“No wonder you like it here,” she said. “I get that now. It’s nice to be able to let down your guard.”
“No more book covers?” He arched a brow, his eyes alit with his secret message.
“No more book covers.”
“Bones!” The guy behind the bar hollered, startling Faith. He nodded toward the short-haired guy with tattooed shoulders. “You’re with me. Dixie!” He lifted his chin toward a waitress Faith hadn’t noticed. She wore tight jeans and a half shirt that read Whiskey Bro’s. Her flame-red hair cascaded in gentle waves nearly to her waist.
“Yes, brother dearest?” she said with a smirk.
“You’re with Braden and Braden’s Girl,” the bartender answered.
Her heart leaped. Braden’s Girl.
“Faith,” Sam called out to him. He stood, bringing Faith up with him, and tucked her beneath his arm.
“I liked Braden’s Girl,” she said quietly.
He leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “Just making sure everyone knows who you are beyond being mine. I’m getting you a sweatshirt that says ‘Braden’s Girl.’”
Bam! She fell a little harder for him for that.
“The bartender’s name is Bear. Bear, Bullet, Bones, and Dixie are siblings.”
“Where did they get those names?” She’d heard of biker names, but she was curious about how they came up with them.
“Bones is a doctor,” Sam explained. “Bullet was in the Special Forces.” He stopped talking as Dixie set her eyes on them.
She had a mouthful of bubble gum and popped a bubble as she set a serving tray on the edge of the bar, then made a beeline for Faith. Her hips swayed like a model on a catwalk. She wore black boots with spiked heels that tapped with each step, and when she reached Faith she crossed her arms over her chest and openly eyed her from head to toe. Faith’s nervousness returned, and she was glad for Sam’s arm around her.
“How’s it going, Dix?” Sam asked.
Dixie shifted her pretty green eyes to Sam, back to Faith, and then to Sam again. “How long have I known you, Braden?”
“Couple of years,” Sam said casually.
Her eyes narrowed. “How many women have you brought in here?”
Oh God. Here it comes. This isn’t really a special place, is it?
“None,” he said with the same cool confidence as he did everything.
Dixie set those green eyes on Faith again and stopped chewing the wad of gum long enough for a wide, radiant smile to form across her lips, showing her perfectly straight pearly white teeth. She was stunning despite her rough demeanor. Faith held her breath, waiting for the shoe of reality to bonk her in the head.
“Damn, girl,” Dixie said. “You must be something special to be under this man’s arm in this place.” She pulled Faith right out of Sam’s arms and hugged her. “Welcome to Whiskey’s. It’s about time someone livened up this man’s life. He’s been wasting it for too many years.”
Faith couldn’t imagine Sam wasting one minute of his life. He was too effervescent, too interested in going, doing, seeing.
“Dixie Whiskey,” Sam said. “Let me formally introduce you to my girlfriend, Faith Hayes.”
“I think I got the whole girlfriend-boyfriend thing by the way you were sucking face at the table and that ‘stay away from my girl’ thing you got going on.” She pointed to his arms, then his face. “You two are real cute together.”
Faith warmed at the compliment. Sam was an intense and enigmatic person, and she wasn’t either of those things. She was confident, and she liked to believe she was a fun person. But her fun and Sam’s lifestyle were so different that she was sure people would wonder what he was doing with her, just as she had. Although, the better she got to know him, the more she realized they weren’t that different after all. And now, as she left Dixie’s arms and saw the pride in Sam’s eyes, she realized that it wouldn’t matter what anyone thought of their relationship.
Dixie hugged Sam. Then she put an arm around Faith and dragged her away from him. “We’re teammates. You, me, and Sam against my cocky brothers. We’ll kick their butts.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Dixie glanced at her name above the Rough Riders logo on her sweatshirt. “He’s claiming you well and good, isn’t he?”
Faith couldn’t suppress her grin.
“Sam’s one of the good ones. They’re hard to find.”
Yes, they are. Faith heard Sam laugh and their eyes connected. His gaze conveyed his earlier words: Good luck keeping me off of you tonight. But in her head it was her saying them.
“Girl, you two’ve got it bad,” Dixie said in a low voice. “You need to take that man back home and tear his clothes off before you do it here on the floor.”
Faith tore her eyes from Sam, the image of them having sex on the floor of Whiskey’s seared into her mind. First the break room table at work, now here. Was no place safe from their fictitious sex life?
She sensed Sam’s presence behind her before she felt his arm claim her waist. She leaned in to him, feeling safe and happier than she’d been in a long time. She loved that Sam wasn’t trying to win her over like guys usually did on the first few dates. He was just Sam, and that was so much more than enough. The others gathered, and Sam introduced her to Bear while Bones and Dixie gave each other a hard time about who was going to lose.
“Hey, sugar. Good luck,” Bear said with a lift of his chiseled chin. He had a rugged, handsome face and deep-set honey-colored eyes that Faith was sure bought him a ticket just about anywhere.
“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got, sweetheart,” Bullet said to Faith. “What do you know how to play? Shanghai? Killer? Legs? Baseball?”
“I can play all of those, or Cricket or Round the World.” Faith noticed Bear and Bones trading glances, then giving Sam a look she couldn’t read. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Staking claim again? A little thrill jogged through her.
“Shanghai,” Bones said, now openly staring at Faith.
“Faith?” Dixie motioned for her to go first.
“Show them what you’ve got.” Sam patted her on the ass.
Between Bones watching her intently, Sam’s ass pat, and going first in the game, Faith’s nerves were on fire. She drew in a deep breath, mentally going over the rules of Shanghai. The goal was to hit the numbers in sequence, one, two, three, and so on, but only one number was in play during each turn. She needed to hit number one with all three darts to gain the highest score.
“You’ve got this, sweetheart,” Bullet encouraged, making her more nervous.
Faith closed her eyes for a second, centering her mind and letting her shoulders relax. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.
There were two ways to win: either having the highest score at the end of the game or scoring a Shanghai—hitting the single, double, and triple of the number in play. The thin outer doubles ring counted as twice the number scored, and the thin inner triples ring counted as three times. That was Faith’s specialty. She was that good. But now, with her nerves on fire, she wasn’t sure she could hit one, much less three.
She should have had a drink. Or three.
She opened her eyes and focused solely on the board, tuning out the music, the ass pat, and the conversations going on around her. The slim dart felt comfortingly familiar as she drew her hand back and released it. It sailed through the air in a perfect line, landing directly on number one.
Before she could stop herself, “Yes!” came out, and she jumped into the air. As soon as her feet hit the ground she wanted to curl into a ball with embarrassment.
“That’s my girl!” Sam pulled her into a kiss, alighting her nerves for a completely different reason.
Bullet nodded appreciatively. “Damn, sweetheart, you nailed it.”
Sam pressed his scruffy cheek to hers and said, quietly enough for only her ears, “You’re so adorable I want to play darts with you in my cabin. Naked.”
She gasped a breath as her entire body reacted, from her pert nipples to the heat simmering between her legs.
“Just trying to give you something else to think about.”
“Why?” she whispered. “Do you want to lose?”
His eyes smoldered. “No. I want to win—you.”
He stepped away, leaving her to try to act like he hadn’t just rocked her world.
Chapter Thirteen
WHEN IT CAME to Faith, Sam couldn’t behave. At least not entirely. He was completely, utterly taken with her. When her cheeks pinked up or she did something out of character from her normally in-control personality, he couldn’t resist bringing out more of her playful side. After the first round of darts, when his comment about playing darts naked had thrown her so off-balance that her darts barely made it to the dartboard, she’d started firing innuendos back. Every furtive glance, every heated word, every sensual touch, made Faith temptation overload, testing Sam’s control to the very edge. He’d been sporting wood ever since. Thank God his shirt hung low enough to cover it.
Faith stood beside him now, her hand shoved deep in his back pocket, her fingers making slow strokes over his ass. Her other hand rested on his abs beneath his shirt, two fingers hooked into the waistband just above his zipper.