Heartbreaker (Rascals Book 3)

by Katie McCoy

  “It’s not far,” I told him. “I can walk.”

  “I’ll walk you home,” he countered.

  I wanted to tell him no, but he walked ahead without waiting for an answer. I knew I’d be fine on my own, but I still hadn’t gotten a straight answer out of him about why he had come tonight, so I followed him, figuring I could pump him for information.

  “When did you teach yourself to cook?” I asked, taking long strides to catch up with him.

  “When I was a kid,” he said, looking straight ahead.

  “Any reason?”

  He shrugged, and I could tell that this was a sensitive subject. If he had been anyone else, I might have respected that. But so far, he had done nothing but baffle and confuse me—sending me mixed signals and mixed messages. He obviously wasn’t someone who responded well to kid gloves, so I took them off.

  “What about your parents?” I wanted to know.

  “My mom is a terrible cook,” he responded, his voice flat.

  “And your dad?” I prodded.

  He spun so quickly that I nearly walked right into him. Instead, he caught me around the waist before I could trip, his hands on my hips, his dark eyes staring intently down at me.

  “I don’t want to talk about my family,” he told me, his fingers hot against the small of my back.

  “No?” I asked, hearing how husky my voice sounded.

  “No,” he said, his eyes dropping down to my mouth.

  “What do you want to talk about?” I managed, though my throat was dry.

  “Maybe I don’t want to talk,” he told me just before he lowered his mouth to mine.

  It wasn’t the reaction I had been expecting, but I wasn’t going to complain. Not when Liam’s lips were hot and insistent on mine. Not when he was pulling me tight against his body. Not when I could feel exactly how much he wanted me—the proof of that hard and long against my thigh.

  I was dizzy with need as he kissed me, my entire body humming with desire. It had never been this way before—this intensity, this attraction. Even the guys I had dated in the past—the ones I thought I had been attracted to—paled in comparison to Liam. I wanted him with a passion that was completely foreign to me. Like there was some newly awoken side of myself—a side that wanted to drag Liam home, take off all his clothes, and have my naughty way with him.

  And it seemed like he would be more than willing.

  Liam’s hands tangled in my hair as he deepened the kiss, his tongue teasing mine as he leaned his hips against mine, teasing me there as well. I was so hot that I thought I might explode right then and there.

  But then, without warning, Liam pulled away. Dropped his hands and stepped back.

  I blinked at him, confused by the abrupt change of behavior. First surprising me with a kiss, and then surprising me by stopping it just as it was getting good.

  I imagined I looked quite a state—I put a tentative hand to my head to find that it was a bird’s nest up there—thanks to Liam. I didn’t even bother touching my lips. I could tell that they were swollen. At least Liam looked equally mussed, and I was proud of the work I’d done messing up his hair.

  He rubbed the back of his neck, looking both angry and annoyed. “That shouldn’t have happened,” he finally said.

  I wanted to roll my eyes. “Just what every woman wants to hear,” I muttered.

  For the first time, Liam actually looked apologetic. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Even though I was disappointed and a little bit hurt, I shrugged it off. “No harm, no foul,” I told him, and continued walking towards my apartment, which was thankfully only another block away.

  Liam followed behind me, not saying anything. I could feel the tension radiating off of him, and I could have been nice and reassured him that everything was fine, but I didn’t mind making him sweat a little bit. He seemed like a guy who was used to getting what he wanted—it would serve him right to feel a little bit guilty about what had happened between us. What kept happening between us.

  “This is me.” I was grateful to finally arrive at my apartment. It was above a Greek restaurant, which was holding some kind of party tonight, spilling noise and music out onto the street.

  This evening had been weird, to say the least.

  Liam just stood there, his hands in his pockets.

  “Have a good night,” I prompted him, hoping he wasn’t going to try to explain why the kiss between us shouldn’t have happened. Because in my opinion, it had been pretty damn hot, and when you found someone who could kiss like that, you usually wanted to do other things with them.

  But I also knew from what Alex and Kelsey had said that I wasn’t the kind of girl that Liam usually did those kinds of things with. Which was a damn shame. Because I was long overdue for those kinds of things.

  “See you around,” I told Liam, unlocking the front door to my building and heading inside before he could ask for a post-mortem.

  I got into the elevator, watching as he walked away. I didn’t understand him at all, but I decided this was the last time he was pulling his hot-and-cold routine. If he didn’t want to date me, then he would just have to go without all the other fun stuff, too.

  But who was I kidding? My heart was still racing from all that fun stuff. And given half the chance . . . I would do it all over again.

  So what was his problem?

  7

  Juliet

  When I went back to work on Monday, I couldn’t help wondering how Liam would interact with me after our cooking class/kiss encounter that weekend. I tried not to keep watching the door, but it wasn’t busy, which gave me plenty of time to keep an eye out for Liam. Who never showed.

  Finally, around eleven, I stopped watching and focused on learning how to mix some of the cocktails that Chase was thinking of adding to the menu. I was struggling with making a mojito in a timely fashion while Chase and Emerson were brainstorming at the other end of the bar.

  “People do wine tastings all the time,” Chase was saying. “Beer tastings are becoming more popular as well. It would be a perfect addition to the menu.”

  “Wouldn’t we need a new set of supplies for that?” Emerson asked, looking thoughtful. “Don’t people do wine and beer flights with those little specialty trays?”

  “We could just start with shot glasses,” Chase countered. “We can do a soft rollout.”

  “A soft rollout.” Emerson threw a napkin at him. “And you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

  Chase rolled his eyes, his attention focused on the paperwork in front of him.

  “Let’s try it next week,” he said. “Word of mouth.” He glanced up, and over at me. “Hey, Jules, did you hear that?”

  “About your soft rollout?” I teased. “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”

  Emerson laughed, and Chase sighed.

  “Hilarious.” He closed the notebook. “You two keep cracking jokes while I try to save this bar.”

  “Save it from what?” Emerson demanded. “Business is great.”

  “Save it from mediocrity,” Chase countered.

  “Who’s mediocre?” Kelsey asked, having just come into the bar with Alex and Hayley.

  “Certainly not you in that dress.” Chase let out a low whistle before leaning over the bar to kiss his girlfriend, who was wearing an exceptionally beautiful vintage-style dress with peacocks all over it.

  “I thought you’d like it.” Kelsey gave a little twirl.

  “I do like those birds,” Chase said with a leer.

  “What? Peacocks?” Kelsey asked.

  Chase came out from under the bar and pulled her into his arms. “You know I love it when you say dirty words.” Then he kissed her.

  It was a very private kiss for such a public place, but neither Kelsey nor Chase seemed to notice or care. Not even when Hayley began throwing peanuts at them.

  “Get a room,” she hollered.

  Kelsey’s cheeks were bright pink when they finally broke apart. Even Chase look
ed a little dazed.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” he said to Hayley, before turning to Emerson. “We’re going to borrow your office.”

  Then, before Emerson could object, Chase was dragging a laughing and blushing Kelsey off to the back room.

  “Lock the door,” Emerson hollered behind them, before glancing over at Alex. “I like your dress too,” he said with a smile.

  She was also wearing a cute dress, though hers was more sleek and sophisticated. Still, she flushed at Emerson’s grin.

  “Too bad I don’t live upstairs anymore,” she said with a saucy wink.

  Emerson groaned. “Yeah, too bad.” He gave her a naughty look.

  “Gross,” Hayley complained, before returning her attention to the bar. “Oooh, mojitos,” she said, noticing the lineup of practice drinks I had made.

  “Help yourself,” I offered, the two of us returning to the bar, giving Emerson and Alex the space to make goo-goo eyes at each other.

  “They’re so obnoxious,” Hayley said, but her tone wasn’t mean. She seemed happy for her brother—a little wistful, maybe—but mostly happy for him.

  “It’s kind of sweet,” I commented, before adding, “In an obnoxious way, of course.”

  Hayley clinked her glass against mine. “Of course.” She took a long drink. “I was actually hoping I’d see you tonight,” she commented.

  “Really?” I took a small sip of one of my mojito attempts.

  It wasn’t bad—maybe just a little too sweet—but I didn’t drink the rest. As tempting as it was to be surrounded by all this free booze, I knew that drinking on the job would make the job pretty damn difficult. And I needed this job. And the tips I made from it.

  “I don’t know if the guys mentioned it, but I do a lot of volunteering. One of the places I volunteer at is an after-school program for at-risk kids. They have several dance classes on the schedule and are always looking for volunteer teachers.”

  I froze.

  I was just starting to come to terms with the fact that I would never dance professionally again. It was hard enough to be around other dancers—even ones that were my friends—could I handle teaching a dance class?

  “I’ve never taught before,” I told Hayley, which was the truth.

  I’d provided demonstrations to teachers and choreographers, but I’d never taught anyone how to dance. I wasn’t sure I even knew how to. Or wanted to.

  “I think you’d be great,” Hayley urged, and I got the sense that people didn’t say no to her very often.

  And speaking of people who were used to getting what they wanted—just at that moment, Liam came into the bar.

  It was like there was an invisible wire held taut between the two of us. My attention immediately turned to him, and his eyes met mine from across the bar. I could feel the tension between us, and I wanted to look away, but found it hard to.

  Finally, I pulled my attention back to Hayley, but it hadn’t been fast enough. She was already looking over her shoulder to see who I had been staring at.

  “Maybe I can come check the program out sometime,” I suggested, naively hoping that I’d be able to distract her away from a discussion about Liam.

  “Yeah, sure,” Hayley said, waving a hand distractedly before turning back to me. “But do you want to tell me what the hell that was?” she demanded.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I demurred, but could feel my cheeks heating.

  “Oh my God,” Hayley gasped. “You have a thing for Liam.”

  She said it loudly enough for Alex—who was walking away from Emerson—to hear.

  “What about Liam?” Alex asked, coming over to us.

  I closed my eyes, wishing that this wasn’t happening.

  “Jules has a thing for Liam,” Hayley said helpfully.

  I wanted to bang my head against the bar.

  Alex let out a little squeal. “You do?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “I do not have a thing for him,” I said, lowering my voice and hoping the others would do the same.

  Instead, Alex just waved towards Kelsey, who had just reemerged from the back room, looking happy and rumpled and flushed.

  “Jules has a thing for Liam,” Hayley filled her in.

  “I do not,” I argued, but it was pointless.

  “I saw the way you stared at him when he came in,” Hayley accused. “And the way he stared at you. Something is going on.”

  “Nothing is going on,” I argued, but then Kelsey started waving her hands frantically.

  “Be quiet,” she ordered. “He’s coming over!”

  I felt like we were in high school—all of us gossiping about the hot guy and then giggling and trying to play it cool when he came over to our lunch table. Only in this case, we were in a bar, and the girls I was sitting with were absolutely not playing it cool.

  “Hey, Liam,” Hayley said extremely loudly.

  He gave her a look. I didn’t blame him. Not only was Hayley talking much louder than necessary, but she, Kelsey, and Alex were all staring at Liam, only occasionally looking away to look at me before looking back at him. They couldn’t have been more obvious if they tried.

  “How’s it going, Liam?” Kelsey asked—also more loudly than usual.

  “Having a good night, Liam?” Alex added.

  “Fine, thanks,” Liam said, giving them all suspicious looks before giving me the most suspicious one of all.

  “They’re drunk,” I told him. “Extremely, extremely drunk.”

  He raised an eyebrow but didn’t look convinced.

  “Can I get a whiskey on the rocks?” he asked.

  “Yep,” I told him, doing my best not to look directly at him.

  I was pretty sure if I did, I might burst into flames.

  He was looking really good tonight. That black suit of his with a gray shirt and black tie. All which fit him perfectly. I had been right about his penchant for black, white, and gray. His blue jeans notwithstanding, I hadn’t seen him wear a single color since I met him.

  Not that I was much more colorful. I had been saving my tips but hadn’t been able to find the time to go on a shopping trip to brighten up my wardrobe. Nor did I really know where to go. I could probably ask Kelsey—she looked like someone who knew where to find pretty, colorful clothes.

  I focused my attention of getting his drink ready, while the girls worked on my mojito testers, their eyes following my every move. Liam’s as well.

  “Here you go,” I said, and this time I was the one who was too loud as I pushed Liam’s drink across the bar towards him.

  But I didn’t pull my hand back in time, and as he reached out to take it from me, our fingers touched. Electricity jolted through me. Whatever it was that was happening between us, it was getting harder and harder to ignore.

  And from the shocked look on Liam’s face, I could tell that he felt the same way.

  “Thanks,” he said, clearing his throat.

  He took a step back, and almost tripped over a barstool. I half expected the girls to start laughing, but they just stared at Liam as he righted the stool and made his way back to the booth in the corner.

  “Oh wow,” Hayley breathed.

  “Yeah,” Alex echoed.

  “Damn,” Kelsey added.

  I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I knew enough to be wary when they all turned to face me at the same time.

  “Are you seriously going to tell us that nothing is going on between you and Liam?” Hayley demanded.

  “Nothing is going on between us,” I argued, and got three eye rolls for my troubles.

  “Liam doesn’t just trip over barstools,” Alex pointed out. “He’s Mr. Cool, Calm, and Collected. And you’ve got him riled up. About something.”

  I couldn’t help but get a little thrill about that. I had been all out of sorts since our first kiss—and then again after our second one. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one affected.

  “It wasn’t a big
deal,” I said tentatively.

  Immediately, all three of the girls were leaning on the bar, listening intently.

  “It wasn’t a big deal, but . . . ?” Hayley prodded.

  “It was just a kiss,” I mumbled. “Or two.”

  The girls squealed in unison.

  “You and Liam kissed?” Kelsey sighed like I was telling her a fairy tale. “When? How? Was it good?”

  I recounted the whole story about my first night in Rascals, and how I had impulsively kissed Liam in the alleyway. That elicited another sigh from Kelsey.

  “That’s so romantic,” she said.

  “Romantic?” I laughed. “We were in an alley.”

  “What did he do?” Hayley wanted to know.

  “Um . . .” I felt weird telling them the details. But it was nice, too. This was the kind of thing that friends did. “He kissed me back?”

  “How was it?” Alex demanded.

  “Gross.” Hayley put her hands over her ears. “Liam is like my brother.”

  “Your hot brother,” Kelsey teased.

  “Though, your actual brother is pretty hot too,” Alex added, much to Hayley’s annoyance.

  “I hate you guys,” she told them before turning back to me. “But I’ll swallow my discomfort so that Jules can give us details.”

  “That’s about it,” I said to a sea of disappointed faces.

  “Wait, you said you had kissed him. More than once,” Kelsey reminded me.

  Dammit. Obviously she had a good memory when it came to kissing gossip.

  “There was once more.” I kept my voice low, even though Liam was on the other side of the room, deep in conversation with Emerson and Chase. “Last night,” I confessed.

  The girls squealed again.

  “Last night!” Alex’s eyes were wide. “Did you guys go out on a date?”

  “No,” I quickly said. “But it was a little weird.”

  I told them about the cooking class, how I had run into Liam that morning and he had just shown up at the class that evening.

  “Sort of sounds like a date,” Hayley offered.

  “Sort of.” Kelsey thought about it for a moment. “But not really. If it had been a date, Liam would have picked her up. Taken her somewhere nice. He would have done it properly.”