Brutally Beautiful(16)

“Where’s Dylan?” he barked.

“He has a date tonight and since there’s never anyone here on a Monday, he’s taking a few hours off and I’m here.” All right then, that was enough, hop on out of here, jerk. Bye. Off you go now. I bent forward and spoke lower, “I guess that means you should leave?” I know I shouldn’t have said that, but I was angry. He made me feel like a goddess and now he didn’t even want to speak to me.

Intense stormy gray eyes flickered up to mine. There was a strange silence that traveled between us in the empty bar. His stare was dark and hostile. Antagonistic. Murderous. His whole demeanor was tense. “Fuck. Are your eyes green?” he asked, venomously. His fierce eyes maintained complete unwavering contact with mine, the kind of look that makes you want to back down.

I sure as f*ck didn’t back down from anyone. I’ve eaten boys bigger than him for a snack.

I was surprised though. That wasn’t what I was expecting to come out of his mouth. “Yes. Scandalous isn’t it? Maybe I should poke them out for you and insert a color of your choice? Are you against all green-eyed waitresses taking your orders, or am I the only lucky one?”

His posture instantly changed. He leaned his body away from me, a look of complete fury falling across his features, as if he just watched me kick a newborn baby clear across the room and do a touchdown dance. What the hell is wrong with him? We had never even spoken before today. Maybe he had some mental issues going on.

From the corner of my eye, I watched as his right hand clenched into a tight fist, the tendons of his arms twisting and straining against his skin. His left hand gripped the edge of the table, knuckles turning white, as if he were holding on for dear life.

His dark eyebrows pinched together and his gaze averted to the stage behind me. His eye narrowed and with a curled lip, he muttered dryly, “Why don’t you just make yourself useful and lose your clothes and dance.”

Was he trying to piss me off? I stood frozen, blinking my eyes blankly at him. “I’m not a stripper.”

“I’ll pay you,” he smiled tightly, still looking beyond me at the stage.

“I. Am. Not. A. Stripper.”

“I bet you would be for ten grand,” he smirked, meeting his eyes to mine.

The urge to smack him tingled through my hand, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. Forcing myself to detach from the situation, which was something I was trained to do, I smiled wider. “So, you think because you offered me ten thousand dollars, I would gladly jump on that stage and dance for you?” Was I on camera? Was he serious?

For a few slow heartbeats, he glared at me. Leaning forward, his voice dropped into a low raspy whisper, “For ten grand, I’m betting you’d do a hell of a lot for me.” He was dead serious.

I pulled out the chair across the table from him and sat down, clasping my hands together and plopped them under my chin. This conversation was not going to end well. I didn’t want to screw up anything for Bree by attacking my boss’s brother. I certainly couldn’t afford to cause any attention to where we were hiding by beating him to a bloody pulp either, so I had to calmly figure out how to deal with this animal.

“Please, Kade. Do tell me what makes you come to this conclusion of me, having never met me before.”

He stood up, and I immediately regretted thinking I could sit down and talk this out with him. Obviously, he needed to be taken to a psych ward, the freaking Freud Squad, for immediate evaluation. He was glaring down at me, raging gray eyes full of disgust. “You’re just like all the other sheep around here. Maybe a tad bit prettier than the rest of them, and I’m certain you will use it to your bloody advantage, people always do.” He flattened down his shirt and backed away from the table. “Now go make yourself useful, shake your pretty little ass up there for me and earn yourself a year’s salary. Maybe you could buy yourself something pretty with the money. And, don’t call me Kade. It’s Mr. Grayson, since it’s your job here to serve me.” His slight English accent becoming more pronounced the angrier he got.