House Rules

by Rebecca Brooke

  I took the order up to Derek and waited for him to fill it when a woman with less clothing on than me walked up to the bar. She flipped her bottle-blonde hair over her shoulders and batted her eyelashes at Derek.

  “Hey, handsome,” she purred. “I’m here to see Miller. He in?”

  It was hard to miss his eye roll. He must be used to this behavior.

  “Not sure if he’s here. I’ll check.”

  Derek came down to the end of the bar where I was waiting for my order. My gaze was pinned to the woman as she leaned farther over the bar, her dress cut so low her nipples would surely be on display for everyone to see. “Hey, Tess. Can you go let Miller know he’s got a visitor? He can decide what he wants to do about her. I’ll finish your order. It’ll be ready when you come back.”

  I nodded and wrinkled my nose at the woman when I passed behind her. I couldn’t get the picture of the cheap whore begging for seconds at the bar out of my mind and it irritated the hell out of me to think that Miller would sleep with a woman like that, especially considering he was acting like no other man was allowed to touch me.

  I stomped up to his door and banged my fist against the wood a few times, hoping he got the hint and hurried the hell up. When he didn’t answer the first time, I banged even harder and yelled through the door. He couldn’t ignore me forever.

  He called for me to come in and I pushed open the door. His face was wreathed in a smile; at least, until he took at good look at mine and sighed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s some blonde here to see you.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Did she give you a name?”

  “No, but she’s spilling out of her dress at both ends, if that helps?”

  “And you told her I was here?”

  “No. Neither did Derek.” Did he think I wanted to take messages from his other one-night stands? “But I’m not your goddamn secretary. I’m here to wait tables, which I can’t do when I’m standing back here talking to you.”

  I had to get away from him before I said something I’d regret. Only a part of me was pissed as hell at Miller. The other half was as bad as the woman waiting at the bar. I was beyond denying that we both wanted a second chance with Miller, but nothing in this world would get me to tell him that. “Now, can I get the hell out of here so I can go back to getting paid?”

  He nodded curtly and I stormed from the office. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why Miller had such an easy time getting under my skin.

  By the time I reached the bar again, Miller’s mystery woman had taken a seat and was shamelessly trying to flirt with Derek and Evan, the other bartender who had just come on duty, both of whom were doing their best to ignore her.

  My full tray sat at the end of the bar waiting. I delivered them as quickly as possible, wanting to get back to the bar to find out more about that woman and Miller. Yes, it was shameless behavior but I didn’t care.

  Just as I was carrying the drinks across the bar, I saw Miller at the end of the hallway. His steps were slow and measured, like he was trying to find a way out of talking to the woman. I wasn’t used to seeing Miller unsure of himself. It was an interesting sight.

  She noticed him out of the corner of her eye and spun, barreling toward him, nearly knocking me over.

  “Oh, baby. I missed you so much.” She threw her arms around his neck and tried to press her lips to his. It was hard to watch closely as I made my way back to the bar, but I thought I saw him take hold of her shoulders and push her away.

  “I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit,” Derek whispered, watching the two of them.

  “Me, too.” I swallowed back a bit of bile at seeing another woman put her hands on Miller. I rearranged some menus, trying to look busy, all the while listening in to their conversation.

  “What are you doing here?” Judging by his clipped tone, Miller was not as pleased to see her as she was him.

  She batted her eyelashes at him. “Since we didn’t get to finish our date the other night, I figured I come over and see if you’d want to grab dinner and drinks later. Then we could see where the night goes . . . without interruptions.”

  I guess I had my answer about where he’d been the last few days—sleeping around, apparently. It pissed me off to think I was just another notch on his bedpost.

  Not wanting to hear anymore, I turned to check on my tables when Miller’s answer stopped me in my tracks.

  “We didn’t get to finish our date the other night because I wasn’t interested in spending anymore time with you. If I was, I would have taken the time to learn your name and brought you back to my place. I did neither, which should have been a clue. Now if you don’t mind, I have work to get done.”

  There was a simple satisfaction in listening to him tell her to get lost. It was also exactly why I needed to get the man out of my head. I never wanted to be seen as a woman chasing what she couldn’t have.

  Bottle blonde sneered. It was amazing what a sneer could do to a face. One minute she was a pretty, albeit slightly skanky woman, the next, her face was drawn, deep lines set around her mouth. It wasn’t a good look. “You’re an asshole.”

  He shrugged, which only seem to piss her off more. “I’ve been called worse.”

  When she started stomping her feet, I thought she might drop on the ground and throw a temper tantrum. She opened her mouth and promptly closed it and stormed from the bar, stomping her feet all the way.

  I’d seen enough of the soap opera for my taste and turned to check on one of my tables.

  Miller turned to head back to his office, his eyes connecting with mine, and although I tried to school my features, I couldn’t stop the look of disgust that crossed my face. Working in the bar, I’d heard rumors about the way Miller picked up women and discarded them the next second, but to see it with my own eyes made it that much more confronting.

  He took one step toward me but I countered with one away from him. He tried again to come closer, his hand leaving his side to reach out to me but I turned, knocking into the bar, sending the straightened menus fluttering to the floor. I knew I should stay and collect them but I couldn’t be there, near him. “Sorry,” I called to Evan, before rushing toward the bathroom.

  “Tess,” Miller called after me. But I ignored him and kept walking. “Theresa!”

  His voice was louder but as the door to the supply closet closed behind me all the noise from the bar melded into one. I leaned back against the door, dropping to my haunches. I was so damn annoyed with myself for falling for his playboy lines. With hindsight, I could see that’s what they were, but I’d fallen for them so easily, lapping them up like a puppy dog. How could I have been so naïve? The door behind me pushed against my back and I clambered to my feet, wiping at my eyes in case there was any evidence of my extreme stupidity.

  Derek came through the door, closing it behind him. “What was that?”

  “What was what?” I played dumb. It didn’t work for me but I wasn’t in a place to consider other options.

  “That.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Is there something I need to know about?”

  “No, just clumsy. In fact, I should get back out there and clean up. Sorry.”

  The look on his face told me he didn’t believe a word I’d said but I didn’t give him the opportunity to question me further because I bolted out of the door.

  There was a buzz around the room after Miller’s little scene. A few of the tables asked for their bills, while others ordered drinks, some of them hoping for a repeat performance or more of the soap opera drama. A few of the less tactful people asked questions but I shrugged them off. It was hard enough keeping the drink orders straight, without having the scene from earlier replaying in my head. It helped that Miller stayed locked in his office for the rest of the shift, making it easier to ignore the elephant in the room.

  As I dropped the last payment off to the bar, Miller appeared. “Tess, I need to see you in my office, please.
”

  Slowly, I spun to face him. His jaw was clenched but he said nothing as he turned and walked back down the hall, making it clear that he didn’t intend to wait for an answer. I glanced over at Derek, who had his eyes narrowed, his gaze bouncing back and forth between the two of us. What could Miller possibly want? And why wouldn’t he just leave me be?

  I followed Miller down the hall to his office. The door stood ajar so I didn’t bother knocking. After his display in the middle of the bar, whatever he had to say to me was completely irrelevant. Miller stood in front of his desk, leaning back against it.

  “Take a seat.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m fine where I am.”

  “Tess, we need to talk. Sit down.”

  I remained standing, avoiding his demand because I knew that if I backed down, I’d give him all the power. I was hardly strong enough to resist him in normal situations so I couldn’t afford to submit. “What do you want, Miller?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking my stance and raised an eyebrow. A feral glint in his eye, he walked over to stand directly in front of me. For a moment, he stood there watching me. Waiting for a reaction, maybe? He lifted his hand and curled it around my nape. The simple touch made my pulse race, and that was before his thumb caressed my neck.

  The voice in the back of my head screamed at me to push Miller away, to put distance between us. But my brain had little control of the situation. My body was in charge. And just like that first night, it liked Miller’s hands on me. There was no reason for it and I had no idea what possessed me to let him do it, but when Miller lowered his lips to mine, I did nothing to stop him.

  His lips were warm, with a softness that belied the control he had over the kiss. My body had given itself over completely. Lust poured hot and heavy through me. In that moment, I would have given anything for him to take me over to the couch and taste every inch of my body.

  Except, that wasn’t all I wanted. I didn’t want to be another in a long list of women. A part of me wanted him to choose me—to be the woman to snare Miller Hawes and domesticate him. Maybe it was naïve to think I could do it. No, it was naïve, no maybe about it. I thought about the countless women before me who must have wanted the same exact thing. I thought about the cruel way he had discarded the blonde earlier. Then his mouth opened and sucked my lower lip into his . . . and I ceased to think at all.

  My pulse sped.

  Our tongues tangled.

  Our bodies connected from our lips down to our toes.

  And still it wasn’t enough. I wanted to feel Miller’s hard, smooth muscles against my bare skin. The memory of the way he’d moved deep inside me pushed to the forefront, wiping out the rest.

  When I was sure I would soon die without air, Miller broke the connection of our lips but not of our eyes. With a smirk he rolled his hips, letting me feel him hard and ready against my stomach. I was trapped. Not only by his body blocking the door, but also the way he made me feel with just that one look. That one taste. I tried my best to ignore it, to look away from him, to remain unaffected, but it was useless. None of what he’d done in the past could compete with the sensations I’d felt during the last few minutes. All it had taken was one lingering kiss and all my resolve of the last few weeks was obliterated.

  His thumb continued to caress my neck. “For days, I wondered what it was I should do with you.”

  “And what have you decided to do with me?” My voice was low. A sensual tease.

  “I know I want to bend you over the desk right now and fuck you until you can’t walk.”

  I moaned low in my throat, unable to stop at the mention of his delicious idea. “Why don’t you?”

  “Because we’re at work. That doesn’t mean you can’t meet me at my house later, though. So many more opportunities behind those doors.”

  “Later is possible,” I said, still breathless. Our conversation was not making it easy for me to get myself under control.

  “I like the sound of that. Then we can set up the rest of our arrangement.”

  The word “arrangement” sent warning bells off in my head, pulling me out of my lust-induced haze. “What do you mean ‘arrangement’?”

  He watched me. “Dates and times. If you’re free for a quick fuck, I need to make sure I’m home from work.”

  I stepped back as if his words had burned me. “A quick fuck every couple of nights? That’s what you want from me?”

  He shrugged and it pissed me off even more. “It’s the perfect arrangement. We both get what we need, with no messy emotions.”

  “You’re a heartless bastard. You told me a few weeks ago that I was too good for Ray. Now here you are, graciously allowing me to be your whore. Here’s a bit of advice” most women want dinner and flowers, not a scheduled night of sex.” I reached up and smacked him in the face before he had a chance to stop me. “Fuck you.”

  I spun around and stormed from the room. My breath came in rapid pants that had nothing to do with desire.

  Why did I ever let that man touch me?

  Charlie was sitting at the bar talking to Derek and Evan. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them watching me as I flew through the main bar area to the front door, no doubt looking like a hot mess. I could only imagine what was going through their minds. But my fight or flight response had kicked in. Embarrassed and ashamed didn’t even begin to cover it. Anger poured through me like liquid lava. I was probably red from the tip of my toes to my hairline from the combination.

  Arrangement.

  After everything I’d been through with Ray, I should have known better than to think for one moment Miller would want me for anything else. That was just my shitty luck. Miller wasn’t the type of guy to go for a girl like me. I didn’t mean because of my looks because I knew I wasn’t ugly. I meant a simple girl with small-time ambitions. I wanted to finish school and get a job. I wasn’t cut out for the high roller stuff. Hell, look what had happened when I went along to one game with Ray.

  No, I wanted a man who was only interesting in me, not sleeping with every woman who crossed his path.

  What an asshole.

  Tomorrow I was done worrying about what Miller did at work or at home. If today had done anything, it had proved that Miller clearly wasn’t the man for me.

  CHAPTER 14

  Theresa

  “What can I get you guys?”

  I rounded the table to speak to the group who had just sat down, all of them rowdy. Most likely they pre-gamed before coming out to the bar. It was the same every time I stepped up to a table of all guys. Inevitably their eyes would linger on my chest, before slowly making their way down my legs and, finally, they would look up at my face. The eye contact wouldn’t last long, their gaze always returning to my breasts as soon as the order was placed.

  Ever since I’d told Miller to shove his offer up his ass, he hadn’t shown up to the bar, so I’d stopped worrying about whether or not he’d be pissed if I waited on a table full of guys. They were the better tippers and that was what counted.

  “A night with you?”

  The guy closest to me was attractive, in an obvious kind of way. Not that I planned on picking anyone up, but Miller deserved some payback for his latest suggestion. Churlish though it may have been, over the last few days I’d made sure to flirt with every guy who flirted with me in the small hope Miller would walk through the door and see. I knew he knew about it because I overheard Charlie giving someone the lowdown on the phone. At the time, Jason had been behind the bar with a customer so I knew it wasn’t him on the other end. There was only one other person it could have been.

  I really had tried to let it go. I’d spent the first few days pissed as hell, to the point where Derek and Natalie, another server, had tried to get the story out of me. Apparently after I left, Miller went on a rampage. Not used to not getting his way, he nit-picked his way through the bar, firing Evan and another server for minor indiscretions. I felt bad, but after a few d
ays they were both back to work. Jason had called and told them they’d be compensated for the days off.

  So despite people prying, I’d refused to talk. There was no way I would admit what the argument was about. I had considered that what they might make up in their heads could be worse. Then I remembered that Miller had won me as part of a poker pot, fucked me, then asked for a “friends with benefits” arrangement but without the friendship. So I left them to their imaginations.

  Between that and Ray’s incessant phone calls, my mood was shit most days. It didn’t matter how many numbers I blocked, he’d call from a new one the next day and leave a million messages about how I was his and I’d come back soon. Hell no.

  I pushed my hip out to the side, forcing my shorts to ride up a bit more. “Hmm, I’m not so sure. It depends.”

  “On what, sexy?”

  There was no doubt in my mind that Charlie would be watching the whole show, updating Miller about exactly what was going on. But my efforts hadn’t brought him back into the building . . . yet.

  If someone asked me why I did it—why I continued to bait Miller when I didn’t want anything to do with him—I probably wouldn’t be able to answer coherently because, truth be told, I wasn’t entirely sure myself. I could have just quit my job and found something else. Sure, the pay wouldn’t have matched up, but at least I’d have my pride. But it niggled at me; the way that Miller got to hurt me and then walk away. And part of me wanted to hurt him back. Playground stuff, maybe, but I couldn’t help the way I felt. I kept thinking to myself that if I could just see that he felt even one iota of the hurt I’d felt when he proposed that “arrangement” then that would be closure for me and I could move on. Only time would tell if that was the case.

  Then again, maybe that was only part of it. Somewhere deep down, in a place I tried to bury it was part of the truth: that I wanted more than an arrangement from him. Miller intrigued me at every turn on our one night together, and as hard as I tried I wasn’t able to wipe him from my thoughts or dreams. If I really dug deep, I wanted the emotions, the feelings. A relationship, not an “arrangement.”