Her Gentle Giant, Part 1: No Regrets
23
The club had been fairly busy when they’d come in and started their evening’s work, and she’d realized that he must be a new hire. It had been hard to look away, and her gaze had repeatedly returned to him. She’d watched the way his thickly muscled biceps bulged when he shook hands with someone. She’d noticed she wasn’t the only woman in the place who had been mesmerized by him as many of them had begun to make their not-so-subtle way over to him to introduce themselves and flirt with him.
Rachel couldn’t have blamed them for striking while the iron was hot.
Prime male gorgeousness like his was a hot commodity. He had maintained a friendly but uninterested demeanor and had spent his time talking to Mike and Rogelio, probably focused on learning the way things were done at the club.
Fascinated by his extreme height, Rachel had pined over the idea of being able to look up into a man’s eyes instead of straight into them, or, worse yet, down into them. She was tall for a woman and full-figured. That was another reason she didn’t date often because she hated feeling like she was bigger than her dates.
He’d chatted with customers and the other employees and she’d liked that he didn’t put out a “big tough guy” image like he’d needed to impress everyone. He’d been head and shoulders over almost every man in the place.
Rachel had glanced over at him again, for the hundredth time, to see Ethan introducing Grace to him. Only a moment before he’d had a twinkle in his eye, and then, he’d seemed much more serious. A bleached blonde dressed in an almost non-existent scrap of spandex and five inch stiletto heels had approached him, sliding her hand up his thick biceps, over his shoulder and around his neck. Rachel had wondered if the woman might be a late arriving girlfriend, but that theory had been proven wrong when he’d risen from his stool, dislodging her grip on him.
She’d wondered what it must be like to go home from his job with the scent of all the perfume those forward women had doused themselves with on his clothes and his skin. Would he have liked that? Or would it be like the cigarette smoke, something that had to be washed off his skin and out of his hair.
With his long, shiny black hair, Eli had been very different from the other men who came in the club, although that hadn’t seemed to deter him from fitting in and socializing well with the clientele and employees.
24
Heather Rainier
Later in the evening, after she’d gotten a load of that freaking-hot shelf bra that Grace had showed her and her sister, Charity, in the ladies’ room, the three of them had danced together to a Big & Rich song. Rachel absolutely loved to dance, and sometimes it didn’t matter if she had a partner or not, or if they were male or female, some songs she had to dance to. “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” definitely topped her list of must-dance songs.
Grace and Charity had evidently felt the same way. They’d gone out on that dance floor, and all three had shaken what their mamas had given them, leaving the men at Grace’s table slack-jawed and glassy-eyed with lust. It’d been almost comical.
Rachel had thrown her head back and laughed from the pure joy of moving to the beat and happened to look over and had caught that handsome new bouncer staring straight at her with what she could only call intense interest. It had been obvious in his body language. She’d almost been able feel the heat of his gaze on her body. She’d glanced his way again as she’d turned, moving her hips in a sensual rhythm, and had seen that his eyes were still on her. Boldly, Rachel had danced the rest of the song for him, sliding her hands around her hips to her ass and then up her rib cage and into her hair. Unfortunately, the song had to come to an end.
More groups had filtered in through the door, and he’d once again focused solidly on the job. The evening had ended abruptly, thanks to that crazy heifer, Patricia Ramirez.
Rachel noticed his place was a little off the beaten path as she followed him down a dark, sparsely populated country road. Eli pulled into the driveway and parked next to his Harley. She parked behind the truck and popped her trunk. He immediately started to unload her belongings, most of which she’d hastily thrown in garbage bags. It was all a hodgepodge of clothing, shoes, papers, her laptop, and mementos she could grab in a hurry.
There was also a box that she kept for such a purpose where she stored priceless old photographs, paperwork, and documents that would be hard to replace.
After Eli had all her belongings unloaded and sitting on the living room floor, he gave her a quick tour. She recognized the difficulty right off. This duplex was a two-bedroom, one-bath unit. The smaller of his two bedrooms was set up as an office, with a desk and a loveseat, plus all the other junk