The chatter became background noise. Jessa’s rebellious streak resurfaced. The ambient air temperature seemed to rise ten degrees, and a reckless urge to thumb her nose at all of their damned ideals swept away Jessa’s sense of propriety.
“So,” Kitty flipped her bleached blonde hair over one narrow shoulder and widened her pale blue eyes. “What have you been up to, Jessa? The girls and I heard about Will’s extended vacation.”
How could she have thought to regain her sanity by hanging out with these women? Jessa suddenly couldn’t imagine a worse way to spend the morning. Kitty was a domineering two-faced bitch. Flame-haired Georgia, with her green eyes, perfect complexion, pristine wardrobe, and prim manners, probably couldn’t tell if the thoughts in her head belonged to her or to Kitty. Courtney had never left her college pep squad days behind. She was dressed to the nines in Ralph Lauren tennis clothes and a Rolex watch. Her violet eyes contrasted the long midnight hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. Last was clunky Anne with her drab brown hair and eyes. Though her tanned complexion was healthy and attractive, she had a habit of wearing oversized clothes to hide her full figure.
Jessa had always liked Anne best of all. If asked, she’d have said it was because of the brunette’s sharp wit and quirky nature. But Anne was also the only one in their select group who shared Jessa’s fuller figure. It was always hard to stand next to Courtney or Georgia and not feel big and awkward. Worse still was trying to feel confident around Kitty.
“Have you been drowning your sorrows in Ben and Jerry’s again, Jessa?” Kitty asked while making a blatant assessment of Jessa’s figure. “You know you have to be careful with that stuff.”
“It’d be better just to inject collagen directly into your hips,” Courtney agreed.
“Well, it hardly makes most of us feel better to swallow it down and then puke it back up like some people do.” Anne coolly observed.
Jessa shot Anne a grateful smile. Kitty could always be depended upon to offer dieting advice of negligible value. “Actually, I haven’t felt all that bad about this separation.” Jessa admitted.
“Is he screwing around again?” Anne asked sympathetically.
“Always.”
Georgia pressed a hand to her mouth to cover a giggle of embarrassment. “I’ve always enjoyed the peace and quiet that comes with Dean’s extracurricular activities.”
“Me too,” Courtney seconded. “I sleep better alone, anyway.”
“Speaking of sleeping,” Anne said, gesturing to a waiter passing by. “Did you hear Carmen Weinstein got caught by her husband with one of the pool boys?”
Courtney squeaked excitedly, “Seriously?”
“That is so tacky,” Georgia decided. “At least have an affair with a doctor or a lawyer or someone with a respectable job. How on earth would some lowlife be able to show you a good time?”
That was an easy answer after meeting Connor. He’d make you so hot you would beg him to put his cock wherever he wanted to.
Jessa’s eyes slid over the slender build of their waiter. She’d seen him before. He had curly dark hair and bright blue eyes, a dimple in his left cheek and a nice set of abdominal muscles. He’d been good looking before. So why did he seem so…boyish now?
Probably because compared to Connor he wasn’t man enough to have pubic hair.
The girls were still gossiping in hushed tones about the torrid affair between one of their casual acquaintances and the club pool boy. But Jessa wasn’t the only one preoccupied.
Kitty hadn’t made a single comment. Her pale blue eyes were locked on Jessa. The expression on her face could’ve frozen water. Jessa began to perspire beneath the whirring fans. She could only imagine what Kitty and the others would say if they knew she’d taken a job in a seedy downtown bar called Phoenix Rising. To say nothing of the things Jessa had been doing with the bar’s owner. Her stock would drop so low the Club would cancel her membership before her fees came due.
“So what have you been doing with all this unexpected free time, Jessa?” Kitty asked in a deceptively mild tone.
Georgia admired her immaculate manicure. “You’ve missed brunch twice.”
“And you didn’t make the Rotary meeting last night either.” Courtney pointed out.
Jessa’s annoyance was quickly spiraling out of control. These were her friends. Or they were supposed to be her friends. Maybe this was what was wrong with her life. Shouldn’t they accept her no matter what she’d decided to do about her marriage or her career choice?
“Actually, I missed the Rotary meeting because I was working.”
“You got a job?” Courtney acted as though Jessa had just told them she’d been diagnosed with cancer.
Anne looked genuinely interested, “Really, where?”
“At a bar downtown,” Jessa announced with relish.
“A bar?” Kitty wanted clarification.
Georgia blinked several times. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I am.”
There was absolute silence.
Anne finally found her voice. “What kind of place is it?”
Jessa shrugged and a smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. How would you describe Connor’s bar to people like this? Compared to their little club it was a cesspool. It was dirty and raw. And the people were real. Not a single pasteboard cut out sat at the bar and ordered a drink from Alex or took a seat at one of the tables and gave Jessa’s ass an appreciative glance before ordering a round of beers.
“It’s a real bar,” Jessa finally answered.
“Wow, when do you work?”
“Nights, mostly. But I’ve got to go in soon because we open up around noon.”
“People start drinking at noon?” Georgia was horrified by what she considered a massive breach in protocol.
“If they work nights at the factory, it’s the perfect time to start drinking,” Jessa reasoned.
“Maybe we could come visit some night,” Anne ventured eagerly. “That would be kind of fun. Like a ladies’ night out.”
Kitty finally found her voice. “So where is this bar, Jessa?”
Jessa lifted her eyes and met Kitty’s icy stare. “It’s right in the middle of downtown. A place called Phoenix Rising.”
“Maybe we’ll pay you a visit some night, Jessa Kincaid.”
Jessa couldn’t even muster a smile. “I’m sure you’d have a great time.”
* * *
Where the hell was she?
It was half past noon and Jessa hadn’t shown up for work. Alex didn’t seem disturbed in the least. But why would he be? To him she was just another waitress, just another potential piece of ass. Connor hadn’t managed to reduce her to that yet.
“She’ll be here, Connor,” Alex murmured from across the room. “It wouldn’t be like her to quit without a word.”
But some barely acknowledged sliver of fear needled Connor. What if she’d decided not to come back because of him? What if she were repulsed by what they’d shared on the bar the night before?
He should’ve fucked her. Then it wouldn’t have mattered if she came back or not.
But he was kidding himself if he thought it was that simple. One fuck wouldn’t have been enough. One fuck, one night, one lifetime wouldn’t have been enough. And he barely knew the woman.
“Hey! I’m sorry I’m late. I had a morning thing with some old friends that took longer than it should have.”
She popped in the front door before Connor could prepare himself. Whirling around, he gave her a cold stare. “You’re a half-hour late.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m really sorry.” She turned to Alex. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do to get ready for tonight. I didn’t mean to leave you in the lurch.”
“No problem, love.” Alex waved off her apology and tossed her a clean towel to tuck into her apron.
Connor was left standing in the middle of the room with a stormy expression on his face and a broiling hot pit of anger in his chest. Alex shot him a que
lling gaze from behind the bar, but it did nothing to squash his temper.
“I don’t tolerate lateness.” His deep voice reverberated around the room like cannon fire. Connor wondered if she could hear the tension lacing his guttural tones. But he had no clue whether or not she could read him like he could her.
Jessa frowned. “I’m sorry, Connor. What else do you want me to say?”
He took a few steps closer to her. “Say it won’t happen again.”
“I can’t promise that. I don’t make a habit of being late. But there’s a lot of really bad traffic between here and my house.”
Connor suddenly realized he had no clue how far she had to drive to get to his bar. She’d filled out a form the day before, but he hadn’t taken the time to read it over. He’d been too busy planning Jessa’s seduction to find out the rest of the details about her.
“Maybe you should leave for work earlier.”
His anger had started to recede. But hers was just getting stoked. Connor could see it in the darkening of her eyes. The muscles in her jaw clenched and her delicate nose flared as her heart rate increased. Connor could even smell the difference, a hint of danger in her sweetness.
“I’m sorry, Connor. Maybe I should just quit and find something closer to home. Would that suit you better?”
“No.”
Alex abruptly left the bar area to check a mysterious something in the storage room.
“Is this the real reason why your last waitress walked out on you? You acted nice at first and put her at ease before you turned around and made her feet like a cheap slut on a time clock?”
If her expression was anything to go by, he wasn’t the only one suffering shock at her words. It had never occurred to Connor how she might view his sudden change from solicitous to irritable. She had no way of knowing how close he was to losing his mind about the deepening nature of feelings he wasn’t ready to admit he had.
She rubbed a hand down her face. “Look, I’m sorry.”
Connor closed the distance between them. “No, don’t be.”
Jessa was so small beside his big bulk. Not waif thin or emaciated, but curvaceous and petite. She was rounded in all the right places, a perfect match for him.
“You did tell me never to apologize.” Her voice was whisper soft. Connor had to strain his ears to catch it. But her words forced him to fight back a smile. It amused him that she would turn his own words back on him.
Knowing he’d only say something else he’d regret later, Connor let it go. It wasn’t until he got to his office that he realized he hadn’t refuted the cheap slut comment. He’d have to clarify things before too long, if he could only clarify them to himself first.
* * *
It felt like forever before Connor retreated to his office to bury himself in paperwork. Jessa sucked in a deep breath of relief when he disappeared. She was embarrassed that she’d completely lost her temper. It didn’t happen often. But he’d been such an arrogant bastard.
“You okay?”
Jessa glanced up from the mugs she was rearranging in the freezer and smiled at Alex. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t worry too much about Connor’s mood swings. He just doesn’t know what to make of you.”
“He doesn’t know what to make of me?”
“Your kind doesn’t hang around down here much.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Alex leaned back against the counter and rubbed his chin. The expression on his handsome face was unreadable.
“Don’t stare; didn’t your mama ever tell you it’s rude?”
“How in the hell did you end up on this end of town anyway, Jessa?”
“I drove.”
“C’mon, I saw the way you were dressed when you first walked in here.”
“Maybe I had a job interview that day.”
Alex snorted, “Yeah, okay. And I’m tending bar to put myself through med school.”
“Speaking of tending bar, how long have you been here?” Jessa skillfully steered the conversation away from herself.
“Six years this November.”
Jessa closed the freezer door and stepped away. She had changed subject. But she hadn’t realized how eager she was to hear Alex and Connor’s history. “Is that when you met Connor?”
Alex chuckled, “I’ve known Connor since grade school. We both grew up not far from here.”
“Did you go to college together?”
“I never went to college. I joined the Army right after high school and spent six years in Great Britain. After that I moved back home and needed a job. Connor was just getting ready to open the bar. It seemed logical.”
He was keeping something back. Jessa couldn’t put her finger on it, but he wasn’t telling her everything.
“I’ve never had any desire to find another job. There are just too many,” Alex tossed a towel onto the bar and shot Jessa a heart stopping grin, “benefits.”
“Benefits meaning plenty of women hanging all over you, not health insurance, right?”
“Of course.”
“So what was the deal with Selena? Did she really walk out because Connor didn’t want to shack up with her?”
Alex whistled, “Wow, did he tell you that?”
“Sure, why wouldn’t he? I wanted to know what happened. Just in case you guys were a couple of psychos.”
“Selena was a real piece of work.”
Jessa rolled her eyes. Men were all the same. “Meaning she had legs ten miles long, a tiny waist and huge breasts, right?”
“Close, but she had the attitude to go along with her looks. I think Connor originally hired her because he knew guys would sit around and pay to drink beer just so they could watch her bend over.”
Jessa pulled bottled beer from a case and put it in the cooler, “Nice, Alex. It’s so good to see you’ve got your priorities in order.”
“Hey, I told him to hire her so I could fuck her.”
“Is that all you think about?”
Turned in the opposite direction, Jessa didn’t see Alex sneak up behind her. He grabbed her waist and pulled her close. Though more compact than Connor’s massive frame, Alex’s tightly muscled body was just as sexy albeit in a different way.
Before Jessa could squirm away, he pressed a feather light kiss on her collarbone. “You know,” he murmured against her neck. “I hired you for the same reason.”
Jessa rolled her eyes and pushed him away. “Don’t be ridiculous. I may be female, but I’m no sex kitten.”
The look he gave her was long, lingering and hot, “Could’ve fooled me.”
Jessa’s cheeks flamed and she buried her head in the cooler to hide her embarrassment. She didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know Alex was thinking about the night before when she’d watched him fornicate like an animal.
And what about the show she put on afterward? Jessa wasn’t naïve enough to think Alex missed much of it.
“What’s her name anyway?”
“Isabel.”
“Have you known her long?”
“A few months.”
“How long are your,” Jessa searched for an appropriate word, “relationships?”
“A few months, give or take a month or two.”
“Nice.”
“Hey love, Connor and I are both like that. It’s just easier.”
So a few months and she wouldn’t have to worry about Connor being interested anymore. What a relief.
But it didn’t make Jessa feel any better. She didn’t want to think that she wanted Connor’s interest. But from the first day they’d met, she’d been irresistibly drawn to him. Even when she tried to immerse herself in her old life, she was plagued with thoughts of him.
“Didn’t you enjoy last night with Connor?” Alex prodded.
“Why, because it looked like I did?”
“No, because you could say no and he’d back off.”
“Probably doesn’t matter anymore anyway, Alex. He was angry e
nough this morning that I’m certain there won’t be a repeat.”
Alex laughed, his blue eyes shimmering with mirth. “You don’t know much about men, do you Jessa?”
“Sorry, I haven’t made a study of both sexes like you have.”
Alex chucked a wad of receipts at Jessa. “Take these back to Connor’s office for me, would you please? And while you’re there, why don’t you have a little chat with him. The two of you need to clear the air.”
Chapter Eight
“Alex asked me to bring these to you.” Jessa tossed the stack of receipts on Connor’s desk and turned to walk out.
“You don’t have to run away. I promise I’m done growling.”
She had been about to hustle out of the room, but his words stopped her. Jessa turned and allowed herself a long look at him. Connor seemed tired. He’d set aside his charcoal gray dress shirt and wore a black wife beater with his usual black pants.
It was the first time Jessa had ever seen his arms totally bare. Connor’s shoulders were impressive by any standards. Each muscle was well defined beneath his smooth caramel colored skin. It was hard to resist the temptation to touch. Jessa hadn’t gotten the chance to run her hands all over him the night before. And she wondered if he was as satiny as he looked.
“You aren’t a cheap slut, Jessa.”
His words drew her back to his face. Connor’s hell-black eyes softened when she met his gaze. Jessa thought back to the moment she’d thrown that thought at him. It wasn’t really how she felt. But she’d already been uncertain about their status after the night before. And his callous attitude had hurt.
“Then what am I, Connor?”
One corner of his sensuous mouth tilted up. “You’re a damned attractive woman.”
“Don’t give me that. I’ve seen the women who come in here and try to catch your eye. I may be naïve, but I’m no idiot.”
Connor unfolded his body from the chair, “No, not an idiot. Not naïve either, not really. But definitely unaware of your own desirability.”
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