lot more than you might think. It was usually the person you least expected it to be, too.
I glanced at the tiny man sitting next to me.
He lifted his upper lip in what was either a bad Elvis imitation or a snarl; I wasn't sure which. Could he...
? Nah.
"The wine is more like vinegar." I returned my attention to Damien as he set a white soda in front of me.
"You're better off with this, Miss... ?"
I never had told him my name. Oops.
"Leigh Tyler."
I reached for the glass, my hand heading down as his headed up. Our fingers brushed and a jolt of awareness shot across my skin, making the hair on my arms tingle and the back of my throat tighten.
Damien must have felt it, too, because he jerked back as quickly as I did and busied himself wiping a drop of condensation from the bar.
My throat wouldn't ease up. My skin wouldn't stop jumping. I had a feeling this was what it felt like to be hopped up on drugs or maybe coming off them.
I grabbed the glass and took a sip. The mellow, sweet soda soothed both the dryness in my mouth and the tension in my body. I needed to get to work here, but it had been so long since I'd talked to a man, I wasn't sure if I remembered how.
I coughed gently, then rubbed my hands along my tingling arms, wondering if the sensation would ever fade. My gaze drifted over Damien's profile - the smooth wash of his hair across his cheek, the glint of light eyes in a pale face.
I sighed. Most likely I was going to feel like this every time I came near him. Damn.
"So, what's the name of this place?" I asked.
"Isn't one."
"A bar without a name?"
He shrugged. "Happens. They've tried to call it everything from Skunk Hill to Tavern in the Green.
Nothing really fits. So the place is just..." he spread his hands, "here."
I nodded, took another sip of soda, and set the glass back on the bar trying to figure out how to broach the questions I needed to ask.
"How'd you find me?"
I opened my mouth, shut it again, stumped. He thought I'd tracked him down? Of all the nerve! But I suppose guys who looked like Damien Fitzgerald had women following them all the time.
I glanced at the midget. He slammed back a shot and a beer, then gave me that weird little snarl again.
"Stop that, Cowboy. She's going to think you're not housebroken yet."
Cowboy shrugged and jumped down from the stool. As he walked over to join an ancient Native American woman at a table in the corner I saw how he'd gotten his nickname. Tiny cowboy boots with three-inch heels graced his little feet.
"I didn't know they made them that small," I murmured. "People come in all shapes and sizes." I turned back to Damien. "I meant the boots."
"Oh." He shrugged. "They make those in all shapes and sizes, too."
"So I see."
Damien picked up a dish towel and started drying glasses. He kept gazing at me as if waiting for me to speak. I was happy to oblige.
"Why did you disappear earlier?" He shrugged. "I don't like cops."
"I don't have much use for bartenders, either."
"Ouch." His lips twitched, but still he didn't smile. "Except I didn't mean you; I was talking about the sheriff."
I frowned. He was gone before Jessie had shown up. Or so she'd said.
"How'd you know she was coming?"
"Couldn't you hear her? She wasn't trying to be quiet." I hadn't heard Jessie. Because I was distracted by his great chest or because he had supernatural hearing? "Where'd you find your clothes and your shoes?"
"In my room. Where'd you find yours?"
"You have a room in the middle of the forest?"
He flicked his head toward the back of the building. His hair flew around his face, settling into a slightly more rumpled position than before. "There's a cabin out back. I preferred it to the room upstairs."
Room upstairs? Jessie hadn't been sending me on a wild-goose chase. She'd sent me to my room.
Above a weird bar, in the dense woods. I was still going to hold her head under a faucet.
"What's wrong with the room upstairs?" I asked.
"What do you care?"
I let out a sigh and stifled the urge to curse. "Because it's mine."
"You're the one who rented the room?" He appeared as happy about it as I was.
"Yeah."
"What for?"
"I'll be staying awhile. From what I hear, that room is my only