by Mandi Beck
“I did. Would you rather I say ‘panties’?” My arms folded on the table, I lean in closer. “Are you trying to get me to talk dirty to you?”
Fannin leans closer as well. “Is it working?”
Lips kicked up in a grin, I nod, “Aye. I believe it is.” She better be careful or I’ll be having her for lunch and not the burger she just ordered me.
Chapter Seven
Fannin
“Oh my God, I’m so full.” I lean back in the booth attempting to make room in my skirt for the breath I’m trying to take.
“Aye. I must say, that was the best burger I’ve ever had,” Jasper says as he slips his wallet into his pocket. He had insisted on paying. “I’ll let you order for me anytime, Fannin, but I’ll be the one paying for it.” I hadn’t argued.
“Ugh, I don’t want to go back,” I whine, well on my way to a food coma.
“Do you have to?”
“Sadly. I have a conference call this afternoon. Actually with the manager over at the Iron Flask.” He stands beside the booth, holding a hand out to help me up.
“Ahhh, Theo. He’s my good pal. Related to someone at your company too? Or someone who knows someone at your company.” He laughs.
“He’s the cousin of Noah’s best friend Sterling. Hot shot lawyer. Noah claims that’s why I got the lead on this. He doesn’t trust anyone else with family,” I say with a slight eye roll. “Apparently I’ll be dealing with Theo until we’re ready to wrap it all up. He said the owner can’t be bothered with this piddly shit. His words, not mine.” I laugh.
“He’ll be good to you. Just don’t let him get too flirty. He has a bit of a reputation.” Jasper looks at me pointedly.
“Is that so? What about you? Do you have a bit of a reputation?”
“A reputation? No. Well, maybe. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.” Jasper grins devilishly. “I can promise you that I don’t have a woman hidden away anywhere. No ex-fiancé to marry my evil step-sister.” He winks before sliding his sunglasses on. “I’ve not been in a serious relationship in over a year, actually. And meeting women in the bar isn’t usually my style either.”
“No? You sure? You were awfully charming and all come to the rescue ish.”
“Ish?” He chuckles. “Just the right place at the right time.”
“I’ll second that!” With a hand at the small of my back he guides me down the sidewalk back to my office.
“How about you? Do you have a reputation I should worry about?”
“Hardly. I’m a workaholic. It’s something my friends give me hell about all the time and the reason I didn’t have a date for the wedding. My last serious relationship ended with me walking in on him and my step-sister in his office with his pants around his ankles. Which is pretty ironic since they’re both total prudes.”
“Were you badly hurt?” The sincerity in his tone means so much to me. Nobody has really bothered to ask me that question, rather skirting around the whole awkward situation. Not when I walked in on them, not when they announced their engagement, and not once since they started planning this whirlwind wedding, rubbing it in my face every chance they got. In a short amount of time, really short, Jasper has become someone I can really see myself with. He’s funny, incredibly hot, and crazy sexy with that Scottish accent, the beard that I wasn’t aware I found irresistible until now, and the striking blue of his eyes. Clearing my throat, I nod.
“I was. Very. I thought we were in love. And Bethany’s mom married my dad when we were in middle school, not like it was last year, so it felt like the ultimate betrayal.” I’ve never said that to anyone, because again, nobody has ever asked. Shelby didn’t have to ask, she knew, was there to pick up the pieces. But she’s the only one that didn’t shy away from it.
“I can imagine. I’m sorry.” Taking me by surprise he presses his lips to the side of my head, his beard tickling my temple. I allow my eyes to close briefly and just savor the moment. It’s been a long while since a man has shown me this kind of attention. Adam was never affectionate and none of the guys I’ve hooked up with or dated however briefly since has had a chance to be.
“Thank you, Jasper. I’m good now. I see clearly that they deserve each other and did me a huge favor.”
“Good girl.” That makes me smile. He’s too charming for his own good and definitely for mine. “Now. Tell me about this wedding. I think he said it was at The Plaza, which I know is pretty posh. Should I rent a limo? Is there a dinner we need to attend the night before? I’m not entirely sure about your American traditions. This will be my first American wedding.”
Not able to hold back my laugh, “Umm, a limo? No. They’re the Plaza and expensive champagne. I’m not.”
“No? What are you then?” Jasper asks, as we stop in front of Tate and Cane. I’m not ready for our time to be over yet. Taking a moment to consider my answer, “I’m more Justice of the Peace and whisky.”
“My kind of girl.”
“Is that so?”
“Aye.” How one simple word can be so sexy I have no clue, but it is. My God, it is. Jasper reaches up and tucks an unruly curl behind my ear. The warm breeze is wreaking havoc on my hair. I don’t even bother to try to tame it with the humidity like this.
“It’s crazy.” I shrug.
“It’s wild and beautiful. Just like you,” he says smoothly, taking a step closer, wrapping a curl around his finger, rubbing a thumb back and forth over it. His knuckles brush the swell of my breast with each swipe. I’m certain he’s going to kiss me any moment. I’m waiting for it. Hoping for it. Hell, I might do it myself if he makes me wait any longer.
“I want to kiss you, Fannin. I’ve never wanted to kiss someone as much as I do you,” Jasper laughs, a low rumble. “If I’m honest, I want to do a whole lot more than kiss you, but I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
“Why?” My voice is barely a whisper, my eyes focused on his mouth. Never mind that the why should be obvious since we’re standing in front of my office in the middle of Manhattan being jostled by people scurrying by. But I don’t want him to be a gentleman. I want him to be the beast he resembles. Oh God. Just thinking about that beard has me hot in all the right places.
“Well, for starters, because your arsehole ex is right behind you watching us.” Jaspers fingers tighten in my hair, “Don’t turn around, love.”
“Shit, I almost did.”
He throws back his head and laughs. “I know. I could tell in the way your body tensed.” The way he says “body” has me taking a step closer to him. His voice is going to get me into so much trouble. The good kind. But trouble nonetheless. There’s an obnoxious throat-clearing behind us.
“Hate to break this up, but we have a meeting.” Adam is not the least bit sorry.
Jasper tucks me neatly into his side like I belong there. “Alan! How are you?” Biting the inside of my cheek so I don’t laugh, I don’t correct him, though I’m almost positive it wasn’t an accident.
“It’s ‘Adam’ actually.”
“That’s right. My apologies; loud in the bar the other day.” It was not, the liar.
Adam’s pinched face is delightful. “Yeah, well. We have a conference call. Do you think you can tear yourself away from your little boyfriend here so that we can work?”
“Little? Ha! Good one.” Jasper barks out a good-natured laugh like Adam was in fact trying to be funny and not condescending. Jasper stands at least three inches taller than him. Not to mention he’s broader and more chiseled and just . . . more. Yeah, there’s nothing little about him.
Adam shifts uncomfortably but then beams at something behind me. “Sweetheart. There you are,” he says in this sickeningly sweet tone that makes me want to gag.
“Honey, sorry I’m late. I had to run across—oh my God, Fannin. Did you stick your finger in an electric outlet? You know what happens to your hair in the humidity,” Bethany scolds. Bitch acts like she didn’t see me just a little while ago with my hair in the same disarray. Sh
e just wanted to make sure that she put me down in front of Adam. I don’t even let it bother me anymore. Whatever she needs to do to make herself feel good. I probably should’ve let Jasper in on that though; I can feel him stiffen beside me. “Let me see if I have a hair tie. You need it, sweetie.” She continues rummaging in her purse and then produces one with a flourish. “Here you go! You can thank me later.” Bethany stands holding it out to me, caught off-guard when Jasper plucks it from her fingers.
“Not a chance. My wee Fanny here has that just-shagged look with her hair all wild in the wind like this. I love it. Gives me a vision to keep with me until I see her later.” There goes that chocolate honey voice. I’m fairly certain that we’ve all fallen under his spell. I know I have. I don’t believe in insta-love but I sure as hell believe in insta-lust, and I am lusting hard over Jasper James. Hard. Right in front of my ex and his soon-to-be bride, and I don’t even care.
Chapter Eight
Jasper
Who the fuck do these arseholes think they are? I’m seething right now. Is this the kind of shite that Fannin has to deal with? With a fist around the blasted elastic band her step-sister tried to force on her, I do my best to keep my cool. Looking at the two of them, I have to agree with Fannin—they do deserve each other. Her sister couldn’t be more opposite her if she tried. Bethany is short and slender with stick straight and perfectly styled blonde hair and brown eyes. Pearls at her throat and a simple sundress. She looks like a Stepford wife and that makes perfect sense. Adam has no business with a woman like Fannin. He needs someone with less fire, less drive. Just . . . less. Once again, I’m left wondering how a man like him caught the attention of a woman like Fannin. She is exactly everything this woman is not.
“How . . . lovely,” her snotty sister responds to my going on about Fannin’s hair.
“Did you say ‘Fanny’? You do know her name is Fannin, don’t you?” Adam scoffs.
“Of course I know. It’s what I like to call her though.” I don’t even know where it came from, it just slipped out. She’ll be pissed when she finds out what a ‘fanny’ is where I come from.
“A pet name? She hates pet names.”
“Actually, I don’t,” Fannin cuts in. “I hated you calling me ‘sweetheart,’ and you just assumed I didn’t like pet names. Just like you assumed I wouldn’t mind sharing you with my step-sister. And you know what they say about people who assume . . .” The pair in front of us shifts a little uncomfortably. I love this Fannin. The one who fights back. “Anyway, Jasper, this is Bethany. Bethany, meet Jasper James.”
I don’t offer my hand. As irrational as it may seem, I don’t want to touch her, especially in front of Fannin, so I give a small wave instead.
“Oh. So this is the bartender?” Her brown eyes travel over me, from the top of my head, lingering on my beard, over my plain white T-shirt, my faded jeans, down to the tips of my worn boots, and then back up again. I cock an eyebrow at her.
“Do I pass?” I know that I do. I also know that she doesn’t want me to have. It’s written all over her face—the appreciative gleam in her eyes that I’m no stranger to.
“For someone like Fannin you do.” Her snide comment is used to hide her embarrassment at being called out and doesn’t sit well with me.
“Fannin is absolute perfection, so I’ll take that as a compliment.” It’s not what I really want to say. What I really want to say is, “Go fuck yourself you silly cow,” but I refrain for Fannin’s sake.
“As lovely as this has been, I do need to get upstairs for the conference call.” Fannin turns to me. “Lunch was amazing. We’ll talk later?”
“Aye. I’ll call you tonight.” With Bethany and Adam watching, I pull Fannin closer to me, her eyes going wide. This isn’t how I thought our first kiss would go, but no way will I let her walk away with him, not without first claiming her as mine. Show them both that he lost, not her. Ever so slowly, my eyes locked on Fannin’s, I lower my mouth to cover hers. At first she’s frozen, but when I tug on her wild curls, she softens into me. She’s tall, but I’m taller, and her body molds to mine. I’m sure this isn’t the way she saw our first kiss either, but I’ll make sure neither one of us will forget it. With Fannin wrapped around me, my hand buried in her hair, I hold her head in place as I nip and suck at her bottom lip. When she gasps in pleasure, I smile against her mouth and dip my tongue inside, just briefly enough to brush hers and swallow her happy little sounds. My shirt knotted in her hands, I pull back just slightly to gaze down at her. Face upturned, lips and face are flushed, eyes full of need. Yeah, I’m proper fucked. I would lay her down right here in an instant and fuck us both senseless if I thought we wouldn’t get arrested.
“Go inside, Fannin, before I forget that I’m a gentleman,” I tell her softly.
“I’m really starting to hate that trait. I thought chivalry was dead?” she pouts.
“You minx. Get your arse upstairs before I bend you over my knee for all of Manhattan and your two admirers to see.”
The mention of her step-sister and ex isn’t quite like a bucket of cold water thrown on us both, but it definitely has a cooling effect. Fannin sighs deeply. “Fine.”
She steps out of my embrace, turning and walking right past a gawking Adam and Bethany. Her ass sways to and fro in her tight skirt, her legs looking two miles long in those spiked heels. I don’t even bother adjusting myself. There’s nothing to be done about the situation in my jeans. “Fannin,” I call. When she turns to look back at me over her shoulder. “Tonight. Dinner. I’m taking you.” My voice holds a control I’m not sure I feel right now. The clipped tone all I can even manage. Fannin nods in agreement and disappears into the building, Adam and Bethany scrambling after her, leaving me on the sidewalk, hard as the concrete under my feet.
***
“Have you talked to Fannin yet?” I say in way of greeting as I enter the back office at the Iron Flask.
“Well, hello to you too, mate.”
“Well? Have you?” I practically jogged back here to catch him before the call.
“No, about twenty minutes. Why?”
“Do you have any contact over there with her boss, Noah?”
“No, I go through his assistant Rosita mostly and now Fannin. You gonna tell me what’s going on.”
“I want you to call Noah, or whoever and tell them you want Adam Cafferty off the account.”
“I do, do I? So you’re the boss now?” Theo kicks back in the chair and sips his tea. “Why do we want this Adam lad fired?”
“He treats Fannin like shite. He’s the ex marrying the sister and the two of them are fucking bawbags.”
“Bawbags? Be careful, your Scotsman is showing,” he chuckles.
“There’s going to be a lot more showing if I have to spend much more time with the likes of them. Proper cunts they are. Him and the step-sister. Treating Fannin like she’s beneath them.” I rap a knuckle against the scarred wood of the desk in agitation.
“Are you taking the piss? You really like this girl don’t you?”
“I do. She doesn’t care about money, or that I’m a bartender. She’s nothing like Lorna.” Theo shudders at the mention of my ex-girlfriend’s name. They hated one another. Had I listened to my pal, I would have left her long ago and saved myself some heartache.
“So, let me get this straight. You just met her, and yet you want me to have a man fired for her honor? Is that right?”
“Not fired. Just taken off the Iron Flask account.”
“Okay. I’ll call Noah and see what he can do.” He sips his tea, watching me over the brim. “You gonna tell her?”
“Tell her what? That I had him removed?” I know that’s not what he means. I’ll play daft as long as I can though.
“That and then some.”
I shrug. “Nothing to tell, really.”
“Nothing to tell.” Theo snorts. “Mark my words, Jasper, you’ll be sorry you didn’t. That’s all I’m gonna say about that, mate.”
I’m saved by the ringing of his phone. “This will be your lady love, then. Get out of here, I won’t have you staring daggers through me while I talk business.” With a flick of his wrist he shoos me away.
Pulling out my own phone, I check the time wondering who I can call in to cover the bar tonight so that I can have dinner with Fannin. If I’m not careful, I’ll rush her right into dessert and things are already moving fast. Not that I plan on trying to stop that. She has a pull, an energy, I want to be caught up in. It feels a little bit like quicksand, especially to a man like me who doesn’t fall fast or easy, or at all really. But I want to get to know Fannin. Every inch of her body, but also her mind. Her likes and dislikes in and out of the bedroom. For the first time in what seems like forever, I want to be with a woman on more than a physical level and that should make me nervous. It doesn’t though, and that just makes me want to spend more time with her and find out why. If some of that time is spent naked, so be it.
Chapter Nine
Fannin
“Shelby, I’m leaving here in ten minutes. You can come with me if you want. Hell, you can even stay here, but I’m leaving.” From her spot on my couch she pouts.
“Fine. I’m coming with you, but not for long. I have so much work to do. I thought I would come here and my workaholic friend would motivate me. But noooo. My workaholic friend is on the prowl for a hottie Scotty.”
“Ew. Don’t call him that,” I laugh as I slip on my silver rhinestone encrusted Louboutin’s.
“What? He totally is. I’d do filthy things to him and that beard.” Shelby waggles her eyebrows at me.
“You’re awful, you know that, right?”
“Oh whatever. I’ve seen your vibe stash—you’re dirtier than I am. Kinky ass white girl.”
I can’t help but laugh at her. “Stay out of my vibe drawer.”
“See that shit right there? Who has a vibe drawer?”
“I do. Now let’s go. Our Uber is downstairs waiting on us.”