Half Blood Read Free

pistachio-green.
    He pushed the six-foot-four mark; his broad shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist and muscular legs. He didn’t look like much with his clothes on, but Indi had accidently walked in on him when he was changing out of his uniform one evening after the café had closed, and he was packing some serious muscle under his Hanes.
    She smiled, shaking her head at him. ‘Nah, I’m good.’ She rubbed the back of her neck, working some kinks out as she prepared herself to talk to the customer in her section. Plastering a fake smile on her lips, she made her way over to him. The guy’s dark eyes watched her with all the eagerness of a hungry predator.
    Her skin crawled with anger. She wanted nothing more than to stop him looking at her like something delectable. Shaking off the murderous impulse, Indi pressed her omnipresent anger further down into her belly. Sometimes she felt as if her anger was an actual Thing inside her; a giant black cat wanting to claw its way out of her body when she let it get out of control.
    ‘Hi. What can I get you?’ she asked, keeping her voice light and easy.
    His top lip curled up a little in the corner. ‘Hi,’ he replied smoothly.
    She stared into his eyes, realising that they weren’t dark brown as she’d originally thought, but black––as black as clouds that threatened a tempest.
    ‘So … what can I get you?’ Indi tapped the long end of her notepad against her thigh to stop herself from being tempted to reach for the hunting knife she’d always kept in her boot. Her anger liked that idea. The cat inside her wanted to draw blood when the weight of his gaze set the hairs on the back of her neck on end.
    He licked his bottom lip slowly. ‘How about your phone number?’
    She curled her free hand into a fist at her side and let out a deep lung-full of air. ‘Sorry, we’re not serving that today.’ She tried to keep her voice peppy and bright.
    His dark eyes lingered on her breasts. When he met her eyes again, Indi was glaring back down at him, practically chewing off her own tongue to stop herself from telling him to keep his eyes to his fucking self.
    ‘Look, I can come back once you’ve decided,’ she said, turning around to leave, but his warm hand on her forearm stopped her. She turned back, visually tearing strips of his skin from his body.
    ‘I’ll have an espresso,’ he said, not taking his hand back.
    ‘Fine,’ she replied through gritted teeth. ‘Do you mind moving that?’ She nodded down at her arm.
    ‘I will when you tell me your name.’
    Indi silently thanked Jerry for not insisting on the staff wearing nametags. ‘Nancy,’ she replied curtly.
    He squeezed her forearm gently. ‘Nancy,’ he repeated in a drawl. ‘That wasn’t so hard now, was it?’ His voice was rich like dark coffee and she could see the appeal. ‘Nancy, you have the most extraordinary eyes.’
    ‘They’re contacts,’ she snapped before faking another smile and stalking off.
    Her whole body shook with the effort of not turning around and slugging the guy in the mouth. When she got to the front counter, her boss Jerry was standing behind the coffee machine working on an order.
    ‘An espresso, Jer. Please.’
    ‘Are you okay?’ he asked without looking up.
    She smiled at him. ‘Are you worried about me?’
    His dark blue eyes found her face. ‘I’m worried about what that guy said to you.’
    She shrugged her shoulders. ‘It’s nothing I can’t handle.’
    He gave her his serious eyes. ‘Are you sure? Because I can get Rhett to take his order over there.’
    ‘Jer, it’s fine. He’s in my section. I can handle him.’
    ‘Alright,’ he said softly. Indi watched his expression relax as he went back to work on her order. She lived alone now, but she and Jerry had lived together since she was fifteen and he was eighteen. As far as she was concerned he was her brother and the closest she had ever come to having a real family.
    Jerry finished up the