Chapter 6
LANDON
I saw her the moment I stepped inside the bar. Maddie was impossible to miss. Her blonde hair was once again pulled up in a messy bun, several strands dangling around her face. She was also behind the counter, pouring a draft beer.
I made my way through the patrons, inspecting the location. Whenever I went to a new bar, I automatically compared it to the pub Val and I ran years ago. It had been all black wood and shades of green, and had an air of general shabbiness.
This one was all warm tones, the dim lighting casting a pleasant glow on the brown wood. The place was packed with patrons standing around the high, round tables. A few servers milled around, and at the far end of the room was a makeshift stage, but it was still empty.
“Fancy seeing you here, stranger,” Maddie greeted me playfully when I reached the counter. “Where’s your friend?”
“Couldn’t make it after all.”
“And you came anyway because…?”
“You promised fun, Maddie. Why are you behind the bar?”
“My sister has the flu, so I’m filling in for her.” A frown marred her forehead as she reached to the rack above our heads where wineglasses were hanging. “She gets sick a lot lately. I keep telling her it’s not normal, that she should go to a doctor, but she doesn’t listen. Calls me a nag.”
I grinned, plunking my forearms on the bar. She filled the glass of wine, handing it to the redhead next to me. Then Maddie pointed at me. “Don’t make fun of me. I know she’s a grown-up, but I can’t help myself.”
My grin widened. I recognized the behavior. “Far from me to make fun of you. I’m the same. I call it eldest sibling syndrome. Nice to find a kindred spirit. So, you know the owner, or how come you can work instead of your sister?”
“I used to work here. When I first moved, my business wasn’t bringing in much income, so I was supplementing it with bartending. So now, if my sister has to miss a shift, I cover for her so she still gets the money. What can I get you, Landon?”
I looked at the blackboard hanging on what I assumed was a fake-tile wall to our right. Several cocktails were scribbled on it in white chalk. “I’ll take the house specialty.”
She made a come-here motion with her finger, and I leaned in over the counter. Even though alcohol fumes were swirling around us, I still caught a clear whiff of her perfume. I barely refrained from leaning in even closer.
“It’ll give you a really nasty hangover tomorrow. Several people already complained about it, including yours truly. I don’t recommend it. You look like a bourbon type of guy anyway.”
I pulled back, laughing. “I look like it? Is that translation for Val talking about me?”
“She might have said a few things. So, bourbon?”
I nodded, watching her prepare my drink.
I’d been watching her more often than I wanted to admit over the last days.
I’d talked her into eating lunch with me every day.
I brushed her fingers when I took the glass, and she drew in a sharp breath, jumping a little as if the contact electrified her.
What would she do if I trailed my mouth up to her neck, tugged with my teeth at her earlobe?
An image of Maddie arching her hips and back into me filled my thoughts.
Her scent was still fresh in my mind, as was the feel of her skin under my fingers.
I could practically feel her pressed against me.
“I want my goddamn drink.”
We both looked in the direction from where the voice had come. A surfer, by the sorry look of him. He raised his brows at Maddie, tapping his hand on the counter.
“Come on, how hard can it be to make a mojito? Fucking get to work already.”
“Apologize to Maddie, or you’ll be out on your sorry ass in ten seconds.” Maintaining my calm, I shifted closer, straightening up.
He hunched slightly when he realized I towered over him. His eyes darted to Maddie, then back to me, and he raised both hands in surrender.
“Okay, I’m sorry.”
Maddie smiled sweetly at him while working on his cocktail.
“Rule number one. Never be disrespectful to the person serving your food or beverage. You never know what they might put in.” When she slid his glass toward him, the guy looked down at it as if afraid to touch it.
I held my glass up in her direction, grinning. Her sass was contagious.
She tended to the other patrons as I enjoyed my bourbon, perched on one of the barstools. The servers milling around the room prepared the orders they received themselves, but Maddie still had her hands full.
A band climbed on the stage soon after and performed covers of well-known songs, as well as some of their own.
Maddie was right; they were very good. Several of the patrons started dancing.
So did Maddie behind the counter. She was wearing a blue dress with a black belt around her tiny waist. Her shoulders were bare.
“You’re a very good dancer.” I drank up the sway of her hips and thighs, the sensual-as-fuck yet classy way in which her ass arched up rhythmically.
I had a very sudden and very clear vision of me holding those hips, pressing her against me.
Jesus, I hadn’t felt such a pull toward a woman in years. I couldn’t tear myself away.
“Thanks. I typically dance the entire time they perform, but house rules forbid me leaving the bar. But there are no rules saying I’m not allowed to dance behind the bar.”
“What time does your shift end?”
“I’m closing, so three o’clock.”
“And you’re working on Val’s yard tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Coffee will be my best friend.”
“I’ll talk to Val. I’m sure she won’t mind if you take the day off.”
She shook her head. “No can do. I don’t like skipping work for personal reasons.”
Stubborn woman. I didn’t like the fact that she’d only get a few hours of sleep, but I respected her work ethic.
“My place is just five blocks away. I’ll be home in twenty minutes tops,” she continued.
“You’re walking?”
“Of course.” Motioning to my empty glass, she asked, “Another bourbon?”
“No.” I wanted to keep a clear head, so I glanced at the menu, choosing the first nonalcoholic drink that caught my eye. “I’ll have a mint lemonade with ginger and strawberry.”
“You must be very secure in your masculinity. Women usually order that.”
“I’m very secure in my masculinity, Maddie.”
Her lips parted, forming a small, delicious O. I was affecting her, in the same way she was affecting me. I didn’t take my eyes off her as she prepared my drink. She glanced up at me every few seconds, and I enjoyed immensely the way she bit into her bottom lip after every glance.
“Here is your drink!” She sounded breathless.
I stuck to the bar for the next few hours, listening to the band, ordering almost everything from the nonalcoholic side of the menu, and fending off any men who came on too strong on Maddie.
“Stop scaring away the customers,” Maddie admonished me after I caused the third male customer to cower away.
“He was more interested in you than the drink.”
“I know, but you still can’t scare off customers.”
“But you can put them off from the house specialty?" I challenged.
“I don’t put everyone off. Just the people I like.
” She winked at me and continued to dance while mixing cocktails, pouring drinks.
She was an unquenchable well of energy and sinful moves.
The more I watched her, the more I wanted to know how she’d feel against me.
I wanted to dance with her—another new impulse for me.
She chitchatted with other patrons too, and annoyance twanged inside me whenever a man asked her for her number.
She declined every time, which was when it dawned on me that she might be seeing someone.
Why hadn’t that occurred to me before? Surely a woman like her wasn’t single.
She was smart, sassy, and hardworking. She’d mentioned an ex, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have someone in her life at the moment.
Fuck, that thought bothered me. Even though I didn’t have a right to be bothered.
As three o’clock neared, the patrons shuffled out one by one, even though the band kept playing as if they had a full house. Fifteen minutes before closing time, there were just two other people besides us. Maddie had dismissed the servers on the shift, saying she could close up by herself.
I watched her dance become wilder, more passionate, and I couldn’t take it any longer. I leaned over the bar and said, “Come out here and dance.”
She jutted out her lower lip. “Can’t. House rules.”
“Come out here.”
“Landon—”
“Break the rules with me, Maddie. Dance with me.”
She swallowed hard, glanced at the clock, at the last two patrons who were headed out the door, then nodded. She stepped from behind the bar, smiling shyly as she walked closer to me. It was her first shy smile. Her blue eyes were beautiful.
I looked at the band, who’d started to gather their things as the patrons left but now began playing just for us.
It was the kind of music I wanted. I didn’t want a slow dance; I wanted a wild one.
I took her hand, twirling her once before lowering my hands to her hips.
She had her back to me, and I stepped closer until her spine was pressing against my chest. Maddie put her hands on top of mine but didn’t push them away.
I kept us both still for a moment. I had to ask first. I had to know.
“Maddie, are you dating someone?”
She shuddered in my arms, pressing her back even closer to me. “There is no one in my life, Landon.”
“Then be mine for this dance.”
I heard her sharp intake of breath, and then her hair tickled my face. Half her bun had come undone again. I pulled the elastic band. Her hair was silky and soft.
“Let’s get rid of that, shall we? It’s just in the way.”