Shouldn’t Be
Written by Melissa Silvey
Edited by Kim Quick
Self Published by Melissa Silvey
Copyright 2015 Melissa Silvey
All Rights Reserved
Please do not copy, or publish without the express written consent of author.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Acknowledgements
Thanks again to Kim Quick for her lovely editing, and everything else she does to help me realize my dream.
Thanks to my mother, Sue Fore, for being there for me and giving me encouragement, even when she doesn’t realize she’s doing it.
Thanks to Jay Fuller, for putting up with me and understanding my need to write.
Chapter One
“You’re talking too loud. I can’t understand a word you’re saying!” Kaitlyn Morgan said into her phone. She held it away from her ear, but she could still hear Mandy as if she was screaming at her from two feet away.
“I said Girl’s Night Out, and you have to come.” Mandy’s tone was a little more bearable that time. “Connor found this bar on Main Street, and a group of us from the restaurant are going. They have live bands on the weekends.”
“I have to work in the morning,” Kaitlyn protested. “We have a client with a deadline, and I’m…”
“Tomorrow is Saturday,” Mandy reminded her. “You can go in late one day.”
It had been too long since she hung out with her old friends from Papa’s Italian Ristorante. When she graduated from law school and she got her first real job, they held a huge party in her honor. She was hung over for two days. But since then she’d only been back a handful of times. She’d taken Alex to meet the gang, of course. She’d just been so busy lately she hadn’t had time.
“I’ll ask Alex if he wants to come,” Kaitlyn said hopefully. She hadn’t seen him in three days. He was just as busy as she was, maybe more.
“If he doesn’t come, you’ll come alone, won’t you? I haven’t seen you in forever.” Mandy knew how to give a guilt trip. Kaitlyn heard the pout in her voice.
“Okay,” Kaitlyn agreed. “For a little while.” She’d go out for an hour or so, then head home and be in bed by midnight, she told herself.
“It’s called Ray’s. I’ll see you there!” Mandy exclaimed happily.
While she had her phone handy she called Alex, but he didn’t answer. “Mandy from Papa’s called and wants to hang out tonight. I’m thinking about going with her. Call me if you want to come. The name of the bar is Ray’s. It’s on Main Street.”
Just in case he didn’t get his voicemail, she sent him a text with the info as well. Then she hurriedly dressed. She put on one of her A-line skirts, and before she could put on a white blouse she wondered, what the hell am I doing? She was so used to dressing a certain way, the way every other female in the office dressed, that she almost did it automatically now.
She shuffled through her clothes hangers until she got to the back of her closet, and found a cute denim skirt she hadn’t worn in over a year. She quickly dressed in the skirt and a tight tank top. She thought she was too fat; her mother told her she was curvy. She wished she was skinny like Mandy, but this was the body she was given, so she had to live with it.
She called a cab and told the cabbie where she was headed, all the while checking her phone, hoping that Alex would answer her text.
* * *
“I’m not going to any more dirty clubs, Ruben,” Mara pouted. He’d heard the threat before, and for some reason she still showed up at the bars where he played. “You know your father doesn’t approve. He’s going to cut you off.”
“I know he doesn’t approve. What are you, my mother or my fiancée?” Ruben was tired of everyone in his life giving him a hard time about his music. He went to law school like his father wanted him to. He was an associate in his father’s law firm. He did what everyone expected of him. He played guitar on his off time. Why couldn’t his family just let him do what he wanted to do on his own time?
“You know I’m worried about you,” Mara continued. He was so glad she was on the phone. It was so much easier to tune her out that way. Not that he didn’t tune her out when they were together, too.
“You’re not worried about me. You’re worried about my father’s money.” She suddenly became quiet at his accusation. “It’s okay, I accept your priorities. So it’s time for you to accept mine. It’s a Friday night, and I’m going to go out and play with my band, and I would rather you didn’t fuck with me. And when we’re married, and you’re spending my trust fund, I won’t fuck with you. Deal?”
It felt so much better getting that off his chest. He felt even better when she snapped, “Deal.”
“Good. Now I’m going to go to the bar and play. I think you shouldn’t come, since you obviously don’t enjoy it.” His tone was clipped, clearly angry.
“Fine,” she growled, and ended the call.
He pulled on a pair of faded jeans with holes in the knees, a plaid shirt that would kill his mother, and a pair of black work boots. Not that he’d ever needed work boots a day in his life. He’d actually bought them and took sandpaper to them to make them look worn.
The guys in his band didn’t know he was Ruben Aronson, the son of Levi Aronson of Aronson and Cohn, the most influential law firm in Richmond, Virginia. He liked it that way. He liked his anonymity. As Ben Key, he was just another guy. Didn’t most musicians have stage names anyway?
* * *
The bar was about half full when Kaitlyn arrived. Mandy already had a drink in her hand, and was getting busy on the dance floor. “Hey, sweetie, look at you,” Mandy purred when she saw her friend. Mandy wrapped her arms around Kaitlyn, and pulled her in for a hug. As she did, she grabbed Kaitlyn’s plump ass and kissed her on her lips. When her hand strayed to Kaitlyn’s breasts, she pulled back.
“Not in public!” She exclaimed. When Mandy stared at her full breasts in the tight shirt, she complained, “Come on, you’ve seen me in this outfit a dozen times,” and rolled her eyes.
“Not in over a year,” Mandy argued. “The last time I saw you, you were wearing a pantsuit.” Kaitlyn laughed as Mandy pulled her toward the bar. “A pantsuit, Kaity baby.”
Kaitlyn grimaced as she ordered a jack and coke. “I like a girl who knows how to drink.” The bartender wasn’t bad looking, but he was about ten years older than Kaitlyn and still tending bar. She smiled at him and handed him some money. Maybe he owned the bar, Kaitlyn reminded herself. She shouldn’t judge.
“Where’s Alex?” Mandy wondered as they made their way to a table in the back, already full of familiar faces.
“Studying,” Kaitlyn frowned. Two of the guys just had to hug her, both a little too closely, and the other girls both gave her air kisses. She hadn’t worked with them very long before she quit.
Not like Mandy, whom she’d worked with the entire five years she’d worked at Papa’s. Mandy and Kaitlyn’s lives couldn’t be more different. Mandy came from a broken home, and she barely finished high school. Kaitlyn’s parents were deacons of the church, pillars of the community, and still in love after thirty years of marriage. Her mom was a nurse, and her dad a teacher. Her childhood was pretty idyllic. She was determined to put herself through school as much as possible; she didn’t want her parents to spend their retirement savings for her to go to college. She got a job waiting tables, and she made pretty good
money at it.
While Kaitlyn worked at the restaurant, she’d had her share of indiscretions. She smoked pot a few times, and got too drunk after a Friday night shift or two. But Mandy respected that she had a lifelong goal, and refused to allow her friend to go out on school nights. Weekends, though, were theirs, and they were wild.
“Let’s dance,” Mandy said when Kaitlyn’s drink was gone.
“I want another,” Kaitlyn pouted, and walked toward the bar.
“Okay, but you aren’t getting puking drunk. You have to work tomorrow, remember?”
“Yes, momma bear,” Kaitlyn grumbled as she ordered her second drink. Mandy was already on the dance floor. Kaitlyn followed after her.
* * *
“Look at those two,” Bobby said as he nodded toward the dance floor. Ben wasn’t interested in the club girls anymore. He’d been there and done that, more than once. He continued to tune his guitar as Tommy, Bobby’s brother, looked on.
“Jesus, that blonde is fucking hot,” Tommy agreed.
Tommy was the drummer, and wasn’t the best looking guy. He usually walked away with the worst looking girl in the club, but he didn’t seem to mind. Bobby was the singer, and girls usually threw themselves at him. He would sometimes leave with two at a time.
Ruben had a thing for blondes, so he glanced up. When he did, he saw the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen in his life. And she wasn’t blonde. She had red hair that tumbled in messy curls down past her shoulder blades. Her skin was porcelain, so white it couldn’t be real, and when she glanced up toward the stage, he caught a glimpse of bright blue eyes. He’d never seen a girl who looked like that in real life. He stopped and stared for a moment.
“I’m taking the blonde home,” Bobby stated as he ran cable down from a microphone to a speaker. “Maybe the redhead too.”
Ruben frowned at the thought. He didn’t want Bobby to take the girl home. Then he started strumming his guitar. He wasn’t jealous about a girl in a bar, was he? He glanced back at her as he sat his guitar aside. She was so petite; he felt the need to protect her. She had to be about five-three, but she had hips and a nice ass, and when she turned to the side he got an eyeful of her big, beautiful breasts.
He wasn’t the tallest guy. At five-ten he was average height. But he worked out nearly as much as he played his guitar, and he had chiseled abs and rock hard biceps. She would fit his body perfectly, he thought as he watched her dance. He thought he’d given up on barflies. Then he glanced back at the redhead as she shook her ass to the music. Maybe just one more before he got married.
* * *
“Look at the singer,” Mandy said as she stepped closer to Kaitlyn. When she had to take a step to look around her much taller friend, Mandy rolled her eyes and blocked her. “Don’t be so obvious.”
“I can’t see over you,” Kaitlyn groaned.
“Go to the bar and get another drink. There’s a great view from there.” Mandy smacked her friend’s ass, but stayed on the dance floor while Kaitlyn returned to the bar.
“You want another jack and coke? Your friend over there is going to be carrying you out of here,” the bartender said as he poured another. “The band hasn’t even started yet.”
“Give me just a coke,” Kaitlyn sighed. He was right. She hadn’t drunk seriously in a long time. She should pace herself. She took a sip of her non-alcoholic soda, and glanced toward the stage. The singer was okay, with long brown hair and green eyes. He was just Mandy’s type. But the guitar player; he was something else entirely.
His hair was dark and curly, but hit right at his earlobes. His skin was a light olive tone. His nose was prominent in his face, but not too big that it distracted from his good looks. His lips were full, and framed by a five o’clock shadow that had been neatly groomed. She couldn’t tell exactly what color his eyes were, but it didn’t matter. He was exactly her type.
She liked bad boys in holey jeans; twice as much if they played guitar. She’d slept with a few while she was still in college, before she settled down. Settled, she thought. That was the perfect verb. Alex was smart, and not unattractive. But he was the kind of guy her parents wanted her to be with. He was a med student, Navy veteran, Southern Baptist. He was too tall, and it was awkward when she tried to kiss him. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He should be cute, she thought.
Then she gazed at the guitar player. He was everything she shouldn’t be attracted to, and yet her stomach muscles clenched and held when he glanced at her. Hazel, she realized as he stared back.
“I want to buy the guitar player a drink,” Kaitlyn said to the bartender. “Jack and coke,” she demanded. He fixed the drink and waved at the waitress, who carried the glass to the man on stage.
* * *
He couldn’t take his eyes off her while he played. He’d never, ever had a girl buy him a drink before. And she’d bought him three now. He’d told the waitress to just bring coke after the second.
He couldn’t wait until the break to talk to her. But then he had no idea what he’d say. She was dancing, like most of the other girls. And she was chatting with her friend and laughing. But every once in a while she glanced up at him with her soft blue eyes, and a jolt of electricity ran through his body.
He’d never wanted a girl more than he wanted that one. It wasn’t just the way she looked, but that was a huge part of it. She knew how to move, like she’d danced all her life. Her arms went up over her head, and her hands went to her flaming hair. Her eyes were half closed, and her mouth was half open. He could imagine that was what she looked like when she reached her climax.
His cock reacted to that thought, like when he was fifteen, and sat behind the blonde who smelled like apples in chemistry class. Except he wasn’t fifteen anymore; he was nearly thirty, and he didn’t get erections from looking at a pretty girl.
He needed to stick his dick inside this girl and get over it. His mother and Mara were already picking out wedding invitations. He tried not to look at her again, but that skirt she wore rode farther up her creamy thighs, and he thought he could see a glimpse of black panties. He shivered at that. Then she gazed up at him under dark eyelashes, and smiled. He thought he might die. Fuck, what was this girl doing to him?
Chapter Two
“Hi.” She turned toward a voice that sounded like dark honey. He took the empty barstool beside her, the other taken by Mandy. The singer decided to sit beside her.
“Hello,” Kaitlyn replied. Her eyes drank in his face, from the scruffy cheeks, to the full pink lips and exceedingly high cheekbones, to stop at his eyes. She was still unsure of their color. She’d believed they were hazel when she was standing at the bar, but up close they looked different. Were they brown or green? Were those flecks amber or gold? And how could they possibly hold up those long, thick eyelashes?
“Thanks for the drinks,” he said after he scanned her face too. “Can I buy you one? What are you drinking?” As he said it, he waved at the bartender, but his eyes didn’t leave hers.
“Um, no thanks,” she said as she shook her head. “I’ve had enough, as Ray reminded me twenty minutes ago.”
The bartender simply smirked when he heard what she said. “I don’t want any guys taking advantage of you because you’re drunk. Unless it’s me, of course,” he said with a grin.
Ruben frowned. “I’d like another jack and coke, please,” he said to the bartender. Then he turned to Kaitlyn. “And you can take advantage of me all you want.” He said it with a chuckle, but his eyes said he was serious.
“I still have plenty, thanks,” Kaitlyn said when Ray turned toward her. He nodded, and proceeded to mix the drink.
“He’s hitting on you pretty hard, huh?” Ruben asked when the bartender walked away to serve another customer.
“Not too bad,” she grinned wickedly.
They sat silently for several moments. Ruben simply stared at the unique beauty sitting in front of him. Her hair curled at her ear, and she shoved it away from her neck. He never
had the urge to bite someone before, but he wanted to sink his teeth into her white throat and leave dark red marks, so everyone would know. He gazed longingly at it, and mentally trailed the path that the bright blue veins made over her chest.
“What’s your name?” She finally asked, interrupting his thoughts.
“Ben Key,” he said automatically. “And yours?”
“Lyn,” she responded after a short pause.
The bartender turned quickly when he heard it, but said nothing. He did, however, give a peculiar look to the girl he’d been flirting with all evening.
“This is Mandy,” she said as she grabbed her friend’s attention, “and I’m Lyn.”
“He’s cute.” Mandy smiled brightly and kissed Kaitlyn’s cheek, leaving her lip gloss behind. But she turned immediately back toward the singer who chatted her up.
“Ben and Lyn,” she mused. “How likely is that?”
“Not very,” he sighed. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What’s that?” She smiled at him again. Her teeth were perfect and white, her lips a glossy bronze, and she had a dimple in her left cheek.
“You have to be the most gorgeous woman I have ever laid eyes on.” Sincerity and honesty weren’t the first words that came to mind while describing a lawyer, and he knew that he could stretch the truth with the best of them. But at that point, he couldn’t have been more truthful. She had an innocence about her, and she looked so damn young. “How old are you? Are you even old enough to be in this bar?”
“I’m twenty-five. In four weeks I’ll be twenty-six,” she informed him, and she arched her eyebrow for punctuation.
He leaned forward, close enough to smell her shampoo. “I want to taste your skin, Lyn,” he whispered in her ear. “I want to lick every inch of you.”
Shouldn't Be Page 1
