He knew damn well what had made him do it though. He hated to see Sierra upset, especially for this wedding that he knew for a fact she’d been spending hours upon hours working on every evening, all to make it memorable and low-stress for her sister, Kennedy. After all her selfless hard work, she deserved to spend the evening not worrying about whatever the hell she would worry about by going alone. Though he didn’t get why it was so important, he did understand it was, indeed, important to her, so he’d opened his mouth.

Sierra had firm boundaries in place between herself and her construction crew, and Cole had always respected that, had liked that about her and saw the wisdom in it. He wasn’t out to make friends himself. But in the three years plus that he’d worked for her, his brain had taken to thoughts about his boss that were inappropriate. Inappropriate and scorching hot. He shut them down as much as possible during his waking hours, but the truth came out in a guy’s dreams, and apparently his truth was that he wanted to do wicked, dirty things to his boss. Things he would never, in reality, allow to happen. Not with her.

Spending an evening with her outside of the office, close by her side, dancing with her, was the worst idea ever. Touching her politely when he wanted to do so much more privately would be torture. And yet that’s what he’d signed his stupid self up for.

The asshole who’d rammed into Cole earlier planted himself on a stool at the other end of the bar, next to the two blondes, but Cole barely noticed. The guy wasn’t worth the oxygen he breathed in.

Winona emerged from the kitchen with a plain white plate with a double-decker sandwich and a heap of barbecue chips. She set it in front of him, then went to take an order halfway down the bar.

Cole emptied the whiskey glass, then headed to the back hall, where the restrooms were, to wash off the remaining grime from work. He’d washed his hands at the office after coming in from the jobsite, but his clothes were still full of construction dust, and he wouldn’t feel clean until he rinsed it all down the drain in his shower.

When he came out of the men’s room, he heard a feminine voice to the right, outside the ladies’ room, saying, “I told you I’m not interested.”

“I saw you looking at me.”

Two feet away, with his back to Cole, the bearded asshole was blocking the way of one of the blondes from the counter who’d apparently gone to the restroom and was trying to get back to her friend. Cole met her eyes and saw wariness in them, verging on fear.

“She said no,” Cole said, taking a step closer.