Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“Hello, gorgeous,” a man’s voice said as a body sat down beside me.
Great. Another annoyance. I had sent three of them off already.
I cut my eyes to the guy who had decided to sit on the stool next to mine. He was young. Possibly still in college. He had the frat-boy look about him. The cocky glint in his eyes told me he knew he was attractive. I was sure his greeting worked on most females. But he’d picked the wrong one. Nothing about him was my type.
“Get her another of whatever she’s having,” he told the bartender.
Nick—who, I’d found out from talking with him, was twenty-five, had married his high school sweetheart, and had a five-month-old baby—glanced at me.
I nodded my head. The kid wouldn’t be paying for it though. He’d be gone in less than five minutes. Three if I spun my story faster. Nick had been on duty since I’d sat down, and he’d gotten used to my pattern. They showed up and offered to buy me a drink, and then I sent them away with one horrible lie after another. When I’d asked the last guy how he felt about genital warts, Nick had choked on his water, and I’d struggled to keep a straight face.
I licked my lips, my mind already spinning my next tall tale to send this one running. I’d done the STD thing and the five kids under six years old at home thing. The age role play one, where I asked a man how he felt about being diapered and put in a crib, had been fun too. Nick had bent over in a fit of laughter when that man made his excuse and escaped.
“Tell me how a woman as beautiful and sexy as you is sitting here alone,” the guy drawled. Then flashed me a crooked grin that was so practiced that he probably did it in the mirror every morning.
Nick placed the cosmo in front of me, and the twinkle in his eye as he fought off a smile made me want to laugh this time. He was ready for it, and I needed to make this one good. I had my audience now, and I might as well keep him entertained. He’d said he couldn’t wait to tell his wife, Cindy, about this when he got home. She was going to love it.
“Oh,” I replied, “I don’t know.” I picked up my drink and took a sip, then winked at Nick before turning my attention to Frat Boy. Time to deal the hand. “Perhaps there hasn’t been a man brave enough to take me on.”
The challenge in his eyes was just too easy. He didn’t even think about the hand I had dealt before tossing in his bet. Silly boy.
“Seems we both just got lucky then. Because I can promise you, I’m more than willing to take you on.”
I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and let it slowly slide back out as he watched, transfixed. My turn to deal the flop.
“Is that so?” I asked in a sultry voice. “You seem very sure of yourself…I didn’t get your name.”
“Devin,” he replied, leaning on the bar and closer to me.
Someone should tell him to lay off the CK One. I recognized that scent from a guy I’d dated before Bastian. It seemed Devin had bathed in it.
“I can keep calling you beautiful all night, but I’d like a name to go with that showstopping face.”
Showstopping face? What was he, ninety? Not rolling my eyes was difficult, but I held my smile.
“I don’t like my real name. I prefer to go by Candy. It was my stage name.” I batted my lashes at him as I dealt out the turn. “But I’m not allowed to go by that name anymore.”
I was pretty sure there was drool forming in the corner of his mouth. He probably had watched many Candys dance on a pole, void of clothing.
“Stage name, huh?” he asked, moving in closer.
I was going to have to get this over with before he damaged my lungs with the cologne fumes wafting off him.
I ran my tongue over my bottom lip, letting him watch me. Before I could deal the last hand in my story time, the stool on my other side scratched against the floor, and thinking it might be one of the girls I was here with, I did a quick glance.
It wasn’t.
It was another man.
And for a solid second in time, the world stopped. Froze like a drop of water in an Alaskan winter. I didn’t even blink. I did a quick tally of the drinks I’d had. Maybe I’d had one too many.
The dark blue eyes that still appeared in my dreams met mine, but only briefly before lifting to look over my head at Devin. “You can go.” The deep, raspy voice was more mature.