Chapter 1
“Hello?” a feminine voice called out.
Creek focused all of his attention on finishing up the message to one of his directors.
“Hello?” the voice called out again.
Again, Creek didn’t look up. His powers of concentration were stronger than the allure of a pretty voice.
He heard the sigh and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement, but he didn’t acknowledge the disturbance until he saw an arm reach up for one of the beer pitchers.
That’s when he saw her. Well, he didn’t actually see “her”. His eyes were captured by the most amazing…butt…in a pair of jeans. The best butt he’d ever seen. Somehow, calling that perfect derriere an “ass”, as he normally would, just didn’t do the woman’s round backside justice. It was a piece of art, absolute perfection. E-mail forgotten as he continued to watch, enticed by the round derriere in his line of vision. His hands were itching to feel that perfection, and even explore the slender waist above that pert derriere.
And then it was gone! He looked up, ready to grumble out an order to the woman, demanding that she turn back around. But all the words disappeared from his mouth, from his mind, as the most glorious woman stood in front of him. Those almond shaped, blue eyes surrounded by dark, luxurious lashes simply couldn’t be real. She must be wearing colored lenses and fake lashes because nature just didn’t create beauty like that on its own. And that mouth! Damn, but he’d like to taste that mouth! He wanted to kiss those full lips and taste the nectar of this woman, bury his hands in her amazing, dark hair scattered in waves over her shoulders, teasing his mind just as the ends tantalized her breasts.
His body reacted hard and fast, his mind fizzling as his eyes traveled higher once more. He caught the delicate blush on her lovely cheeks and almost chuckled as anticipation sizzled through him.
“Sorry,” the enticing beauty whispered, holding the still-empty pitcher and a ten dollar bill. “I was going to pay for it. But I didn’t see anyone behind the bar.”
Creek looked at the cash, but his eyes could only see her slender fingers and imagine those fingers running down his chest, wrapping around his….
Coming to his senses slowly, he cleared his throat and tossed his cell phone onto the countertop. The message was only half finished but he didn’t give a damn. Every one of his priorities had shifted in the last ten seconds. No longer was he thinking about the latest business acquisition or the quarterly profit reports from each of his company directors. His entire focus was on this woman, on her incredible figure, and trying to figure out how he could get her alone so that he could find out more about her.
Stepping out of the storage area just off the bar, where he’d been working on his laptop, he walked behind the bar. “I’ll get it for you. Where are you sitting?” he asked, his voice a raspy noise that irritated him. Not so smooth, he thought as he took the pitcher out of her hands.
His goddess pointed to the table where a group of women were sitting, laughing about something with their heads practically touching at the round table near the back corner of The Rotten Apple, the bar he and his three friends owned together.
“Thanks,” she said and backed up so that their bodies wouldn’t touch while he poured the beer into the pitcher.
He nodded to the table, indicating that she should go ahead and sit down. His ulterior motive? He wanted to see that perfect butt one more time as she walked to the back of the bar. “I’ll bring it over to you with some glasses,” he told her.
Her smile hit his stomach like a sucker punch, but he couldn’t look away. “I appreciate it,” she told him, looking down at her shoes and then at the space around the bar. There was no way out from behind the bar except to go behind him. Thankfully, there wasn’t much room behind him. Her eyes looked up into his and he felt that glance. Right down to his groin.
He wasn’t moving either. If she wanted out, she was going to have to slide behind him. He knew he was being a jerk, but hell, he didn’t care. He wanted her. And damn, he was going to have her. The pretty little brunette with the long lashes shouldn’t have stepped behind the bar if she didn’t want to play with the big bad wolf.
She reached up and grabbed the beer mugs as a reason not to slide behind him and he chuckled at her obvious escape. She smiled nervously back at him, but only shrugged one of her dainty shoulders.
Damn, she was beautiful. And he hadn’t run into a woman who could blush since…well, he couldn’t remember a woman ever blushing around him. His lady-friends were normally a bit more experienced. That was pretty much a requirement for him, but he’d make an exception for this woman. Hell, he’d make a lot of exceptions for her.