Skylar opened her mouth, then cut off, voice dropping to a whisper. “He’s looking at me.” Her heartbeat thudded in her ears as she stole a glance. The cowboy’s gaze had lifted from the woman to fix on her for a fraction of a second, dark eyes meeting hers across the crowded bar.Good heavens.
When the woman spoke again, he glanced back at her, but Skylar felt that brief spark of connection lingering in the air. He was tall, as tall as Seth, maybe six foot four or five, with a lean strength that showed in the way he relaxed against the bar.
“I have to use the bathroom, but don’t want to move,” Skylar admitted, fingers tightening around her half-empty glass. “I could stare at him all night.”
Ryan nudged her gently with her elbow. “You can stare when you get back. If you need the bathroom, go. I’ll guard your spot.”
Skylar exhaled, the scent of whiskey and lemon lingering on her breath. “Okay,” she said, pushing away from her stool, the wooden legs scraping against the floor. She had to walk past him. Taking a deep breath that filled her lungs with the bar’s mixture of cologne, perfume, and beer, she strolled around the bar but kept her eyes off him.Well, she tried.She couldn’t resist looking at him and her eyes met his again. They were pitch dark beneath the brim of his hat, like pools of ink in the dim lighting, and she quickly looked away, her cheeks burning, but she knew that look would be burned into her brain for the rest of her life.
****
Rawley nodded mechanically at the brunette’s story, but his attention had drifted across the bar to whereshesat. Stunning was an understatement. Her hair cascaded past her shoulders in loose waves the color of sun-ripened wheat, catching amber highlights under the bar lights. When her gaze briefly met his, he glimpsed eyes the pale blue of a winter sky at dawn; clear, arresting, and somehow both warm and cool at once.
He scanned the space around her, checking if some lucky bastard had stepped away momentarily. But no, only another woman occupied the adjacent stool, chatting with the bartender, while her seat remained the last one at the curved end of the bar, as if positioned perfectly for his line of sight. He watched as the blonde got down from her stool, walked around the bar, and he hoped she was going to say something to him, but she walked by him and disappeared down the hallway, heading toward the restrooms.
“Do you want to get out of here?”
Rawley shifted his eyes back to the brunette and frowned. “What?”
“Do you want to get out of here,” she repeated, voice husky with beer, as she raked her crimson fingernails through the dark hair on his forearm, leaving faint white trails on his tanned skin.
“Uh—” The blonde sauntered past him again, her hips swaying gently. The scent of her light perfume, jasmine with a hint of vanilla, wrapped around him like invisible silk. Her faded blue jeans hugged the curve of her ass like a second skin, and he watched, mesmerized, as she climbed back onto the stool and said something to her friend, then picked up her half-empty glass, condensation beading on its surface like tiny diamonds, lifted the stemmed maraschino cherry, put it between her glossy red lips, pulled the stem off with a gentle tug, chewed with deliberate slowness, and swallowed. All the while her pale blue eyes held his, unblinking and knowing.Son of a bitch!He swallowed hard.
“Look, if you don’t want to, just say it.”
Rawley looked at the brunette. “Say what?”
She slid off the stool, tossing her final assessment over her shoulder. “Handsome as sin but obviously not smart enough to carry a conversation.” The crowd parted as she cut through it toward the exit sign’s red glow.
Rawley’s eyes followed her retreating figure, the tight skirt marking each step with a defiant sway. He lifted his beer and laughed quietly into the foam. That was a first; being complimented and insulted in the same breath.
Laura Blackstone leaned across the bar. “Rawley, do you need anything?”
“No, thanks Laura.”
“Okay. Just wave one of us down.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rawley’s gaze snapped back to the blonde, but she was deep in conversation with her friend. His pulse quickened. The friend was gorgeous too, but the blonde, damn, she was magnetic. He had to talk to her. But he needed thebathroom first. He gripped his empty glass, praying she’d still be perched on that stool when he returned. The crowd had become a writhing mass of bodies. He’d have to fight his way to the bathroom like a man possessed and then do it again on his way back.
Chapter Two
“That line was too long. I’ll wait,” Skylar said as she got onto the stool.
“He watched you walk by.”
“Ryan, our eyes met, and I wanted to straddle him. I was hoping he’d say something, but I suppose since he’s talking to that other woman, he didn’t want to do that. I know I’d hate it if a man was talking to me, then suddenly starts talking to another woman he finds attractive.”
“True, but he couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“He’s just so hot,” Skylar looked over to where he was. “He’s gone,” Skylar said, her voice tinged with disappointment as she scanned the crowded bar.
Ryan twisted in her seat, craning her neck to look through the crowd and dim lighting. “I wonder why he didn’t come talk to you. The way he looked at you...”
“Maybe he left with the brunette.” Skylar’s fingers traced the condensation on her glass. “Even though I swear I saw her totter out the door alone on those ridiculous heels.” A frown creased her forehead.
“Maybe he found someone else.”
“I would hope not, but he could have found me.” Skylar laughed.
