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.
“If I ask her to stay for me, it will be the most selfish thing I have ever done. And you have no idea how fucking selfish I am. How badly I want to lock her in a room and keep her from doing this. She deserves better than that. Better than me.”
“Did you ever think she might feel the same?” Nate raised a brow.
“She doesn’t,” he said, watching her appear and disappear through the jittery crowd. “She shouldn’t.” He’d never let himself hope for that. Hayden didn’t need complications right now. She needed him to be supportive. Proud of her. And he was, damn it. Hayden trusted him for a reason, and he’d never give her a reason to question that trust. What he needed to do was walk away and take a cold shower like he had every Sunday night for the past year. And after seeing her in that barely there dress, he’d need a damn cold shower tonight.
The pounding rhythm of a new song began, drowning out the rush of his heartbeat. He looked up, and his gaze clashed with Hayden’s for a split second before Lilly pulled her off the barstool and onto the dance floor. She gave a small smile meant just for him, but her green eyes looked glassy and sad. Then the smile was gone, and the dull ache in his chest roared to life. He made another round of drinks and watched Hayden lose herself in the music. Swaying her hips as her body found a rhythm to match the hypnotic beat. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She’d pulled her hair up, and he could just make out the little orchid tattoo on the back of her neck that he’d dared her to get in college. He’d obsessed over that little branding of ink for far too long. He’d even named his club after it, for fuck’s sake.
He’d only imagined about a thousand times what that spot might taste like. What her hips would feel like in his palms as he licked it from stem to petal.
Down, boy.
He glared at the front of his pants, which were feeling ball-strangling tight. Not the time. Not the place. When he looked up, the jackass from the bar was back. Buzzing around her like a horny fly. Jace’s teeth ground together, and his jaw popped.
“Jace?” Nate stepped in front of his view, brows pulled together. “Everything all right?”
Jace dropped his gaze to where Nate was looking. He’d poured tequila all over the bar, missing the shot glass completely.
He blinked and rubbed his hands over his face. “Yeah. Fine. Fucking perfect.”
“Go home, man.” Nate glanced over his shoulder and shook his head as he helped wipe up the mess. “Go home before you start shit you won’t be able to take back. Sleep it off. Talk to her in the morning. Hayden’s a big girl. She can take care of herself.”
Jace watched Hayden for a few seconds more and then nodded. Nate was right. He couldn’t stick around for this. He didn’t want to. And he wasn’t going to make any moves tonight. She’d only look at it as a ploy to get her to stay. He needed to go home, come up with a game plan. He’d have to catch her in the morning before her flight. Change her mind. Make her see reason. How he was going to do that, he didn’t fucking know, but he had to figure it out.
“You sure you guys have it covered?”
Nate laughed. “I think we can manage. But you think you could grab a case of Heineken from the back before you go?”
Jace slapped him on the back. “Yeah, no problem.”
“Hey, Jace?”
He stopped at the sound of his brother’s voice and turned around.
Nate’s gaze flitted to the dance floor, then back. “Make this right with her. Whatever it takes. I don’t want to see her go any more than you do.”
Jace swallowed and nodded. If Hayden left, he wasn’t the only one who was going to end up with a hole in his heart. She’d always been like a sister to Nate. Hell, she’d been like a sister to
him
at one point, too, but somewhere along the way she’d become so much more than that. She’d become someone he couldn’t live without.
“Whatever it takes.”
Chapter Three
The decibels of the music shattered Hayden’s concentration as she stumbled to a stop a few feet from the storage room door. The door was propped open, and a sliver of light spilled out into the hall. Trembling, she fished her strawberry-flavored lip gloss out of her clutch and smoothed the light pink color across her lips. Was she actually going to go through with this? She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, her heart beating out a rhythm so loud it rivaled the hip-hop song echoing through the hall.
The guy she’d met at the bar was nice and really cute. He was in sales. They had similar tastes in music and movies. And when she’d told him about her job, he hadn’t made her feel like she was a fool chasing after a dream that would never materialize.
Had her body figured out how perfect he was for this job? Not exactly. She wasn’t burning up with the need to be sweaty and naked with the guy, but he was
nothing
like Shane, which meant he was exactly what she needed. And the way he’d been grinding against her on the dance floor left no doubt as to where he’d wanted this night to go. When he’d whispered in her ear, “I saw a storage room in the back. Meet me in ten?” she hadn’t even been shocked.
She had, however, been shocked with herself when she’d agreed.
If she kept going over this in her head, she was going to end up breathing into a paper bag instead of having the best sex of her life. Or at least what she
hoped
would be the best sex of her life. She dropped her lip gloss back into her clutch, and her stomach fluttered. The sound of shuffling curled around the door’s edge.
He was in there. Waiting.
She stepped forward but froze, palm pressed against the partially open door, trying not to hyperventilate. The fact that she was brave enough to make it this far was a freaking miracle. But no way could she do this with the lights on.
Don’t think about it, Hayden. Just do it. Go for the gold. Carpe diem. All that crap.
She reached in and flipped off the light, slipped inside, then kicked the doorstop out of the way so the door shut behind her. Something that sounded like a box hit the floor, and she let the muttered curse that followed guide her to him through the dark. Her pulse pounded in her ears, and other parts of her tingled with anticipation and awareness. It had been far too long since she’d had sex. The fact that she was resorting to
one-night-stand-in-a-storage-room
sex was only proof of that. Where would they even do it in here? She hadn’t thought this through, but she had faith. Dan would figure something out.
Wait, Dan? Don? Shit! How could she not even remember his name? She held her hands out so that she didn’t run into anything, and her open palms, unexpectedly, collided with a hard, warm chest. She didn’t give him time to respond to her sudden presence. Instead, she gripped the fabric of his shirt in her fists, yanked him down, and crushed her lips to his.
He gave a stunned, muffled grunt into her mouth, fingers hesitant against her hips, but it didn’t take him long to catch up. He tugged her against his body and took control. Standing on tiptoes, she stretched up to wrap her arms around his neck, to bring them even closer together.
She hadn’t remembered him being this tall, this hard, pressing against all the places where she was soft and sensitive. Heat and need sparked low in her belly and rushed between her thighs. If she hadn’t felt the connection she was looking for on the dance floor, she sure as hell did now. She felt ravenous, ready to devour him whole just from this infinitesimal taste. He teased her lower lip and then slipped his tongue inside her mouth. Without thinking, she sucked on it, ripping a groan out of him that was so loud she could feel his chest vibrate against her breasts. If only she could feel those euphoric vibrations lower. God…she needed him just a little lower.
Instead, he pulled away.
“Wait, wait,” he whispered.
Hayden reached up and touched his lips, still dizzy from his kiss, his touch, the realization of how badly she wanted this.
“No talking,” she said, quivering. “Just…just kiss me. Please.”
He froze under her touch as if he were surprised, then he slowly pulled her hand away from his mouth. He held it for a moment, lacing his fingers through hers, before pressing his lips to the inside of her wrist. In that moment, she felt raw and exposed in a way she shouldn’t feel with a complete stranger. A stranger whose name she couldn’t even remember. The muffled beat of the music and their heavy breathing pulsed between them. He slid his fingers up the side of her face as if he could see her through the dark and finally kissed her.
What’s His Name didn’t hold back anything this time. She opened to him, accepting of all he had to give. Their tongues twined as he slid his big hands around to the backs of her thighs. He pulled her against him, and she could feel against her belly how much he wanted her, the heat of him burning all the way through her dress. She arched and wiggled, wanting his hands on her. Wanting him lower. When she whimpered into his mouth, he lifted her a little, pinned her to a shelf, and thrust his pelvis once against her, his hard length hitting her right where she needed him. He cursed against her mouth and pulled back as if he hadn’t meant to do it.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed against his lips, lifting her hips and letting her dress ride up farther to close the space he’d put between them. He couldn’t stop now. She’d been too long without this. She needed him to touch her. Now. Everywhere.
With a growl, he crushed his mouth to hers, kissing her so hard and passionately she felt as if she’d been branded. His hips thrust forward, grinding against her in slow, delicious torture. She pushed her fingers into his hair and tugged just enough to make him groan.
“Fuck, you feel good.” His voice was a familiar rumble of heat inside her mouth.
Wait…familiar? Nothing about Dan…Don…whatever the hell his name was…was familiar. He nipped at her bottom lip, pulsing against the juncture of her thighs, and Hayden’s eyes flew open.
Oh my God.
“Jace?” Her world was spinning. The dark was too much. Hayden pushed at his chest until he backed up a few steps and dropped her to her feet. Fingers pressed to her lips, she stumbled back into the shelf, knocking something over. Oh, God…this
wasn’t
happening. It couldn’t be.
“Hey,” he said. She could hear him moving closer, and there was nowhere left for her to go. The room was too small. “What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t breathe. “Turn the light on,” she gasped.
“Please.”
Footsteps echoed through the dark, a switch clicked, and Hayden squinted from the sudden onslaught of light. Jace stood in front of her, brows pulled together like he was confused, pissed off, and turned on, all at the same time. His dark hair stuck up in every direction where she’d just run her fingers through it. He took a step forward, and Hayden’s gaze dropped to the bulge straining against the zipper of his jeans.
“Oh my God…” She touched her lips that still burned with Jace’s taste. Not Dan. Don. Whatever. Jace. She’d almost had sex with her best friend. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah, you said that.” Jace glared at her. “What the hell is going on here, Hayden?”
He was pissed. Probably mortified that he’d just had his tongue down the throat of someone he considered a sister. A purely asexual being.
“You…you…” She covered her face with her hands. They smelled like him. Soap and mint and something purely Jace. How had she not noticed? “I’m so sorry. You weren’t supposed to be in here.”
Slowly, she let her fingers fall away from her face. Jace’s head was cocked to the side, and he was staring at her as if she were a Rubik’s Cube he couldn’t figure out. She recognized the moment he did, though.
His eyes narrowed to slits, and he pressed his lips into a tight line. “So, you’re telling me you didn’t know it was me? You came in here to…what exactly? Hook up with some random asshole?” He stabbed his fingers through his hair and cursed under his breath. “In the storage room of
my
bar?”
Hayden pushed past him to get to the door. She’d endured enough humiliation for one night. She didn’t need Jace to rub her face in it. She jerked on the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Hayden, stop.” Jace stomped up behind her, caging her in with his heat. A shiver that did
not
belong there rolled down her spine as she recalled how all that heat had felt pressed against her skin just moments ago. “Will you wait a goddamned minute? Please? We need to talk about this.”
Hayden jerked on the door handle again. Why the hell wouldn’t the thing let her out? “Why do you care? You’re not even talking to me, remember? And why the hell won’t this door open?”
Jace’s breath feathered across the back of her neck, and she froze, gripping the handle.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the fireworks igniting inside of her. Jesus, she needed to get it together! This was
Jace
. The problem was, her sex-starved hormones didn’t seem to know the difference now that they’d had a taste. Her body felt like a traitor, feeling things for the man standing behind her that she hadn’t allowed herself to give in to since she was a naive little high school girl, thinking he could ever see her as someone other than a buddy. “Why not?”
She didn’t know what she expected. For him to close the distance between them. Kiss the back of her neck. Slide his hands over her hips. She was surprised by how much she actually
wanted
those things to happen. They didn’t, though. Cool air replaced his body heat, and her eyes flew open. She spun around, and Jace was plucking a bottle of tequila from one of the shelves.
“Because that doorknob is broken. You can’t open it from the inside.” He picked out a spot on the floor and settled down, kicking off his boots.
“No.” Any heat that Hayden had been feeling disappeared in an instant. “You’re messing with me.” The universe would not be that cruel. Not after this disaster of a night.
He raised one brow. “Why do you think I had it propped open?” He took a swig and grimaced. “We’re not getting out of here until Nate sends someone to restock. And considering I just took a load out there…it’s going to be a while.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, and hope ignited inside. “Wait! What’s His Face. He was supposed to meet me in here. He’ll come.”
“What’s His Face?” Jace raised a brow. “You don’t even know his name and you were planning to fuck him? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Yeah, well,” he muttered around the bottle. A guilty look crossed his face, and he averted his gaze. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“No, no, no.” Her heart stuttered and not in a good way. She’d seen that look before. “What did you do?”
Another swig of tequila. “I told him to leave you alone or I’d kick his ass from Charlotte to Wilmington. Needless to say, he’s not coming.”
Hayden wanted to rail at him. Punch him in that ridiculously handsome face for interfering with her life with his overprotective big brother act. Again. But no. Right now she just needed to get the hell out of here and away from Jace before she hurt him or jumped his bones. Both were very bad ideas. She scrambled for her clutch and groaned when she realized she didn’t have her phone. It was at home, where she hoped to God it would be functional again once it dried out. “Please tell me you have your phone.”
He set the bottle down beside him and closed his eyes. “It’s in my office. Face it, Summers. You’re stuck with me.”