Just Want Somebody to Love. Keri Ford
not losing this to her.” She adjusted her shirt.
“That’s my girl.” Tasha clapped her hands, then rubbed them. “We need a plan.”
“That’s why I fixed my shirt.” Whitney made a few more adjustments she could manage without digging down the front of her top. Going to have to be a fast plan since the guy was leaving tomorrow. Not that Whitney had a problem with moving fast. Bonus, since that fit well with her schedule too.
“Better plan than that. Maddy has better boobs than you.”
“Hey.”
Kara nodded. “It’s true. Finish your drink and get him back down here. Business 101 is?”
Don’t mix business and pleasure? Except Kara married her business partner. “Have a good product?”
Tasha slumped and shook her head. “Customers first.”
Whitney laughed, then finished her drink. The burn stripped the air from her throat, and she smacked the glass on the old wooden top. “I don’t know how often I’ll be able to do that before it strips my esophagus.”
Kara flicked her wrist. “I got the next one for you. He made my drink light.”
Tasha clicked her tongue. “I’m not sure drinking is necessary. Talk him into leaving. Or to take a break. Ask him to dance. Brandon usually manages all this on his own anyway, so it’s not like Justin’s required to keep things going.”
Dance? Ha. No thanks. She started to say that, but Justin was back, and her options were limited. His good looks and swagger did away with any chance she had of coming up with a different idea.
“Another?”
If she had another drink on her empty stomach, she’d be a walking social embarrassment. She grasped for something to say, and all she had was Tasha’s idea, but it was a terrible plan. “What does it take to get you out from behind that bar?”
He rested on his side of the polished wood and leaned in close. “You could always ask me to dance.”
A groan rumbled through her gut. Fine, damn it. “Dance with me.”
“Not a question, but a demand.” His eyes narrowed just a touch. “I like it.” He looked to Brandon at the opposite end. “You got this?”
Brandon just nodded and kept working.
Cha-ching! Basketball wasn’t her thing, but she’d count that as a slam dunk. She looked to her friends while Justin walked to the end of the bar. “Time to make a fool of myself.”
“Maybe not. You’ll know in a minute based on where he puts his hands.”
“His hands?”
Tasha sipped and nodded. “If they’re on your shoulders, you need to try harder. Waist, you’re getting there. Butt, he likes it.”
She laughed and then he was at her side, hand out, and waiting. “Are you coming?”
Oh, yes. Yes she was.
Chapter 2
Justin Rawlings hadn’t worked behind a bar like this in, gosh, ages. He became a waiter as soon as the law said he could have a job. When he turned twenty-one, he stepped behind the bar with his brother, Brandon, but they didn’t stay there for long. He finished his business degree, they got the financial backing they needed to open their own place, and they started.
That was years ago, and they’d gone to the top from there. Somehow they were back at the bottom, slinging bottles behind a bar again. A little bit of nostalgia was good for the soul, but when the Marilyn Monroe look-a-like sat in front of him, he’d been itching to get out from behind the counter. He had a poster on his wall of Marilyn when he was a kid. The beach had been behind her, hair had been wild, eyes bright, and when Whitney sat in front of him, that’s where his mind went. He was about to ask her to dance or get out of there or whatever she might be up for, but she beat him to it. Which suited him just fine.
Women hung on the bar all night. The majority could have just turned eighteen. When she sat, a refreshing breath of air came with her. Her shirt was tight and low cut in a way that drove him bonkers, but she hadn’t leaned on the bar in a way to show him the farm. Just a peek. Her hair was this wild, un-perfect mess waiting for his hands to get in.
The quicker he could get his mouth on her, the better. “Let’s see if you can keep up.”
She laughed and tugged him to the floor. “Let’s see if you can.”
He wasn’t sure they were still talking about dancing, but then she turned into him. The top of her head hit around his jaw line. He wasn’t used to women her height. He wasn’t tall, and most women were eye-level, if not a little taller because of their shoes. The surprises continued with her. His favorite part was this sway in her hips. A side to side rocking he wanted to get his hands on and join in the motion with the rest of his body. With her ass moving like it was, all bets were off on what exactly they were discussing.
This week just kept looking better and better for him. After years of hard work, the restaurant he’d opened with his brother was chaining all across the south. A childhood dream that only needed two signatures to become true. Investors wanted to buy into their franchise. Celebration waited on the horizon, and this little blonde put him in the mood for an earlier start.
Her hands gripped his shoulders just the way a woman should. The crowd of people pushed them in another step. Her breasts pressed against his chest and thighs tucked against his.
He hoped to God they were on the same page, or this was about to get awkward with an uncomfortable night ahead. He hadn’t lived in a small town since he was a teenager. Did women here even go for the concept of sex just after meeting someone? Foggy teenage memories said no.
Course, he’d been a scrawny, acne covered teen. His nonexistent sex life at that age could have been more to do with him than the girls from high school.
She glanced to him, then away with a smile and shake of her head, but she never said a word. That look of hers with that side-eye through her lashes slayed him.
He cleared his throat and sorted through whether to make a little space between the zipper of his jeans and hers, or fill it in. “What’s on your mind?”
“I have no idea.” The words came out with a laugh and not even the smallest break of her hips swinging against his.
“Sure you do.”
“Not really.” She adjusted her grip around his neck, and her nails tickled at his hairline. “That’s what I was smiling about. I wanted to say something, but I don’t know what.”
“I’m guessing you don’t pick men up often?” He tested his hands a little lower and got one palm on her hip.
She flashed him with those eyes again. He stopped in front of her, and her gaze nailed him with eyes that said all he wanted to hear. Me. You. Now. He couldn’t agree more.
She caught her lower lip, then let it go. “No. You’re the first new person I’ve met in town in, oh, years. Possibly my whole life.”
Was that a good or bad thing? If this wasn’t his brother’s small town, he’d just come out and ask, but if he was wrong and she walked away, he’d never hear the damned end of it. “I can see how that would make things difficult. Should I take over from here?
“Please.”
He nodded. All right. Time to see how far he could push her. “I have three rules about women.”
Her brows lifted. “Do you?”
Good sign so far. “Not really, but I hear it makes ladies more comfortable, so I play along.”
She laughed again. She had a good full laugh that caused her to tighten her grip on him rather than loosen it. “So