“Who’s getting laid?” a familiar deep voice rumbled.
Hayden raised her chin to meet Jace’s intense gaze. His eyes looked like mocha with sparks of gold. Something in those sparks caught fire, making her breath catch, and she pulled her hands away from organizing the coasters. He folded his arms across his wide chest and cleared his throat.
“Hayden,” Lilly interjected. “And me if I’m properly persuaded.” She winked, and Hayden kicked her shin under the bar, feeling the heat of humiliation flush her skin. Having a night of reckless abandon with a complete stranger was one thing. Jace knowing about it was another. He’d always been overprotective. There had been that kid who had pushed her off her bike in the sixth grade, the horny frat boy who tried to feel her up at a party sophomore year when she didn’t want it, and a half dozen guys in between. They all had gotten an introduction to Jace’s fist.
A dark look settled across his face. “Shouldn’t you be packing?”
Here we go…
“You haven’t spoken to me in two weeks. Not a phone call. A text. Nothing,” she fumed. “You do not get to dole out a lecture now.”
He’d even skipped out on their morning coffee date at Amelie’s. Amelie’s for God’s sake! They’d never had an argument that could keep either of them away from the magic of a twice-baked chocolate-and-almond croissant.
“If you missed me, all you had to do was say so.” He raised a brow, giving her that cocky expression that he knew would piss her off. He’d been perfecting it for years. “I take it you’re still leaving tomorrow?”
He knew the answer, so Hayden didn’t bother to respond. If she did, it would only lead to another argument. And she didn’t want to spend her potentially last moments with Jace arguing. When she didn’t offer any words, he nodded, and his jaw ticked.
His expression darkened to a scowl when his gaze drifted from her face, down her throat, past the curve of her breasts, and stopped where the rest of her disappeared behind the bar. A shiver of warmth spread down her spine, around to her belly, and she took a breath to stop it from going any farther. The universe was a cruel bitch for making the hottest man in the room the one who found her as sexually appealing as a goldfish.
On the other end of the bar, an air horn blared.
“It’s that time again, ladies!” Nate held a megaphone to his mouth, and the crowd started to scream. “You know the drill. I need three pretty ladies on the bar and one lucky son of a bitch who loves tequila.”
Hayden started to back away, but Lilly grabbed her wrist and thrust her hand up in the air. “I’ve got one right here!”
Hayden’s face flushed red and she jerked out of her friend’s grasp. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Lilly smiled, a challenge in her eyes. “Helping you let loose and leave boring Hayden at the door. That was the plan, wasn’t it?”
Yes, it was. And she was right. Hayden needed this. It was just a body shot, for God’s sake, and tonight was supposed to be about shedding her inhibitions and having fun. What was the worst that could happen? Jace wouldn’t let some freak manhandle her more than necessary.
“Fine.” She placed a foot on the barstool. “Help me up.”
Lilly squealed as Hayden hopped up onto the bar. Jace caught her by the elbow, the look on his face wary. “What are you doing, Hayden?”
“You needed a volunteer, didn’t you?” She shrugged out of his grip and lay back on the bar. “You got one.”
Jace took a step closer, his hand resting in a clenched fist next to her hip. His jaw tensed as he looked her over.
“Got your guy over here, Jace!” Nate yelled.
“No,” he growled. “I’ve got this one. He can take the other two.” He grabbed the bowl of limes Nate slid over to him and plucked a bottle of tequila from under the bar.
Hayden’s eyes widened, and she sat up on her elbows. One girl was already laid out at the other end of the bar with her shirt hiked up. “Wait. What are you doing?”
“A shot.” He leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. “Or would you rather me beat the shit out of some poor guy for putting his mouth on you?”
Hayden gasped. She should have been pissed off—she’d never taken his caveman crap in the past, and there was no reason she should start taking it now. In fact, she should’ve hopped right off that bar and told him to go screw himself. Instead, all she could think about was the fact that Jace was about to put his mouth on her, even if it was only because he was being overprotective and unreasonable. He nudged her back down, his jaw clenched.
Music thumped all around, and the light over the bar flashed like a dozen erratic spotlights. The anticipation was almost too much. Her heart was about to beat out of her chest. Jace picked up a lime wedge and held it to her lips. “Open.”
She parted her lips, and he gently placed the lime between them, then pushed her skirt up her thigh another inch. God, if he went any higher, she was going to lose it. Right here in front of all these people. It was like her body had no idea that it was her best friend with his hands all over her. Well, it might have known, but right now, it didn’t seem to care. The next thought fled from her mind as his tongue made contact with the inside of her thigh. He left a hot, wet stripe of moisture against her skin, then sprinkled salt over it.
Nate laughed at her expression and slid his brother a shot of tequila. “Better hurry up, bro,” he said. “I don’t think our girl’s cut out for this.”
Jace’s gaze connected with hers, and there was so much heat in it she squirmed against the bar. “Ready?”
She nodded, and then he was licking the salt from the inside of her thigh, lingering, kissing every grain from her skin. Heat pooled between her legs, and a familiar ache worked its way down her belly. Jace took one last lick that went a little higher than necessary, then stood and downed the shot. He stared at her, his lids heavy. “Relax, Hayden,” he whispered.
And then his mouth was on hers.
Hayden closed her eyes and shuddered as Jace sucked the lime from between her lips, wishing she could taste Jace instead of the lime, drowning with want for something that was inappropriate for about a thousand different reasons. The sound of people clapping and drinks being ordered brought her back. When she opened her eyes he was staring down at her, his hands braced against the bar. Was he shaking?
He looked away, and for the first time ever, she couldn’t place the emotions that were scrawled across his face. He was still mad she was leaving, obviously. She got that, but didn’t he understand she couldn’t give in? She pushed herself up until she was eye level with him. “I don’t want to leave things like this.”
His gaze settled on her mouth for a few moments before he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers, as if he were trying to compose himself. “Then don’t leave.”
He stepped back and made his way to the other end of the bar without looking back.
Hayden slipped back onto her barstool, feeling dizzy and hot all over. What the hell was that? Was he messing with her? More tricks to try to get her to stay? If that was the game Jace was playing tonight, then one thing was certain. Yes, she definitely needed a drink.
Chapter Two
Jace Jennings gritted his teeth and reached for a bottle of vodka, trying, and failing, not to watch Hayden and her friend moon over a couple of guys who had sidled up to them as his brother poured them drinks. What the fuck was she thinking, going out dressed like that? Was she trying to get him arrested? Because that was exactly what was going to happen if that asshole’s hand drifted any lower on the irresistible curve of her back. He really needed to get it together.
He still hadn’t recovered from seeing her in the tight scrap of black fabric she called a dress. From having his mouth on her, tasting just enough of her to torture him. He’d had to walk away before he did something stupid or embarrassed himself. He was still hard as granite, even with the distance between them. When she climbed up onto that bar, he didn’t know what he was going to do, but he sure as hell wasn’t thinking friendly thoughts. Maybe brush the caramel-colored hair from her pleading eyes. Kiss her. Drag her to the back, shove that little dress up, and touch her in every way imaginable until she promised not to leave him. That’s what he should have been doing. Making her see him differently. Giving her something she wouldn’t be able to live without.
He rubbed his lips, reigniting the taste of her, and stifled a groan. “Is Ron letting every horny asshole in Charlotte in tonight, or is it just me?”
His brother shook his head and chuckled as he mixed a drink beside him. “Are you referring to all the horny assholes in general, or just the one talking to Hayden?”
Jace made a grunting sound and focused on making the next batch of drinks for the girl pressing her cleavage against the bar with a come-and-get-me smile. He wasn’t interested. For almost a year, he hadn’t been interested in anyone other than the one person he couldn’t have. It had been easy to ignore his feelings for Hayden when she’d had a boyfriend. He’d been able to go out, bring a woman home for one sweaty night of pleasure that never left him quite satisfied, and then send her on her way. But after that asshole had cheated on her, left her broken and needing him to stitch her back together, it became impossible to lie to himself anymore. He loved her. As much as he’d tried to deny it, she was forever the voice in his head. In his heart. Pushing him to be more, to be better. And now she wanted to go to a place from which she might not come back. A place where he couldn’t protect her. He rubbed his chest, then poured a round of shots for the girls in front of him and slid them over.
“Those guys are regulars, Jace.”
“Maybe we need new regulars,” he grumbled.
“Maybe.” Nate shrugged. “Or maybe you need to stop lying to Hayden about how you really feel about her.”
Jace clenched the bottle in his hand. Was it that obvious? If it was, he needed to get it together. It would only complicate things if she knew. Hayden was hell-bent on leaving. If he brought up his feelings now, she’d think he was just trying to talk her out of taking this job. It would only push her further away. And he wasn’t willing to risk losing her because his dick didn’t understand the boundaries of the friend zone.
“It’s not like that,” he said. “I don’t want her to get hurt again. The last thing she needs is another asshole like Shane in her life. It’s taken her almost a year to get over that shit.”
Nate backed off and let one of the other bartenders take over the already tipsy crowd pushing against the bar. “I call bullshit. You love her.”
“You love her, too.”
Nate laughed. “Yeah, I love her like a sister. You’re in love with her, and you’re a fucking liar if you say otherwise. So, why are you holding back? Why are you just watching this happen? Letting her leave?”
“Letting her leave?” Jace laughed humorlessly and stalked to the other end of the bar to put some distance between them and the crowd. Nate stuck the bottle he’d been holding under the bar and followed. Even with the extra distance, Jace’s gaze still gravitated to Hayden. The guy next to her whispered something in her ear, and she giggled as his hand disappeared below the bar, out of Jace’s line of sight. Motherfucker. This wasn’t how she should be spending her last night at home. She should be spending it with him.
“You think I want this? This…this is her dream. Something she’s been working toward forever. Who the hell am I to ask her to walk away from it? Do you have any idea how many times she put her life on hold for me when Mom was sick? So that I wouldn’t have to do it alone?”
Nate dropped his gaze to the floor, his jaw tense. Jace knew it was chickenshit of him to remind his brother that he hadn’t been around when their mom got sick. Nate had been overseas, doing exactly what their father had always wanted, following in his footsteps, fighting for our freedom. But it was true. Hayden had been the only one who had stayed by his side. He’d had to grow up when he was just a seventeen-year-old kid who didn’t know how to cook a meal or pay a bill. God knows he wouldn’t be the man he was today without Hayden’s help.