Hadley set the glasses on the bar and filled them with a healthy dose of whiskey. “Kay doesn’t deal well with the attention not being on her.” She popped open a can of Coke and emptied it between the two glasses. “Did you need me to get you a drink?”
I glanced back at the table and my full glass of beer. “Yeah, I could use a rum and Coke.” I walked around to the front of the bar and sat directly in front of Hadley. “My name is Tate, by the way.”
She eyed me up and down and smirked. “I’m Hadley.”
Hadley. Now that was a name you didn’t hear often.
“Captain okay?” She placed the two drinks she had been making on the bar, and the waitress Roman had hit on grabbed them and loaded them on her tray.
“I also need two pitchers of beer, and then I can come relieve you for your break,” she called over her shoulder.
“Praise Jesus,” Hadley mumbled under her breath.
“Long night?” I asked.
“Ha, that’s a total understatement.”
“Anything I can help with?” I would have run through fire for this chick, as long as she kept talking to me.
She laughed and brushed a stray piece of hair out of her face. “If you know how to put a new alternator in my car, teach my nephew how to drive, and also lend me about ten million dollars, then yes, you can totally help.”
“I can definitely help with the first two. The last one might take me a couple of years.”
She laughed and grabbed the bottle of rum from the back bar. “I can wait a couple of years. That’s a hell of a lot faster than it would take me. I would probably need three lifetimes to make that.”
Now I sounded like a pompous ass. “You need me to take a look at your car for you?” I asked, not wanting to discuss money.
She looked me up and down. “If you really think that you can fix it, I’m not going to say no. I had to push it into the parking lot. It died one hundred yards down the road.”
“You pushed it yourself?” What the hell?
She smiled and laughed. “Well, I couldn’t ask the turtle in the ditch, could I?” She set my drink in front of me and winked. “Can’t rely on no one else but yourself, right?”
“I wouldn’t say that’s true all of the time.”
“Break time,” the other waitress said as she ducked behind the bar. “You wanna stay behind the bar or waitress when you get back? I’m good doing either, hon.”
Hadley glanced at me. “Okay if I stay behind the bar?”
“Yeah, hon. It’ll teach Rick a lesson, too. He won’t have such easy access to me.” She winked at me with a smirk on her lips and headed to the other end of the bar.
Hadley untied her apron and tossed it under the bar. “You serious about looking at my car?”
Did I really know that much about cars? Hell no. Was I going to fuck up the chance to spend more time with Hadley? Fuck no.
I stood up and tossed a ten on the bar. “Lead the way.”
**********
Hadley
What in the ever-living-hell was I doing?
“Pop the hood.”
I shuffled in my heels to the driver's door and yanked it open. “You really don’t have to do this.” I didn’t want this guy to be looking under my hood because he felt bad for me. Plus, he was helping me, and I had no idea what his name was.
“Just pop the hood, babe.”
Humph. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being called babe. I reached in and pulled the hood release. Thankfully, the damn thing released, and I didn’t need to get the screwdriver out of the glove box to open it.
I moved to the front of the car and watched the sexy man open my hood. “I feel like I should know your name before you look under my hood.”
His eyes darted to me, and a smirk spread across his lips. “You only let guys whose name you know to look under your hood, huh?”
“It’s a rule.”
“Tate.” He pointed to the car. “Can I look under your hood now?”
“Yes, although, I’m normally not this easy. I need you to keep that in mind.”
The most amazing thing happened when I looked at him. A sexy as sin smile spread across his lips, and the man winked at me. Lord have mercy, call the firemen, because my panties were on fire.
“Mercy,” I whispered. I was lost in his silvery eyes, and I never wanted to be found.
Tate leaned into the car and started fiddling around. I was clueless when it came to cars, so fiddling was the best word to describe him touching and pulling on everything under the hood. “I can’t really tell what’s wrong. You mind trying to start it?”
I waddled back to the car and fell in. My feet were hurting me something fierce tonight, and I sighed when my butt hit the seat. “Damn torture devices.”
“What was that?” Tate called.
“Nothing.” I stuck the key in the ignition and tried to crank it over. A horrible grating noise erupted from the engine, and then silence.
Tate slammed the hood shut and shook his head. That was not a good sign for my car. “What’s the verdict?” I asked and shakily stood.
“You’re gonna have to get a tow. There’s not much I can do for you.” Damn. That’s what I was afraid of. “Do you have a way to get home?”
I dropped my arms to my side and took one step. My heel hit the gravel, my knee buckling underneath me, and I grabbed onto the door mirror to save myself.
Tate dashed towards me and managed to grab me before my ass hit the ground, but not before I managed to rip the door mirror off.
“Shit cookies,” I gasped. I wrapped an arm around Tate’s neck and held on.
“Huh?” he asked, his hands splayed across my back. His arms circled my waist, pulling me to him. “What did you say?” His voice was low, and I took a deep breath.
“Nothing,” I replied. “I have this stupid habit of making up my own curse words,” I explained.
“Yeah, I would have to say shit cookies is original,” he chuckled.
My face heated, and I ducked my head to the side. Not only could I not stand on my own two feet, Tate now knew how big of a nut case I was.
“How are you getting home?” he asked, his lips next to my ear. A shiver ran through my body when his breath hit my skin.
I gulped and closed my eyes. “Vanessa said Rick could give me a ride.”
“Who’s Rick?” he demanded.
I leaned back and looked him in the eye. I didn’t really think he was in the position to demand to know who people were, but my lips moved before my brain could think. “He’s the manager, and Vanessa’s boyfriend.”
He nodded and grabbed the broken door mirror out of my hand. “Hadley smash,” he said, impersonating the Hulk.
I giggled and tried to step out of his arms. He dropped the mirror onto the ground, spun me to the left, and pressed me against the car. “Where are you going?” he asked, his voice gravelly and low.
“You don’t have to hold me up. I think I can manage to stand on my own.”
He leaned down and buried his face in my neck. “What the hell is going on?” he said, but I think he was asking himself, and not me.
It wasn’t like I could give him an answer anyway. I barely knew this man, and I felt like I belonged in his arms.
“Hadley,” he breathed out.
I gulped and closed my eyes. My name had never sounded so good coming from someone’s lips. “Tate,” I whispered.
What was I doing?
“Please tell me you feel it too.” His lips brushed against my ear, and I wrapped my fingers around his biceps.
Feel it? Lord have mercy, I couldn’t explain what I was feeling. Everything was happening at once, and my heart was beating a mile a minute.
“Where did you come from?” I asked.
“You didn’t see me last weekend?”
“Last weekend?” I had to believe that if I had met this man before, I would have remembered him.
“I didn’t talk to you, but I saw you.”
“Here?”
His lips brushed against the sensitive skin on my neck. “Yes, here. I was with my friend when I saw you.”
“I didn’t see you.” A slight moan escaped my lips when he pressed a kiss to my neck. I was going crazy. This was something I would never do with a man I didn’t know, but I couldn’t rip myself out of his arms.
“You did, but it was in the parking lot.”
I racked my mind, trying to think about last weekend. I was normally only in the parking lot when I was walking in the door to start work, or when I was going home.
Except for last weekend, there were two fights, and one of them happened outside. “Please don’t tell me you were the idiot shouting his own name.” Lord, that man was an idiot.
Tate chuckled and shook his head. “No, but I was the guy helping the idiot not get his ass kicked.”
Everything clicked into place when he said that. “I did see you, but I never saw your face.” It really wasn’t rare to have fights at the club, so I never took notice of them.
He leaned back and cupped my face with his hand. “Do you see me now?”
“It’s kind of hard not to.”
A smirk spread across his lips. “I guess I should be thankful your car broke down, and Kay tried to throw herself at me. Otherwise, I never would have found the chance to talk to you.”
I smiled and nodded. “Thank god for piece of crap cars and hos.”
Tate busted out laughing, buried his face in my neck, and wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug.
I slid my hands up his arms and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“Fucking funny,” he muttered.
I sighed and relaxed into his arms. My mind was fogged, and I didn’t want to take the time to figure what was going on. I just wanted to enjoy it and analyze it later. I hummed lightly as he rubbed my back and pressed kisses against my neck.
“I need to kiss you, Hadley.”
“You are,” I groaned. The man’s touch was like magic.
His hands glided up my back and delved into my hair, pulling out the hair tie. My hair tumbled around us, and he inhaled deeply. “I’m gonna kiss you, and I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop.”
“I don’t think I want you to stop.”
“Thank fuck.” He slammed his lips down on mine, his body firmly pressing me against the car. His fingers threaded through my hair and held me in place as he devoured my lips. My body heated and hummed under his attention.
My hands traveled over his body, wanting to touch all of him at once.
The skirt of my dress lifted, and the warmth of his hand gliding up my hip greeted me. “Tate,” I moaned, not knowing what I wanted, but knowing that whatever he had to give me I would take.
“So fucking soft,” he mumbled against my lips. He fingered the edge of my panties, hooking a finger under them. “I’m dying to know what these look like.”
I giggled and gently nipped his bottom lip. “I think if you see them, then the whole parking lot will too.”
“Can’t have that, sweetheart.”
“Yo, Hadley! Break was up five minutes ago!”
“Shit pie,” I cussed, closing my eyes.
Tate pulled away from me and looked over his shoulder.
“I’ll be right there, Rick. I was just looking at my car.”
Rick scoffed and shook his head. “Sure ya were, and I was knitting a sweater. You got two minutes.” Rick disappeared back into the club, and I rested my head on Tate’s shoulder.
“I need to get back to work,” I mumbled. I could still feel his lips on my mouth, and all I wanted was more of Tate.
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, I should probably get back to my friends.”
I cleared my throat and sidestepped away from him. “Um, well, it was good meeting you, and thank you for looking at my car.”
Tate shook his head and chuckled. “You’re talking like I’m just some guy walking down the street, sweetheart.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know Tate. I didn’t want him to think that I thought this was something that it wasn’t, although I didn’t even know what to think. It was all kinds of confusing that I didn’t know how to deal with it.
He threw me a bone and held his hand out to me. I hesitantly put my hand in his palm, and we shook hands.
“I’m Tate, and I’d love to see you again.”
I must have looked confused as hell.
“We’re starting over from the beginning, Hadley. We skipped right over getting to know each other and right into me knowing what your body feels like. Not that I’m complaining, though.”
“Does this mean we have to forget what just happened?” I asked.
He tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me close. “There isn’t anything on this Earth that can make me forget the smell of your soft hair and the feel of your mouth on mine.”
And that right there folks is where I fell slightly in love with a man I didn’t know.
**********
Tate
“How are you getting to work tomorrow night?”
“Um, I’ll see if Vanessa can pick me up.”
I shook my head and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’ll pick you up. What time do you work?”
She shook her head. “You don’t need to do that. I’ll find a way.”
That shit wasn’t going to happen. “What time, Hadley?”
She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand from mine. “I could live fifty miles away from here, Tate. You don’t know what you’re signing up for.”
“If what I’m signing up for includes you, I’m good.”
She turned around, locked her car door, then shoved her keys in her pocket. “You’re not going to let this drop, are you?”
I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “What’s your phone number?”
“Tate, honestly, you don’t need to do this.”
“I know I don’t need to do anything, Hadley. I want your number, just like I want to give you a ride to work tomorrow night.”
“Fine,” she huffed. She rattled off her number as I punched it into my phone, then hit the send button.
Her phone started blaring, and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Checking to make sure I didn’t give you a fake number?” she asked, laughing.
I put my phone back in my pocket and shrugged. “Can’t be too careful. Now all I need to know is where you live and what time you work.”
“Three thirty-nine Palm Street in Falls City.”
I nodded, instantly memorizing it. “Time?”
“Seven.”
“See, was that so hard now?”
“I don’t want charity, Tate.”
Now, why the hell was she thinking that? All I wanted to do was spend more time with her, and driving her was the perfect time to do just that. I planned on spending my night here again tomorrow night and then taking her home. Or possibly to my house. “I’m going to ignore that you said that.”
She growled and pulled away from me. “I need to get back to work.”
“I’ll see you in there,” I promised.
She nodded and marched back towards the club. She turned around when she was halfway. “Thank you for, well, everything,” she called.
“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”
She disappeared into the club, and I shoved my hands into my pockets.
Well, that went a hell of a lot better than I thought it would.
I found out her name, had her phone number, knew where she lived, and I even knew what she tasted like.
A damn good night.
**********
Hadley
“So, are you going to tell me about the guy you were making out with in the parking lot, or you going to act like Rick didn’t have to interrupt anything.”
I grabbed the last of the freshly washed glasses Vanessa was handing me and set them on the shelf. “I didn’t know Rick had such a big
mouth.”
Vanessa wagged her finger at me and shook her head. “No, no, no. We are not talking about Rick; we are talking about you and that fine ass man who was at the bar all night making you laugh and smile.”
“What, I’m not allowed to laugh or smile?” I grabbed a wet rag and wiped down the bar.
Tate had sat at the bar most of the night until his friends decided it was time to leave. He had been with a group of men and women, but only one of his friends had come to talk to him at the bar. It had been the one who had been drunk and acted like a fool last weekend.
I had been pouring drinks for Vanessa when he had come up and tried to convince Tate to go sit with him by the stage. His friend was already half in the bag, and all it took to get rid of him was Tate walking back to the table with him, sitting him down, and then he walked back to the bar stool he had been occupying. I had told Tate numerous times he didn’t need to sit at the bar all night, but all he would do when I told him was shake his head and give me that damn smirk that made my panties melt. I stopped telling him to go sit with his friends in fear that my panties really would go up in flames.
“Oh, you’re allowed to smile, but when it’s a handsome six foot three tall drink of water putting a smile on your face, I need all of the details.” Vanessa flipped the light switch on the wall, turning off the neon bar signs. “Spill the hot details now, Sug.” She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot.
I finished wiping the bar and tossed the rag into the sink. “I don’t have many details. He was talking to Kay.”
“Wait, hold up. Was Kay talking to him? Please don’t tell me he did anything more than talk with her, because if he did, then I’m going to have to step in as the good friend and tell you that you cannot, in good conscience, do anything with that man until you get him tested from head to toe because Kay has everything running through that skank ass body, probably even Ebola,” she said matter of factly. “You should probably go wash anything that touched him.”
I rounded the bar and sat down on the stool in front of Vanessa. “He shot her down, V.”
Vanessa’s jaw dropped. “You mean he didn’t go for her tits in his face and hands on his dick act?”
Love on the Mat (Powerhouse M.A.) Page 6