Reckless Entanglement: The Hunter Brothers Book # 1 Page 2

  I shrug away the thoughts. It doesn’t matter. Matt isn’t my problem. And he’s not going to become a problem. Knowing that he may have been a manager at one of our other branches actually makes me feel better, because I’ve pretty much left him to fend for himself since Marco told me to show him the ropes. If he’s done the manager’s job, in theory, he knows more about the ropes than I do.

  I still feel a little guilty, but I let it go. I’m not going to get mixed up with Matt just because Marco wants it to happen. Screw Marco. It’ll give him something to berate me over; something I’ve actually done rather than his personal grudge against me coming in to play.

  The rest of my shift goes over without incident. My bad luck does seem to have come to an end and I’ve made a decent amount in tips. When my shift finishes, I feel kind of tired, it’s been a busy one, but I also feel pretty good. When Marco isn’t around, I enjoy my job, and I’ve barely seen him since he tried to palm Matt off onto me.

  I go through to the break room and collect my things. I am just about to leave when Matt walks in. He smiles at me and I feel my heart flutter, but I tell myself to stop it. He’s changed out of his uniform, he’s wearing jeans and a plain white t-shirt that shows off his tanned, muscular arms, and gives me a hint as to how amazing his abs are underneath that t-shirt.

  His smile seems genuine, and I don’t want to be rude to him. There’s a difference between keeping your distance and being outright mean, and I don’t want to make anyone feel the way Marco makes me feel. “How was your first shift?” I ask.

  “Good.” He smiles. “Nice and busy. And I got through it with my uniform still clean, so that’s a success right?”

  “Right,” I reply, feeling myself relaxing slightly. “Staying clean and not dropping anything is pretty much the best you can expect on your first night.”

  “I guess I did ok then.” He’s still smiling.

  Better than me by all accounts, as I would have dropped a dish if Matt hadn’t have caught me. I realize I still haven’t thanked him for stopping me from face planting on the restaurant floor. “I never did thank you. For stopping me from going flying in the dining room earlier.”

  “You still haven’t.” His grin turns playful, making his eyes twinkle and my pussy clench. “You just pointed it out.”

  A laugh comes from my lips unbidden and I give him a playful shove, aware of the sparks that flood through my hand and up my arm as I touch him. “Thank you,” I say. “There, I said it.”

  “And thank you for making my first night a success,” he says.

  I feel my cheeks redden. I deserved that. “I—”

  “I’m serious Callie,” he says, cutting me off. “You obviously know what you’re doing here. It’s sink or swim right? If you’d have had me shadow you, I’d be no further forward.”

  He thinks my complete avoidance of him was some sort of training technique? I’m happy enough to go along with that. It’s a much better scenario than the one where I have to admit I’m avoiding him because I don’t think I can control myself around him. Not that I’d ever admit it. I decide to move our conversation back onto safer ground. I nod towards the doors. “Are you ready to leave?”

  He nods and I pull the door open. I step through and keep it open for him.

  He steps out and thanks me.

  “Which way are you heading?” I ask.

  He nods in the general direction I’m going in to catch my train.

  “Me too,” I say.

  We start to walk and I suddenly wonder if he thinks I’m just saying it, so we can spend a few extra minutes together. Surely, he won’t think that. Like I’m hiding the fact I’d follow him pretty much anywhere. Just in case, I decide to clarify things. “I’m catching the 10:35 train,” I say.

  “Ah, me too,” Matt says.

  I raise an eyebrow. Is he following me? I wish.

  “Whereabouts do you live?” he asks.

  “Just a couple of stops away. I’m studying at the university. I have a dorm room there,” I say. “What about you? You’re not a student. I would definitely have noticed you around campus.” I feel my cheeks heat up as I realize what I’ve said.

  Matt gives me an amused smile. “I’m in Felton.”

  Again with the arrogant kind of smile that reminds me why I’m meant to be staying away from him. “Nice,” I comment.

  His expression changes for a moment, a look of regret crossing his face, like he shouldn’t have told me where he lives.

  The look is gone before I can truly register it and I tell myself I’m being paranoid. There was no look.

  I can easily picture someone like Matt living in Felton. Felton isn’t the sort of neighborhood girls like me live in. It’s an elite place, where the houses are situated seemingly miles apart from each other, each one planted in the middle of an extensive garden. What I can’t work out is what the fuck someone who lives on an estate like that is doing working as a waiter.

  I refused to acknowledge the part of me that warms inside at his words, the part that is excited to know I’ll be spending the whole train journey in his company. We arrive at the station just as the train pulls in. “Perfect timing,” I say.

  “Indeed,” Matt says, giving me a look I can’t quite read.

  We get onto the train, Matt gesturing at me to get on first. I take a window seat and silently pray that Matt sits beside me. He does. I tell myself it means nothing. How could he sit anywhere else without looking like a total jerk? That doesn’t stop my heart from racing too fast as I feel his leg pressing against mine. My stomach whirls, my clit throbbing. I am eager for more of his touch, a touch more intimate.

  I clear my throat and look out of the window for a moment, trying to slow my heart rate down.

  “Is the station that interesting or am I that boring?” Matt asks after a couple of seconds.

  I turn back to him, shaking my head. “Neither. I thought I saw someone I knew, that's all,” I lie.

  “Well, it’s good to know you don’t think I’m boring.” He winks.

  “Ah… I didn’t exactly say that did I?” I tease him. “I don’t know enough about you to decide that yet.”

  The train gives a whistle and pulls slowly out of the station, picking up speed.

  “We’ll have to see what we can do about that then.” Matt nods. “I’d hate for your thrilling commute to become boring.”

  I bite my lip to stop myself from blurting out what’s in my head; the commute is already a hundred times more exhilarating than any other train journey I’ve ever taken. I am saved from embarrassing myself when the ticket collector comes to our seat, asking to see our tickets.

  I pull mine from my jacket pocket and he takes it and stamps it. Matt asks for a single to Felton and pays the conductor. I wonder briefly how he got to work if not on the train, but I don’t ask. He could have caught a bus, or been dropped off by a friend. It’s not suspicious and I need to stop trying to make Matt out to be some sort of fucking James Bond.

  The ticket inspector moves on and Matt turns back to me. “So the more I think about it, the more you’ve convinced me that I am actually pretty boring,” he says. “I had a normal childhood with normal parents and normal siblings. And now I’m a normal waiter in a normal restaurant. There is one thing though, something I try to keep quiet, but you seem like someone I can trust.” He looks around, beckoning me closer.

  I hold my breath, waiting for his big secret. I’m nervous suddenly, unsure of what he’s about to reveal.

  Lowering his voice he says, “Sometimes, if we have a family meal and no one is looking, I take the last roasted potato.”

  I throw my head back and laugh, surprised at how easily he was able to reel me in.

  He laughs with me, enjoying my reaction.

  “You’re a bad man.” I laugh. “Everyone knows the last potato is off limits.”

  “I’m a monster,” he confirms. “But not boring right?”

  “Right,” I agree as I chuckle.

/>   We chat some more and I begin to see the real Matt, the person beneath the cool and arrogant exterior. He’s warm and funny, so I find myself relaxing completely in his company. He still has a profound effect on me, the intensity of his gaze, the way he rests his hand on my knee for a second as we laugh, but it seems more genuine now. I realize he’s not arrogant at all. His humor is mostly self-deprecating and I think his arrogance is most likely a front he puts up to appear more confident than he is.

  All too soon, my stop approaches. I’m not ready for this to be over. I’m doing the worst job of avoiding Matt, but now I’ve seen a different side to him, I have to wonder if I should even want to keep my distance from him. “This is me,” I say, as the tinny voice announces my upcoming stop.

  Matt stands up and lets me pass. “Are you working tomorrow?” he asks me.

  “Yeah. I’m on the closing shift all week. You?”

  “Same,” he says.

  The train pulls to a stop and I make for the doors.

  “So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, Callie.”

  I can’t help but feel a shiver run through my body as I step off the train and feel Matt’s eyes on me, watching me across the station.

  Chapter Four

  Matt

  I watch Callie until she’s out of sight. The second she moves through the turnstiles and off the platform, I jump to my feet and run for the doors, making it through just in time before they hiss closed. I move in the opposite direction to where I’ve seen Callie disappear from sight. I slip into the men’s room and go into a cubicle, locking the door. I have to make sure she’s out of sight before I leave the station. I don’t want to risk her turning around and seeing me.

  I stand in the cubicle, trying my best not to touch anything and not to breathe too deeply. It’s not exactly clean and I don’t want to spend a minute longer here than I have to, but sometimes, needs outweigh everything else and this is one of those times.

  I keep looking at my watch, waiting for ten minutes to pass. Each minute feels like an hour, and I give up after five minutes and leave. I go back out onto the platform, glad to be able to take a deeper breath. I leave the station and pull my phone out of my jeans pocket. I make a quick call and arrange to be picked up from the station.

  I lean my back against the wall and wait, my mind going back to Callie. I smile to myself as I hear her musical laughter in my mind. I love being able to make her laugh, love thinking I could maybe make her happy.

  But it’s a road I can’t afford to go down. I can’t let myself get emotionally attached to Callie. It will only distract me from the real reason I’m here. I thought it was going to be easy to avoid getting attached to her. Although my cock hardened at the sight of her, and I pictured myself licking her all over, she showed no interest in me. In fact, after the initial moment where her piercing gaze took my breath away, she seemed like she could barely tolerate me.

  I figured I could relax a little, maybe even have a bit of fun flirting with her. But then, she started to flirt back, and I came to see that the way she makes me feel is not one sided. That makes it harder. Much harder.

  What I wouldn’t have given to take her home with me, show her who I really am and fuck her all night long. I can’t do that though. I can’t let her in.

  I shake my head a little, trying to push the thoughts of Callie from my mind. I have to be focused on the task at hand. I tell myself there will be no more flirting. I’ll be friendly to Callie, but that’s it. Anything else is off the table. No matter how hard keeping it that way might turn out to be.

  Chapter Five

  Callie

  Things seem to have changed between Matt and me. After that first day, where the chemistry between us was sizzling hot, I went into work the next day expecting, well I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting. Something. Something very different than what I got.

  It felt like Matt had put up a wall. Not a wall to keep me out entirely, but a wall that said our flirtations and the chemistry between us was out of bounds. He went from being the hot stranger to the guy I shared the train ride home with and somehow, somewhere over the week, I started to think of him as a friend.

  We were scheduled on the closing shift together, and each night we were the only two left by the time we pulled the shutter down on the restaurant. Technically, as I had been there longer, I was the senior member of staff, but Matt took the job of performing the nightly security checks seriously and I let him do it.

  We’d catch the train every night and laugh and joke and tease each other on the way home until my stop rolled around. I had managed to convince myself that I wasn’t attracted to Matt. It wasn’t entirely true, but I’d gotten what I wanted. A way to avoid the obvious chemistry between us and the complications of dating someone I worked with.

  The first night we were alone together, my stomach was a rolling pit of need. I kept thinking Matt would try to kiss me. I kept asking myself whether or not I’d let him if he did. Tonight, there’s no such thought in my mind as I say goodbye to the last table of stragglers and close the door behind them. I lock it and turn to Matt, pressing my back to the door and wiping fake sweat from my brow.

  He laughs at my theatrics.

  I grab the mop from him. “You go and grab our stuff and check the back door and I’ll finish up the last bit of floor,” I say.

  “Yes, boss,” he says, snapping off a salute.

  I shake my head as he leaves the restaurant floor. I can’t help but watch the way his ass ripples inside of his trousers as he strides across the floor. I mean there’s no harm in looking right? He moves out of sight and I quickly wipe down the last table and finish the floor. I empty the mop bucket out and just as I’m pulling the cleaning supplies cupboard door closed, Matt appears.

  He smiles and holds out my coat. I slip it on and he hands me my bag. “Ready?” he asks.

  “More than ready,” I reply.

  We lock up and set off towards the station.

  “Have you got any plans for the weekend?” Matt asks.

  “I’m going to a party tomorrow night,” I say. “Then Saturday I’ll spend hungover and dying, then I’m back to work Saturday night. I honestly can’t believe I’ve got tomorrow night off. You have no idea how many parties and events I’ve had to miss because Marco seems determined to ruin my social life by having me chained to the restaurant every weekend night.”

  “Maybe he just wants a pretty face to pull the crowds in on a weekend.” Matt grins.

  I playfully slap his arm, although my cheeks color at his compliment. “Don’t let the other waitresses hear you say that.” I laugh.

  “Oh, I won’t. I don’t particularly need a lawsuit right now,” he says.

  “Maybe next week?” I laugh.

  “Yeah, maybe. I’ll check my planner and see if I have an opening.” He chuckles.

  “What about you? Do you have plans?” I ask.

  “No,” he says. “I expected to be working being the new guy and all that. Mind you, I’m in for a double shift Saturday and the same again Sunday, so it’s not like I’m getting off easily.”

  “Ouch,” I say.

  “Yeah exactly,” he agrees.

  The train arrives and we get on then show the inspector our tickets.

  “So tell me about this drunken college party,” Matt asks as the inspector walks away.

  “Well, it’s pretty much as you described it. Our dorm parties usually get broken up pretty quickly, but this one is being thrown by a friend of mine who is in a house share off campus. He only has one neighbor and they’re away for the weekend, so I reckon this one might last past eleven.”

  “Make sure it doesn’t go past twelve though,” Matt warns. “I’d hate to hear you’d turned back into a pumpkin.”

  “I think the story goes that Cinderella turns back into a slave girl and her carriage becomes a pumpkin,” I say.

  “Same thing.” He shrugs.

  “Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time I’d lef
t a party with only one shoe,” I say. “But strangely, no prince has ever come to bring me the other one.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s the difference between magic and tequila shots.” Matt laughs.

  “Oh, I think they’re pretty much one and the same. Both of them make me a wicked dancer.” I laugh.

  “Now I’m intrigued,” Matt says as he jumps to his feet and gestures for me to get up into the aisle.

  “What are you doing?” I hiss, aware that the people around us are staring.

  “Waiting for you to show me your moves,” he says.

  “Ah, well there’s definitely no magic on board and I haven’t had my tequila I’m afraid.” I giggle.

  “Chicken.” Matt laughs, sitting back down.

  “You should come. To the party I mean,” I say, feeling brave suddenly.

  “I don’t know. I think I might be a bit old for a college party.”

  “Yeah. I mean you’re what twenty-five? You’re ancient,” I tease.

  “Hey, less of the ancient” He laughs. “And actually I’m only twenty-four.”

  “So is that a yes then?” I push him.

  “I…”

  His tone of voice tells me he’s about to say no, and suddenly, the thought of not seeing him tomorrow makes me feel a little lonely. “Now who’s the chicken?” I interrupt him.

  “Oh, I’ll be there.” He nods. “And this dancing thing? It’s on.”

  “Oh it’s on alright.” I laugh, feeling a warm glow inside of me. I take Matt’s number, telling him I’ll text him the address, and when my stop rolls around, I get off the train feeling like I’m walking on air. Did I just ask Matt on a date and got a yes?