by Elise Faber
And staring at myself in the mirror behind the bar, wondering how in the world I’d gotten to this place.
Less in an at-the-actual-bar question and more of a what-the-fuck-was-I-doing-with-my-life sort of way. I’d built connections in the world of private military operations. I took down bad guys on the regular with hardly more than my computer and my wits.
But . . . I didn’t have that.
That being what the rest of this fucking bar composed almost entirely of lovebirds had.
Love.
Multiple different groups of couples in the booths in the back, all lovey-dovey and cuddling nonstop—something I’d witnessed many times over in the last hours since Hayden had dragged me here after one of our few in-person meetings.
We’d needed to devise a strategy to take down a ring of hackers trying to sell people’s personal information, a really fucking sneaky ring, and sometimes that meant having to look outside the box . . . or the secure chat window that was my preferred mode of contact.
Look, I could schmooze and be charming and woo new clients, just as easily as I could hack through someone’s firewall.
But two guesses as to which I preferred.
And it really better only take one.
Anyway, I knew I should have left hours before, but something had made me stay. Maybe the handsome black bartender who’d swept his beautiful blond girlfriend up into a kiss when she’d brought him a plate of cookies—and yes, I was good enough at my job to know that the bartender was Brent and his fiancé was Iris. I’d done a full background on Hayden before I hired him, including his sister and her boyfriend, Kace, who owned the bar. All of whom were spending the majority of their time mooning over their significant others. Hayden to the pretty and spunky Anabelle, who I quite liked and seemed to alternate between faux annoyance with Hayden and love shining in those deep brown eyes. Since annoyance was an emotion I readily identified with, I could at least support that type of mooning. On the other hand, Kace and Brooke were sickening.
Brooke was too damned cute with her pencil behind one ear, her eyes focused on her laptop, her red hair askew, but she and Kace seemed to orbit one another.
She shifted unconsciously in her seat when he was near, even though her fingers didn’t stop. He didn’t interrupt, just pressed a kiss over the top of her head, brushing his knuckles over her cheek, her nape, her arm, filling the glass in front of her with soda at regular intervals.
Love. Caring for one another. Instinctive.
Fucking fairytales under neon bar signs.
“Here,” a silken male voice said.
Ignoring the way that voice slid over my skin, as though he were running a piece of delicate silk over my naked body, I glanced up into a pair of stunning hazel eyes. The different shades of green and gold and brown mixed together in a way that was both beautiful and completely unique.
But I didn’t react on the outside.
First, I’d seen plenty of beautiful men in my life. Second, I’d felt him approach, but since he’d spent the vast majority of the night well away from me, I hadn’t bothered to look too closely.
Not a threat. Moving on.
Now, I glanced down to see the drink in front of me. An orange and red concoction with a cherry floating on top of some ice cubes. A cheery red straw was perched on the side.
“What’s this?” I asked.
He rolled those gorgeous, unique eyes, and I actually felt my skin prickle in awareness. “Sex on the Beach.”
“Excuse me?” It was an arched question that sent amusement tap-dancing through his expression.
“Their”—he nodded at a group of couples hovering near his end of the bar—“ladies’ night was apparently crashed by their husbands. Now they’re enjoying ordering the dirtiest cocktails they can think of and having the men pay the tab. I mixed one too many and figured you could use something that wasn’t warm beer.”
I ran my finger through the condensation on the outside of the glass. “And Sex on the Beach was the dirtiest they could think of?”
“Apparently.” He nudged it closer. “Have a sip. Despite the cheesy name, it’s actually pretty good.” He nodded at my beer. “And since you don’t seem to be enjoying your beer . . .”
“I’m not much of a beer girl.”
“What kind of girl are you?”
Uh-oh.
The way he said that, with the quiet note of heat hidden beneath silk, was troublesome. Even more troublesome was my body’s reaction.
Moisture pooled between my thighs. My nipples went tingly.
Nope. Not gonna do it.
I lifted my chin. “First of all, I’m a woman, not a girl.”
Hazel eyes dipped down before returning to mine, a slow smile curving his mouth. That smile was . . .
Fucking hell.
I shifted on my barstool, thighs clenching together because . . . that smile was pure, unadulterated sex.
On the seats.
An image of him spreading my legs, of those broad shoulders pushing my thighs wide as he pressed those lush lips to my pussy made the alarm bells transform into hurricane sirens.
Because I was imagining having sex on the seats.
With a stranger.
With a stranger I wanted more than I wanted my careful distance.
Oh. Shit.
—Sex On The Seats coming 2021
Sex On The Sheets
Preorder your copy at www.books2read.com/sexontheseats
Coming April 26th, 2021
Love After Midnight
Rum And Notes
Virgin Daiquiri
On The Rocks
Sex On The Seats
Love After Midnight
Did you miss any of the Love After Midnight Books? See below for sneak peeks at the series and
check out www.elisefaber.com/loveaftermidnight for more information!
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Rum And Notes
Book 1
www.books2read.com/RumAndNotes
Brooke
“Want a fresh one?”
My eyes flew up from the glass to meet Kace’s.
“Um,” I murmured. “Sure. But can you add a little rum?”
A flash of white teeth. “All done, then?” He leaned toward me, resting his forearms on the bar, the long sleeves of his shirt riding up to reveal just the edge of a tattoo. I’d seen the whole tat before. On Day 36. He’d worn short sleeves for a change, a bone thrown to the unseasonably hot weather that day, and suddenly my hero had gotten tattoos, beautiful swirling lines crawling along his skin, sweeping around and up his forearms, twisting together and disappearing under the cotton of his short sleeves, tempting a woman to trace them with her tongue.
No.
My heroine’s tongue.
Fantasy was fine, so long as I kept it between the pages.
I bit my bottom lip until the mental image faded, kept my tongue firmly in my mouth, and nodded at Kace.
He rapped his knuckles against the counter once, reciprocated my nod, then snagged my glass and turned away, dumping the contents, adding ice, rum, then soda before coming back over to me. He plunked the drink on the bar, but when I went to reach for it, he rested his hand on mine. “What are you working on so diligently?” he asked, and the contact, paired with his eyes locked on mine, stole my breath.
“Wh-what?”
His response was to release my hand, and while I was mourning the loss of his touch, he grabbed my computer, spun it to face him, and opened it.
“No—”
But it was too late.
It was open, the screen lighting up, illuminating his sharp but beautiful features, and he was reading.
Oh fuck, he was reading!
I made a mad grab for the laptop, but he swept it off the bar, lifting it in the air and continuing to read. My computer obscured most of his face, but not his eyebrows. Those brows kept rising until they were t
ight sideways C’s on his forehead, well above the edge of my screen.
Then he lowered the laptop and stared at me.
“This is what you’ve been writing?”
In fairness, he’d caught me in the middle of a hot scene, made hotter because he’d been my inspiration for it.
A fact he seemed to understand when his eyes met mine. “Jace?”
I coughed. “It’s a common name.”
“Blue eyes?” He glanced back at the screen. “Tats? Brown hair?”
“Not an uncommon combination.” I picked up my glass, drained it, eyes watering against the burn.
“A scar on the right side of his bottom lip?” he asked, putting my laptop down.
Okay, now was the time for running.
Something I normally abhorred, but in this case, it was critical. I snatched up my computer, reached into my wallet and pulled out some cash, and tossed it on the bar.
Then I jumped off the stool and ran.
—Rum And Notes (books2read.com/RumAndNotes)
Virgin Daiquiri
Book 2
www.books2read.com/VirginDaiquiri
Brent
Fuck. Someone needed to save this woman from herself.
That someone couldn’t be me.
But that still didn’t stop me from snagging her arm and rotating her to face me. “You live near the city now. You have to be smart.” Her lips parted again, probably to tell me she was smart, but I kept talking. “Street smart. You can’t tell strange men you live alone or invite them back to your place.”
“Fine,” she said.
“Fine,” I agreed.
But I didn’t let her go.
Her eyes flicked over my shoulder, to the ceiling, and my gaze followed hers, half-expecting to see a giant spider dangling there.
Instead, I saw mistletoe.
I glanced back down. She licked her lips.
And suddenly, I knew she was thinking the same thing as me. Warm bodies pressed together, lips only inches apart, heat filling the space, and a kiss-inducing plant overhead.
“Mistletoe,” she whispered and licked her lips again.
Just one taste.
I could give myself that.
I bent my head and slanted my mouth across hers.
—Virgin Daiquiri (books2read.com/VirginDaiquiri)
Also by Elise Faber
Billionaire’s Club (all stand alone)
Bad Night Stand
Bad Breakup
Bad Husband
Bad Hookup
Bad Divorce
Bad Fiancé
Bad Boyfriend
Bad Blind Date
Bad Wedding
Bad Engagement (October 12th, 2020)
Bad Swipe (March 1st, 2021)
Love, Action, Camera (all stand alone)
Dotted Line
Action Shot
Close-Up
End Scene
Meet Cute (April 5th, 2021)
Love After Midnight (all stand alone)
Rum And Notes
Virgin Daiquiri
On The Rocks (September 27th, 2020)
Sex On The Seats (April 2021)
Gold Hockey (all stand alone)
Blocked
Backhand
Boarding
Benched
Breakaway
Breakout
Checked
Coasting
Centered
Charging (December 28th, 2020)
Caged (March 2021)
Life Sucks Series (all stand alone)
Train Wreck
Hot Mess
Dumpster Fire (February 15th, 2021)
Roosevelt Ranch Series (all stand alone, series complete)
Disaster at Roosevelt Ranch
Heartbreak at Roosevelt Ranch
Collision at Roosevelt Ranch
Regret at Roosevelt Ranch
Desire at Roosevelt Ranch
Phoenix Series (read in order)
Phoenix Rising
Dark Phoenix
Phoenix Freed
Phoenix: LexTal Chronicles (rereleasing soon, stand alone, Phoenix world)
From Ashes
To Smoke (January 25th, 2021)
In Flames
KTS Series
Fire and Ice (Hurt Anthology, stand alone)
Riding The Edge (December 7th, 2020)
Stand Alones
Someday, Maybe (YA)
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author, Elise Faber, loves chocolate, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and hockey (the order depending on the day and how well her team -- the Sharks! -- are playing). She and her husband also play as much hockey as they can squeeze into their schedules, so much so that their typical date night is spent on the ice. Elise changes her hair color more often than some people change their socks, loves sparkly things, and is the mom to two exuberant boys. She lives in Northern California. Connect with her in her Facebook group, the Fabinators or find more information about her books at www.elisefaber.com.