Sweet Valentine

by Aria Cole

  Chapter 1

  Liam

  “Liam! Just in time. I’ve got five-foot-three and curvy waiting on me.” Vince, the bartender and son of the owner, slapped me on the back as I walked through the heavy wooden door of de Rossi’s, an old bar in a working-class neighborhood of North Cambridge.

  “Same girl as last night?” I crooked a grin. Vince and I had ran into each other a few times on campus and when I’d mentioned I was looking for a job, he’d offered up a position at his dad’s place instantly and in the short week that I’d been here, I’d already heard much about Vince’s new romantic interest. From what I understood, Vince wasn’t really a one-woman man, but since he’d met this lady, he was only about her. Vince tried to hide that he was a goner, but everyone knew that this girl had won his heart.

  “Same one, man. The girl’s wow.” He whistled and made the universal sign for an hourglass shape. I laughed and slipped behind the bar, nodding at a few regular customers at the end.

  After a long last year of university, I’d decided to take the summer off, delaying my homecoming to get a job here in the city I’d come to love so much. Cambridge and the surrounding Boston area tended to be overrun with privileged college students throughout the year, which was why I’d looked forward to hanging around once all the student body had cleared out. I wanted to feel what the city’s true citizens felt. I wanted to live their life, the life of the average Joe, the working man. I was tired of living with silver spoons, debutantes, and all the parties that came with them.

  “You’re working with Charlie tonight.” Vince called from the back door. “Good luck, man!”

  “Have a good night!” I replied with a half-hearted wave, assessing the drinks of everyone perched on stools already.

  “Hey, sorry I’m late.”

  A sweet voice curled around my ears. Wondering who in the hell had found their way behind the bar, I turned to see the face that matched that sweet voice. I nearly dropped the bottle of beer I’d been about to uncap.

  “Did Vince already split?” A woman around my age, with a long dark ponytail, white blouse, and a mid-thigh denim pencil skirt, darted into the backroom as she continued to speak. “I told him I might be a few minutes late. Can’t believe the asshole left before I could get here.” Her voice grew louder as she neared the bar again. “I would’ve thought he would’ve at least introduced us before we spend the night together.” She turned the corner, an amused gleam in her eyes. She leaned against the bar, crossing her arms and arching one lean eyebrow. “You can talk, right? This isn’t another one of Vince’s pranks, hiring a mute bartender or something, is it?” Her gaze floated around the room as if she was looking for a hidden camera crew.

  I cleared my throat, taking a step forward and reaching out my hand. “Liam.”

  She cocked an eyebrow at me, her eyes darting up and down my body before hovering at my mouth.

  “You’re Charlie?”

  Her eyes gleamed. “You’ve heard about me? Looks like they didn’t tell you I was a girl then? I usually work a few shifts a week, but I was off last week. I needed some well-earned time off. Guess the old man finally broke down and hired someone else. He must be shocked that not everyone will work for peanuts.” Her grin deepened before she thrust out her hand and locked it in mine. “Nice to meet you, Liam.”

  I lost my breath with the fire that singed in my palm from her touch. This girl was something else—legs that ran for miles, curves in all the right places, and a face I could look at for the rest of my life. Women rarely made me stutter, but this girl she was a whole other matter. One look at her, and I knew it was game over.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat, watching her sweet eyes dance around my features before she pulled away, looking at a pile of glasses in the sink beneath the bar.

  “Damn, he left me dishes again? He’s such a shithead.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Sounds like you know Vince well,” I commented, picking up a clean towel, ready to help her.

  “Ha, too well. I wish I didn't most days.”

  She sped through the glasses without me. A pang of jealousy ran through me at the idea that Vince had already used and discarded her. I felt blood boil in my veins. I suddenly wanted to find Vince and beat him to a bloody pulp. How dare he touch her! He was dead. I was going to lose my job for putting that fool into the ground.

  “You’ve worked here a while then?” I asked lightly, trying to not scare her with the burning rage I felt. I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to know the whole scope of Charlie, from the mundane to the particular.

  Her dark eyes whipped around, catching me unexpectedly. One dark curl from her ponytail caressed one shoulder and lay across the full outline of her breast. Those breasts looked so round and firm and made me want to suck her nipples until they were rosy. I wanted to knead the soft flesh and make her scream my name in ecstasy.

  “Feels like forever,” she finally answered, pulling me from my lascivious thoughts.

  She stalked down the bar to chat with someone seated on a barstool. As she walked by me, my mind raced with the idea of having her arse in view as I took her from behind, just skin on skin.

  She was hot. Beautiful actually. Hot wasn’t the right word for her. She had this amazing sun-kissed skin, her eyes were mesmerizing black pools a man could lose his soul in. Her hair looked so soft, my fingers itched with anticipation, desperate to feel it against my throbbing cock. And damn those legs… I found myself wondering what it would feel like to have those legs wrapped around my head as I possessed that hot pussy.

  She was the perfect American beauty.

  I watched as she bent over, her elbows on the bar as she spoke to a regular. I caught a glimpse of the back of her thighs, and a flash of the lower part of her arse as that little skirt rode up. Didn’t they have laws here about appropriate attire? I wanted to grab something and make her cover up. The idea that all these men could see that exposed flesh made my mind scream with rage. Her flesh was for me and my eyes alone. The idea of some arsehole daring to look at her in any sexual way made every inch of my body tense violently. I could almost feel my blood boil as my hand formed into a fist.

  If that little fucker didn’t stop staring at my girl, I was going to knock his damn head into next week. My rational brain knew that this was insane, but I didn’t care. That girl was mine. The jealousy pulsing through me was a new thing; I couldn’t understand where it was coming from. I had never been affected like this by a woman before, as though I’d been bewitched. All I knew was that I wanted no other man to ever look at her again. I wanted her locked away so these perverts couldn’t glimpse any part of her.

  I licked my lips, realizing all of a sudden that I was thirsty. I felt as if I was burning up in the desert and only a taste of her sweet lips could save me.

  Charlie turned then, her eyes catching me gazing openly at her body. She quirked one eyebrow before her eyes narrowed and she turned away, busying herself with making a drink. “Got something on your mind?”

  Sweet hell, those devilish lips made my cock ache with lust. She didn’t have a single reservation, and that fascinated me. That cocky smile was emblazoned on my mind like a brand.

  A few hours later, once the nightly crowd had calmed down and it was just her and me and a few other souls occupying the bar, I decided to seek her out. I longed to feel the heat from her body, hear the sweet melody of her voice, and douse myself in her radiant beauty. I also wanted these men to know she was spoken for. The longer I watched them watch her, the more irrational I felt. They made me nervous and twitchy with the way they looked at her.

  I tossed a used towel into the basket and walked into the backroom. She’d been back here for more than a few minutes, so maybe I could offer to help her with something. My rakish mind swept away to immoral fantasies of pulling that ponytail holder out of her hair and fisting the locks as I kissed her. Those lips looked as though they would taste like the sweetest nectar. I opened the walk-in cooler a
nd couldn’t hold back a groan when I spied her bent over, denim riding up every fine curve of her arse as she lifted a case of beer bottles.

  “Let me help.” I rushed to where she stood, praying to god she wouldn't notice the raging hard-on in my jeans. I took the box, beer bottles clattering between us, and her hands froze beneath mine.

  There it was—that spark. That bolt of lightning shooting straight into my veins like a life force sending sensations rocketing everywhere. My eyes widened as I focused on the soft O of her parted lips. She had to feel this too.

  “Thank you,” she simpered, near breathless.

  “Anything you need.” I nodded, unable to tear my eyes from her peachy-pink mouth. Would her nipples be the same shade? I licked my lips, my gaze flashing down to the V of her cleavage.

  My dick twitched when the cool air of the walk-in puckered her already easily visible nipples behind the thin cotton of her top.

  Christ, what would they taste like? I needed to sear her into my memory. Drunk off need and starving for her touch, I fought the urge to tell her what she made me want to do. I wanted to kiss her so deeply, she forgot whose air she was breathing.

  “You always dress like that at work?” The words were out before I could stop myself, but I didn’t care.

  I had just spent hours in a rage because she was so damn beautiful and every hot-blooded male in there was staring at her as though she was a piece of meat. This girl was the first one to have ever gotten under my skin, and thinking of some dick looking at her with lust was just unbearable for me. My eyes roamed up and down her body. I was sure she could see the hunger lurking in my gaze.

  “I’m not sure how they raise men in your country, but here, you should look a woman in the eye when you speak to her.” Her eyes gleamed with some sort of flirty challenge.

  “I apologize,” I growled, discarding the box of bottles at my feet and lunging across the small space between us.

  Her hands were in my hair, her thigh hooked around my waist. Now she felt my cock, hard and pounding between us and pressed against the seam of her skirt, the very goddamn place it’d been itching to be all night.

  “You’re an Irish bastard,” she said as her teeth nipped at my bottom lip.

  My hands clawed at her arse before I hoisted her on my hips and pressed her against the metal shelves behind her.

  “Looks like you’ve got a thing for bastards then.”

  I nipped at the tender flesh beneath her ear before laving my tongue up the line of her throat. A low whimper fell from her lips and landed a sucker-punch to my balls. My hips worked against her body, my hands roaming her torso and teasing at the neckline of her top.

  “Jesus, I want to taste you.” I trailed my tongue across the swell of one breast. Her fingers thrust in my hair as a tremor pulsed through her body. “I want to see what you’re wearing under this hot little skirt.”

  I fisted at the tight skirt, desperate to shove my hand beneath her panties and coax that soft, wet pussy to an orgasm with my fingers. And then my tongue. God, how my tongue ached to taste every inch of that perfection. I was going mad with the thoughts of how she would taste.

  My hand found its way beneath the elastic of her panties, my fingers soaked instantly by her silky juices. I nearly came in my pants from just a single touch. I slid another finger through her hot lips and circled her clit slowly with my thumb. Breaths shuddered out of her body, her nipples hardening even further. Without a second thought, I pulled the low neckline of her top down, the creamy round flesh of her breast spilling out of the cup of her bra. I tugged the lace out of my way with my teeth, and finally, my lips attached to the dusky pink bud. I drew out the delicate flesh in slow, torturous sucks.

  Soft mewls fell past her perfect pink lips as I worked her soft body. I couldn’t wait to hear her come, my name biting past her lips as I pushed her to a mind-blowing orgasm.

  “Christ, you feel this good in my hands. I can’t wait to taste this sweet pussy.”

  “Irish,” she sighed, her eyes falling closed when I pressed my thumb to the bud of her clit, applying pressure until her nails cut into the skin at my shoulder and her head fell back against a box.

  “Name’s Liam, beautiful, and I can’t wait to hear you scream it from the rooftops.” I sucked at her nipple, enjoying the sounds she made before her muscles tensed and trembled beneath me.

  Fuck me.

  She was a vision when she came.

  “You are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. I could make a job out of watching you come.” I pressed a probing kiss against her lips. Shuddering pants racked her body as I held her, letting her come down from her orgasm but unwilling to let her come down from the high of me.

  I wanted her obsessed and craving me just as much as I did her. “I can’t wait to fuck you so hard you forget every name but mine.”

  “Liam?” she stuttered between breaths.

  I placed a soft kiss to her temple. I wanted her to know that she meant something to me, that this was just the beginning. Charlie had become a drug, and I was her addict. Nothing in life would complete me like touching her would. “Yeah, sweetheart?”

  “We should get back to work,” she murmured as her eyes caught mine for the first time since I’d gotten her off so sweetly.

  “I love that look on your face.” I kissed her lips before gently setting her back on her feet. “I want everyone to know I put it there.”

  I winked then clasped her hand, prepared to walk out into that bar and announce to anyone still there that she was hands-off now. Charlie was mine.

  She arched a challenging eyebrow then surprised the hell out of me when she dropped my hand and sauntered straight out of the cooler without a glance back. I wasn’t sure what was running through her mind, but only one thought was on repeat in mine: I bet she’d taste even sweeter when she came against my tongue.

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  Acknowledgments

  I have to thank my ever so loving and patient husband. You truly are my HEA, babe. <3

  Thank you to Aria's Assassins for keeping my fire burning. I am forever grateful for your love and cheerleading!

  I can't thank the ArdentProse team enough. You ladies make my life so much easier and I love you for it!

  To my ladies...the ladies that love to get lost in books about true and last lasting love... THANK YOU!!! Writing books you love is what keeps me going. You are my rock stars!

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  Also by Aria Cole

  Black

  White

  Swan

  Scarlet

  Bending Bethany

  Chasing Charlie

  Taking Tessa

  The Long Ball

  Banger

  Cheeky Christmas

  Under Construction

  Under Her Hood

  Valentine For Hire