Vincent (Made Men, #2)(18)

She started to run her fingers through her curls, giving her legs more time to stretch. I’m sure he wants to finish his cigarette, anyways. She laughed, thinking about how he’d had it halfway lit before he had walked out the door.

Fiddling for another minute, she decided it was time to go out before the other one knocked down the girl’s bathroom door.

She grabbed her purse then put one pump in front of the other and swung open the door.

“Shit! Goddamn—” The cursing from the deep voice trailed off as the man started mumbling to himself.

She quickly dropped her purse and touched a man’s arm which was raised, his hand holding the side of his face. “I am so sorry. Are you okay? I completely forgot those doors fly open like that.”

Hearing the muffled laughter, she shooed her watchdog away to go laugh somewhere else.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” He said it like he was trying to shoo her away, as well.

Dang, I hit him really hard.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Here, let me see.” She grabbed his wrist with her other hand so she could assess the damage she had done to his face.

“I said—” he began harshly as he dropped his hand from his face to look at who had almost knocked his brains out. Looking at her, he lost his train of thought. It took him a moment before he could clear his throat to change his tone. “I’m fine, really.” He smiled at her.

She stared helplessly up at him, her eyes unwilling to move away. She had been around countless good-looking men since she was born, but he was a different kind of handsome altogether. He had blondish-brown hair which was cut almost to his scalp and traveled down to his short-kept beard. The eyes, though, were what she couldn’t quit staring at. They looked like liquid gold. Feeling his strong arm under her hands, she realized his body definitely wasn’t bad, either.

Oh, gosh. She quickly pulled her hands away from him, trying not to smile in embarrassment from touching him longer than she should have.

She finally moved her eyes away from him. “I-I’m sorry. I feel terrible that I hit you.”

Did I just stutter? Being flustered in front of men was something which never happened to her.

“It’s really okay. It was my fault. I usually walk farther away from the door, but my mind was somewhere else.”

She smiled back at him. It made her feel instantly better to hear his genuine apology. “There’s no mark yet, but I hope it doesn’t bruise on you.”

“If it does, it wouldn’t be the first.” He started to lean down to the floor. “Here, let me get that for you.”

She watched him pick her purse off the floor and felt his gaze on her brand new nude pumps she had pulled out of the box that morning. Her body slightly tingled as his eyes rolled over her coming up. Thank you, Christian Louboutin.

He held her purse out and when she grabbed it, she noticed the size of his hand spanned the whole purse, making her touch it.

“Thank you.” Her hand began to also tingle when she slid it out of his.

“You’re very welcome…”

She swept her gold hair behind her ear, smiling. “Maria.”

Their heads turned when the front glass doors flung open with a thud.

Here we go, she thought as the man coming through quickly closed the distance between them.

“This is my brother.” She watched something flash in the handsome man’s gold eyes.

“Lucca Caruso.” Her brother held out his hand.

“Kayne Evans.” He took Lucca’s hand, shaking it. “I teach English here.”

He’s a teacher? How come I never got teachers who look like that?

Maria looked at their hands. Kayne’s grip matched Lucca’s; not to mention, he could shake his hand while looking Lucca straight in the eye. She could tell that was really starting to piss Lucca off considering not many men could, let alone an English teacher.

Lucca finally let go of his hand. “English, huh? You don’t seem like the teaching type.”

“And you don’t seem like the type who would listen when I said there is no smoking on school grounds,” Kayne said.

Oh, no. Maria tried to brace herself.

Lucca reached into his pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. Grabbing a stick, he put it between his lips then began to talk as he held it there.

“Considering I never listened years ago when I was here”—he flicked open his Zippo and lit the end before taking a long, deep hit then blowing out the smoke, making sure it hit Kayne in the face—“I’d say you’re right, teach.”

“Well, I’m glad we know our roles here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my students are about to graduate.” Kayne then smiled at Maria. “It was nice meeting you, Maria.”

“It was nice meeting you, too.” Maria tried to keep from blushing and staring into the molten gold of his eyes.

“Lucca,” Kayne said as he passed by him.

“Kayne,” Lucca returned as he dropped the butt on the floor, stepping on it.

Well, that could’ve gone worse, she thought as she watched Kayne walk down the hallway. Damn if his walk wasn’t somehow sexy.

“What the fuck, Sal?” Lucca roared when Sal came back around the corner.

“Sorry, she fucking drilled him right in the face with the door. I couldn’t quit laughing.”