by S. J. Sylvis
“I don’t know about this. I almost wish you were a murderer so you could put me out of my misery. Next time, I’m totally keeping ripped jeans and a flannel in my car.” Fallon’s tone rose with every syllable that came out of her mouth.
“For what? When you randomly go to a small-town bar with the guy who gives you a piercing?”
She snickered. “Yes.”
I looked down at her, my hand still on her waist. “So do you do this often? Go out with hot piercing guys to small-town bars?”
Fallon raised an eyebrow. “Who says you’re hot?”
I grinned. “Your body language.”
Fallon’s sapphire eyes widened, and the light freckles on her cheeks were quickly overtaken by a bright red color.
I laughed. “Relax, Fallon. Just have fun.”
Her eyes didn’t decrease in size, so I pulled her in a little closer. Her small frame fit up against mine perfectly. My eyes flickered to the bar bathroom, but I shut down that idea quickly. Fallon wasn’t the type of girl I should take in a bar bathroom. I mean, I would have loved nothing more than to have had her naked right then, but hookups in bar bathrooms were meant to be quick and rushed, usually accompanied by too much booze. I could never be quick with her.
At least not intentionally.
“Look,” I said, angling my head to the left. “See that girl over there, waving frantically?” Fallon followed my gaze and nodded. “That’s Ivy. That’s my brother’s girlfriend. She’s really nice, and not too long ago, she was kind of in the same position you are in right now.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, smiling at Ivy.
“She came back to town after being away for a really long time, and she felt so out of place you could literally feel it coming off her body.” I laughed, remembering the night that Ivy had come to the bar with Kip and me. She looked as if she wanted to cry when she’d seen my brother across the bar. She tried to leave, but I made her stay. It was kind of my thing: pushing people past their comfort zones. Just like I was doing to Fallon.
“Let’s go, and just remember… tonight’s all about having some fun. You want to be someone you’re not, right? Just do that.” I winked and then pulled Fallon by the hand.
Ivy’s smile overtook her face, her emerald eyes twinkling when she looked from me to Fallon. I could tell exactly what she was thinking. She had that yay-you-have-a-new-girlfriend face on. Ivy constantly tried setting me up with her friends. First, there was the one from the bank that laughed like a hyena. Then, there was Ivy’s old neighbor’s granddaughter, Cynthia. Cynthia was hot as hell, but no one knew that said granddaughter had a secret boyfriend with whom she spent the entire date texting. I couldn’t blame Ivy for trying to help, though. She was only trying to soothe the burn that Carrie had left behind after we’d split, but I was fine.
I was perfectly content with the hey-we’re-drunk-let’s-hook-up-and-never-see-each-other-again spiel. I’d been doing it for months now.
“Hi!” Ivy exclaimed, walking right up to Fallon. “I’m Ivy!”
I peered down at Fallon, letting go of her hand. “Hi, Ivy. I’m Fallon, Emmett’s… friend?” Fallon could barely get the last word out, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What else would you be?” I looked down at her reddening face and put on my best grin. Her face got even redder.
“Well, I don’t know. We just met!”
Ivy’s eyebrows shot upward, thinking all the wrong things.
Dawson chuckled, his jaw slacking. “Jeez. You just met and you’re already bringing her around your friends?”
I shot him a death glare. Dawson grinned at me connivingly, and I knew right then that he was paying me back for all the times I’d joked about his and Ivy’s newfound relationship in the beginning.
“Let’s get these ladies some drinks,” I interrupted, ignoring the awkwardness that was seconds away from forming around the four of us.
“Ivy already has hers—Jesus, Ivy!” Dawson shouted, looking over at her empty drink. “I just bought that for you!”
Ivy looked down at her drink, her dark hair falling forward. She brought her eyes back up to Dawson, laughing. “Oops, seems your little Rouge likes her rum and cokes.” Then she shrugged.
“Little Rouge?” I pulled my head back and arched a brow. “What did you do, Ivy?”
Ivy grinned teasingly. “Oh, I signed you up for Tinder for your birthday.” She giggled, and if I didn’t love Ivy so much, I probably would have been pissed. “But,” she started, “no worries, I’ll cancel it! I see that you have your dating life all figured out.”
I looked over at Fallon just in time to see her face turn another adorable shade of red. Her eyes were the size of the sun. She started to stutter, “No…um, it’s not…”
Ivy looked confused and a little flustered while Dawson silently laughed beside me. “Let’s go get them drinks,” he said, pecking Ivy on the mouth.
She smiled warmly, and then I looked over at Fallon. “What do you want to drink?”
Fallon’s eyes were still wide, the bar lights shining on top of her cheekbones. “Something strong.”
I laughed and turned around on my heels, trailing after Dawson.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Dawson said, “Okay, so who the hell is that, and where did you meet her? She’s definitely not from around here.”
I chuckled. “You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me,” he urged, signaling for Guy, the bartender.
“She came into the shop to get her belly button pierced and…”
How the fuck could I explain this without sounding like Fallon already had my balls wrapped around her pretty little finger? Because she did. I was totally captivated by her, and I had literally just met her. This had never happened before. I’d never been so engrossed with someone after just meeting them. It must just be some strong attraction. Yes, that was it.
“And?” he said, wafting his hand out for me to continue.
“And I don’t know. I just wasn’t quite ready to let her go yet.” I turned and asked Guy for some shots. Fallon said she wanted something strong, and strong was what she’d get.
Dawson clucked his tongue, glancing over at me.
“What?” I questioned, ignoring the way he was analyzing me.
“Nothing.” He turned his head back to the bar, ready to pay Guy. “It’s just strange. She came in for a piercing, and you swept her off her feet, and she came here with you? Willingly? Something’s not adding up.”
“Why isn’t that adding up? I asked her out for drinks, and she said yeah. I know that’s probably foreign to you because, before Ivy, you had zero fucking game…”
He glared at me. “I didn’t need game; women just flocked to me.”
A loud laugh escaped my mouth. “You’re full of shit. You’ve only ever had one girl in your life.”
He shot back, snatching up his beer. “That’s bullshit. I dated Breanna.”
“And you were in love with Ivy the entire time, bro. Face it. You have no game.”
His mouth went into a straight line. “When you’re in love one day, you’ll understand that no one else really matters. Oh, except you’ll never fall in love because… what was it you were saying a few months ago after guzzling down several bottles of Fireball?” Dawson cupped his ear, angling his head toward me. “Oh, yeah... that’s it. You said, ‘I’m never falling in love. I’ll bury myself in pussy and call myself Hugh Heffner.’”
I started to laugh. “Did I really say that?”
Dawson gave me a look, and I laughed even harder. “Damn, I’m kind of upset I don’t remember that.”
“Come on, let’s go take these over to them.”
I nodded, putting my attention back over to Fallon and Ivy. Fallon’s head was thrown back, laughing at something Ivy had said. Ivy laughed along with her, and then Becca had started to walk over. I watched Fallon pull into herself, and she suddenly appeared apprehensive. Her gaze fell to her cl
othes, then back to Becca, and over to Ivy. Her shoulders slumped while she bit her bottom lip. It was perplexing. For someone as gracefully beautiful yet sexy at the same time as her, Fallon should be someone that had the confidence of a goddamn supermodel, yet she was timid.
I studied her a bit longer, allowing my thoughts to go haywire. I was certain that someone had once told her she wasn’t good enough, that she was damaged goods. And for some godly reason, that pissed me off more than I could even admit.
◆◆◆
Just as the shots began to set in, things started to get interesting. My thoughts were focused on Fallon and nothing else. The way she laughed, the way she smiled, the way her hand would playfully slap my arm when I’d make a joke. My eyes followed the way she’d throw her head back to take a shot and then she’d take a nearby napkin to wipe her mouth. It was kind of cute.
She was proper. She had manners. I almost laughed when she’d wiped off the table after everyone got up to go near the stage for karaoke.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Fallon’s chestnut-colored hair flew out from around her face when she heard my voice. “I thought you were going to do karaoke?”
I shrugged. “And miss out on you cleaning up the table?”
She blushed again, and it was so fucking cute. “I… I just thought it looked… dirty.”
I laughed. “It’s a bar, Fallon. If the tables aren’t sticky and the beer isn’t cold, it’s not a place you wanna go to.”
Fallon crumpled up her napkin as she peered around at all the bar lights hanging along the darkened walls. “I’ve never been to a bar like this. I’m not used to something so… rustic. I like it.”
“What kind of bar are you used to then?” I asked, sitting down in the stool beside her.
Fallon smiled shyly. “I’ve been to some clubs in college, some interesting house parties… but there isn’t anywhere like this back home.”
“And where is back home?”
That had her flashing those blue eyes up to mine. I raised an eyebrow. More secrets? Come on…
I let her off the hook. “Let’s go play some pool.”
Fallon gripped her empty beer bottle. “Pool? There’s a pool here?”
My expression changed from flirty to what-in-the-actual-fuck. “Fallon… please tell me you know what pool is.”
She only stared at me, dumbfounded.
“Oh, my God.” I put my fist up to my mouth. “Come on, young grasshopper. Let me show you how us Oak Hill folk have fun.”
Chapter Five
Fallon
Imagine an ugly thistle weed standing upright in the middle of a beautiful, open field full of colorful wildflowers. Just one among the hundreds of wildflowers… completely out of place. Well, I was the thistle weed, and everyone else in Sailed Ships—the cute, little country-type bar in the middle of nowhere—was a wildflower. I felt out of place, and I looked out of place. Yet the second my eyes found Emmett across the bar, staring directly at me with his lip tugged upward, grinning, I instantly felt like one of the wildflowers.
He made me feel different, like I was accepted, even his friends made me feel like I was accepted.
I basically wanted to put Ivy and Becca in my pocket and take them back to Chestnut Springs with me. They were FUN. Loads of fun. And I was pretty certain they actually liked me, too. In fact, Becca stole my phone and put her address in there, along with a small reminder of a wine party she was having. It was like we were all best friends, even though we just met each other. The entire night had been fun, and now here I was with Emmett, on our third game of pool, and I was having the time of my life.
I had never laughed so much before, at least not in one single sitting.
“I think I’ve got it now.” I positioned the pool stick exactly where I wanted it and then looked back at him over my shoulder. “You know you don’t have to keep guiding me, right?”
Emmett’s mouth twitched, and his hands grew even tighter on my waist. I fought the urge to squirm under his touch. It sent sparks flying down my limbs. The butterflies in my stomach were flapping their wings, and I literally felt drunk. I knew it wasn’t from the alcohol, either. I’d stopped drinking hours ago to sober up for the drive home.
But something about having his hands on me, his navy eyes driving into me… I felt drunk. Woozy. Was this called swooning? Was I swooning over some guy who I’d just met hours ago?
I thought I was. I was totally swooning for him while standing in the middle of a sticky bar that smelled like fried food and stale beer.
“Oh trust me, I know you’ve got it under control, but then I’d have to stop touching you.”
A grin started to form on my mouth. Emmett was totally flirting with me. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been flirted with in such an innocent way. Suddenly, just as I was about to put my attention back on the red striped ball that I was seconds from hitting into the far right pocket, Emmett pulled my bottom half against his.
My mouth almost gaped.
So much for innocent.
My ass was right on his dick, and it was… very known.
I gulped but felt excitement pushing my cheeks upward.
My eyes searched around the pool table as I tried to focus on the task at hand. Wait, what was I about to do again? Did it suddenly get hot in here? Are my legs tingling? DO NOT PASS OUT AGAIN, FALLON.
I felt a soft, warm breath right behind my ear. “Well, are you gonna hit that ball or what?”
Just like that, something exploded inside of me.
I didn’t know if it was his breath on my neck, the hardness of him from behind, the laughs we’d shared all night, or the dimple in his cheek, but whatever it was, it had my feet moving us in a direction away from everyone else in the bar.
Emmett didn’t say a word as I pulled his hand, moving us past the bar and a few tables with people sharing drinks. I paused my feet, my hand still in his. Where can we go? Wait, what are you doing, Fallon?!
Emmett moved ahead of me, and the roles changed. Now, he was pulling me. My feet moved quickly on the sticky bar floor, following him to the hallway that held the bathrooms and a few other random doors.
Darkness with just a twinge of light was our only audience. It was quiet back here. I couldn’t hear the bar chatter or the sounds of some drunk-o singing karaoke. It was just Emmett, me, and the millions of butterflies scattering around my stomach. Oh, and my rapid heartbeat. Let’s not forget that I was seconds away from needing mouth-to-mouth… literally.
“Why’d you stop?” Emmett asked as he gently pushed my body against the bar wall.
My breathing was coming in spurts. I felt out of control.
“I stopped because I’m not acting like myself. I… I don’t know what I’m doing,” I answered honestly, because to be truthful, this entire night had been like pulling a scene out of the Twilight Zone. I randomly left my home, drove my car forty miles east, got my belly button pierced (what the hell was I thinking?), and now I was in a bar with people I barely knew, seconds from pouncing on a guy I just met! I was acting like an animal! Was it just attraction? Was I actually, for once in my life, wholeheartedly attracted to someone? Like if I didn’t put my lips on his, I would explode inside? Was I just infatuated with him? Or was it just the feeling of anticipating his mouth on mine that was causing me to act so… irrational?
Emmett had been pulling me out of my comfort zone from the very second my eyes met his, and I was loving it.
“I don’t know who you are, Fallon, but this right here...” Emmett took another step toward me, and it felt like I’d swallowed my heart. “This… whatever we’re doing right now…what we’ve been doing all night… is right. Just go with it.”
My eyes fell to Emmett’s lips, and I felt a deep sensation go all the way to my groin. He took the last step toward me, and I met him halfway.
My lips grew eager as they landed on his. They were soft and plump and warm, and they covered mine all the way to my soul. I
felt like he had a hold on me. His lips on mine were like the answer to world peace.
I winced when my back scraped along the scratchy wall, but when I felt Emmett’s hands weave into my hair, holding my face steady as his mouth worked over mine, I was overtaken with pleasure. I was in a frenzy, and all I wanted was more.
My hands roamed over the solid bulges of his biceps, the broadness of his shoulders. I pulled him even closer, his body pressed firmly along mine. My breasts were smashed against his chest, my nipples wanting to be touched. They almost throbbed right along with every other part of my body that he wasn’t touching.
Emmett was a drug.
I was truly convinced he was a drug, and I was being pulled under faster than I could even fathom.
“Damnit, Emmett!” a loud voice boomed from the end of the hallway, and all of a sudden, every single thing became clear in my hazy vision.
I gasped and pushed Emmett away from my body. He looked confused with his dark brows furrowed, but he slowly took his attention off me and moved his head toward the person who had yelled.
“I knew when I saw you pulling her by the hand that you’d be back here up to no good. We’ve talked about this. You can’t just bring girls back here.”
Girls? He brings girls back here? Of course he does, Fallon. Look at him! He’s like sex walking on a damn stick. A stick I’d like to ram up my—
“I haven’t done that in so long! Come on, Guy!”
I now recognized the man that was talking to Emmett. He was the bartender. “I’ll give you two minutes, Emmett. Then, get out of here.”
“Got it,” Emmett said back.
Once he turned toward me, his cheek lifted on the side, showing off that dimple. Naturally, I started to panic. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. “I…I… I have to go!”