Page 53 of Definitely (Maybe) Dating
“Does she look like a rookie?” Darcy asked.
Piper could have pointed out that she was, in fact, quite the rookie when it came to drinking. With an addict for a mom and witnessing firsthand the stupid choices people made while drunk, Piper had promised herself to do better, be better than her childhood. Even when she’d been an angry-at-the-world teenager with a rebellious side a mile wide, she’d never dabbled in anything that resulted in a vulnerability that people could exploit.
“Smore martini.” Owen pointed to Jillian, then to Darcy. “Gin and tonic.” He paused to scratch his head. “You’re a hard one to peg, Picture Girl.” Owen tapped his pointer to his lips in deep thought. “Less Manhattan and more rock and roll.” He snapped his fingers. “A Stiletto. Bourbon, amaretto and lemon juice.”
“Not really a Stiletto girl,” she said. Owen narrowed his eyes, then leaned over the bar to look at her boots, making her wrist itch. “Actually, can I have a water?”
“Water?” Jillian gasped. “We have a sitter. You made your first girls’ night. You can’t have water.”
“How about a bubbly water?” When Jillian looked unapproving, she amended, “How about a bubbly water, with a lime in a wine glass?”To go?So she could lie on the couch in her sweats and eat the entire plate of brownies while reminding herself that this was a colossal mistake. Hives were forming, her camera was gone, and she didn’t know what her friends wanted, but she was sure she’d blow it.
She was building up the courage to bug out when two arms came into view and a set of big, masculine hands rested on the bar top on either side of her. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to know who it was.
Josh.
His fresh scent of shaving cream, the heated wave of testosterone, the familiar way her body melted at his touch. It was intoxicating. Even though he was barely touching her, it felt as if she were encased in a Josh-cocoon.
“Lemon juice, sugar, muddled strawberries on the rocks,” Josh said, his voice a sexy rumble.
“What the hell kind of drink is that?” Owen asked.
“Strawberry lemonade,” he said, and Piper’s heart did a little flip. He’d remembered.
“Is he right?” Owen asked Piper.
She looked over her shoulder and met his very steamy gaze. “I do love strawberry.”
She opened her mouth to apologize for being late before he asked, “Can I borrow you for a sec? There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Josh didn’t wait for her answer, just took her hand, lifted it to steady her while she slid off the bar stool, then led her through the crowd.
“Introducing a chick to your mom?” Owen called out. “Rookie move, Bro.”
“Please tell me you aren’t introducing me to your mom,” she said over the noise of the bar. “I already met her, and it didn’t go so well for either of us.”
He glanced over his shoulder and leveled her with a look so manly, it made it clear that he was no rookie. But she already knew this. His patience, the way he held her, the way he kissed her—Lordy—Josh was the real deal.
At some point, the crowd became thicker, and moving through was like being engaged in a game of bumper cars. Piper shrank in the crush, her body instinctively curling in. She couldn’t see over everyone’s heads, and she couldn’t spot an exit. Panic slowly wrapped around her neck, and her hands went a little clammy.
In a fluid move, like they were dancing, Josh maneuvered her forward, so he was behind, his arms surrounding her. “I’ve got you.” She looked up at him, and he was looking back, very serious. He lifted her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist like he knew.
He winked at her and then, using his body like a battering ram, he moved them toward the back of the bar, out of the crowd, through the employees only door, and down an empty corridor.
“You okay?” he asked.
She was now. “Yes.”
Without another word, he shimmied her right up against the wall, making her the middle of a Josh sandwich. The air around them became sex charged.
“I thought this was a strictly date five conversation.” His gaze slid all the way down to the tip of her thigh-high boots, then back up, taking his time everywhere in between.
It felt different than earlier. She wanted him to look, had worn these exact boots for him. So she bent one knee, resting the heel of her boot on the wall behind her, and said, “I changed my mind.”
“Do you think maybe you could have warned me?” His hands slid to her hips. “I came here expecting date two boots, and you jumped directly into date five. How is a man supposed to prepare?”
“Some of the best things in life are unplanned, Mr. Assistant District Attorney,” she said, although he didn’t look like an assistant district attorney tonight. In a dark blue Henley, button fly jeans, and enough male pheromones to seduce a nuns’ choir, he looked like sex-on-a-stick.
“I’m beginning to see that.”
