Sexting the Limits (4 page)

willing to work for me—like he couldn‟t get enough of me.”

Rory nodded. It was clear to see she was caught up in Celeste‟s words.

“I eventually do want to find out who my mystery man is, but not yet. I want to

give him the chance to make me feel desired and to chase me a little. Besides, I get the

feeling that things could get a whole lot hotter from here. He‟s got to have some kind of

master plan, right? I mean, he certainly can‟t think he can say these things to me and

then just walk up and introduce himself.”

Celeste expected Rory to answer and was startled when her friend screeched

instead. Celeste followed her gaze up to a familiar face.

“Grant!” Before Celeste could continue, Noah showed up at Rory‟s arm.

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Remy Richard

“Is everything okay here?” Noah asked. He eyed Grant with suspicion and stayed

close to the table.

Rory put her hand to her heart. “Yes, I‟m sorry.” She focused on the object of

Celeste‟s obsession and smiled. “You startled me.”

Grant smiled and reached out a hand to her. “I‟m the one who‟s sorry. I‟m Grant

Morgan, bartender at and owner of The Lucky Stripe.”

Rory took his hand and shook it. “Rory. Teacher and very grateful friend of Celeste.

Thank you for the drinks this evening. Shouldn‟t you add phone finder to that list of

accomplishments?”

Grant chuckled and placed the hand that Rory had shaken on the back of Celeste‟s

chair. She didn‟t hear what he said as Rory kept him engaged in conversation. She knew

that she should try to join in the conversation but she‟d lost the thread when he had

announced that he was the owner of the bar. News to her, certainly. She could feel

Grant‟s heat and strength caging her in, smell the manly scent of his aftershave. He

wasn‟t dressed in the usual bartender uniform of black pants and black shirt, but rather

in jeans and a t-shirt that stretched across his chest. With a great effort, Celeste tried to

sort out the feelings ricocheting through her. She was nervous and intrigued at the same

time. Split between wanting to spend her evening getting to know Grant better and

trying to find her mystery man. Then he had leaned close to her and thought processes

fell to the wayside as a visual survey took all of her attention.

Grant turned his attention to her and beamed a smile her way, stealing her breath

and most of her wits. “So I see that you made it tonight,” Celeste said.

His smile turned brighter, although it hadn‟t seemed possible. “Ah, missed me, did

you, Celeste?”

“No, I didn‟t miss you. I wasn‟t sure if I‟d see you tonight, but I didn‟t miss you.”

Grant spread his arms out, improving her view of his chest and biceps, as if she

needed more of a reminder that he was in residence. “I‟ll have to see what I can do

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about that for next time but I‟m here now. Would you like to do anything in particular

with me?”

“I‟d love for you to pull up a chair and grab yourself a drink. You can tell me all

about why you neglected to mention the fact that you not only are a bartender here,

you‟re the owner.”

Grant nodded and pointed at Rory and Noah. “Do either of you need anything

from the bar?”

Rory smiled and started to answer before Noah cut in. “No—I had already ordered

the three of us another round when you arrived to scare little Miss Muppet here. Our

drinks should be ready. I‟ll go up to the bar with you.”

The two men walked back to the bar while Rory poked Celeste in the arm to get her

attention off of Grant‟s ass. “What are you doing?”

“Ummm…enjoying my evening off with two very handsome gentlemen?”

“See, that‟s funny, because I thought we were here to find your secret admirer. You

seem more interested in trying to see through Grant‟s clothes than in any detective

work.”

Celeste laughed. “You may be right about that. How should I figure out if it‟s

Noah?”

“I thought you had a plan.”

“Nope, no plans. I‟ll wing it.”

Rory looked skeptical. “Whatever else he is, Noah isn‟t stupid. I‟m not sure that

winging it is going to work here.”

“You know, this isn‟t exactly a CIA mission. Eventually I‟ll find out who my

mystery man is—hopefully not before I can get some sexy fun out of him.”

Rory shook her head but declined to say any more as the two men returned to the

table. Grant pulled up a chair, followed quickly by Noah, who ignored Rory‟s frown.

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Remy Richard

No time like the present. “So, Noah, have you sent any interesting text messages

lately?”

Rory spluttered into her drink, Grant hid a laugh behind his hand and Noah looked

at her like she‟d lost her mind.

He slowly shook his head. “None more interesting than normal, I guess. Why do

you ask?”

Celeste shot him a bright smile. “Oh, ever since I got my phone back I‟ve been

getting some odd messages. I was wondering who sent them. Did you turn my phone

in to the lost and found? We were sitting together when I lost it, after all.”

Noah shook his head again. “Sorry, no. If I had found your phone, I‟d‟ve brought it

back to you. It was probably one of the other regulars.”

Grant spoke up then. “I want to hear more about these text messages. You said they

were odd?”

Celeste felt herself blushing as she cast about for some story. She‟d never intended

to find herself in the hot seat. “Yes, just some random messages. I‟m thinking that

maybe the person who turned in my phone is sending them. It‟s no big deal, I‟d just like

to know who it is.”

“So you can thank them properly,” Rory said with an innocent expression.

“Yes, Rory. Thank you.” It was hard to sound grateful through gritted teeth but

Celeste hoped she was managing it.

Grant reached over and grabbed her phone from where it was sitting next to her.

“Maybe I should read them. It might jog my memory about who turned the phone in.”

“No!” Celeste made a wild grab to get it back and only succeeded in getting her

fingers tangled with Grant‟s around the phone. Her concern and upset must have been

plain on her face because he stopped pulling the phone to him and started to slowly

stroke her fingers with his as he made shushing noises.

“It‟s okay. I won‟t look.”

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Sexting the Limits

Celeste tried to calm her rapidly beating heart but his touch wasn‟t helping. She

raised her eyes to his and got lost in their inky-dark depths. “Can I have my phone

back, please?”

He released his hold on both the phone and her hand, making her immediately

wish he were touching her again. She struggled for composure. “It‟s no big deal. I‟m

sure I‟ll find out who it is later.”

Grant held her eyes for another few seconds before nodding and turning back to the

conversation already in play between Noah and Rory. They seemed to be bickering

about something, but Celeste couldn‟t seem to rouse herself to help her friend. She had

enough problems of her own. There had been no men in her life to speak of for months

and now she had an anonymous mystery man wooing her with words and a real-life,

sexy bar owner turning her thoughts to jelly with only a touch. It was too bad she

couldn‟t have both guys but at this point, she wasn‟t even sure if she could handle one.

* * * * *

Grant had honestly tried to keep his thoughts on the straight and narrow for the

rest of the evening but he was completely distracted. Distracted by the smell of Celeste,

by the way his heartbeat seemed to react to her nearness.

She‟d been in his thoughts since they‟d met the day before. So much so that he had

composed some sexy text messages for her himself, knowing that he could do much

better than the idiot who had been sending her messages previously. He hadn‟t

expected her to answer, though. Surprised, he really hadn‟t stopped to think of a plan.

He went with his first impulse, which was to let their flirtation play out and see what

came of it. Sending her messages about what he wanted to do to her, how attractive he

found her. As her mystery man he was free to tell her what he really wanted.

As Grant, he wanted to play it cool. Hence the casual invitation to come to the bar

that night. Unfortunately, it seemed she‟d decided to use the occasion to do some

sleuthing about her mystery man, which was both gratifying and frustrating. Now he

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Remy Richard

was his own competition. He had purposefully asked her the embarrassing questions

about her mystery man to get a little of his own back but the sight of her all-too-

charming blush had put an end to that plan.

Grant stretched uncomfortably in his recliner. Even now, two hours after saying

goodnight to Celeste at the bar, the memory of her blush was enough to make him hard.

The playful teasing about reading her messages had brought out a reaction from Celeste

that he hadn‟t expected. She‟d seemed almost frantic in her need for him not to see

them. Whether that was because she was embarrassed about the sensual nature of them

or she didn‟t want him to think she was talking to another man, he wasn‟t sure. Either

way he wasn‟t concerned since he
was
the other man and he knew exactly what the

messages said.

But the teasing had also elicited a reaction that he hadn‟t expected from himself.

Possessiveness. The sight of her in distress had affected him in ways he had never felt

before and he knew that there wasn‟t anything he wouldn‟t do to make her happy

again. And the fact that he had been the one to cause the distress was especially galling.

He hadn‟t meant to upset her. After learning that she‟d been at his bar with Noah

the night she had lost her phone, he had felt an almost insane need to call her attention

to him. To make sure that he was the only man in her thoughts. He‟d grabbed her cell in

a move to bring her focus to him. Never mind that he hadn‟t even known Celeste on the

night in question, he knew her now. And he couldn‟t shake the feeling that she was his.

It was causing him to do out-of-character things like text naughty messages to a woman

he barely knew, stay up all night fantasizing about her, attempt to push her into

revealing those things at a table full of people.

Of course, the only person at the table who hadn‟t known what was going on had

appeared to be Noah. He had been too caught up in Rory to pay much attention to

Celeste, for which Grant was grateful. Things would have been much more complicated

if the handsome Noah had decided to step into the complicated storyline that Grant had

created. When Grant had walked up behind Celeste, he had heard her talking to Rory

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Sexting the Limits

about her “mystery man”. It had been amazing to find out that she found their little

game arousing and that she wanted it to continue. Not so amazing when she‟d

questioned Noah later about being her anonymous texter. Jealousy, hot and searing,

had boiled through him at that point. The girls had obviously been attempting to sniff

out if Noah was Celeste‟s mystery man.

He had only realized what kind of game he was playing when he had heard Celeste

talking about how silly it would be for her mystery man to walk up and introduce

himself. Unfortunately, that had been exactly his original plan. He realized now that

plan wasn‟t going to work. He would need something more elaborate to seduce Celeste.

Eventually, Noah and Rory‟s argument had run out of steam and they had all been

able to begin a conversation about some of the regulars at the bar and what it was like

to own it. Celeste had been a little quiet and distracted, especially on the occasions

when Grant had been able to come up with an excuse to brush her hand or bump her

leg under the table. He was not above a few tricks when the payoff was getting to feel

her soft skin and hot reactions.

They had all been having a good time when Rory announced that she had to get up

very early for work the next day. She needed to get home to get her rest if she was

going to handle hyped-up high schoolers in the morning. Celeste had agreed and the

two men had walked the ladies out. Grant had stood in the parking lot with Noah for a

few minutes while Noah had told him about a mutual acquaintance of theirs who had

recently fallen in love. Grant didn‟t know Noah very well, but he had seemed happy for

his friend and maybe even a little envious. He had also stared after Rory‟s car for a long

time after it had pulled away from view. It seemed that the guy had it quite bad for the

blue-eyed cutie.

Grant wished him well but had his own hands full with the possible mess he‟d

made of things with Celeste. He wanted to ask her out as Grant but didn‟t really feel