Chapter 7 - Win for the house?

ROCCO

Not my smoothest move I'll admit. 

There was something happening at the bar between us, even though she would probably deny it. There was a tango of back and forth, trading tiny nuggets of information, little steps back and forth to the flow of the music. I could see her eyes following me up and down the bar, sizing up my shoulders wondering what my build was like under my suit jacket. 

When we leaned closer together over the bar, eyes meeting, her hazel irises dancing with curiosity, there was a possibility of something. I know I know I have made my rules clear, I don’t mix with shifters. She said she didn't either, let's don’t forget yet the ruby shards in her brown eyes said otherwise.

You can call me foolish, but I know for certain, somewhere in a different reality it went differently than tonight. In a world where drunken friends and bosses didn't interrupt crucial moments, I would have been popping open those jacket buttons and having the time of my life with her now. Heads you win, tails you lose.

As I sullenly cash up in the back whilst the staff clean up, I let my mind roam further and further down the path of desire.

It's the very definition of multi-tasking to accurately count thousands of dollars whilst imaging stripping a beautiful woman slowly. Peeling away those layers so delicately, barely touching her, teasing her. I'd have picked her up and mounted her on the bar. Her breasts at the height of my face, waiting to be caressed.

I would have dimmed the lights lower, turning up the soft music as I explore every inch of her. I would murmur her name, 'Selene' breathily into the crook of her neck as I kissed it. She would have run her hands up and down my chest, spreading her legs to pull me closer to her.

Allow me the luxury of my imagination, please.  

She had a black silk bra underneath that jacket, her skin so pale and delicate. I had noticed her inhale my scent, it sent a burst of colour to her eyes. I'll be honest, it sent a rush of blood to my dick at the time too. 

Seeing her enjoying something as primal as a smell was the most intoxicating part of the whole interaction. Hers was a heady floral perfume that seemed to surround. Human women never fully appreciate that aspect. I could easily imagine how sexy those blonde curls would look after being taken to heaven and back. That tight, precisely styled head of curls falling to just above her shoulder gave me a craving to leave her a tangle of delirious, messy bed hair.

Not tonight. Not ever now, that's for certain. And don't even ask me why I lied about being from the same pack as her. I am from Silverlake, same as Jacob but she wouldn’t remember me. I certainly wasn’t a big figure in Celstar town after the age of eight. Neither were the rest of my family after Alpha Wicknace delivered his “justice.”

I have my reasons for lying to her. I didn’t want to chat about the pack. I hate it, best to pretend I’m not even part of it.

I smack the table in frustration when I realise I cannot multi-task after all. Apparently the suave, sexy Rocco cannot count cash and deal with rejection. I let out a groan of frustration and hear Callum's low chuckle from the bar.

The instant she walked back in and saw me talking to that brunette pocket rocket her defences shot up faster than a Cold War bunker. It wasn't even worth explaining that I had actually been talking to her about Callum, sliding his number over to her. The wall of ice was reinstated, as emphasised by her bitchy little remark on the way out.

She judged me harshly, I'm certain you did too. 

As the uncountable stack of money piles up before me I should be elated. This has been a great night for the Gilded Falcon, made a fortune, every customer happy yet I'm here frustrated over some ice-cold blonde shifter who thinks I'm a sleaze.

Fuck this. I'm a good guy you know.  

Greg, the one who had his drunken mitts all over her body, acting more drunk than he was to cop a feel, now he's the one to watch. I watched his hands grip her waist and it weirdly sent a flare of anger through me. Fucking creep.

Was I angry because she didn't stop it, because she couldn’t stop it, or because it wasn't my hand on her? God knows. I'm getting tangled up over a girl I don't even want to get close to.

Callum walked through and rested his huge frame against the door.

"Can't win them all Roc," he smirked, holding a glass of iced water out to me.

I slapped my hand on the desk, "That's the annoying thing, she was one of us! I shouldn't have gone near in the first place."

Callum merely shrugged his shoulders as I knocked back the freezing drink. It acted like the slap on the face an attention-hopping idiot like me needs sometimes.

Back to business. Move along.

"I'll have this counted in twenty minutes, then we'll lock up?"

"Cool. Did you give that brunette in the red dress my number?" his face furrowed with concern. 

His shaved head and blue eyes had an intensity about them that meant men always backed down from violence and women always assumed he was a teddy bear underneath. He had a much bigger frame than me. I was bigger than most humans, Callum was bigger than all of them.

"Sorry yeah she was pretty insistent. Thought giving a fake one would ruin us getting repeat business."

"Nah, it's fine. I'm sure she won't call, she seemed pretty wasted” he said, tapping the card against his fingers. “Think she liked you more by the end of the night anyway."

I grunted, "Trust me, the door is well and truly closed on anyone from that party," I muttered, picking up wedges of notes to start the recount. He gave me a mocking salute as he hauled his large form languidly from the door frame.

I picked up a stack of hundreds, "give this Pauline please, for the jacket I had to borrow?"

"Sure thing," he said, tucking it into his huge hand. "You know Alexa’s old locker has a spare uniform, white shirts, black dress, all that you could have just taken?"

"Yeah…I did," I replied deadpan, giving him a raised eyebrow of my own. 

He let out another chuckle and said, "risky move there Roc."

"She looked good though, didn't she?" I smiled and said, "worth every cent, I'll take it out of my cut don't worry."

"It's cool, I think your little stunt prompted the birthday boy to put his hand in his pocket."

"It did, didn't it," I replied smiling victoriously. Then the image of his arm around her waist crossed my mind and it dropped away like a stone in a pond, leaving me sullen once more.

Callum watched me silently whilst I counted. I never minded him doing that, it helped me keep focused. I felt bad for giving out his number, to be fair he normally just apologises sweetly and explains he has started seeing someone. 

He never entertained non shifting females. He wanted a mate. Which is why he never worked a full moon, I would never do that to him. It would be bittersweet when the day came, one of our trio leaving our little mini-pack.

Meanwhile I, the impulsive flirt that I am, I had to fight every instinct in my mind to keep my mind on the cash before me and not on how those buttons could have yielded under my touch. Instead Selene, what a name by the way, blatantly thinks I’m a pig.

Think of it as a near escape I tell myself. Even though the house won big tonight I felt like one of the losers.