Back to Life Series Box Set

by Danielle Allen

  “No, I was born and raised in Georgia.” He smirked suddenly.

  “What does the J stand for in CJ? Are you a junior?”

  For the first time, he smiled a full-fledged smile, showing off his perfect white teeth. He laughed to himself. “I’m not a junior. The J is for James.”

  My eyebrows came together and I leaned forward, closing the gap in our personal space by a couple of inches. “Oh…okay.”

  His chest rose and fell quickly as if he were holding in a laugh. “What’s up?”

  I shook my head. “It’s nothing. It’s just… I wasn’t expecting your middle name to be James.” I smiled. “Cedi… Addo… James. It’s plain, you know?” My eyes widened. “Not in a bad way! I’m just saying that with Cedi and Addo being so striking and traditional, I’m surprised—what?”

  Another chuckle escaped his delicious mouth. “It’s my mother’s maiden name.”

  “What’s so funny?” I asked suspiciously.

  Without breaking eye contact, he reached around my gold handbag and moved the empty glass to the middle of the bar between us. “I told you it was bullshit.”

  I opened my mouth and then snapped it shut before I burst out laughing. “I don’t even remember drinking it. It’s so good and so smooth! It doesn’t taste like any alcohol is in there at all.”

  “I told you!” He clapped his hands, intermittently pumping his fist in the air. “I knew it!”

  I narrowed my eyes at him playfully, crossing my arms just under my breasts. “Is that what you do? Is that how you flirt with the ladies? You make drinks so delicious that they have to keep coming back to the bar to get you to make them?”

  “If I was flirting with you, you’d know it.” He raked his teeth over his bottom lip and leaned a little closer. “I’m just a good bartender and a good bartender always knows what a customer wants.”

  I bet he does know what I want. I tilted my head to the side and quickly checked him out. Because I for sure know what I want.

  I knew he didn’t mean it the way I took it, but the effect was still the same. I squirmed on the barstool, crossing and then uncrossing my legs. I looked away from him as I felt my face heating up.

  I’d only had eyes for Anthony since we’d met, so even though I may have been friendly to a good-looking stranger or accepted a compliment from a passerby, I never led anyone to believe I was single or looking. I never did anything to disrespect my husband and nothing anyone ever said to me ever made me feel nervous. But for whatever reason, CJ made me a little nervous.

  Or I’m just vulnerable and feeling a little out of sorts since—

  “Are you okay?” He touched my arm, interrupting my thoughts. His fingerprints burned into my skin.

  I inhaled deeply and nodded. “Yes. I just…” I cleared my throat, getting myself together. “I need to dance, I guess. Moving the body fixes any and everything.”

  He smirked. “Oh really?” He gave me a look, challenging me, possibly flirting with me—I really couldn’t tell. “How so?

  I ran my finger around the rim of my empty glass. I bit my lip and leaned forward flirtatiously. “It doesn’t matter if you’re stressed or tired or heartbroken. Moving the body gets the blood pumping and the heart racing. You can move your body on the dance floor… You can move your body at the gym… You can move your body at home… You can do anything to move your body and get hot and sweaty…” I cocked my head to the side and pursed my lips into a sexy pout. “And the best part about all those things is that you can do it alone or with someone else.”

  Somehow he’d gotten closer to me. Leaning against the bar, he was so close that I could smell his cologne. He didn’t even seem to realize that I’d reeled him in until it was too late. “Oh, you are good.”

  I giggled goofily as I took a small bow. “And you are a worthy adversary, my friend.” I laughed. “Don’t think I didn’t realize how you were”—I sat up straight and gave him a smoldering look as I did an extra sexy imitation of his voice— “A good bartender always knows what a customer wants.”

  He laughed loudly.

  “I was trying to figure out how to ask you for another drink without you giving yourself another round of applause and you turned up the sex appeal. I was about to just start throwing one-dollar bills at you,” I joked.

  He chuckled as he started making my second lemonade. “Where are you from? Where do you live?”

  I don’t actually know right now. Am I keeping the house? Is Anthony?

  “Compared to Atlanta, it’s a small town. It’s close to Florida though.”

  “Yeah, that’s a little further south than I’m used to.” He smirked. “But I know a couple of places down there. We bounced around Florida and Georgia.”

  “I thought you were going to say something about the Florida Georgia line!” I exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm that he didn’t make the joke.

  He chuckled to himself. “What’s your last name?”

  “Diaz.”

  “That sounds Spanish. But you don’t have an accent. Are you from Spain? Or Mexico? Or Puerto Rico? The Dominican Republic?”

  I laughed, conceding his point. “Okay, I get it. I get it.”

  I opened my mouth to explain that ‘Diaz’ was my married name, but the words got trapped in my throat as the reality of why I needed a night out hit me.

  I’m getting divorced.

  That was a sobering thought. Not because I didn’t think the divorce was necessary, but because I never thought I would have to get one.

  “So what do you do, Emily Diaz?”

  Happy for the distraction, I smiled. “Well like you, I’m a business owner. I have my own dance studio.”

  He nodded appreciatively. “Business owner. I didn’t see that coming.”

  I narrowed my eyes, but unfortunately couldn’t lose the smile. “And why not?”

  “I don’t picture you as someone who sits behind a desk.” He assessed me without any hint of a smile. “But I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Well, looks can be deceiving,” I scoffed. “Especially since I didn’t picture you as much of a bartender, but you got lucky on one drink.”

  “It wasn’t luck.” He approached me, leaning on the bar so that our faces were only separated by a foot. “It’s a skill. I’m skilled at a lot of things.”

  My heart fluttered.

  Ignoring it, I sat up straight, lacing my fingers in front of me. “Did you charm someone in Bartending School to tell you that you had a special skill?”

  Amusement played on his features until he couldn’t do anything but laugh. “I’m self-taught.”

  “Bullshit.” I lifted an eyebrow.

  “I am self-taught.” His voice vibrated through me. “Freshman year at Georgia Tech, I thought it would help me meet women so I started studying the art of bartending. Then I started mixing drinks at fraternity and sorority parties. By the time I was twenty-one, I was good enough to work at any bar near campus.”

  “Oh, okay. So you were that guy…” I teased, wiggling my eyebrows. “Sexy bartender paying his way through college by keeping co-eds liquored up.”

  He tried not to smile and his flawless face didn’t showcase any emotion, but his beautifully expressive eyes gave him away. CJ Addo liked me. Or at the very least, he was amused by me.

  He licked his full lips and smirked. “Something like that. Okay, now it’s my turn to do you…”

  The ache between my legs made itself known so I squeezed my thighs together. Again, I knew he didn’t mean it the way I wanted to take it, but a girl could fantasize.

  I’m not a one-night-stand kind of girl, but for CJ Addo, I’m with it. Operation Seduce CJ is in session.

  He leaned a little closer, bringing us only inches apart. “You danced your whole life and then, after not making it to Broadway, you were featured in a string of music videos until you had enough money to pay for a dance studio and could get out of the music video game.”

  A deep belly laugh caus
ed my head to fall back and my eyes to water with tears of joy. “Do I look like a video vixen?”

  CJ watched me laugh with rapt attention. As my giggles waned, his eyes burned into mine. It made me nervous and gave me butterflies simultaneously.

  “You look like trouble,” he observed in a low, sexy growl.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.

  “Sorry, sorry, sorry! My fiancé called and—sorry!” Addison looked between us and then took a little step back. Her eyes lit up. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

  “No, not at all.” CJ slid my glass across the bar top and stepped back. “This is her second lemonade. I warned her so this is her last lemonade for a while.” He looked at his watch. “I’m going to finish the inventory check, so if you two will excuse me.”

  He turned and walked to the end of the bar to unpack the box.

  Ouch. Operation Seduce CJ has apparently come to an abrupt end.

  I didn’t expect him to proclaim that he wanted me or anything. Hell, I didn’t want him. Well I did, but that was just the angry, hurt, scorned wife part of me that wanted him. The real me understood that the pain I was enduring was temporary and moving on to new dick wasn’t going to solve anything. But, there was a part of me that felt like for one night, for one hour, he could fuck the pain away. It would be temporary, but I was fine with temporary relief. At the very least, it just would’ve been nice to be distracted for the night.

  I just wanted someone to flirt with a little to make me forget the bullshit. I swallowed around the lump in my throat. Whatever, there will be other guys here tonight. I’ll find someone else to flirt with. CJ has no idea that I would have given him the fuck of his life… But his loss.

  I knew in my heart that I wasn’t going to find anyone else that made me want him in the primal way that I wanted CJ.

  “What was that about?” Addison asked as she slid the barstool closer to the bar. “Looks like you two were hitting it off.”

  I shrugged, taking a sip of my lemonade. “No. You heard him. I think he was babysitting until you got back. No big deal.”

  “No,” she shook her head, the pins in her hair glimmered as she moved. “He wouldn’t have stayed over here to talk to you if he didn’t enjoy the conversation. When he’s at work, he’s working.” She glanced at her phone. “I’m the social butterfly. I like to mix and mingle. I’m more high-concept ideas and he’s more numbers, facts and figures. He’s the practical one. I’ll say, ‘Addo, let’s do an open mic night.’ And he’ll respond with ‘statistically open mic nights do better on Friday nights so we’ll need three weeks to market’ blah blah blah.”

  I smiled and nodded. “Yin and yang.”

  “Exactly. We both have our MBAs so it’s not that I can’t do the business part and it’s not that he isn’t creative, because he truly is—ask him about music when he comes back.” She paused for a second. “It’s just that we operate our business like we would a marriage. I trust him to do his part and he trusts me to do mine. If something were to happen, I have the ability to do both and so does he. But we work together, we communicate about everything, and we’re one hundred percent honest with one another.”

  “That’s the only way a relationship works.” The words slipped out of my mouth before I could help it. I took a sip of lemonade to dull the pain.

  Addison looked at me for a beat too long before she nodded, reiterating what I’d just said. “That’s the only way a relationship works.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “Heartbreak is one of the reasons we wanted a place like this…a place that can take your mind off of things for a couple of hours. Somewhere you can just be. I need to do some front of the house stuff before we prepare to open. Stay for as long as you want. What’s your number? I’m sure I’ll be able to find you, but just in case.”

  I gave her my number and she entered it into her phone.

  She flashed me a smile. “I’ll be back to check on you. Enjoy yourself.”

  As if on cue, music started pulsating through the speakers. The lights reflected the beat, softly brightening and dimming based on the note.

  “Thank you, Addy.” I looked around at the lights and how they reflected off of the mirrors and walls. “This is beautiful.”

  She winked. “Enjoy yourself.”

  After Addison strolled off, I sipped my drink and did my best not to watch CJ work. He finished unpacking the box and disappeared without a word to me. I quickly threw back the glass to finish it off and scrambled to the other side of the room. It occurred to me that if I stayed at the bar, it would appear as if I was waiting for him. And I wasn’t.

  I made a beeline for the DJ booth and chatted up the DJ and a couple of December employees. Finding a table in the corner, I moved my shoulders to the music and checked my email on my phone. When I heard CJ’s voice, my eyes flew up and located him quickly.

  Damn…

  My lips parted slightly. If I thought CJ was sexy in a baggy t-shirt, seeing him in the fitted black and green button-up shirt, the way it showcased his muscles captured my attention in a way that made me a little ashamed of myself. I was gawking at that man and I couldn’t stop.

  Get it together, Emily! He’s not even that good looking. He’s definitely not that intriguing, I lied to myself as I forced my eyes back to my phone. I don’t even want him to take me back to my hotel room that bad.

  I snickered to myself in amusement. Two wrongs didn’t make a right and sleeping with CJ wouldn’t make me and Anthony even. But as I watched CJ move across the room, giving orders, and handling business, I couldn’t stop thinking about sex—particularly with him.

  Revenge sex won’t make me feel better about what Anthony did to me. I looked up and located CJ just as he smiled and shook hands with someone. However, revenge sex might make me feel better in general.

  I shook off the thought because if I didn’t, I would remain in a lust-induced state while he continued to ignore me. I turned my body slightly, so not to be distracted by the way his clothing stretched over his fit body. Forcing my eyes to my phone, I scrolled through my pictures. I didn’t even keep track of the twelve times he walked passed me without a word.

  Twelve.

  As discreetly as I could, I found myself watching him work. He was fascinating. He had an authoritative quality about him, but he was still approachable. He was firm, without being harsh or mean. He was hard working and diligent. There was something gracefully masculine about the way he moved. Once people started filing in, I preoccupied myself with people watching instead of openly studying CJ. With my focus off of the man who was clearly not interested, I had the opportunity to spot a cute pair of shoes.

  The only reason I was even watching him was because no one else was here. That’s the only—

  “Are you okay?” CJ asked, catching me off guard.

  My stomached flipped.

  “Oh hey,” I greeted him like I hadn’t been watching him for the last twenty minutes. I checked him out. “Oh, you changed?”

  A slow smirk eased across his handsome face as he held my gaze. “I’ll let Addy know you’re okay.”

  He was charming, even as he rebuffed my flirtations.

  I bit my lip and nodded. I was equal parts annoyed and amused. “Thank you.”

  An hour and a half later, the place was full but not packed. I spent an hour talking to Addison. In that conversation, we became fast friends. When she got called away, I realized that I hadn’t made a friend that easily since college. It was effortless, how well we got along. And it didn’t hurt that she was business partners with the sexiest man in Georgia… Maybe the East Coast… Maybe America.

  Soon after Addison left to take care of business, I went to the bar for a drink. I’d only been there for a second when CJ appeared.

  Sexiest man in the world, I decided, watching him as he spoke with three cocktail waitresses. His serious demeanor and professionalism were sexy and exuded power.

  He turned suddenly and our eyes m
et. I didn’t know what to do so I continued staring at him. He held my gaze for about ten seconds before one of the bartenders asked me a question. I turned my head to answer it and when I’d looked back at CJ, he was still staring at me. A chill ran through me.

  “Would you like to dance?” An above average looking guy with a great sense of style asked me with his hand extended.

  “Sure,” I replied.

  For most of the night, I didn’t leave the dance floor. The energy was vibrant and the DJ kept people dancing. The harder I danced and the more I drank, the less I thought about Anthony. The beat vibrated through my body and I moved sexily to the music. Between the lighting and the energy, the mood of December was everything I needed to feel alive again. An hour after I stormed the dancefloor, a light sheen of perspiration coated my skin and I was out of breath.

  Time for another drink!

  I danced my way to the main bar and hopped onto the first available barstool I could find. Letting out a heavy breath, I smiled and waited for one of the bartenders to head my way. I felt good.

  This will be my last one, I told myself as I closed my eyes and swayed to the sexy R&B song the DJ had remixed over another track. Go out and dance the night away? Check!

  “Hi, I’m Connor. May I buy you a drink?” A cute twenty-something year old guy asked me.

  He was well-dressed with a mischievous smile. I could tell he knew he was good-looking. He had big brown eyes and dark brown hair, which was slicked to the side. I’d danced with him a couple of times and if I remembered correctly, he had some moves. There wasn’t an available barstool beside me so he stood to my right, just grazing my shoulder.

  I gave Conner a once over and decided that he looked like he’d be fun to flirt with.

  “Cute and well-mannered. So far so good,” I replied, running my hands through my hair. It was killing me not to put it in a bun on the top of my head, but I’d paid a great deal of money for the highlights. They needed to be noticed. “I’m Em.”