He reached out and took my waist. “So are we.”
“You’re not mad, are you?” I asked, playing with his shirtsleeve.
“I don’t like you going out with Davis. I don’t care what you call it,” Drew said. “But if you tell me you only think of him as a friend and there’s nothing physical going on, then I believe you.”
I hadn’t expected him to be so mature about it. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but that wasn’t it. “Thank you.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m jealous. I hate it, and if he touches you, I’ll punch his face in.”
I started to laugh, thinking that was more the reaction I had anticipated. “Ok.”
“Can we get out of here now?” Drew asked, leaning into my neck, his breath making my body turn into a ball of desire, want, and need.
“Where do you want to go?” I whispered.
His blue eyes gazed into mine, and I could see him trying to come up with an appropriate response. The fact was, we couldn’t go to my house or his Nana’s house. I was more than a little curious to see what he’d come up with.
“Shit,” Rob yelled, throwing his phone down on the bar and disrupting us.
Our moment was over, and a part of me was grateful. I wasn’t sure what my answer would’ve been. I took Drew’s hand and pulled him over to his parents as Rob was ranting. “Everything all right?” I asked.
“The other bartender just bailed. I can’t leave Ellie and Jack at home alone on Christmas Eve. She’ll kill me.” Rob looked towards his father. “Dad?”
Carl raised his hands. “Oh, no, not me. I put in my time. This is your responsibility now.”
Gwyneth slapped her husband’s arm. “You’re really going to keep our son away from his pregnant wife and child on Christmas Eve?”
Carl exhaled. “Rob, I covered for you two days ago and last Saturday and the Friday night before that. I’m supposed to be retired. I told you it was past time to hire some reliable help.”
I hated for Rob to be away from Jack on Christmas Eve, and the Landons didn’t seem like they needed any more strife. “What if Drew and I cover the bar?” I asked.
“What?” Drew cried out.
“It’ll be fun.” I gave him the naughtiest smile I could muster.
“You tend bar?” Rob asked. “You’re an art teacher.”
I always hated being pigeonholed. I straightened my spine. “Try me?”
“What’s in a Long Island Iced Tea?”
“Vodka, gin, rum, tequila, Triple Sec, and lemon juice.” He’d have to do a whole lot better than that to stump me. I caught a glimpse of Drew out of the corner of my eye. He was smiling like a total fool, so proud of me. God, I was falling for him so hard.
“A Screwdriver?”
“Baby stuff, vodka and orange juice.”
“We’ll do it,” Drew said. “I even know how to make a Lemon Drop.”
*
DREW
I was grinning like a complete buffoon as I wiped down the bar. I always wanted to run this place, but I never imagined it would be so much fun. But then again, I bet Piper could make a root canal fun. She continued to surprise and captivate me. I stole a glance her way, watching as she busily counted our tips for the night.
As soon as Rob walked out the door, she’d cranked the music and challenged me to see who could earn the most tips. She had the whole bar belting out Christmas carols, playing quarters, and dancing. She’d even created a Christmas drink special with vodka, cranberry, and a host of other ingredients, dubbing it the Mistletoe Martini. I had no doubt that I’d lost big time. Piper charmed every man in the place except Davis. I wasn’t going to let her wait on him. I, however, was too busy flirting with Piper, pinching her butt, and twirling her around to be bothered to charm any of the other women. I wasn’t sure it counted as a date, but it sure as hell was the best time I’d had with a woman, ever.
“Did you even try?” Piper asked, fanning herself with the money. “I tripled what you made.”
I leaned back on the bar, just staring at her. She was the sexiest Southern beauty I’d ever laid eyes on, and I wanted more of her. “You have a better ass than I do.”
“Not true,” she said, smiling at me.
I guess that meant she liked my ass. I couldn’t get this stupid grin off my face. “Well, you know how to shake it better.”
“Years in the strip clubs. My mom used to tell me that a woman has three moneymakers—her ass, her tits, and her brain. A smart woman knows how to use all three at the same time.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. It made me uncomfortable just thinking about Piper growing up that way. I’d never want her to use her body to make money. Her body was mine, even if she didn’t know it yet. I looked up at the clock, finding it was just after midnight. “Merry Christmas.”
Piper looked up, smiling, then walked over and threw her arms around my neck. “Merry Christmas.”
I held her for a minute, second-guessing the whole present thing. It seemed like a good idea earlier, but now I wasn’t so sure. “I got you a little something.” I unwrapped her arms from around my neck and reached into my back pocket, pulling out a little pouch. “Sorry, it’s not wrapped.”
“You got me a present?” Piper asked, her voice befitting a teenage girl.
“Yeah, close your eyes.” I watched her blue eyes close, her lips turned up in an adorable little smile. I took a deep breath as I lifted her wrist in the air and fastened the clasp. Her eyes opened and her mouth dropped open. She wasn’t smiling. She was just staring. Shit, jewelry was too much. She hates it. What the hell do I say now? Piper held up her wrist, looking at the silver vintage bracelet dangling. A slow, sweet smile fell over her pink lips and I took her hand as relief flooded my body. I showed her the charms hanging down. “They all mean something. Like this one is a baseball because we used to play together, the tree because we spent so many hours climbing it, the lips for our first kiss.” I held up another one. “A firefly and. . . .”
Her lips landed on mine with such force it knocked me backwards slightly. “I love it,” she said between at least a dozen kisses. “I can’t believe you bought me a Christmas present. It’s so beautiful.” She looked at it again. “Oh, no! Some are missing. See? These just have hooks with no charms on them.” She started to bend down to search the ground.
I caught her hand. “No, I had them put those like that.”
“Why?”
“Those are for all the new memories we’ll make together.” I saw her eyes start to water. I knew it was sappy, but I also knew she’d love it. Piper had always been a sweet girl, no matter how much she pretended she was tough, could hang with the boys, or be a bad girl. I knew the girl inside. I stroked her cheek with the back of my hand, and she reached up and did the same to me.
Our lips found each other, and our tongues weren’t far behind. Kissing her was like tasting a little bit of heaven. She was warm and soft. Picking her up, I sat her down on the bar.
*
PIPER
The way his eyes were lapping over me, like he was hungry for me and didn’t know where to start, was so hot. My heart started to pound, my legs throbbing, a deep ache inside. His fingers trailed up my thighs, lifting the hem of my dress. His hands were so strong, yet gentle. The rough callouses seemed to disappear as his fingers slid up the flesh of my inner thighs. He knew exactly how to touch me to drive me crazy. His hands forced open my legs until I was spread-eagle on the bar.
“Let’s find out if you were teasing me about the panties,” he said, his voice low and hungry. His fingers slid higher, then his head shook slightly. “Bad girl, teasing me all night.” His finger slid under the edge of my panties, and I felt myself tremble. “When you shiver like that, it drives me fucking crazy.”
I shivered again, unable to control my body. His finger continued to play with the side of my panties, but he hadn’t touched me yet. The man was a tease in the best way, building up the tension, my want, my craving for
him to touch me.
His warm breath tickling my neck, he whispered, “I can feel your heat.”
I wanted him to touch me so badly. I needed him like I’d never needed any other human being, and I felt I could orgasm any minute. I couldn’t believe it. I was never like this, never. “Oh, God.”
He leaned into my neck, but didn’t kiss me. His breath close to my ear, his finger still toying with my panties, he whispered, “Jesus Christ, you are so wet.”
I’m a grown woman, but I still almost died from embarrassment. The man hadn’t touched me yet, and I was dripping on him. Kill me now.
“I like these panties, but they’re in my way,” he said, yanking my panties off in one smooth motion. Hearing them rip made me scream out, the pulse between my legs delicious. “Look at me, Piper.” I found his eyes just as his finger slowly outlined me, gently tracing the curves of my folds like he was memorizing them. His touch was so soft, but he didn’t need to yield any more power. He had complete control of my body. “I could do this all night,” he whispered.
“More,” I moaned, and he chuckled low in his throat.
“You want to come?”
“Yes,” I breathed out. “God, yes.”
His finger slid inside me, and my head tossed back. “But I just got started.”
My hips started to move with his finger. I didn’t care if I seemed greedy or how I looked spread open on the bar. His free hand went to my hip to stop my movement.
“Let me,” he said. “Let me make you come. Let me do all the work. I just want to watch.”
His finger moved faster, then he pressed the palm of his hand on my sweet spot and moved his finger in a come here motion. And come I did. My whole body exploded, my head tossed back. I gripped his shoulders for support as my body quaked, but he didn’t leave me. His finger slowed, taking me down slowly from my orgasm, making it last and last until I thought I’d faint.
“That’s my girl,” he whispered but still didn’t remove his hand. “I love watching you. You’re so damn beautiful.”
I couldn’t believe it, but I felt myself moisten again, the ache coming back. I’d read about the elusive multiple orgasms but never actually experienced them myself. Right now, I knew he could get me there again, and it wouldn’t take much. And from the grin on his face, I knew he knew it, too.
His finger started to gently move inside me. “You’re going to come again for me.”
It wasn’t a question. It was more like an order or a promise from him that I wasn’t going to have anything left once he’d finished. He stepped back slightly and looked down at his finger inside me. Normally, I would have been mortified, but I so didn’t care. He’d just given me the best orgasm of my life and was about to do it again.
“Even your pussy is beautiful. Can I kiss you? I need to know if you taste as sweet as you look.”
Oh, my God! He did not just say that. The man had lost all verbal filter. He definitely wasn’t wimping out this time. He didn’t wait for an answer, anyway, his head already moving downward.
“Jesus Christ!” a loud voice boomed over the room.
Before I could react, Drew had me down off the bar and pulled behind him. I peeked up over his shoulder, discovering Rob was the one responsible for the cursing.
“On my fucking bar?” Rob paced a little circle.
I felt myself slinking down, trying to hide, totally humiliated. “What the hell are you doing here, anyway?” Drew yelled.
“What the hell am I doing?” Rob snapped. “That’s what you say? I’ve got fucking sex juice all over my bar.”
I winced, and Drew reached around with his hand and patted my leg. I clung to the back of his shirt, burying my head between his shoulders. I couldn’t believe this was happening. The first time I have any kind of sex in two years, and I get caught. The sex gods were definitely out to get me.
“My God, she’s one of Jack’s teachers,” Rob continued to pile on.
“Enough,” Drew snapped. “You can yell at me all you want, but you leave her out of it.”
“Leave her out of it?” Rob laughed. “She’s all over it.”
I grabbed Drew by the waist before he could lunge towards Rob. I didn’t want to see them come to blows. Their relationship was bad enough already. I whispered Drew’s name, and he turned his head slightly towards me. “Please take me home. I’m. . . .” The words got caught in my throat, causing him to turn all the way around. I didn’t want to cry, but a few tears rolled down my hot, flushed cheeks.
“Piper, sweetheart,” he said softly and pulled me into his arms, stroking my hair. I buried myself in his chest, feeling small and insecure, hoping that Rob couldn’t see me. “I’ve got you.”
“I realized I hadn’t left you the keys to lock up. That’s why I came back,” Rob said quietly. “I didn’t see anything, Piper, I swear.”
Drew’s head whipped around. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t say another thing to her.”
“Calm the hell down. Piper’s my friend, too.”
This time I wasn’t fast enough, and Drew was just a half a foot from Rob before I caught him. “Don’t!” I begged as I stepped between the two of them, which meant I was now in Rob’s full line of sight. Damn, I should have just let Drew hit him.
“Just let me kick his ass,” Drew said, his teeth gnashed together.
“I’d like to see you try, baby brother.”
“Oh, shut up, the both of you.” I knew the only way to get out of this was if I put on my big girl panties and stopped it. The fact that my panties were ripped to shreds somewhere didn’t matter. I turned around and faced Rob. “Keys? Give me the keys.”
“I’m sorry,” Rob said quietly.
“Keys?” I said again, holding my hand out.
“Look, I’ll lock up. You and Drew just go on home.”
“No,” I said firmly, unsure how I was holding his gaze.
“Give her the keys,” Drew barked.
“Why, because you aren’t done yet?” Rob yelled.
I wasn’t sure what came over me, but my fist landed right across Rob’s jaw. I’d hit a few men in my life, mostly bullies on the playground and a few of my mom’s deadbeat boyfriends, but never like this. I was furious, and apparently, I’d stunned the Landon boys into silence. “No, because I don’t want to think about you cleaning up any of my juices, you idiotic, insensitive asshole.” Now, I knew I was partly to blame for this whole mess. It wasn’t the best idea to have sex on someone else’s bar, but Rob had been a complete jerk about it.
He rubbed his jaw then tossed the keys down on a table. “Leave them in my mailbox on your way home.”
Neither Drew nor I moved until Rob was out the door. Drew pulled me into his chest, and I broke down sobbing—my little mask of bravery now in pieces on the floor. “I’m humiliated.”
“He didn’t see anything,” Drew whispered.
“How do you know?”
“I know my brother. He knew what we were doing, but he didn’t see anything. He’d be bleeding on the floor if I thought he saw you.”
“I thought you were going to kill him, anyway.”
“I didn’t need to. You handed him his balls rather nicely, and your right hook did just fine.” He gave me his adorable, approving smile.
“Still, I am his son’s teacher. If this gets out, I could lose my job.”
“It won’t get out. Rob wouldn’t do that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s done much, much worse.”
*
I looked in my rearview mirror, seeing Drew right behind me in his pickup. He insisted on following me home. I tried to pull myself together after the whole Rob fiasco, but I wasn’t fully over it yet. Drew knew I was upset and didn’t want me driving home by myself. It was sweet, and I was grateful. He’d held me for a long time after Rob left and iced my hand, worried I had hurt myself, even though I insisted I was fine. I was hoping he’d take as good care of my heart as he did with my hand. I was much
more worried about that.
I pulled into the driveway and got out, waving to Drew that I was fine, but he pulled in behind me and got out of his truck. He marched towards me and pinned me against my car, staring down into my eyes. His hands went to my cheeks as he tilted my head up and studied my face.
“No more tears?” he asked.
I hadn’t cried any on the way home, but now I found myself blinking back a few tears. Drew was touching my heart and making me an emotional mess. I shook my head, but it wasn’t very convincing.
“Come here,” he said, taking my hands and pulling me towards the old Magnolia tree in the front yard. He pushed down on the old wooden boards nailed into the trunk, checking their strength before motioning for me to climb. “Up you go.”
No one had been up the makeshift stairs since Drew and I last went up as teenagers, not to mention the fact that I was in a dress sans panties, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I kicked off my boots and started up. “Don’t look up my dress.”
Drew laughed, swatted my ass, then climbed up behind me. We reached our branch, the one we’d sat on so many times before, but this time Drew put his arm around my waist, and I leaned close into his body.
He kissed the top of my head. “I always wanted to sit like this with you.”
“Me, too,” I admitted. “It’s nice.”
“I wanted to ask you to be my girlfriend so many times that last year you lived here.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He looked up at the stars. “Scared, I guess.”
I waited, wondering if he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend now. I know it seemed juvenile, but the schoolgirl in me still wanted to hear those words. But they never came.
We sat for a long time huddled together under the Christmas sky, watching the stars. I had a lot I wanted to say to him, a lot I wanted to ask, but this wasn’t the moment. This wasn’t the time for talking. This was the time for quiet. I’d always read about moments like this, when you can just sit quietly with someone, feeling completely connected without the necessity of words. His fingers gently rubbed my arm, and I reached down and played with the charms on my bracelet. This was turning out to be the best Christmas of my life. I just hoped it could last beyond the holiday.
Wrapped in Lace Page 7
