“New waitress?” he said, then hit Whitney with a hard look. “That can’t be right. What are you really doing here?”

“Ryder!” Penny said in a horrified tone. “Quit being so rude. What’s the matter with you?”

Whitney frowned. Why was he so pissy? She hadn’t expected to see him again, not to mention… He was Penny’s brother? Crap! She’d slept with her boss’s brother. But he hadn’t exactly been upfront about who he was.

“What am I doing here?” Whitney challenged. “I could ask you the same thing. You said you weren’t from around here.”

A flash of guilt crossed his face. “I said technically.”

“Ah, so we’re being technical now?” She plugged in the blender, then lifted the lid. Let him try to say something else. She’d flip the switch to on and drown him out—

“Wait,” Penny interrupted. “You two have met?”

“Yep,” Whitney said and started scooping some ice cream in the blender. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing, but she needed to pretend to be busy to keep those steely gray eyes off of her. Wasn’t working—because he was staring daggers, and she felt every sharp edge. Which was stupid since he was the one who left out a little detail. But now she was in jeopardy of losing her job. A job she needed so she could get money and move on.

“So you’re Penny’s brother?” She chanced a glance at him. “Which makes you Ryder Diamond, I take it?”

An annoyed frown slid across his face.

“Hey, man,” came a voice from across the restaurant. It was a tall, dark haired man in a suit, walking toward them.

“Bass,” Ryder acknowledged.

Bass made his way to Penny, leaned over the counter to kiss her, then returned his attention on Ryder. “Candy messaged me. She said you never showed for the date last night.”

Whitney’s brows shot up, and Ryder looked at her with surprise. Click. Everything just clicked.

He hadn’t asked her for candy last night. He’d thought she was Candy.

Shit! Shit, shit, shit.

Ryder put both palms on the edge of the bar and leaned over. “Since you’re so keen on my name,” he growled, “why don’t you try telling me yours? The truth this time.”

“I never lied to you,” Whitney said defensively.

“You said your name was Candy.”

“No, you walked in and asked me for candy.”

“Which you happily gave,” he said in a low rasp.

That voice gave her goose bumps. Yeah, she had happily given up a lot last night. But reality was a bitch, because she’d been stupid enough to think he was calling her “sweetness” because he liked her. Even for a night. Nope, he’d thought she was someone else. Awesome.

“Maybe we should give them a minute,” Bass said quietly to Penny.

Penny smacked his chest and whispered, “Are you crazy? I’m not missing this!”

That made Ryder look at his sister, then back at Whitney. “Perhaps we should discuss this in private.”

Whitney lifted her chin. “There’s nothing to discuss. It was one night. It’s over. Clearly you thought I was someone else and I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He leaned over the counter and brought his face close to hers. “I’d say it was the right place at the right time.” Those gray eyes held a spark that she recognized from last night. God, the man was power in its finest sate. “But you weren’t who I thought you were.”

“Obviously,” she scoffed, then backed away enough to grab the milk and put some in the blender. This distraction wasn’t working as well as she’d hoped, but she was still trying.

As if a haze cleared, Ryder stood to his full height and cleared his throat. Whatever reasonable façade he normally donned was back in place. Gone was the Ryder she knew first hand to be dominant alpha sexiness.

“How long are you here for?” he asked bluntly.

“The summer.” She glanced at Penny. “That is, if I still have a job?”

Penny’s auburn brows shot up. “Oh, honey, of course you do. Don’t let this overgrown stick in the mud have you thinking otherwise.”

Ryder glanced at the ceiling as if trying to gain patience. “You said you didn’t stay anywhere too long,” he said, his gaze landing back on Whitney.

“Ryder Diamond,” Penny said, admonishing his manners for the second time.

He nodded once then took a breath, as though looking for a way to rephrase. It would seem Mr. Diamond of the freaking town of Diamond had a code of manners and some kind of reputation to uphold, because as more eyes turned toward them, the straighter he stood.

“Well, it was eventful running into you again…?”

Oh, so now he wanted her name? Normally she’d make a guy like this work for it, but the way he was looking at her, she’d bet knowing her name would rattle him for the rest of the day.

“Whitney,” she said.

“Whitney,” he repeated, and holy hell, her name on his lips made her goose bumps turn nuclear. But the way he looked at her got her hot for a different reason. Why was he mad at her? This misunderstanding wasn’t her fault, damn it. “I don’t suspect I’ll be seeing much more of you,” he finished.

That was the last straw.

No way in hell would this guy brush her off in a way that made her look like the crazy woman. Ryder liked his manners and his little coded language? Fine, she could play. And she would. Because she might not be a local, but she had a feeling she knew the town’s golden boy in a way very few did. Fact number one? Ryder liked to be challenged. It was the first thing she’d learned about him.

“Not interested in seeing more of me?” she asked. “That explains why last night you were so determined to use your tongue on my skin. Since you couldn’t really see and all.”

Penny held back a smile, and so did Bass. Ryder just looked ready to throttle her. Or maybe kiss her. She wasn’t going to think of him either way. He wanted to be a dick? Fine. She would just state facts until he broke.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Ryder said and pushed off the counter.

He was stillness and control, but just beneath the surface she could feel his body hum the same way it had last night when he’d been on the brink of losing that calm. It made her whole body stand to attention and her instinct pipe up, demanding that she push for more. Because the man was beyond more.

He was frustrating and sexy, and if calling him out got him to loosen up, she’d do it. At the very least so he wouldn’t stand there and make this mess her fault. Because it was a mess. She was working for his sister all summer, in a town that was named after him, and judging by the looks and the waves, he was like a damn celebrity around here.

How was Whitney supposed to compete with that? She had no one. No family or real friends. And she had slept with a man that came with those things, plus an entire town.

Not her scene.

Not her forte.

Not her life.

Best to keep the one night just that. One. And it was in the past now. But pushing Ryder’s buttons enough to make him acknowledge the truth wouldn’t hurt anyone. Hell, it might even make her feel better.

“Nothing to talk about,” she said, and sealed the blender.

“Oh, I disagree, sweetness.” The way he slid that word out, like it was meant just for her, made her skin prickle with need and her thighs ache with desire.

Push just a bit more…

“Well, you may want to be careful when it comes to conversing with me,” she said, and rested her forearm atop the blender. Holding his stare, she flicked on the shred button, and the sound of the spinning blades rang out as they cut through the ice cream. “I’m a dangerous wild card, remember?”

With a heavy breath, Ryder nodded once. “I remember.”

His gaze lingered on her body for a moment, then he turned to walk out. And that pissed her off. Partly because just the look he gave her made her skin buzz with the need to touch him, and partly because the way he spoke to her made her want to fight with him. Fight in a hair pulling, biting, kissing kind of way.