Chapter 9
As she poured cranberry juice into a second short tumbler of vodka and ice, Paxton tried to fight the smile gradually stretching across her face.
She wasn’t known as a smiler, so she knew her constant grinning was already conspicuous to the regulars at the bar.
But to have this smile on her face while the LSU Tigers were down by three touchdowns in the first quarter?
Yes, she definitely stood out in this crowd of sorry faces.
She would just have to stand out, because this smile was not going away, not with the naughty montage of the past twenty-four hours playing in her head. She paused as a tremor cascaded through her body. She’d experienced those more times than she could count today.
Paxton set the vodka cranberries in front of Reed Jackson and the woman he had brought in with him tonight. She was the third different one in his past three visits to the bar.
“I hope you two are having a good time tonight,” Paxton said.
“Reed, I’m not sure how you keep all these”— his eyes went wide—“drink orders in line,” she finished.
She turned to his date. “Most of the folks here stick to beer, but Reed puts my bartending skills to the test. He loves to try different things. Don’t you, Reed? ”
Paxton winked at him and left him at the bar with his eyes still wide.
She was in much too good of a mood to ruin Reed’s fun. Multiple orgasms tended to put her in a good mood. She should make a point of having them more often.
The bar patrons kept her busy, with everyone wanting to drink their sorrows away after the disappointing start to the game. Paxton figured she would have to call in some designated driver reinforcements to make sure everyone got home safely tonight.
Once the demand waned, Paxton turned her attention to restocking the bar before the next wave of orders came crashing through. She stooped down and grabbed hold of the cardboard box she’d brought in from her car earlier.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Donovan came up alongside her just as she set it on the shelf a few inches below the bar. “This is what I’m here for, hot mama.” He picked it up, his eyes eager. “Okay, where do you need it?”
She nodded at the bar. “Exactly where I just had it. And if you call me ‘hot mama’ again, I’m knocking you over the head with a bottle of gin.” She pointed at him. “And do not wink.”
“Next time you need to pick up a box, you call me.”
And yes, the little pain in her ass still winked at her. If he didn’t do such a great job helping them out…
Belinda rapped her knuckles on the bar to get their attention. “Donovan, Jessie needs more chicken wings. Can you get a case from the freezer outside?”
He nodded to Belinda, then looked back to Paxton. “Where’s my thank-you kiss for helping with the box?”
“I’m instituting a sexual harassment policy,” she said.
He grinned. “You know I love it when a woman plays hard to get, right?”
Paxton pointed at the kitchen door. “Go!”
Despite the dismal start to the game, the kitchen was hopping with orders for hot wings, loaded potato skins, and fried pickles. Maybe the crowd was eating their feelings as well as drowning their sorrows in liquor.
LSU began the second quarter with a quick touchdown followed by a fumble recovery in Alabama territory, and the mood around the bar instantly perked up. Of course, that meant more drinks were bought, this time to celebrate. She would definitely need to recruit more designated drivers.
When an electrified tingle drizzled down her spine, Paxton didn’t even have to look toward the entrance to know who had just arrived.
She looked anyway. The drizzle turned into a torrential downpour of lust as she spotted Sawyer striding toward her with a smile so sexy it did things to her insides that should be illegal.
He wedged himself between two occupied barstools and leaned onto the bar. “Hello,” he greeted her, his voice low and sensual and infused with just enough barely veiled hunger to make Paxton’s body go liquid.
“Hello,” she returned. “Can I get you a drink?”
“What tastes good around here?” His eyes dropped to her waist. “Besides…you know.”
Her entire body went up in flames.
Stop that, she mouthed.
No, he mouthed back, slowly shaking his head.
Paxton leaned over the bar and put her lips to his ear. “Just because you saw me naked for the second time doesn’t mean you get to talk to me any way you want.”
“Technically, it was the third time. You were foolish enough to put a shirt on for a while, remember?”
Yes, she remembered that lapse in judgment.
She’d put on his T-shirt to go to the kitchen for a glass of soda.
He’d immediately stripped it from her body when she returned to his room and made love to her for the second time last night.
They’d fallen asleep naked in each other’s arms, awakening with the sun and making love again this morning.
And then again in the shower.
Despite it being a Saturday morning, they’d gone to the law office to get a few hours of work done in preparation for Monday’s town hall meeting.
The concentration it took to actually work once they got there was, by far, the greatest feat Paxton had achieved this year.
Somehow they managed to get most of the agenda for the meeting nailed down between a barrage of stolen kisses and one shoulder rub that got wildly out of hand.
A shudder ran through her at the memory.
Activity at the bar picked up at halftime, so she left Sawyer to his beer as she filled drink orders at lightning speed. Once the game started again and patrons turned their attention back to the televisions, she called for Belinda to take over bartending duties so she could have a breather.
She walked around the bar to Sawyer, who hadn’t so much as turned his head to look at the game the entire time he’d been sitting there. Despite being Mr. Football, he made it more than clear with his actions that he was there to see her. The realization sent a heady sensation through her.
“Can I tear you away from your barstool?” she asked.
“You can tear me away from anything you please. You have my undivided attention.”
His words should have made her feel empowered, but Paxton realized he held the same power over her.
She couldn’t think of anything he could ask her to do right now that she wouldn’t gladly oblige.
The most astonishing thing in all of this was the fact that those thoughts didn’t scare her senseless.
She, who prided herself on always being in control, on being independent, would willingly do whatever Sawyer asked of her.
As she took him by the hand, she noticed Belinda looking at them as if she wanted to snatch Paxton away from him and put her protectively behind her back. Paxton looked at her with a raised brow, but her mother didn’t respond. She just continued to look at them in that strange, overly cautious way.
Paxton guided Sawyer into the kitchen, where she picked up the load of scraps Jessie had placed on a tin dish for Heinz, then she led him out of the back door to the outside storage shed, which held a second deep freezer and the cleaning supplies.
Using a metal rod tied to the door handle, she rapped on the edge of the tin dish a couple of times, calling for Heinz. The oversized mutt crawled from his favorite spot underneath the bar and galloped over to them, his ears and jowls flopping.
“Here you go, boy,” Paxton said, setting his food before him. She grabbed his empty water dish and filled it using the tap that ran from the bar.
“Does your mom know you missed the dog more than you missed her while you were in Little Rock?”
Paxton gave him the evil eye. “You’d better not say anything.”
Sawyer’s shoulders shook with his laugh. “I may just have to use that for blackmail.”
She tried to maintain her harsh look but couldn’t hold it together. “To be honest, Belinda probably already knows. Heinz has had my heart since I found him hurt on the side of Highway 421 about eight years ago. He was still a puppy.”
“Why that name? It sounds like he was named after a banker or something.”
“Actually, he’s named after the steak sauce.”
Sawyer’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.
“Heinz 57?” Paxton said. “As in fifty-seven varieties? He’s made up of so many different breeds that we can’t decide exactly what he is. He’s a mutt in the truest sense, but I love him.”
“I’d say the feeling is mutual,” Sawyer said, gesturing to the way the dog rubbed against her leg now that he was done with his dinner. “Of course, if you fed me Jessie’s cooking and rubbed me behind the ear, I’d do the same thing. Maybe we should try that later.”
A wicked gleam shining in his eyes, Sawyer took a step toward her. He stopped when Heinz let out a low, menacing growl.
“Heel, boy,” Paxton called over her shoulder.
She wrapped her arms around Sawyer’s neck and backed him up against the side of the shed.
“I know this is asking for trouble,” she said as she kissed just below his jawline.
The faint stubble from his five o’clock shadow caused all kinds of sensations to swirl throughout her. “But I can’t seem to help it.”
“Don’t try,” he said, reversing their positions and pinning her against the building. As his mouth zeroed in on her lips, his hands went straight for her ass.
A moan crawled from Paxton’s throat as she undulated against the part of him swelling against her stomach.
“This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy,” she murmured over and over against his lips.
“This is right,” Sawyer returned. “But if we don’t stop, your mom will probably find us together and beat me away with a frying pan.”
Paxton chuckled at the image, but it also roused her curiosity. “I’m not sure why she’s so hostile toward you,” she said. “Belinda is never like that.”
He shrugged, his lips seeking out her neck. “She probably knows what we did last night and doesn’t want me corrupting you.”
“It’s a bit too late for that,” Paxton said with a laugh.