Barney
Barney watched with a clenched jaw as Misha reached out to tuck a piece of Brianna's hair behind her ear. She smiled uncomfortably and leaned away, glancing at Barney's closed office door for a second before looking back to Misha. The college boy was already making the drink orders that she had given him. After she collected the drinks and strutted that fine ass up the stairs, Barney waved Misha over.
"Hey, Mr. Westchester," the young man said, grinning, "what can I get you?"
"Stay away from Brianna," Barney said abruptly. He was not grinning. Misha blinked a few times and tilted his head.
"Uhh, no disrespect sir, but...why?" he asked, his eyes darting to where Brianna was serving one of her tables. Since it was day time, the club was turned into a restaurant, the dance floor filled with tables.
"Because you work for me and I said to stay away from her," Barney answered, the cool tone of voice that he always had extra frosty.
Misha opened his mouth as if to say something, but wisely closed it immediately following.
"Yes sir," he finally said.
Barney nodded and glanced over to see Brianna walking down the stairs again. Without a word to Misha, Barney walked over to her, tossed an arm around her shoulders and guided her to his office. She, uncharacteristically, kept her mouth shut.
After he walked into the office and closed the door behind them, he turned to her and crossed his arms over his chest.
"We need to talk," he said.
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Brianna
I chewed on the corner of my lip, making a futile attempt not to meet his eyes. Ever since the kiss, after which I sort of...ran away, I had actively tried to avoid him and, until now, it had worked.
"About what?" I asked, deciding playing dumb was probably my best course of action.
He chuckled, letting me know that my plan was not going to work.
"About the fact that less than two hours ago, I was ready to do bad things to you on that couch, and you were ready to let me."
My eyes widened and shot to his own, which were amused but also serious, and I blinked.
"Oh, straight to the point then, okay," I muttered before straightening up and looking him dead in the eye, "I know it was a mistake. I know I am your employee and I definitely know it was completely unprofessional. I was just hoping that I could keep-"
I stopped, startled, when he took two quick steps towards me, pulled me flush against his body with one forearm and crushed my lips to his with a hand in my hair. His lips parted immediately upon contact and I moaned and let my eyes close, relaxing in his arms and bringing my hands up to grip his jaw.
He didn't let tongues come into play, just letting our lips move in sync, every once in a while, changing the angle by tilting his head. He was definitely in control, and I was so enjoying the ride. He pulled away a fraction of an inch and it took me a few minutes to remember what else I was going to say.
"Hoping that I could keep my job," I whispered in a raspy voice, my eyes still closed.
I felt his lips press softly against mine one more time, and they were tilted up into a smile.
"Yes, baby, you can keep your job," he answered in a soft voice.
I found the courage to open my eyes and my heart stuttered a little when I saw his deep blue eyes, less than an inch away from me, filled with that same wonder, mixed with...God, mixed with something that I had never seen before, and would probably never see again, but it was sweet and it was tender and it was mine.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"Brianna?"
"Hm?"
"Don't flirt with Misha anymore," he said, his eyes losing some of that softness and a new, possessive light coming into them.
My eyebrows drew together minutely.
"I don't flirt with Misha, Misha flirts with me," I answered without thinking.
One of his eyebrows cocked for a second before his lips tilted up.
"Well, don't worry, he's done with that."
My eyes narrowed.
"Why is that?"
"Because I told him to stop."
My jaw dropped a little but a little laugh came out, which meant I couldn't scold him too seriously.
"You can't make everyone in the world stop flirting with me, Barney. If-"
I stopped short, because my next words were going to be along the lines of 'If we're going to do this' but I wasn't sure what the hell we were doing.
"If..." Barney prompted, and I shook my head. He must have known what I was thinking, though, because his face came even closer, until his lips brushed mine when he spoke.
"Brianna, I'm not that guy. The guy who gives you flowers, and pretty words, and two point five kids. I've never been that guy, and I never wanted to be. But, I mean, who knows, maybe that's because I've never found the right girl. Cuz, I kind of want to ask you out, and If you said yes, I'd for sure fucking bring you flowers," he shrugged.
My lips tilted up on one side, and I bit the bottom one to hide it.
"Well..." I prompted and his eyebrows drew together in confusion.
"Well what?"
"Are you going to ask me out?"
He blinked then grinned a slow, sexy, lazy grin.
"Brianna, would you-"
The door burst open and a short, gorgeous girl walked in. Her black shirt was cut to just above her belly button ring, and her jeans were old and looked seriously comfortable, even though they fit her like a glove. She blinked at the closeness of Barney and me and her pretty face contorted into a harsh frown.
"Um, Barney who the fuck is this?" she screeched, sending me the death glare.
Barney chuckled and turned us so that his arm was tossed around my shoulders and my side was tucked securely into him.
"Not with this one, Hazel," he said.
While this statement troubled me, it seemed to reassure the girl because her face transformed into a bright smile and she turned her dark blue eyes, which were much friendlier, onto me.
"Hey! I'm Hazel," she said, coming forward and offering her hand. I reached forward and took it, pleased to find out that she had a firm handshake, and introduced myself.
Her eyes widened excitedly at my name and she glanced at Barney quickly.
I looked up in time to see him glaring at her with big eyes, but she ignored whatever warning he was giving her, and took my other hand to pull me away from him.
"Ooh, you're so pretty," she gushed, which was interesting as this did not seem the type of girl who would gush, "Barney, I totally get it. I'd bang her, too."
I snorted a laugh and smiled at the same time, ignoring Barney covering his face with one hand.
"I like you," I announced. She grinned.
"Good."
Right then, a big dude...a really big dude walked through the door. He was probably like six foot four and the only thing keeping his hotness from being scary were his dimples and freckles.
"Hawk! This is Brianna," Hazel announced, towing me over to him by my hand.
Hawk grinned and shook my hand.
"I've heard a lot about you," he said, shooting Barney an evil wink.
"I've heard some about you," I answered back, glancing over at Barney.
"Oh?" Hawk asked, raising an eyebrow and pulling Hazel into him with one arm.
"Oh," I answered. "Congrats about the wedding, by the way."
Hazel smiled and absently fingered a gorgeous diamond ring on her finger.
I felt a hand on my lower back and had to consciously fight to stop a shiver from wracking my body.
"You two are here because?" Barney asked.
Hawk grinned at his friend's obvious anger, while Hazel looked between Barney and Brianna, her smile dying.
"Uh, Hawk, I think we interrupted something fairly important, we should go," she said softly, putting one hand on his chest and tilting her face up to look at him.
"Baby, we're..." he paused when he looked down at her and Brianna visibly watched as his every feature softened and he smiled, "do you want to go?"
Hazel nodded.
"Then we'll go," Hawk said. He looked at Barney.
"I'll stop by tomorrow, man, got news for you," he said.
Barney nodded. When Hawk turned his back, Hazel sent Barney a wink and mouthed 'You owe me.'
Barney grinned and slid his arm around my waist more securely waiting for her to close the door before he turned to me and opened his mouth.
"Yes," I answered before he could say anything, "I'll go out with you."