As she washed her hands behind the bar, she watched Marco on the top of a rickety ladder on the far side of the tasting room. The beautiful wine rack he was polishing was from an old villa in Italy and had arrived just this afternoon. Given that he was buffing the very top, she could tell he didn’t want to miss a spot.
“Guess how long we’ve been together?” the woman asked when she topped off their wine glasses a few moments later.
Olivia pursed her lips. The woman looked a little older than she was, but not by much. Maybe twenty-nine or thirty. “Five years?”
The man laughed. “Try ten. We met during our junior year in college.”
“Wow, congratulations.”
The woman grabbed the man’s hand, and Olivia noticed her sparkly ring. A Tiffany blue box sat on the table between them. “It was the happiest day of my life the day David walked into it.”
David. She cringed. That was the name of her ex. Boyfriend and boss. But her David wasn’t nearly as nice as this one. In fact, the last time she’d seen him, he’d been furious with her.
“It was love at first sight,” this David said, pushing up his glasses. “Rhonda was sitting on the other side of the bar with a group of her girlfriends. And the minute I saw her, I knew she was the one.”
Rhonda punched him playfully on the arm. “You did not. You and your friends were drinking and playing pool. You got up and we thought you were leaving, so we took your table.” She looked at Olivia as if she were in on the conspiracy. “Turns out he and his friends weren’t leaving. They were all going to the bathroom together.”
Olivia laughed. “Like a bunch of girlfriends?”
“Yes,” Rhonda said, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “Can you believe it? Turns out they were having an actual pissing contest.”
“What can I say?” A sheepish grin spread across David’s face. “It was a frat brother thing. Whoever peed the longest didn’t have to pay. We were all poor, so this was a big deal.”
“Did I hear someone say anniversary a few minutes ago?” Marco said, coming up from behind. He had a pencil tucked behind his ear and a bar rag hanging over one shoulder.
“Ten years,” David said proudly.
“Holy cow! That calls for a celebration. Olivia, do you remember where I put that bottle of reserve Cab the distributor wanted us to try? She says it’s fantastic.”
“I think it’s down in the cellar,” she replied. “Do you want me to get it?”
“That would be stellar.”
She got a kick out of the way he enunciated his words, as though he’d done voice-over work or been a stage actor. “Hold on. I’ll be right back.”
As she headed down the narrow steps, she thought about how much she liked this place. And who wouldn’t? She got to pour and taste great wine, chat with friendly people, and work for a decent man. The pay and the hours weren’t half bad, either.
Her only hope was that she’d be able to stay awhile this time. It would be a shame if she had to go on the run again.
Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance by Jennifer Ashley, Alyssa Day, Felicity Heaton, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Erin Quinn, Bonnie Vanak and Caris Roane
CHAPTER 2
To the casual observer at the Apocalypse Tonight Club, Asher looked like he belonged. Two women sat beside him in the high-backed booth, laughing animatedly at jokes that weren’t all that funny. With a pitcher of beer and a collection of empties, he seemed no different from any other guy in the place hoping to score some action tonight.
But on the inside, he was ready to kill.
He scanned the crowd again. New Seattle’s soccer team had just won an important match that qualified them for the World Games, and the city’s residents were well on their way to getting collectively drunk. Young men clustered around the video screens near the bar, singing an off-key version of what he assumed was the team’s theme song. Several females with red-stained lips, black lacy dresses, and spike-heeled boots pulled a businessman out of his seat and hauled him to the dance floor. An unlikely combination, but the man seemed more than eager. An androgynous couple sat at a nearby table, drinking identical purple cocktails in long-stemmed glasses as they looked at the screen of a handheld. Game highlights, he guessed, when they said, “Yes!” in unison and gave each other a subdued high-five.
Normally he enjoyed places like this because it reminded him of the things he liked best about home, even though he didn’t spend much time there anymore. The music, the drinking, the women just as eager as he was for a roll in the sack or the occasional hook-up in the back that wasn’t quite out of sight. But tonight, it made him sick.#p#分页标题#e#