swig of my beer as a chaser. “Next time we do a shot—it’s my choice.”
“Deal.” Shots of tequila were by far my favorite. Except it wouldn’t be as fun doing another, if I had to take it alone; I watched as Corey cleaned up our liquor mess. Once done with that he brought over another full Rolling Rock but took a swig before handing it over.
“By the way, I appreciate you standing up to that guy for me.” My eyes shamelessly followed his every move, as he prepared new mixed drinks he heard patrons calling out. He shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner, but I could tell he didn’t do this for everyone.
“Just not a big fan of men disrespecting women. You can thank my mother and three sisters for that.”
“I’ll let you pass along the message.” I didn’t want to talk anymore about families. Families of my boyfriends have always been a soft spot for me. In my past relationships, I made their family just as important to me as my actual boyfriend was. It’d always made it that much harder to go through a break-up—I hadn’t only lost one person, I’d lost a family.
Another couple hours passed; Corey and I continued to talk about random things. Everything, from his rundown on each person in the bar, to what was playing on the jukebox. It was midnight; I was in a good and tipsy state but knew better than to keep drinking. As much fun as I was having that would only leave me with a fuzzy memory. No matter what happened, I wanted to remember every part of my night. While the two of us talked, as time passed by our bodies shifted closer and closer. Every now and then, we were interrupted by Beefcake, or a waiting customer but he always came back to where we’d left off. Corey was in the middle of answering my question about one of the tattoos on his arm, a heart with the initials, A L K, within it, when a young guy walked behind the bar into a back room.
The kid nodded at Corey but didn’t bother stopping to say anything. My eyes followed to where he’d disappeared behind the door, I couldn’t help but wonder if this kid was even old enough to work there. Corey’s laughter at whatever expression was plastered across my face, pulled my attention away from the closed door and back to him.
“That’s Sanders—good kid. He comes in at midnight, works till closing, then helps the others clean up the place.”
“How old is he?” The question still rattled around my mind, but I didn’t mean to ask it.
“21, he’s going to school right now and needs some extra cash. Plus, that means I don’t need to clean this place up at the end of the night.” Corey smiled at me with a wink. “I’ve done enough of that over the years.”
“So, your shift is over now?”
“It sure is.” Those blazing blue eyes looked to be staring a hole, straight through me. Instead of jumping across the bar and begging him to take me wherever it was he was going—I chose to play a different role.
“Well, it’s too bad I was actually having a decent time. Guess I’ll have to go catch up with my buddy over by the pool tables.” When my eyes shot that way for effect, I noticed Tanner was staring at me. Not on my life. Of course, I couldn’t tell Corey that going back over there was the last thing I wanted to do. Instead, I moved to get off the bar stool, but Corey suddenly reached out grabbing hold of my arm.
“Or you could come with me.” The way his eyes darkened in a humorless and my oh my, seductive way, made my heart rate quicken and the growing desire surge between my thighs. There wasn’t one part of me that didn’t want to; my body screamed yes, and my head was in whole-hearted agreement.
Don’t give in quite that easily, Dani! “Go with you where?”
“I live in the apartment upstairs.” His head nodded towards the ceiling, while his eyes remain locked on mine.
“Convenient.”
Corey’s lips curved into a slow, sexy smile. “So, is that a yes?”
I paused for a heartbeat before answering, “Yes.”
“One second.” I watched as he walked to the back room and stuck his head in. A minute later he emerged with Sanders trailing him. Corey went to the register, rang in something and the cash drawer opened.