defensive stance while I waited for his answer.

He stalked over to where I was standing, and resting his arm on the locker above my head, he leant into me.  I was intoxicated by his scent of leather and oil, and butterflies scattered in my tummy.  “You’ve got no fuckin’ idea, have you?”

Hell, with him this close to me, I had no freaking idea about anything.  My mind was completely lost to him at this moment.  “Scott, can you give me a hint, because I’m drawing a blank at the moment.”

“Jesus,” he said and then stopped himself, pushing off from the locker and away from me.  He took a step back, eyes burning into me, and then said, “Fuck.”

Now I was really confused but before I could say another word, he turned and stalked out of the room.  I was left standing in a daze.  What the hell?

Without thinking, I took off after him.  I found him in his office; he’d just walked in and still had his back to me.  “What was that?” I demanded.

He turned to look at me.  “That was me walking away before I did something we’d both regret.”

I crinkled my forehead; he wasn’t making sense to me.  “Why would we regret it?”

“Shit, Harlow, we’re completely different people from different worlds, for one.  And two, if something was to happen between us, it would be a one off for me and I’m fairly certain it wouldn’t be that for you.”

How dare he presume to know what I wanted.  “So you get to make these decisions based on presumptions you’ve made?  Without asking me what I actually want?  You really are a throwback to previous generations, aren’t you?”

Anger blazed in his eyes.  “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means that women have come a long bloody way in the past couple of decades, Mr. Caveman.  We’re quite capable of choosing what we want these days, and in case you missed it, we also don’t mind one off sex every now and then.”

“Babe, I’ve not met a woman yet who can do one night stands.  They always want more and I’ve got nothing more to give.”

“Well, maybe you should try me.  I don’t want the bullshit lies and excuses that men come up with after they promise you the world and then fail to deliver.  One night, with no promises sounds like my kind of night.”

He cocked an eyebrow.  “I’m not buying it, sweetheart.  You’re too much of a nice girl.”

Bloody hell, I was sick of men dumping me in that category!  I’d show him nice.  I flicked my hair and plastered a sweet smile on my face.  Walking towards him, I stopped when I reached him.  “You ever had nice, Scott?  Cause I’m betting you haven’t.  And in that case, you’ve got no idea what you’re missing because nice is sweet and sweet hits the spot.  Every. Fucking. Time,” I purred and then shrugged, “It’s a damn shame that you’re not into nice.  But that’s okay, because I bet Nash would be.”  I winked at him as I said that last bit and then walked out of the room.  I had to get back to my shift but I also wanted to get as far from Scott as possible; I didn’t handle rejection very well.  Especially not after I’d practically thrown myself at a man.