loud breath and turned back to the game, hoping to calm himself before they walked in. Except they didn’t walk in. Jessica walked in alone. In fact, she leaned against the door as if she was relieved. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her walking toward the bar. She smiled at Jamie Lynn, who was tending bar, then at Jett, who was enjoying a beer with some of the regulars, Marty and Tripp, who she also greeted, and then she went around behind the bar. Was she working tonight?
She looked so incredibly gorgeous. Seeing her all dressed up to go out with someone else was like a stab to the chest. Jessica still hadn’t seen him but he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
He watched as she slammed a glass on the counter. Jamie Lynn said something to her. She shook her head, laughed, then poured some whiskey and swigged it down in one gulp. Then she refilled her glass, came out from behind the bar, and sat down next to Jett, where she nursed her whiskey in relative silence for a few minutes. When the glass was empty again she reached over the bar, giving everyone behind her a perfect glimpse of her perfect ass, took the bottle of whiskey, poured some more, and placed the bottle back on the bar. She seemed pissed off, and he guessed the date hadn’t gone well. Good!
Just then she spotted him, and her entire demeanor changed. She looked like a predator who had just spotted her prey.
She pointed at him and shouted, “You!” Everyone turned to look at her. She stood up and stalked toward Slade, wobbling slightly on her heels, which made Slade worry that she was about to break an ankle.
She came up to him looking sexy as hell, determined, mad, and unfulfilled. “You ruined my date!” she yelled, poking her cute pink fingernail at his chest.
“Me?” he said with a smirk, holding his hands out in surrender.
“Yes, you.” Everyone at the bar was listening to her loud accusation.
“Lady, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He turned back toward the pool table, aimed the tip of his cue at the white ball, and shot, completely missing the ball. When he stood up and turned back toward her, she was an inch from his face.
“You know exactly what you did.”
The smell of whiskey and her familiar perfume assaulted his senses. His eyes closed as he took it all in.
Then she whispered something in his ear, so quietly that he thought he’d heard wrong. “And you’re going to finish it.”
His eyes snapped open.
Before he had a chance to react, she ripped the cue from his hand, leaned over, and with two deft shots cleared the table. “You suck at pool,” she said, shoving the cue at him, and walked away.
No one said anything for a moment. Slade wasn’t sure what to do.
At last Travis spoke. “Yo, if you’re not going to go after her, I will.”
“Make a move and I’ll kick your ass all the way back to Texas.” Slade dropped the cue and ran toward the door, hoping she hadn’t already left.
She wasn’t right outside the front door, so he went looking for her. It took him exactly two minutes to find her leaning against the wall in the alley between the bar and a small pet store.
“Took you long enough,” she said in a low, raspy voice as her eyes firmly held his.
—
Thank God for the liquid courage. Jessica was so riled up with sexual tension, thanks to Slade’s earlier display of assholeness, that she was ready to explode. Had he not followed her, she wasn’t sure what she would’ve done. She was carless, annoyed, and turned on beyond reason. Fortunately, all six foot four inches of him stalked toward her. Her body shook in anticipation. The closer he got, the more aware she became of her own heartbeat. His tongue darted out and he licked his lower lip. Her eyes immediately focused on his mouth. Her heart continued to pound against her chest. He looked dangerous. Her back was already against the wall, and there was no place else for her to go. No escape. Not that she wanted to escape. She had invited danger to her, and now there was no evading it.
Slade leaned close to her body, his forearm against the wall right above her head. She had to look up to see his face.
“Good date?”
“Fuck you,” she spat.
He placed his free hand