Page 50 of Sweet Surrender
Unfortunately, uh,luckilyBeau wasn’t interested in anything like that, and didn’t pick up on any of hercome fuck mevibes. So those damn vibes had followed her into her dreams.And what delicious dreams they were, she thought, smiling to herself. She had woken up feeling ten kinds of frustrated and alone in bed. She couldn’t take matters into her own hands, so to speak, because he had gone for a run and could be back any minute and she would actually die if he caught her doing that. She had to have a cold shower to calm herself down.
So here she was at work, trying not to think about the fact that she had the best date of her life and it was with someone who was onlypretendingto be her boyfriend. Except it didn’t feel like pretend to her. Not when they talked, not when they comforted each other, not when they joked around, and certainly not when they gazed into each other’s eyes. She couldn’t help but want him, and now she was more confused than ever. But they were finally getting their relationship, theirfriendshipback on track, so did she really want her stupid hormones messing that up? The problem was she had wanted him since she was a teenager, and she didn’t think she could ever stop wanting him.
“Evening, sweetheart.”
His voice had butterflies taking flight in her stomach. She tried to shove her happiness down.
“You’re early,” she said, looking at him over the bar. His warm brown eyes sparkled down at her, his mouth tilted up on one side in amusement. He folded his arms over his wide chest. A chest she still hadn’t seen bare and was dying to. She hadn’t managed to catch him shirtless yet, even after showering or getting dressed, she always caught him fully clothed. All her previous partners had paraded around shirtless and the one time she was desperate to see a bare chest, he had the audacity to keep it covered up.Why won’t he let me see it, for fuck’s sake!
“I missed you too much,” he said, penetrating her thirsty thoughts.
Tenderness flared in her before she realized once again, he was just playing the part of the doting boyfriend. He did it too damn well. Taylor was saved a response when Justine and Blake joined them. When Blake left to set up her guitar, Justine turned to them, her honey eyes bouncing back and forth between them.
“Did you do your homework?”
“Yes, we did it last night,” Taylor replied.
“And? How did it feel?”
There was a heavy pause that Taylor sure as shit wasn’t going to fill.
“Very…uh…intimate,” Beau said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Taylor’s eyes caught on his bulging bicep, her mouth running dry.
“Perfect,” Justine purred in her husky voice. “We shall see tonight how well it worked.”
Beau raised an eyebrow at Taylor but she turned to grab a water and began getting a beer for him, a whiskey for Blake and a mocktail for Justine.
“I’ve not heard a peep from yourfan, have either of you seen anything?” Blake asked when he joined them again.
“Nope, thank God. And Taylor’s started self-defense lessons now too,” Beau said.
She slid the whiskey to Blake who caught it with a slight smile.
“You kick him in the balls yet?” Blake asked her.
“No, he won’t let me,” she pouted, leaning on the bar.
“Dude, she needs to practice an effective kick to the balls, stop being a bitch-baby,” Blake scoffed.
“By all means, Big Daddy, you first.” Beau fixed him with a facetious smile.
“Don’t you dare!” Justine growled and Blake laughed, kissing her scowling face before leading her to a table. Taylor snickered as Justine glared at Beau over her shoulder, muttering under her breath in Spanish, calling him aputaand threatening his appendage.More customers came up to the bar, so Beau followed Blake and Justine and left Taylor to serve them.
The crowd got busier, but thankfully Kayleigh arrived to help out. After a while Taylor looked over to Beau’s table and saw Christy and Dean had joined them. She watched Beau and Dean talking. The way Beau threw back his head when he laughed had her smiling and her insides clenched as he caught her eye and blew her a kiss. Blushing, she turned back to pulling pints.
Later that night, she leaned against the bar, listening to Justine singing a slow love song and watching couples swaying romantically on the dancefloor. She spotted Beau standing off to one side, watching her with a heat in his eyes that bordered on dangerous. How could he fake it so easily? Her breath hitched as he headed over.
“Come on sweetheart, it’s our turn.”
Before her brain could process his words, her feet were moving and she was standing in front of him. His hand held hers, his arm wrapping around her waist and his masculine scent fogging her senses. She burrowed closer, knowing that later she would regret not putting some distance between them but struggling right now to care.
“I meant what I said earlier. I missed you,” he murmured, his timbre causing a shiver to roll through her. She didn’t say anything, didn’t trust herself to speak. Justine slipped into a slow, sultry cover ofAddicted to Love, her husky voice filling the room, demanding to be heard.
“I’ve been thinking,” Beau began.
She leaned back to look at him, a sarcastic quip locked and loaded, ready to push them back to their old ways but the look in his eyes wouldn’t let her.
