“It wasn’t much of a hardship,” he assured her.
She picked up the bus pan again. “I’ve got to, uh, get this back to the kitchen.”
He didn’t object as she slipped past him.
The dishwasher took the pan from her with a nod of thanks, but Alyssa hid in the kitchen for another minute—just long enough to catch her breath and give her heart a chance to beat normally again.
It was just a kiss.
A kiss that had meant less than nothing to both of them.
And yet...
She lifted a hand to her mouth.
And yet she’d felt so much in those few seconds that their lips had been connected. More than she’d ever felt from just a kiss. More than she’d ever felt with any other man.
“Alyssa?”
She started, her hand dropping from her lips as she turned to Sky. “Um, yeah. I’ll be right out.”
“Actually, I was going to tell you that you could take off early, if you want,” her friend said. “Most of the tables are empty now and there are only a few stragglers left at the bar.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“I’m sure. And you’ve had a rather...eventful night already,” Sky said, her tone tinged with amusement.
“That’s one word for it,” she agreed. “But I should talk to your brother before I go.”
“Liam’s cool—it’s the other one who looked as if he was going to pop a vein in his head when he saw my brother kiss you.”
“Jason?”
“For a moment, I thought fists were going to fly—and then I would’ve had to ban my own brother from the bar for a year.”
It was a harsh punishment, but one Duke insisted be meted out to anyone who dared to throw a punch inside his establishment. Which might be why, in the eight months she’d lived in Haven, Alyssa had never heard about anyone fighting inside Diggers’—although rumor had it that Doug Holland’s bar privileges had been reinstated only at the end of January, a full year after he’d given Jerry Tate a black eye for suggesting that his wife was stepping out. Sky had given Alyssa the background on the situation, explaining that Jerry had clearly been baiting the other man, because anyone who knew Doug’s wife knew there wasn’t another man in town who would want her.
She followed Sky back out front, surprised to discover that Jason had again taken a seat at the bar.
“I didn’t expect you’d still be here,” she said, glancing warily toward the opposite end of the counter, where Liam was sipping a beer and chatting with his sister.
“What kind of a man would leave his beautiful girlfriend alone in a place like this on a Friday night?” he countered.
“The kind of man who isn’t really dating the bartender,” she suggested.
“But that’s not what you wanted Diego to think, was it?”
“Diego’s probably halfway back to Elko by now,” she pointed out.
“Still, I figured I should stick around in case he came back.”
“I think—I hope—he finally got the message tonight.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Jason said. “You were sending out some pretty mixed signals.”
“What do you mean?”
“First you kissed me, then you kissed Gilmore.”
She managed a weak smile. “Yeah. It’s a good thing that Diego had already left, because that might have been a little hard to explain.”
“Try explaining it to me,” he suggested.
“I think I’m going to need a glass of wine for that.”
“Are you allowed to drink on the job?”
She smiled as she shook her head. “I meant at home—I’m finished for the night.”
His brows lifted. “And you’re inviting me to go home with you—after only one kiss?”
“I’m offering to continue the explanation someplace where I can kick off my shoes and put my feet up,” she clarified.
He rose from his seat as she made her way around the bar.
“I’d offer to give you a lift home,” he said, “but I got a ride with my friends—and they all abandoned me.”
“So instead you’re asking me for a lift home?”
He flashed his usual bone-melting smile. “If it won’t take you too far out of your way.”
“Lucky for you, my car has a full tank of gas.”
* * *
He should have left the bar with his friends.
If Jay had walked out with Carter or Kevin, he wouldn’t have ended up kissing Alyssa. Because now that he’d kissed her, he couldn’t stop thinking about it—and wanting to do it again.
At twenty-nine, he was old enough to have learned that he couldn’t always get what he wanted. But as a bachelor and heir to the Blake Mining fortune, it wasn’t a lesson that seemed to apply in his relationships with women. Even back in high school, girls had practically lined up for the privilege of dating him, and he hadn’t wanted to say no to any of them.
It had taken some time—and the anonymity that came with being an unknown freshman at an out-of-state college—before he gained some perspective. He no longer hit on every attractive woman who crossed his path, he ensured that any woman he did go out with wasn’t under the illusion that a few nights in his bed would lead to a ring on her finger and he’d concluded that certain relationships tipped the scales against personal involvement—which was why he didn’t date friends, coworkers or neighbors.
Alyssa was the first woman in a long time who tempted him to break that rule.
Going back to her place—which was only one flight of stairs below his own—was an effective reminder of the most important reason not to make a move on his neighbor. And still, that reminder didn’t completely snuff out the temptation.
“You were going to tell me about your love-struck suitor,” Jay said, stepping across the threshold into her apartment.
She’d never invited him into her place before, and he was suddenly conscious of the fact that he was in her personal living space. A passing thought that turned his mind in a direction he was trying not to go. So he stayed where he was, just inside the door, while she crossed through the living room to the kitchen, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor.
“I don’t think he’s love-struck so much as misguided.” She took a glass from the cupboard and removed the stopper from a previously opened bottle of wine on the counter. “And that’s my mother’s fault.” She held up the bottle to show him the label. “Do you want a glass?”
“Do you have any beer?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
“Then I’ll have what you’re having,” he said.
She poured a second glass, then picked up both and carried them toward the seating area.
“Are you going to come inside and drink it?” she asked, the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth and lighting her dark eyes. “Or would you prefer to have it by the door?”
He’d stayed where he was in order to put as much physical space as possible between them, as if that distance might somehow dull his