Blame It on the Bikini - By Natalie Anderson Page 0,17

and brightened. ‘Nice of you to turn up, Jonny,’ she called. ‘Everything’s ready.’

‘I knew I could count on you.’ The tall guy who’d just walked in winked at her. ‘But you need the music.’ He stepped behind the bar and the relentless, rhythmic thud began.

Brad watched Mya instinctively move in time to the beat. With her natural rhythm and grace and fiendish determination, not to mention her sharp tongue and challenging eyes? He was dying here. And he wasn’t getting anywhere very far, very fast.

The bar opened and the stream began. Offices weren’t shutting for at least an hour yet but these people were ready to party. He didn’t want to leave. Instead he watched half the other punters eye her up just as he was doing.

She and the Jonny guy made a good combo. Jonny, tattoos on display beneath the sleeves of the regulation black tee, was tanned and tall where she was pale and petite. Brad watched them banter their way through the cocktail preps. Her competitive streak was right to the fore. It amused him seeing the clinical way she observed the guy. He saw her flicking her wrist in practice, mimicking the movement of the master.

‘You’re almost as good as he is,’ he said when she came to his end of the bar in a quiet moment.

She didn’t pout at the honest assessment. Mya wouldn’t want false flattery. She was too straight-up for that. ‘Give me another week or two and I’ll be better.’

Brad smiled. She wanted to be the best?

‘The protégée wants to whip the master, but I’m not going to let that happen.’ Jonny slung his arm along Mya’s shoulders.

Brad immediately felt an animal response, his skin prickling at the sight of another man touching Mya—since when did he have hackles?

‘Oh, it’s going to happen and you know it.’ Mya flicked Jonny’s arm off as easily as she’d flicked off the flirty guys from the stag do the night before. ‘You’re running scared.’

Both Brad and Jonny chuckled and watched her swagger to a waiting customer.

‘You’ve been teaching her?’ Brad asked Jonny.

Jonny nodded. ‘She’s a quick learner. Focused, driven, plus she’s been practising. That’s how she got the job here in the first place.’

‘And she wants to work here because?’

‘It’s the most popular bar in town.’ Jonny looked at him directly. ‘We get good clientele with a lot of money to spend. So we make good money. With her looks and the skill to match, she’s popular.’

‘Why do you help her out? You’re not threatened by her?’ Brad texted some mates, determined not to turn into some sad stalker type who just sat there and stared at his fixation. He certainly didn’t want to feel this needle as he watched the byplay of the two bartenders. It couldn’t be jealousy, could it? Never.

Jonny laughed. ‘Wouldn’t you rather work with her than some guy?’ he pointed out with a sly smile. ‘We work well together—people like the competition. Some like to look at her, others like to look at me.’ He turned back to the bar and bluntly summed it up. ‘It’s all for the show and to help them spend their money.’

And Mya needed the money. She’d mentioned the tips last night. She could earn more here than on an internship? Even though the internship would progress her career. Brad frowned as he remembered what little he could about her. The girl his parents had been so disapproving of had actually become the Dux of the school—carrying off the elite academic prizes. It had only been because Mya was going to university that Lauren had decided to go too. So surely she was doing as well at university? By rights she should be bonded to some corporate firm already, with a scholarship in return for five years of her working life. Instead she was flinging bourbon around a bar and working back-to-back shifts between the club and a café while squeezing in summer school as well. Something had gone wrong somewhere; the question was, what?

Mya wished Brad would go do his thinking elsewhere. She’d spent all night trying not to think about him, and here he was the minute she’d walked into work. She tried to retain coordination as she checked round the tables making sure all were clean and had the necessary seating arrangements, but she felt his eyes on her.

She’d gone overboard in her reaction to learning he’d cancelled one of her shifts, but the truth was she couldn’t afford to lose a