She placed the items down next to the stove “Are you staying for dinner?”
I nodded at her “If you’re cooking, I’m eating. Nate said he’d be coming round for dinner too.”
“What about you Munchkin. You eating at home or at the bar?” Aunt Deb asked.
“At the bar Aunt Deb.” Addie said giving her a peck on the cheek “I’m leaving now, see you later.” she left the kitchen throwing me a threatening glare over her shoulder as she went.
When I heard the door close and Addie’s car start, I asked Aunt Deb “Do you know where she’s going?”
“And why would you want to know that, honey.” Aunt Deb teased playfully. “Would it be due to a certain young lady who’s going to be there too?”
“Maybe.”
“Well. I couldn’t possibly tell you where they were going. I don’t think your sister would be very happy. But you’ve had an eventful week, if you were thinking about going to get a drink to relax, perhaps the Miller Boys bar would be a good choice.” she said lightly, walking towards the stove.
I kissed her on the cheek. “You’re the best Aunt Deb.”
Taking out my cell phone with a wide grin, I sent a message to Mik, Bryan and my brothers.
Me: It’s been a long week. Anyone want to go get a drink at The Whiskey Jar?
----------------------------------
Maliya
“Okay. Wait, let me get this straight. Your father who also owns a bar, chose to name you guys Jim Beam and Johnnie Walker and you have an older brother named Jack Daniels?” I asked in disbelief looking at the handsome men in front of me.
There must be something in the water around here. Everyone seems to have been hit with a pretty stick.
“Yup. Our mom and dad have a weird sense of humour.” Jim the older of the two said as he placed my order in front of me on the bar.
“It could be worse. He could have named us after cocktails. I mean, I’m cool. But I don’t think even I’m cool enough to pull off a name like Mojito or Martini.” Johnnie said with a flirtatious smile.
The Miller brothers were tall, with lightly tanned skin, the most unusual blue-grey eyes and long, dark brown hair that fell to their broad shoulders. However, Johnnie was covered in tattoos and piercings while Jim only had a few random tattoos that I could see.
I smiled back, “How much do I owe you for the drinks?”
“On the house for first time patrons.” Jim said with a wink.
I was about to reply when an arm went around my shoulder and familiar scent of cedar flooded my senses. You have got to be kidding.
“Hey man, I see you’ve met my girl.” Caleb said to Jim, as he pressed a kiss to my temple.
I turned to look at him. He was wearing a grey shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black jeans.
Damn he looks edible…
“I’m not his girl.” I told Jim before turning back to Caleb “What are you doing here Caleb? I was told this was a girl’s night out. Last I looked, you weren’t a girl.”
“It’s been a trying week babe. I wanted to go out for a drink with the guys.” he said pushing my hair behind my shoulder.
“And you just happened to end up at the same bar as us?” I stared at him unimpressed.
“You look sexy as fuck, Liya.” he rumbled, his eyes roaming over the lacy black top and dark blue jeans I was wearing.
“You’re avoiding the question.” I said flatly.
He grinned “Yes, I am.”
Rolling my eyes at him, I picked up the shot glasses and walked back to the table. I heard Caleb order four beers and Jim told him he’d bring them over to the table.
When I got back to the table and placed the shot glasses down I saw several new faces had joined our group, another table and several stools had been dragged over so there was more room to sit.
Addie was sat at the table looking royally pissed off. Her best friends were sat either side of her; Julianna Washington, a beautiful African American woman with big brown eyes and waist length black hair who taught at the local junior high school, and Karina Payson, a cute little brunette with red steaks in her bob and bright almond shaped hazel eyes who worked as a waitress at a restaurant.
Niki was sat next to Karina blushing. She stared at the table, refusing to make eye contact with any of the men who had joined the group.
Caleb came up behind me and wound his arm around my waist. “Let me introduce you to everyone, babe.” He gestured to a tall chiselled blond, who smiled and nodded “That’s Mikhail, we work at the fire station together.” He pointed to a redheaded man with green eyes who I recognised as the dickhead paramedic from the accident “That’s Bryan.” He turned and pointed out another gorgeous guy that looked vaguely familiar. “And this is my brother, Alex.”
Alex was covered in tattoos but his resemblance to Addie was striking. They had the same light brown eyes, same dark shade of hair and same beautiful light, caramel coloured skin.
“Nice to meet you all.” I said looking around the table as I unwound Caleb’s arm from my waist.
“You’re a dead man, Caleb.” Addie spat from across the table, downing her shot. Caleb smiled and winked at his sister, infuriating her further.
Johnnie came over with Caleb’s orders and placed them all on the table. He went over to Alex who had stood up from his stool, and pulled him into a one armed hug. “Man, it’s been too long. Where’ve you been hiding?”
“Work’s been crazy.” Alex replied “When you going to come to the shop and let me finish that piece on your back?”
“Soon, man, soon. Can I get you ladies anything else to drink?”
“Did you tell them we were here Johnnie? Or was it Jim?” Addie said mutinously.
Johnnie looked at her confused.
“Ugh” she said “Never mind. Another round of shots and five Long Island Ice Teas. Caleb’s paying.”
“Oh, I’m good thanks, I don’t want anything else to drink.” Niki said quietly.
“I’ll drink hers.” Addie told Johnnie firmly. Caleb snorted behind me and followed Johnnie back to the bar to pay for the drinks.
I watched him walk away, not paying any attention to the small talk happening around the table. I thought about what Trudy had said earlier in the day. What she has said about regret had stuck with me.
My eyes narrowed as I saw a familiar looking leggy, beautiful blonde go up to Caleb at the bar. She placed her hand on his shoulder and tossed her hair back as she leaned into him obviously flirting. Caleb smiled and laughed at something she said.
The flash of jealousy that streaked through me caught me by surprise. I had never been a jealous or envious type of person at all, but seeing the blonde hit on Caleb bothered me immensely. I frowned, unsure of what to do.
The woman moved even closer to Caleb, pressing her body into his side. I felt my face flush and I could feel my heartbeat sped up in my chest. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down when Caleb turned from the bar and looked at me. He must have seen the torn look on my face because he sent me a perplexed look.
I turned my back on him to face the table and saw everyone involved in their various conversations. Picking up my shot glass, I put it to my lip and threw my head back, downing the contents.
I felt a hand on my elbow as Caleb began to drag me out of the bar, past the people smoking outside and down an empty alleyway by the side of the bar. I had to practically jog to keep up with the man and his long legs.
“Liya, what the fuck?” he asked irritably with puzzled expression.
“What Caleb?” I snapped.
He frowned at me “You looked at me like I’d stabbed you in the fucking back. What the hell happened?”
“Nothing happened, it was just hot in there. Why don’t you return to your friend at the bar, I’m sure she’s waiting for you.” I tried not to grimace at how bitterly the words came out.
Bitter? No. You just sound deranged. You said you didn’t want anything with to do with him, remember?
; Caleb’s expression clouded over in confusion then cleared as realisation dawned “The blonde? She was the mother of the boy I pushed out of the way, baby. She just wanted to thank me.”
I snorted. “She just wanted to fuck you.”
He grinned and leaned against the wall “Why do you care Liya? I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me?” he asked smugly.
Feeling brave from the four shots of whiskey I’d had on an empty stomach, I walked up to him, grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him down to my height, before attacking his mouth with mine.
One of his hands went around the small of my back as the other sank into hair, and he tugged gently, taking control of the kiss.
He turned us around, so my back was against the brick wall before lifting my hips. My legs wrapped around his hips.
Oh God. This is déjà vu.
His mouth attacked my neck, sucking and nibbling the sensitive skin there. My hands went to his head, keeping it in place.
Suddenly his mouth was gone and he had put me back on the ground, I stood on shaking legs and used the wall to brace myself. Caleb had backed away from me and was pacing in the alley, rubbing a hand over his mouth and jaw. He stopped and his eyes bored into mine.
“Fuck, Liya. I’m not going to keep doing this. My head is spinning from all this bullshit. You obviously want this as much as I do. What’s holding you back?”
“I’ve told you! I’m-” I began to protest.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re leaving. In a year Maliya. A whole fucking year.” He said angrily.
I looked down at the ground, acknowledging that he was right.
“It doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want a relationship. I’m not interested in being your girlfriend, but maybe we could just have something… physical.” I said looking at him hopefully.
“What… you want to be fuck buddies?” Caleb grunted.
“Yes. Maybe we just need to fuck whatever this is out of our systems.” I said firmly.
His eyes narrowed as he walked back to me and placed an arm on either side of my head, and caged me between him and the wall. “I don’t share. And I sure as fuck won’t share you. Ever.” he growled.
“I’m not interested in spreading my legs for every man in town. It can be a mutually exclusive, purely sexual relationship.”
“So you’d be only mine?” he said as he started placing distracting kisses down my neck again.
“Yes.” I gasped out as his hands found my hips and he ground himself against me.
“Whose house do we fuck at?” He asked as he found the sweet spot behind my ear and sucked on it hard.
I moaned and my hand went to the cup his erection through his jeans. “Yours. Mine. Either. Both. I don’t care.” I said breathlessly.
His hips jerked forward. “Are we telling people?”
“It’s nobody else’s business but ours, Caleb.” I moaned as his big hand squeezed and release my mound.
“Okay.” he grunted as he unbuttoned my jeans and slid the zipper down.
“Okay?”
“Yeah. You have yourself a deal, Liya. On one condition.”
“Oh God. Anything.” I cried out as his slipped his fingers into my panties to tease my clit.
“When we fuck, the other person stays over. I don’t want to be kicked out of your bed as soon as we’re done.” he said and placed a chaste kiss on my lips.
“Fine.” I said as I moved my hips in time with his fingers.
“And we hang out too. As friends.” he rubbed a circle around my clit harder.
“Fine, Caleb.” I said, while debating internally if an alleyway would be an inappropriate place to have our first sexual encounter.
You really are one classy lady...
He murmured in approval “Good. I’m coming back to your place tonight, babe.”
“Awesome.” I said breathlessly.
“Angel, we got to go back in.” he said and stopped moving his sensational fingers.
“Whyyy?” I whined, rather embarrassingly, into his mouth.
“Our friends are gonna wonder where we are.” he said as he removed his fingers from my panties and pulled the zipper of my jeans up before fastening the button.
He stepped away, leaving me aching.
“Fine. We’ll go back in.” I paused “Would it be rude to say we have an emergency and need to leave?”
Caleb laughed “I don’t think you needing to come counts as an emergency, babe.”
“It should.” I said sulkily, as I let him lead me to back into the bar.
Chapter 18
Caleb
We ignored the knowing looks we got from the rest of the table when got back into the bar.
The next couple of hours seemed to drag on for ages. I had one thought on my mind and that was making it awfully difficult to concentrate on what anyone else was saying.
Niki had driven herself home an hour ago claiming that she had an early start at the bakery the next morning. Bryan and Addie’s friend Karina had left too as they had early shifts at their jobs the next day.
Alex had abandoned the group and disappeared with a brunette he had been chatting with at the bar, which left the five of us at the table.
Liya was fidgety next to me and I was eager to get her into a bed and peel that sexy black scrap of lace she called a top off her delectable body.
Finally at 11, Liya gave a big yawn that was very obviously fake, put her arms over her head in a comical stretch and addressed the rest of the table. “It’s been fun you guys, but I’m exhausted. I think I’m going to call it a night.”
Damn, she’s cute but she needs to work on her acting skills…
“Caleb, would you mind driving me home?” she said not so subtly. I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing out loud.
“Sure, Liya.”
I looked at Mik and prayed that he would get the silent plea I sent his way.
“I’ll drop these lovely ladies home.” Mik said with a charming grin.
Thank fuck. I take back what I said about needing a better friend. He’s the best friend ever.
“Hey Russia. It’s cool. We’re not done yet. I’m sure we can find our own way home.” Addie said. I held back the urge the strangle her and cursed the Gods for plaguing with such a brat of a sister.
Thankfully, Andre’s sister Julianna was in a far more sensible mood than Addie.
She shook her head at Addie “Hey, wild child. I am totally done for the night. I have a whole load of marking waiting for me tomorrow and I do not plan on doing it hungover.”
Addie pouted “Fine. But you owe me a do-over seeing as the jackass over there hijacked my girl’s night.” She got off her stool and stumbled slightly in her heels, Mik held her shoulders to stabilise her.
“Are you okay? Maybe you should have some water?” he asked her quietly.
“Back off, Russia. I already have five brothers, I don’t need a sixth.” she huffed as she pulled on her jacket and slipped her bag over her shoulder.
She walked around the table to give Liya a hug “We are going out again. Without any of my asshole brothers present. Understood?” She said firmly.
“Aye, aye Captain.” Liya said and saluted with a straight face. “Just tell me where and when to report for the drinking, dancing and debauchery.”
We all walked out of the bar together and Mik led the girls to his car. I nodded my thanks as they got in and he started the engine. I took Liya’s hand in mine and led her down to where I had parked. I could feel the air between us crackle the closer we got to the car.
When we reached my car, she turned into me and placed her free hand on my chest and looked up at me before trailing it downwards, across my abs to cup my rapidly hardening cock.
“Babe…” I said tensely as I glared at her, warning her to not start anything we couldn’t finish where we stood.
She stood up on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear “I can’t wait to get this is my mouth…”
My contro
l snapped and I pressed her back into the car, kissing her so roughly our teeth clashed. I sucked on her tongue and nibbled on her pouty bottom lip. My hands went to her ass and I swatted the flesh there as I broke off the kiss, leaving us both panting.
“Didn’t I warn you that there would be consequences for teasing me in public, Angel?”
Excitement flashed in her eyes, which added to my already painful arousal.
Damn. This girl had me wound up.
“Take me home, Caleb.”
The need to claim her slammed into me hard. “I’m going to fuck you so good Liya, you’re going to beg me not to stop.”
She moaned and ground herself against me. “Caleb. Home. Now.”
Falling Completely (Starling Falls #1) Page 13