by Emma Castle
“We can’t stay too long…” She threaded her fingers through his blond hair. The light caught and shone on those golden strands.
“We have forever, Queenie,” he promised.
Then the dream changed. The bridge had collapsed. Her parents’ car sank below the surface of the river as sleek silver alien ships continued to appear in the skies. Bubbles frothed at the surface where the car had landed, and soon there was nothing but black water.
Bleak despair jolted Harper awake. She lay panting and shaking as the old grief of five years ago came back in full force. She scrubbed her eyes with her fists, and her hands came away coated with tears. Choking down a sob, she couldn’t get herself to move for several minutes. It had been a long time since that dream had haunted her.
Harper drew in a slow breath, counting to ten in her head, and she reclaimed a sense of calm. When she looked down at herself, she gasped. She wore only a bra, the uncomfortable lacy one she never wore except for dates where she thought she might go home with the guy.
What the—?
The memories of that morning came rushing back with an electric force.
She and Seth had screwed like bunnies in her office.
Had that really happened?
Holy shit…it had.
She buried her face in her hands, mortified. Seth had to think she was too easy and just slept with anyone. She wanted to hide in her sock drawer and never leave her apartment again.
Wait… She was in her apartment? Harper remembered falling asleep in her office. So how did she end up back here?
Harper ducked into the bathroom and froze at what she saw in the mirror. She had a hickey on her neck, a big one, where Seth had bitten her, and her hair was a messy tumble of color. Her hips had slight bruises from where he’d grasped her as he’d thrust into her, though they didn’t hurt.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked her reflection. “You can’t just jump a guy like that.”
She frowned at herself for another moment before she turned on the water and got into the shower.
To distract herself, she focused instead on the work she hadn’t finished. She needed to call Ruby, who had no doubt already gone home for the day since she usually left at after three p.m. on the weekends.
When she returned to the shop, she found all the cars completed, even the Ford. Ruby’s desk was clean and organized, which meant the cars were all finished and ready to be picked up tomorrow morning.
Had Seth done all of this? That was the only explanation. She knew her brothers couldn’t have done it. They couldn’t do much more than change the oil, which meant it must have been Seth, but he had promised to wake her up in an hour. She checked the wall clock at the back of the garage. It was nearly four in the afternoon. She’d slept away most of the day.
Harper entered the bar and scanned the room until she saw Seth. He wore a dark blue T-shirt that clung to him like a second skin, and the way his body fit those jeans… She bit her lip as she stared at his ass, remembering how it had felt to have the full focus of his thrusting body against her and how she’d never wanted it to end, even if it had killed her.
Seth stood behind the bar with Neil, pouring beers and laughing at something Neil said. Liam moved behind the bar and slapped Seth’s shoulder in greeting as he opened one of the cash registers. Mason came out of the storeroom with a new case of beer and nodded at Seth, who nodded back.
Harper imagined for one minute that this was normal, that she could come here every afternoon and see this. Seth working at the bar, that wicked, playful curve of his lips promising pleasure just for her, and the sound of his rich laughter ringing like church bells. This could be just any other day…in a perfect life…an almost perfect life, if her parents had been here to see it.
Her eyes burned with tears, but she couldn’t look away. Everything she cared about was in this room. Seth was a part of her world now, whether she wanted him to be or not. He was slipping through the chinks in her armor.
“Hey, Harper!” Jessie joined her, an empty drink tray balanced on one hip.
“Hey.” Harper shot her friend a smile. “How’s he doing?” She pointed discreetly toward Seth.
“Pretty good. He’s all smiles and charm, but he doesn’t let any of the customers get the wrong idea, you know? To be a good waiter, you have to balance the charm, or you’ll have some creep palming your ass.” Jessie wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“I’m glad he’s working out.” Harper turned her attention back on him. As if he sensed her focus, he looked right at her, and the smile he flashed grew a hundred times brighter. It was a smile meant only for her. The love bite on her neck tingled, and she reached up instinctively to touch it, then carefully pulled her hair back down to cover it. If her brothers saw that, she’d be in major trouble.
“How long will he be sticking around?” Jessie asked. “He’s already bringing in way more business.” Jessie pointed to the tables full of women who were all gazing in adoration at Seth.
A flash of envy prickled beneath her skin. It was like those women had never seen a good-looking man before. Her brothers were good-looking—even she could admit that from an objective standpoint—but the women in the bar had eyes only for her man.
He isn’t mine—or is he? She wanted him to be, but how did she even start that conversation? They’d just had crazy-hot sex in her office, but they hadn’t discussed a relationship. What if all this was only physical to him? And why the hell was she letting it be more than physical for her? She knew better than to want to fall in love with someone like Seth. But he made her want to believe in that wild, crazy, love-at-first-sight kind of passion again.
“Harper? Hello? Earth to Harper,” Jessie teased.
“Hmmm?” She turned her focus back to her friend.
“Just go talk to him,” Jessie encouraged.
Harper decided to take her friend’s advice and moved toward the bar.
“Hey,” Seth greeted as she reached him.
“Hey.” She blushed all the way to the roots of her hair. She nodded toward the storeroom. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.”
He followed her into the room behind the Employees Only sign, making sure neither of her brothers got suspicious as to why.
“So.” She stared down at her Converse shoes, suddenly wishing she’d worn something more attractive. She didn’t own any high heels since she didn’t see much use in them. Now she wished she had a closetful of fancy clothes.
“So…” Seth stepped forward and gripped her hips in his hands, a move that seemed so natural to him, as though he could grab and hold her like that anytime he wanted, and damned if she didn’t like it. He moved a hand up to her neck, brushing back her hair to expose the hickey she’d been trying to hide. He frowned.
“I bit you too hard,” he said. “I will be gentler next time.”
She covered his hand with hers, their gazes locking. “Don’t be. I liked it just the way you did it. I never knew I had an erogenous zone there.”
He trailed his fingers over the sensitive mark. “Most men don’t know how to properly arouse a woman there. It’s a combination of factors—pressure from a bite and feathering ticklish light kissing.”
“Well, whatever it is, you sure know how to do it.” She wasn’t sure if she liked knowing that he’d developed his seduction into a science.
“I pay attention to a woman when I’m with her, especially you.” Seth’s words seemed to reassure her. She couldn’t judge him for having a past, no more than he could judge her. Fair was fair. They weren’t virgins, so they shouldn’t be acting like they were.
“I don’t want to sound crazy or clingy or anything…but after what happened this morning, I guess I just want to know.” She bit her bottom lip. “Where do we go from here?” She wanted to smack herself. That sounded pathetically clingy, and she was not a woman to ever be like that.
“Where do you want to go?” Seth’s eyes were hot with hunger.
“I�
��” She was now staring at his mouth. “As crazy as it sounds, I think I want to be in a relationship.”
His hands on her hips tightened, and he urged her closer until the heat of his body radiated against her, even though they were barely touching. He leaned down, his mouth a bare inch from hers.
“Then let’s say we are.”
“Okay.” She closed the distance, needing to feel him, to steal a kiss that she wanted more than her next breath.
She wasn’t disappointed. He took possession of her lips, and their tongues dueled for pleasure as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He cupped her head, his fingers entwined in the strands of her hair as he exquisitely made love to her mouth. It was a kiss that went on for what felt like days and could have gone on for years for all she cared.
Before she realized it, he had pinned her against the wall of the storeroom, his body completely trapping hers. She couldn’t escape him—not that she wanted to. She loved the feel of his hard chest against hers, the weight of his thighs as he rocked his hips into her, letting her feel his hard arousal dig into her belly. She whimpered as he unbuttoned her shorts and slid a hand under the waistline of her panties. Seth pressed the heel of his hand against her clit. She bit her lip hard so she wouldn’t cry out at the intense rush of excitement.
“You want me to get you off, honey? Right here in the storeroom, with everyone just outside?”
“Yes!” she gasped. “Please, Seth, do it…” She didn’t care that she was begging, because his fingertips were stroking her inner folds, playing with her, making her squirm and buck against his grip.
“Ask me, honey. I want to hear those words come from your pretty lips.” His voice deepened. She could tell he was hungry to be inside her, but he was already giving her the pleasure she craved.
“Please, get me off.”
“I’m already doing that,” he growled. “What else?”
“I need you to…fuck me.”
“There’s my naughty girl.” He plunged two fingers deep inside her, stretching her, and she moaned. He pumped steadily, then curled his fingers, finding a spot that made her see stars when he rubbed it. Then he added a third finger, but it still wasn’t enough.
“Please…I want you, not your hand.” She dug her fingers into his shoulders, keeping him close as he continued to play with her.
“You sure? I won’t be gentle. Can’t be now,” he warned.
She nodded. “Need you. Now. Don’t care.” She was panting, barely able to breathe around her words as her body vibrated with need.
Suddenly she was facing the wall, her shorts and panties tugged down to her ankles. He kicked her legs apart, and his cock rubbed against her entrance as he used one hand to guide himself to her aching, wet folds. He teased her, letting her brace herself as he gripped her by the back of her neck with his other hand.
“Just fuck me!” she hissed, pushing her ass against his groin and arching her back.
“Fuck!” he snarled back and rammed his cock into her. She arched up on her tiptoes as he filled her completely. The sudden invasion burned, but she liked it, liked the way it felt when he was unapologetic in his lust, because it made hers burn that much hotter.
He lightly squeezed the back of her neck, just enough to hold her in place, like a male would any female who might struggle to get free, but she was right where she wanted to be, feeling this beautiful man fuck her into oblivion. He rode her hard from behind, giving her that edge of almost pain that made everything around her seem to blur and then jerk into sharp focus over and over.
Being with him was like losing her sanity and finding her mind all at once, and all the while her body shattered over and over with peaking waves of pleasure as a climax roared through her. Her blood pounded so hard against her ears that she couldn’t hear anything above the whooshing noise for several long seconds. Seth’s hands gripped her hips as he pumped into her another dozen times before he lowered his head and sank his teeth into her neck, not breaking the skin.
The light bite sent aftershocks deeper through her womb, and she felt herself clenching around his cock as he filled her. She felt amazing…and knowing he’d just come inside her, hard like that and she’d have to go and monitor the bar with a part of him still within her…it was a dirty, wonderful thought that should have mortified her. Instead, she managed a drowsy and contented smile.
She leaned against the wall for support, watching him as he removed a paper towel from one of the storage racks to clean himself up. She bit her lip as he fixed his jeans and approached her. He stroked his fingers down her spine and along the curve of her bottom before he took the time to clean her too. Then he handed her back her panties and shorts. She slipped them up, and now her face decided to flush as the reality of it all sank in.
What the hell was wrong with her that she just kept jumping this man at every opportunity?
“Hey,” he whispered softly, pulling her back into his arms. “You okay? I wasn’t too…?”
“No, I’m good. Just…I don’t do this normally. I don’t… What is it about you that makes me so crazy?” She asked the question more to herself than to him.
“I don’t know, but it’s the same for me. I don’t just grab any girl and fuck her like that.” He chuckled, his rich baritone voice turning her into melted butter inside. “You’re something special, Harper.” He leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose, and she wriggled closer to him, pressing herself against his body and breathing in his dark masculine scent, now edged with sweat. Damn…he was like catnip to her.
They broke apart when someone banged a fist on the storeroom door.
“Hey, why’s the door locked?” Jessie’s muffled voice asked.
Harper gazed up at him bashfully. Seth’s smirk wasn’t arrogant—rather, it was strangely charming, as if he was pleased about what had just happened.
“You ready for me to cook for you tonight?” he asked. “I get off at eight.” His eyes shimmered with heat as he gave her hips a gentle squeeze.
She leaned into him a little, wishing for another kiss but knowing they didn’t have time. Not yet. “I’d like that.”
“Good. Let me go out first. You wait here a minute. I don’t need your brothers throwing me out if they see me kissing you.”
“Agreed.”
Harper giggled, feeling wildly happy at the thought of tonight. She hadn’t had a date in about a year. Seth left the storeroom, and she counted a full minute before she exited, but Jessie was waiting for her.
“Storeroom hookup, huh? Not bad. Never thought you had it in you.” Jessie’s brown eyes twinkled, and she nudged Harper playfully in the ribs.
“What?” Harper asked. “We just talked.”
Jessie glanced around as though checking to see if anyone was listening.
“And?”
“And what?” Harper blinked in confusion. “There was no and.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. She wasn’t buying it for a second.
“Okay, fine, we hooked up.”
“And the truth shall set you free. So is it just casual, then?”
“Well, we talked about maybe dating,” Harper admitted. She and Seth had gone about their relationship totally backward, but maybe that was okay.
“Dating is good. Usually that comes before the sex, though.” Jessie tightened the strings on her small black apron and checked that her order pad was there. “You need to date, Harper. I know it’s been hard, and that dick of a boyfriend didn’t make things easier, but now is the time to open yourself up again. Get back out there, you know?”
Jessie was right. She’d been hiding for too long, letting her fear of intimacy keep her from being happy. It was time to change things. She watched Seth taking orders at a table and grinned as she studied his tall, muscled body and how perfectly he filled out his jeans.
Tonight was going to be amazing, she just knew it.
Sef waited for Harper to head back to the garage, and then he cornered Jessie at the bar.
�
��I need your advice,” he said as they cleaned glasses.
“Shoot.”
“Well, I’m cooking Harper dinner tonight. What’s her favorite food?” He mentally ran through an extensive list of things he could prepare. Unlike his twin, Sef had a knack for culinary skills.
“Hmm…” Jessie tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Grilled cheese, maybe? Tomato soup? It was something her mom used to make for her and her brothers.”
“Grilled…cheese?” Sef frowned. Such a simple dish. How could he show off his talents with such an uncomplicated meal? Perhaps that was all she needed, a good hearty meal that would bring back happy memories of her family.
“Keep it simple. You know what they say—it’s the thought that counts,” Jessie said. “Just …just don’t hurt her, okay? She’s one of my best friends. She’s been through a lot since K-Day.”
Sef nodded. “I know about her parents.”
“It’s not just her parents.” Jessie’s eyes were serious, and the girl looked wise beyond her years. “She deserves a man who will love her and cherish her. I know that you just blew into town, but we have rules about her. No heartbreaking allowed. You do and you’ll deal with me. Whatever is left of you after that, Mason and Liam can dispose of.”
Sef was rather impressed by the small human’s fierce loyalty to his possible future charl, and while Jessie could not harm him physically, her words made it clear what was at stake.
“I understand,” he promised Jessie. “She’s special. Once-in-a-lifetime special.”
And coming from him, after eight thousand years of being without a long-term companion, that was saying something. But Jessie would never know that.
She relaxed her intense posture and dropped her hands from her hips. “Good. Just so long as we’re on the same page. So if you’re cooking for her tonight, you should do it on the roof. There’s a stairwell along the back. It’s pretty nice up there. Romantic even, if you spruce it up a bit.”