Shit. Amy might’ve opened the door, but I was the one who coaxed the scorpion out. All hoping it wouldn’t sting me this time around.
“Y—You really think of me as a sister?” I choked.
Tears flowed down her cheeks now, accompanied by loud, wracking sobs. My face mimicked hers as she opened her arms. “YES!”
Crying, I flung myself into them.
~ 48 ~
CARTER
I didn’t see her until she was halfway to the bar. The slinky red dress hugged every curve of her body, except where a slit ran all the way up one smooth, unblemished thigh. I knew those curves well. My fingers remembered them. Just as my mouth remembered those painted red lips, now pulled up at the corners in a cunning smile.
She didn’t bother walking — she sauntered over. My heart was a jackhammer, thundering away in my chest.
“Hello,” she said silkily.
I remained totally frozen, a glass in each hand. I’d forgotten entirely what I was doing.
“I’d like a devil shot, please.”
I swallowed hard. If this were a cartoon, I’d already be rolling my tongue back into my mouth.
“Adevilshot?”
“Yes,” she smiled coyly.
“You’ll have to help me. I’m unfamiliar with that.”
Damn, she looked fucking incredible! And she was right here, in the bar, obviously dressed for me. My heart had been utterly broken for the past week. Now it threatened to soar straight out of my chest.
“A devil shot,” Hayden began playfully, “is what a girl gets when she’s about to do something really,reallybad.”
I felt something uncoil, of its own accord. All of a sudden there wasn’t enough room in my pants.
“How bad?”
“Sobad,” she said, reaching across the bar. As I watched, she plucked a maraschino cherry from the bin and placed it delicately on her tongue. When she retracted her tongue into her mouth and pulled the stem out, I nearly went out of my fucking mind.
“So bad it’s practically evil.”
I was so confused. So elated. So excited. Reaching for the top shelf, I pulled down a bottle of Don Julio 1942. I poured her a shot, my eyes never leaving hers. They remained locked on those hazel beauties as she threw it back and clacked the empty glass back down.
“Let’s go,” she said, walking straight past me and into the back.
“G—Grizz,” I stammered. “Could you—”
“On it,” Grizz winked, draining his beer.
He’d watched the whole thing of course, just as Grizz had watched everything at The Refuge for the past four decades. There was no time to debate the merits of leaving him in charge of the bar, though. Not now.
Tiptoeing around Grizz’s new cat — which was at the bar as much as he was — I slipped into the back and found Hayden already halfway to my office. That saunter was driving me crazy, especially since the slit in her dress ran all the way to her hip. Isaw a flash of black; the very top of a hip-high thong. So high, it made her look naked beneath the dress.
Fuck!
Suddenly, I felt like a high school kid again. My stomach was a nervous ball of energy as I followed her into my office, scanning every shadow of that red dress as it curved its way around her plump, perfect ass. She wore high heels, too. How could I have missed that part? They were candy red, and matched her dress.
The door closed, and I got an intoxicating whiff of her as she spun around. Hayden stepped forward, kissed me full on the lips, then dropped straight to her knees.
