Chapter 8
Sebastian
“Yeah, this looks better.” I looked at myself in the full-length mirror after having changed my pants twice and my shirt three times.
And now I was fucking talking to myself.
I was going to Harpoon’s Tavern, for Christ’s sake. It didn’t matter what I was wearing. No one would be able to see in the dark interior of the bar anyway. And honestly, I was all but guaranteed to leave with a lady on my arm if I wanted to.
Harpoon’s wasn’t a pickup joint, but still, I had almost never struck out when I was looking for someone to warm my bed.
And it had been a while since anyone had been doing that.
A couple of months wasn’t exactly a rut for most dudes, but it was one of the longest stretches I could remember in recent years.
The crew and I were going out tonight though, so my dry spell was about to be fucking over.
I slipped my feet into my boots, grabbing my keys and pulling a beanie over my head.
Should I put on another spritz of cologne? I turned my head and sniffed my shirt.
No. I was good. I didn’t want it to be overpowering.
I was putting way too much energy into what I looked like tonight, and I didn’t fucking like it. There was no reason for me to be so wound up. It was the regular group of us, plus Lydia, of course.
Harpoon’s was a few minutes’ drive down the road.
Designed with the old fisherman and whaling trade in mind, the restaurant was themed with nautical elements from the ships wheel chandeliers to the actual harpoons that hung on the walls.
The bar area had the counter and some high-top tables, then behind that was the main restaurant side of the establishment.
Typically, we had always hung out on the bar side.
Back in the day, there were rarely more than six of us, mostly all guys plus Reid’s old girlfriend, Kayleigh.
The group had grown since then, adding Maeve and Scarlett—swapping Kayleigh for Claire—and now Lydia was here. Our guys’ nights were quickly becoming couples’ nights, plus Wes and me.
And Lydia.
She was the first person my eyes landed on as soon as I walked in the joint.
Her silvery hair shined in the overhead lights.
She turned her head, her eyes meeting mine, and it was like my feet forgot how to walk like a normal fucking person.
Did my arms always swing this much? What the hell was wrong with me?
They had set up on the restaurant side, pushing two tables together.
“Hey, man,” I said, clapping Luke on the shoulder.
“Hey… why are you all dressed up?”
“I’m not dressed up. I just look this good without trying. Isn’t that right, Letty?” I said to Scarlett, using her nickname that Luke called her. It always made him seethe just a little, and I still got a kick out of it. His jaw clenched, and he shot me an unimpressed glare.
“You do look nice,” she said. It should have been a compliment, but instead, it came out with suspicion.
“Just for you, honey.” I shot her a wink. “Who needs a drink? I’ll go grab them.”
“Can I get another margarita?” Maeve asked.
“Oh, me too, please,” Claire added.
“Two margaritas. Anything else?”
“You missed the first round. I’m good for another beer,” Wyatt piped up.
“Make that two,” Reid said.
“Three.” Luke tossed back the beer in his glass, emptying it.
“Two margs and three beers.” I looked around the table for any other orders.
“I would love a beer, not going to lie. But I guess I’ll just have water,” Scarlett grumbled.
“Good,” Wes said, lifting the glass he was nursing.
At least their orders were easy. I stepped away and heard the scraping of the chair against the floor.
“Where are you going?” I asked quietly. Lydia had gotten up and was following me to the bar.
“How were you planning to carry all that?” she sassed back.
Ronnie was manning the bar. Her black hair wasn’t braided like usual; instead, her natural coils added a foot of height and width around her face as the tight curls bounced with unrestrained freedom.
“Gorgeous, Ronnie. Love the hair,” I told her, breaking out my dimple.
“Save the flirty talk for one of them. I just want the tips,” she said with a smile, gesturing her head to a group of women, all in their mid-twenties, if I had to guess. They were looking my way, so I shot a quick wink in their direction.
“We need two margaritas and… how many beers?” Lydia stepped up to the bar on the side of me, effectively inserting herself in my line of sight and blocking out the ladies.
Her green eyes seemed to shine in the low light.
I wasn’t sure what kind of trickery that was, but I had a hard time pulling my gaze away from her.
She had lined her eyes in her dark makeup again.
She had gone without it for the last few weeks.
I loved the more natural look on her, but this look was just as hot.
I pulled myself out of my thoughts, turning back to Ronnie. “Four,” I said.
“And a water,” Lydia added.
“And a root beer,” I said.
“Anything else?” Ronnie asked.
I looked over at Lydia. “What are you getting, little wild? I didn’t hear your order in the mix.”
She held my gaze, and I could feel it in my body, in my bones. “Gin and tonic.”
“And a gin and tonic for the lady,” I told Ronnie.
Ronnie raised a quizzical brow at me. “I know. I could hear her.”
Lydia had a smug smirk on her face that I wanted to kiss off her lips.
Fuck.
No. Wipe off her lips. Not kiss her soft, sweet lips.
Ronnie poured the drinks, placing them down on the counter. They started to stack up, and I realized that even with Lydia helping me, there was no way to carry nine drinks back to the table.
“Can you run the margaritas over while I pay for this?”
Lydia’s gaze shifted to the women at the bar quickly before bouncing back to me. One of the ladies in particular was coyly wrapping her lips around her straw. I knew an invitation when I saw one—she was clearly interested. “No. You run the drinks over, and I’ll pay. How about that?”
“With what money? I know what you make, remember? You can’t afford all this.”
“Then you should pay me more.” She leaned in, her head doing that sassy dance that she did when she thought she was funny.
“With what money? I can barely afford all this,” I laughed, making a joke out of it, but honestly, it wasn’t funny how in the hole I was.
She smiled a genuine smile, her eyes sparkling. “Well, aren’t we a pair.”
I towered over her five-foot-two frame, a solid foot taller than her. She had to tip her head back to look up at me, and my mind raced with dirty images of Lydia looking up at me from her knees. Her lips were painted a dark bloodred that I was desperate to see wrapped around my dick.
“Wes is watching y’all,” Ronnie said subtly as she set the last drink down.
I pulled back, only then realizing how close Lydia and I were standing, each leaning into each other, the sweet scent of her lingering around me.
She looked around her again, her gaze going toward the door, and she wrapped her arm in front of her midriff like she was trying to hide.
Her wide eyes held a note of fear, like standing too close to me would get her in trouble, but if she were, it wasn’t her brothers that she was afraid of.
She didn’t look toward the table. She looked to the door.
The Lydia I knew wasn’t the fearful type. Who the fuck was it that made her feel like she needed to look over her shoulder?
“Go sit, the both of you. I’ll get Kelsey to deliver these to you so you ain’t carrying them all.”
“Thanks, Ronnie. Appreciate it,” I told her, handing her the cash plus tip.
Lydia headed back over to the table while I paid, a different type of tension surrounding her.
Not two seconds later, the straw lady sidled up next to me. She placed her hand on my arm, “Hey. Um, are you and her here together?”
“Nope. Just out with some friends tonight,” I told her. She was pretty. Long, dark blonde hair, pretty brown eyes, a slim, toned body.
“Me too.” She smiled. “My girlfriends were kind enough to leave their men home tonight so I didn’t feel out of place, being single and all.”
Subtle.
“I’m Vanessa, by the way. But you can call me Nessa. I love your tattoos.”
“Thanks. I’m a tattoo artist; designed most of these myself.”
This was typically when I would crank up my charm, maybe tell her I’d be happy to show her all of my skin art. Sealing this deal was basically guaranteed.
But I wasn’t really feeling it with her. Was it because it was too easy?
No. I wasn’t one who relished in the chase necessarily. I hadn’t had to chase any woman in a damn long time, as a matter of fact.
Then again, I also hadn’t had sex in months. I could break that dry spell right now, a well-placed touch to her leg, an obvious glance to her mouth.
But I just got here. Hadn’t even really hung out with the crew yet. It was one thing to leave with a lady on my arm, but it was another to ditch them completely for the first pair of tanned legs to walk my way.
I glanced back to the table and caught Lydia staring daggers at us. At me. It felt like there was a rope attached to my chest that she held the other side of, tugging me toward her with her soft, milky skin and pissed-off attitude.
Vanessa followed my gaze. She peeled her hand off my arm and laughed. “Okay, well, enjoy your night… with your not date.”
“It was nice to meet you, Nessa,” I told her with a chin dip and headed back to the table.
“Took you long enough,” Luke grumbled before looking up. “And you didn’t even come back with drinks,” he huffed.
“They’re coming, you big baby,” Lydia sassed just as Kelsey came around the corner with a tray of various drinks.
“What’s got your panties in a bunch, little wild? You jealous?”
Lydia huffed a laugh, not even bothering to turn her head as Kelsey called the drinks out individually, handing them to whoever ordered them.
“Root beer?” she asked.
No one answered, and then I remember that was on me. “Oh, that’s Scarlett’s.”
“What? You got me a root beer?” Her face lit up.
“It was the best I could do for you.” I winked. “And we also got you a water like you asked.”
“Thank you.” Her lip wobbled like she was going to cry. I shot a look at Luke for help. I hated when women cried, even worse if I knew I was the one who caused it.
Luke just shrugged and put his arm around Scarlett, whispering in her ear until she collected herself.
“Nice. Make the pregnant lady cry. Good job,” Lydia whispered with that smug grin of hers.
She didn’t give me any time to respond before leaning past me to talk to Maeve.
Immediately, my dick responded to the lavender scent of her shampoo.
Her hand landed on my leg as she talked over me, and I had to grit my teeth to get myself under control.
I leaned back in my chair, my legs manspreading at her touch. Lydia noticed what she was doing, her eyes going wide before she removed her hand.
“Switch seats with me,” she demanded.
“This is my seat. And you didn’t even ask nicely.”
She tried to stare me down, so I threw my hand around the back of her chair and kept my ass right where it was.
Her gaze turned sultry, and her hand found my leg again, this time snaking its way up my inner thigh partway.
I had no control over the way my body responded to her touch.
I looked around the table, specifically to see if Luke was watching.
He was wrapped up in a conversation with Wes and wasn’t paying us any mind.
Lydia leaned in, her mouth grazing against the lobe of my ear.
“Switch seats with me, Sebastian.”
Her tongue made the smallest contact with my ear, and I had to grip the wooden back of her chair where my arm was resting.
“You play dirty, little wild,” I told her as I pushed my chair back to trade places with her, because of course I fucking did. She grinned a knowing smile at me and hopped in my seat as soon as I was up.
“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Maeve laughed.
I jumped in on Reid, Claire, and Scarlett’s conversation about the changes at the beaches that Calla Bay was proposing for the upcoming tourist season this summer.
“It’s supposed to bring in more tourists,” Claire said.
“We can’t take any more tourists though. This town isn’t big enough to handle the influx they want,” Scarlett countered.
“We live off tourist season. We have to figure out how to accommodate them, or this town will go downhill, taking all of us with it,” I said.
Reid was of the mind that more people in this town was a bad thing, but as someone who ran a business in Calla Bay’s downtown, I knew how much tourists contributed to our overall economy. And my pocket specifically.
They were still bickering about it when I got up to hit the restroom.
Pissing with the erection that I’d had since Lydia put her lips on my ear was uncomfortable to say the least. The minx was causing me suffering when she wasn’t even in the same room as me.
I did my business and washed my hands, nearly colliding with a woman as I left the bathroom.
“Sorry about that,” I said, gesturing for her to go first.
“No worries.” She smiled. “You can run into me anytime.”
I laughed. “I’ll try not to make a habit out of it.”
“That’s too bad.” Her eyes sparked with interest, her teeth biting into her bottom lip coyly.
Another pretty lady that I could chat up. We had been here for a few hours at this point. It wouldn’t be unheard of for me to disappear about now. Find someone new to spend my evening with.
My dick was aching for some relief, but my heart wasn’t in it.
Still, I could chat her up for a minute.
At least it would keep me away from the lavender-scented wilding on the side of me.
We had been spending too much time together.
Every day at the shop, weekends at Harpoon’s, or Sunday dinners at Charlie’s house.
Lydia Wilder was fucking everywhere, and I was still drawn to her like a moth to a flame. It was messing with my head.