by Shania Tyler
I shook the man’s hand before entering the club and Tommy walked confidently at my side.
We paused at the entrance for a few moments to survey our current hunting grounds. It was something I always did whenever I entered a new establishment. I liked to know where the bar was, where the restroom was, and where all the hot chicks were situated before I began to make my way around the room. It was a habit we had both picked up over the years from Tommy’s older brother and it was something we’d always thanked him for. It seemed to get us to the hottest girls the quickest. I found myself remembering the best piece of advice he’d ever given me. Every woman in the place has to go to the restroom at least once so always stand close by and you’ll get your pick.
“Why don’t you grab the drinks, and I’ll meet you by the restroom?” I yelled over the music to Tommy and he grinned at me as though he had been remembering his brother’s advice, too.
“Sounds like a plan to me!” he yelled back, and we separated to do just that. “Good luck out there.”
Luck wasn’t something you needed when you looked like I did. It wasn’t difficult to pull a woman in a place like this. What was difficult was finding a woman worth pulling. I scanned the room as I passed through the crowd, pausing on several women who might have been possible candidates for my attention.
Yet it wasn’t until I reached the wall by the women’s restroom and turned back to face the dance floor that I noticed one woman I never thought I’d see in a place like this. My jaw very nearly dropped to the floor, and I might have tripped over it had I still been walking. My heart hammered just as it had the first time I’d seen her in her office and the truth was she was even more beautiful than she was at work.
The way the disco lights hit her eyes caused them to spark and her glossy hair bounced as she danced almost as much as her ass did. She stood out from the crowd like a flashing light as my eyes pinpointed her and I watched with growing desire as she moved along with the music, never spilling a drop of the drink she held in her left hand. The woman she danced with was equally as beautiful but no match to Ruby’s grace and movement and I found myself mesmerized by her.
Goddamn it. Out of all the women in all the world, why did it have to be Ruby Bowman?
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, taking in a deep breath in an attempt to steel myself against the desire to walk right on over there to talk to her. Sure, we weren’t at work now, and there was nothing wrong with approaching her even if we were, but the fact was that the things I wanted to do to that women just weren’t appropriate.
An elbow jabbed me in the ribs and Tommy stood beside me, holding out a bottle of beer. “You all right, brother?” he asked with a look of concern and a raised eyebrow. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I sighed, and I gestured toward the woman who was still dancing away in the crowd, “My boss is here.”
As soon as I pointed her out, I realized my mistake. Tommy turned his attention to her and his mouth practically dropped open. “I thought you said she was simply average but, unless I have my beer goggles on already, which I’m sure I don’t, that woman is freaking scorching hot!”
I flinched at the way he spoke about her. I didn’t like the way Tommy’s eyes looked her up and down or the way several other men in the club were doing the same from a distance.
You better all keep it that way. That woman is too good for the likes of any of you. Hell, she’s too good for the likes of me.
That thought made me angry and it was more than a little frustrating, but the fact was that it was more than a little true. Ruby Bowman was way out of my league. I knew it, she knew it, and I was pretty sure that everybody in the club would know it if they saw us together.
“Why don’t you go and talk to her?” Tommy asked, “It’s clear that you like the looks of her. I can see you practically foaming at the mouth.”
I straightened up a little and shook my head before I raised my bottle to my lips and took a long, quick swig. The harsh taste hit the back of my throat, but I handled it like a man and chugged down half the bottle before I relented.
“I can’t do that,” I told my best friend. “It wouldn’t be right.”
“All I said was go and talk to her. You don’t have to fuck her right here right now.” He shrugged as though it wasn’t a big deal and I sighed. The more he suggested things like that, the weaker I was going to become. Usually, I didn’t give a damn what other people thought or wanted me to do but he was talking to the deeper more primal me, the one who didn’t think straight when it came to women I was attracted to.
“What harm can it do, really?” Tommy shrugged and looked at me as though he was really trying to persuade me to go there. I knew deep down that I really shouldn’t but something pulled me toward that woman, something telling me I simply had to have her. I needed to know what it felt like to wrap Ruby Bowman in my arms and take her.
“I could lose my job,” I reminded him. “She’s my boss and it could ruin everything. I can’t go through that again.”
“As far as she knows, you are just two people talking in a club,” Tommy insisted. “Nothing needs to happen that would risk your job. Just dip your feet in the water before you dive in. Flirting with a coworker is the perfect way to practice your skills because it can’t go anywhere.”
I had to admit that what Tommy was saying did sound logical. Maybe that was simply because I really was struggling not to make a move on Ruby. He was still speaking to the animal inside of me, the one that didn’t care whether I lost my job over something like that, the one who just wanted the pleasure of being inside a beautiful woman. Until now, no woman had spoken to my animal like Ruby Bowman did.
“Go for it!” Tommy urged, and I was just about to step forward when Ruby suddenly stopped dancing and turned in my direction. My heart stopped as she began to walk toward me and our eyes connected.
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12
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CHAPTER TWELVE
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Ruby
“Hey, Tessa! I need to use the little lady’s room,” I called over the music from where we had been dancing for the last twenty minutes. It felt like we had been moving for way long. I was out of breath and pretty sure that I would pass out if I didn’t take a break. I knew that Tessa would never let me go unless she thought I was desperate for the toilet and so I pulled away and quickly turned toward the restroom.
I had just begun to walk away when something magnetic seemed to pull my gaze up from the crowdand look across the room. I paused dead in my tracks when I saw the familiar eyes gazing back at me from across the room. I barely managed to catch my jaw before it began to gape open and when I saw by the look of surprise on Major’s eyes I knew that he was just as shocked to see me standing there.
For a moment, I wondered whether I might be able to turn around and pretend that I hadn’t seen him but when his friend gave him a quick shove in my direction, I realized that the two must have already been talking about me. My heart hammered in my chest as Major Lawson walked toward me through the crowd. His broad shoulders made it easy for him to barge his way through the ocean of people and I soon found myself in the shadow of his bulging figure.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I said, determined not to look like a startled doe in headlights. My chest ached with my continuing rapid heartbeat and when Major smiled at me, it only quickened more.
“You were the last person I expected to see in a place like this,” he gestured around the room and I glanced around to follow his hand.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I furrowed my brow, not quite sure whether he was trying to offend or compliment me.
“What I mean is that I thought you were way too classy to end up in a dumb bar like this.” Major shrugged.
“This is the hottest club in town,” I told him with a smile, knowing that it sounded like the stupidest thing I�
��d ever said. Sure, the decoration was good, and the bar was pretty new, but the people and the music made the place one heck of a dive. If it wasn’t for Tessa, I wouldn’t think twice about stepping into a place like this. I much preferred a quiet drink in a pub.
“I’m glad to hear sarcasm in your voice on that one.” He leaned closer to speak into my ear as though he was frightened that I wouldn’t be able to hear him. A part of me hoped that it might in fact simply be so that he could sneak closer to me without alarming me. The truth was he was one of the few men I wouldn’t be alarmed to get close to.
Knock it off, Ruby.
“You can hear that over the music?” I asked, leaning in closer to be sure that he could also hear me. When he nodded, I felt myself blush. Either he had excellent hearing, or he really was listening to me because he actually wanted to. There was no other way he could have heard my sarcasm over such loud music.
“Hey, what do you say I get you a drink and we talk about work?” Major asked, and I instantly screwed up my face. Major looked almost hurt, as though he was sure I was rejecting his offer.
“I’ll take the drink, but I’ll pass on the talking about work,” I told him with a smile to be sure that he knew I wasn’t rejecting him. “I’ve had enough of talking about the Buckskins to last me a lifetime. Let’s leave that talk for the office.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Major shrugged. I had to admit that out of the office and away from football, he seemed a lot less stubborn and arrogant. I was amazed when he turned and offered me his arm for me to slip my hand into the crook of his elbow. He led the way toward the bar, barging people out of my way so that I did not have to make my way through them. It was a relief not to have to do it for myself after almost being pushed right off my heels several times already during the night.
“What can I get you?” Major yelled over the music.
“Whatever you are having,” I told him as we reached the bar, and he allowed me to slip in front of him so that I was not pressed against by the crowd.
“You don’t strike me as a beer drinker.” He raised an eyebrow.
“What? A woman can’t have a beer and look cute?” I fluttered my eyelashes and then instantly regretted it. How could I be fluttering my eyelashes at my new coach? Sure, allowing him to buy me a drink was one thing, but a coworker could buy another coworker a drink without it meaning anything. Flirting and eyelash fluttering was a different story. I would not be that woman. I would not allow myself to go down that path.
“Something tells me you could look cute doing just about anything,” Major insisted before he waved over the barman and ordered two bottles of beer. “Make sure the lady’s drink has an umbrella.”
“How am I supposed to drink a beer out of a bottle with an umbrella in it?” I gaped at him and Major smiled back at me as though he had a devilish plan up his sleeve.
“You’ll see,” he assured me.
As soon as the bottles were placed in front of us, he paid the barman and handed me the bottle with the umbrella in it before picking up his own. I was about to remove the umbrella to take a sip when he pulled the small decoration from the neck of the bottle and reached up toward my ear. “May I?”
I found myself nodding and, a moment later, I felt his fingertips brush against the flesh of my ear as he gently placed the open umbrella beneath my hair.
“It matches the color of your eyes perfectly,” he told me.
“Aren’t you a little charmer when you’ve had a drink?” I laughed.
“If you gave me the chance, I could be a charmer without the drink.” Major shrugged. “But I think you were already predisposed to hate me when we met.”
I instantly felt guilty because the truth was that he was right. I had been preprogrammed to hate him by all the rumors I’d heard, even if I prided myself on not listening to such gossip. It still had an effect on me, especially when it came to making decisions for the good of my team.
“You might be right,” I sighed and took a sip of my beer. It was much better than the martini that Tessa had me choking down, but I wasn’t at all sure either if the two would mix well with the glass of wine I’d fallen asleep on the sofa with earlier that evening. It was too late to turn back now.
“Maybe I could change your opinion of me?” Major suggested, and I was suddenly intrigued by what he was suggesting. From the way he spoke, I wasn’t at all sure his intentions were completely innocent, but I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps I was simply reading too much into his tone because I was hopeful for something like that myself.
You are not allowed to be hopeful for something like that. The feeling I got in my gut told me that the rest of my body wasn’t listening to my head in any way, shape, or form.
“How do you propose to do that?” I asked before I took another swig of beer. I was going to need it if I was going to make it through this night.
“Can we start over? Pretend like you’ve heard nothing about me and I’ve heard nothing about you?” Major held out his hand as though he wanted to shake on it. I looked down at his hand for a moment and puzzled over what he was asking me.
Then I reached forward and took hold of his hand. “Sounds like a deal to me but what have you heard about me?” I was intrigued to know what kind of things had been going around about me but even as I asked the question, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know.
“I’ve heard that you are a beautiful, fierce woman who always gets what she wants.” Major shrugged as though it wasn’t a big deal. “I’ve also heard you can be pretty scary when you get angry.”
“You’ve seen me pretty angry,” I reminded him as I remembered how he had stood in my office when I’d tried to call Scotty about leaking information that wasn’t his to leak.
“Something tells me you could get a damn sight angrier than that,” Major said. “I’ve handled worse, and I’m lucky not to bear the scars from it.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that but something about the expression on his face told me that it wasn’t something he wanted to go into, at least not right now. I made a mental note to ask him about it in the future.
“So, then, Major, tell me, what do you like to do in your spare time?” I asked, changing the subject. If he wanted to get to know me better, then I wanted to get to know him better, too. When he suddenly pulled his hand away, I realized I had been gripping hold of him for far too long. My hand still tingled as he turned his attention to his own beer.
“Oh, you know, the same as most guys really,” he said. “I like to eat, drink, and follow sports.”
“That sounds like a riveting life,” I joked, and I couldn’t help but giggle at the feigned look of shock on his face as though I had offended him.
“What is so exciting about your own life then, Miss Bowman?” he asked, and my entire body shivered at the way he said my name. I found myself leaning in toward him, drawn by the sultry tone of his voice.
“I guess I’m much the same as you,” I replied.
“Are you sure you aren’t actually a man in drag?” he laughed, and I couldn’t help but laugh along with him.
“Do I look like a man in drag?” I asked as I glanced down at myself and the lace dress I was wearing, “It definitely wasn’t the look I was going for.”
“No way in hell do you look like a man in drag, but if you really do like eating, drinking, and sports as much as you say you do, you could quite possibly be my dream girl,” Major sighed and my heart skipped a beat. His last sentence pushed a thorn in my heart, “It’s a shame you are my boss.”
His words suddenly reminded me of the situation we found ourselves in, and I tried to pull away from him. My back came up against the bar, and I realized I was trapped between the counter and his body. The rest of the crowd around us suddenly seemed to press in closer, and I began to feel claustrophobic.
“I’m sorry.” I placed my half-empty bottle of beer on the counter beside me. “I think I am going to have to go. I suddenly don�
�t feel so well.”
With that, I slipped past him and began to make my way quickly through the crowd, not bothering who I had to barge out of the way to get to where I needed to be and where I needed to be was far away from Major Lawson.
I didn’t stop until reached the alleyway that led back out of the club and onto the street and then I stood in one of the alcoves in the hopes that if he tried to follow me he would walk right on past. I pressed myself back against the wall, closed my eyes and took a deep breath in order to steady myself and my wracked nerves.
What the hell was I thinking? I asked myself as I realized that I had been leaning closer and closer into him. It was the kind of thing I did when I was attracted to somebody. I got closer and closer until I was close enough to kiss them and then I pulled away just enough for them to have to chase me for said kiss. Yet how the hell could I even think of playing that game with Major when he was my employee?
I felt sick to my stomach with anger and guilt. I should never have allowed myself to get so close to him. Even worse than the fact he was my employee were all the things I had heard about him, not just the fact that he had hit his quarterback during the Super Bowl but also the fact that he was a known womanizer who fucked and chucked as though it was an all you could eat buffet and every woman was on the menu.
“Keep your eyes on the prize,” I told myself out loud. “You just need him to help you get your team ready for the Super Bowl. Nothing else.”
Yet there was a small voice in the back of my head that was whispering, you also need him to get you into bed.
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13
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
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