Chapter 1

 

 

Nadine gave the bag of hot chocolate mix a little jerk, freeing the remaining powder from the bottom of the bag. The powdered mixture poured into the hot chocolate machine, just as she heard the front door of the coffee shop opening, signalling a customer. She groaned inwardly. It was one of those nights where customers trickled in at just the right speed to royally piss her off and hinder her cleaning progress.

After placing the cover back onto the hot chocolate dispenser, she spun around and her heart caught in her throat. Suddenly her annoyance over her nightly routine being disturbed evaporated and her frown turned to a bright smile that reflected in her bright emerald green eyes.

The reason for her change in mood was strutting across the dining room floor towards the front counter, his strides long and confident - bordering on cocky, but not quite. Her eyes scanned him from head to toe, taking note of the scuffed black boots, faded blue jeans and t-shirt stretching across his broad, powerful chest and shoulders. But his most striking feature was his eyes. His deep blue eyes caught hers and a shiver rushed down her spine and a throbbing between her legs commenced - as it did every single time she set eyes on him. Why did his gaze have such an impact on her? She both loved and hated the feeling.

"How's my favourite girl tonight?" he asked as he leaned an elbow on the countertop dividing them and watched as she began to prepare his coffee.

"Same as always, Hunter." She shrugged trying to appear as nonchalant as possible, though she knew she was doing a piss poor job at it. "How was your night?" She looked over at the clock on the cash register; it read 1:00 am. His usual time. What did he do for a living that had him coming in for a coffee this time of night? Her best guess was that he was a bartender, or at least that was the general consensus between the girls working at the coffee shop.

The problem was that the bars didn't close until 2:00 am, so leaving at the peak time for the business seemed unreasonable. He also had an air of confidence about him bordering on arrogance, despite his friendly demeanour. Yeah, he knew how sexy he was, Nadine could see it in is cocky smirk. Normally she had no attraction to men like him, but dammit he had such an effect on her.

"Wild."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "That so? Did you just get off work early?" They'd been through the work questions before. She'd ask, and then he'd avoid the question and turn the conversation over to something else.

He nodded. "I did." His smirk widened to a smile as he accepted the coffee she passed him and took a tentative sip.

"So what line of work did you tell me you were in again?" she asked, again attempting to appear nonchalant, and again failing miserably as she accepted the bill he gave her for payment.

"I didn't."

She growled softly as she thrust the bill into the register and counted out his change. As usual he waved it off. Her eyes met his once more. Why she needed to know what he did for a living was beyond her, but it was annoying her to no end that he refused to divulge that information. She knew she had no business asking or getting indignant when he refused to answer, but she was at her wits end with his smug attitude.

Placing a hand on her hip, her eyes narrowed at him. "Are you ever going to tell me?"

His jaw clenched and he cocked his head to the side, his eyes moving up and down the length of her causing her to flush and feel highly uncomfortable under his eyes intense scrutiny. "Hmmmm. Dunno."

Pushing back her shyness, she threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Okay. What do I have to do for you to tell me?"

The soft, sexy smile that sent her heart rate racing touched his lips again, adding to her annoyance. Rubbing his chin as if in contemplation he gave her body one more slow once over. "When is your next night off?"

"Tomorrow night. Why?"

"Go out with me tomorrow night and maybe I'll tell you."

Dumbstruck, Nadine stared at him for a long moment not responding.

Hunter shrugged. "Well, if you don't want to..." Grabbing his coffee he turned to walk away, but she leapt across the counter grabbing his arm.

"No... Wait!"

His smile was gone when he turned back to her, but amusement danced in his eyes. "Change your mind?"

Gotta remain cool, the man already has an ego you can't let him see the affect he has on you, she coached herself. Planting her hands on her hips she took her time moving her eyes up and down his body as he had done to her. When her eyes met his, to her annoyance there wasn't a shred of shyness in his expression, only more amusement. "So I agree and you tell me, correct?"

"Correct."

Upon a moment of hesitation he nodded. "You have yourself a deal. So where do I pick you up?"

Grabbing a pen and a napkin Nadine quickly jotted down her phone number and the address to her tiny one bedroom apartment a few blocks away from the coffee shop. To her dismay her hand shook slightly as she wrote due to her nervousness. He's just a guy, she reminded herself. A fucking hot guy that gets you wet just by looking at you, a voice in the back of her mind mocked. She ignored that voice as she gave him a bright smile and passed him the napkin with her information on it.

"Well, then I'll be seeing you tomorrow. Eight?"

"Eight," she confirmed. "You gonna give me a hint on where we're going?"

Taking a deep breath in, he exhaled loudly and then shook his head. "Nah. We'll keep it a surprise." With a wink he turned and exited the restaurant.

Nadine watched him leave, flabbergasted at what had just transpired. Despite his slightly cocky demeanour, Nadine had had a crush on him from the first day he'd strolled into the coffee shop. In truth, she suspected his cockiness had a fair amount to do with why she was so smitten with him. They always flirted lightly when he came in, but she never dreamed he'd ask her out. She assumed he had some hot little Barbie look-alike hanging off of his arm when he wasn't in the coffee shop or working at the mysterious occupation.

As Hunter hopped into his Escalade and sped out of the parking lot, a new worry came to the forefront of her mind. How was she going to dress for a date when she had no idea where they were going?