by Scarlet Day
Laci stopped walking and looked around the lobby, her eyebrows rising as she took in the expansive space. “Wow, this is gorgeous.”
Tucker’s cock twitched at the look of appreciation in her eyes, and he wondered if she’d like the full tour of the place, including the basement.
Dammit, Tuck. Get a grip.
Tucker’s reasonable side told him to avoid the basement. His cat and the part of him already yearning to test this kitten’s limits, however, wondered how pissed off Colt would be if Tucker broke one of their biggest rules.
Chapter Four
Laci popped the cap off a bottle of Heineken and slid it across the bar to her newest customer. The man who’d ordered it—a squirrel shifter from the smell of him—scooped it up and tilted it toward her with a grin, then took a long swig before turning and scanning the lounge. He wasn’t the type of man she usually served at her brother’s bar. Most of the local guys in her town lived in scuffed-up cowboy boots, jeans that had seen better days, and plaid flannel shirts. Lots and lots of plaid. But this guy was wearing khaki pants and a collared shirt with a pony on the chest. He seemed a bit prissy for Laci’s tastes, not that she was in the market. No, she was definitely not in the market.
She sighed in relief at the contrast between her new job and working in Price’s bar. The long bar she worked behind now was solid mahogany and polished to a mirror-like shine. Bottles and glasses slid over the surface with ease. The furnishings were new, with comfortable couches and armchairs clustered together in intimate groups. A fire burned in the massive limestone fireplace in the corner and provided the perfect place for guests to gather. There was even a guitarist, Dylan, playing country tunes on the far side of the lounge.
He had introduced himself to her during his first break and they’d hit it off. He was a lion shifter, but he hadn’t tried to hit on her yet, even though she knew he had to have been bombarded by her scent. It wasn’t exactly subtle. She guessed that Tucker must have his employees on a very short leash, with instructions not to fraternize. Dylan lived at the resort full-time, like most of the employees, since it was so remote. He seemed like someone she could be friends with, as long as he didn’t try to make any serious moves on her.
This place was a far cry from the rough-hewn bar and peanut-shell-covered floors she was used to, but the décor was not the most significant difference. She’d been on her first shift for over two hours and not a single guest had propositioned her. All her customers had been well-behaved and polite. The guests seemed fairly evenly split between men and women, though they weren’t all couples. It helped that none of the male guests she’d served so far had been lion shifters. She’d served quite a few bears, two hawks, a group of wolves and now the squirrel she’d just served the Heineken to. None of them were the least bit interested in her out-of-control pheromones. The lodge owner, Tucker, was a lion, but he’d made himself scarce after showing her around the lodge and getting her settled into her room.
The thought of Tucker sent a shiver through her. Her new boss was not only a lion shifter, he was alpha material. She could see it in the way he walked, the commanding way he held himself, and even in the tone of his voice. Her cat reacted to him even more strongly than to the unattached locals in her hometown. He was sex on legs. Dark-brown hair, blue eyes, and six-foot-something of raw, unadulterated man. She’d bet he would be just as magnificent in his cat form. As she tidied the bar, Laci found herself thinking about him in ways she had no business doing, but it was hard to stop herself. The more distance he had put between them on the tour, the more she had wished he would accidentally brush up against her. The more he’d averted his gaze when she glanced at him, the more eager she had been to feel his stare on her.
But he hadn’t tried to start anything with her during the tour of the lodge, even though her cat had been growling sexual frustration and broadcasting pheromones by the bucketful. When she hadn’t been looking at him, Laci had felt Tucker’s hot stare on her numerous times, but he had kept his distance and looked away every time she glanced toward him. There was no way his lion could have been oblivious to the signals her cat was putting out. Which meant he was not only all alpha, but he was also in complete control of his own animal. Laci wished she could say the same.
She grimaced as the phone in her back pocket vibrated. She grabbed at it, already suspecting who it would be. Sure enough, one glance at the screen confirmed her assumption. It was the fifth time Price had called her today. She let the call go to voice mail, just as she had the previous four times. She had yet to listen to any of the messages. She already knew what they would say.
It didn’t matter what Price said. It didn’t matter how much he argued or reasoned with her. Hell, he could beg and it wouldn’t make any difference. Laci wouldn’t go back and be shackled to a man she didn’t love. She felt a brief twinge of guilt at her blatant rejection of Austin. He really was a nice guy and she did care for him, just not as someone she could ever consider a mate. She’d grown up with him. He and Price had been inseparable as kids and their bond had grown even closer since Price took over the pride. Austin was always at the table for family dinners and crashed on the sofa watching football games. Laci had never seen him as anything other than another big brother.
Price had given her time to date and fall in love, but it hadn’t happened. Granted, there wasn’t exactly an online dating service for shifters, so her options had been limited. Since her mate would have the right to challenge Price for leadership, her options had been even more limited. Only someone within their own pride could be trusted not to try to usurp Price.
She knew Austin had been the logical choice for Price to make when she’d failed to find someone on her own. It just wasn’t a choice Laci could live with. And if she really admitted the truth, she hadn’t tried very hard to find anyone to mate with. It was the last thing she wanted to do.
She shoved the cell phone back in her pocket and turned her back on the bar to straighten the beer bottles in the built-in cooler. Her resolve that she’d made the right decision in leaving Dalton Valley hardened a little more every time Price called. And from what she’d seen so far, she’d picked the right place to run to. With any luck, any other male lion shifters would be as uninterested as Dylan seemed to be, or at least would have a healthy respect for whatever rules their employer had established. She’d have to ask Tucker about that when she got the chance. She didn’t want to screw up and get fired for fooling around with another employee, not that she had seen any she was particularly attracted to. Well, other than Tucker, but he had already shown her that his control was stronger than her pheromones.
“You must be our new bartender.” The smooth voice behind Laci put all her senses on alert.
She must have been so distracted by her phone that she hadn’t heard anyone walk up to the bar. Even without turning around, though, she knew the newest customer at the bar was a lion shifter. Sure, she could pick up his feline scent, but it was more than that. She could feel it by the way the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Her cat sniffed and then purred long and low. Laci rolled her eyes at the single-mindedness of her cat and then reminded it that she was not in the market. She closed the beer cooler door and took her time turning around, willing a disinterested expression onto her face.
“That’s me.” She kept her eyes focused on the customer’s hands as they rested palms-down on the bar. “What can I get you?”
“Anything cold and wet, kitten.”
Laci could hear the grin in his voice. She wanted to be offended by the endearment the stranger had used. How many times had she been called that before? But his deep voice and the silky way the word rolled off his tongue only made her grin, in spite of her determination to remain impassive. She slid over to the tap without making eye contact with him, grabbing a frosted glass out of the cooled storage bin on her way. She pulled the lever for Coors beer and watched the golden liquid flow from the tap, fighting the curiosity to know what the man looked like.
It wasn’t easy. The temptation to peek grew with every ounce of beer collecting in the glass.
As the liquid neared the top of the glass, she lost the internal battle and glanced over at her waiting customer. She almost dropped the glass. The man staring back at her had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, set in a face that was as rugged as it was handsome. He looked like the kind of man who might throw her over the back of his horse and ride off with her into the wilderness. Hell, as good as he looked, she might let him. He took his light-tan cowboy hat off and set it on the bar, revealing tousled blond hair. Her gaze slid down his chest and she shivered. She could see the definition of his muscles, even under the faded denim shirt he wore. She couldn’t see anything below the waist, but if the bottom part of him looked even half as good as the top of him looked, then she was in trouble. Her cat purred and Laci cringed. How could she end up at a resort with a walking sex god for an owner and guests who looked like this?
Beer spilled over the rim of the glass and over her hand. She said a silent curse and grabbed a dish towel before wiping the glass off and sliding it over to him. It took all her effort to rip her gaze away from his, but if she kept staring at him she would make an even bigger idiot out of herself.
“Four-fifty. Do you want me to put that on your room tab?” She waited for an answer, keeping her focus on his hand as he wrapped it around the glass. His long fingers tapered into manicured nails. She had to admire a man who looked as though he could wrestle a bear—and win—but kept his fingernails clean.
“I don’t need—” He hesitated. The corner of his mouth twitched and a sparkle entered his eyes. “Sure, just put it on my tab. The Cougar Suite.”
Without her consent, Laci’s gaze followed the glass as he raised it to his lips, a grin spreading across his face. She wondered how those lips would feel pressed up against hers. That thought led to even more dangerous thoughts, and she tried to push them away. But then again, how bad would it be to get involved with a guest? Maybe it wasn’t against the rules. Maybe she could casually ask Dylan when he was on his break. She could have some fun with a guest and then he’d leave. No strings, no commitments. She felt a smile slide across her face, thinking she might have just found a benefit to working at the resort that wouldn’t be included in the employee handbook. Besides, her cat’s sexual urges had been driving her crazy and she hadn’t done anything to sate them in months. Maybe it was time to do something about that.
Chapter Five
“Do you hold everything as well as you hold your alcohol, cowboy?”
Laci’s question caused a grin to slide across Colt’s face. He hid it, likely ineffectively, by taking another drink of his sixth beer. Or maybe seventh, he’d lost count. Lucky for him it took a huge amount of alcohol to have much effect on him. Otherwise, he might have already suggested to Laci that she end her shift early and go back to his room so he could spend all night fucking her senseless. Not that he hadn’t made more than a few suggestive remarks over the last few hours, they just hadn’t been as straightforward as the thoughts running through his mind.
Laci obviously had no idea she was flirting with the co-owner of the lodge. Either Tucker hadn’t mentioned Colt’s name to her, or she wasn’t aware there were two owners. He’d almost told her who he was when he’d ordered his first beer, but he was in a playful mood. He had spent all day leading a group of raccoon-shifters on a horseback ride up the mountain and they’d been a bit on the skittish side. Colt needed to unwind and Laci had looked, and smelled, like just the woman to work the kinks out of him.
He wondered what Tucker’s reaction had been when he’d realized he’d hired a drop-dead sexy cat with raging hormones. If Laci had been throwing off half the amount of pheromones when she’d met Tucker as she’d been doing while Colt sat at the bar, he imagined it would have taken all of his friend’s alpha stubbornness to keep Tucker from doing the same things to her that Colt was imagining. He wondered why Dylan hadn’t already thrown himself over the bar at her. Although, now that he thought about it, Dylan much preferred to be the one who got pounced on. His preferences ran more to females who would rough him up a bit.
Colt knew he should confess and tell Laci he was her co-boss, but he was having too much fun. Besides, her scent was wreaking havoc on his cat. The beast had been demanding that Colt answer the call of her pheromones, and he was having a damn hard time keeping himself from doing exactly that. Unfortunately, he knew he’d catch hell from Tucker if he gave in. But if he couldn’t play with their newest employee, he could at least have a little harmless fun with her.
He’d watched her serve guests and was impressed with her bartending skills. Colt knew how hard it was to find shifters who had the skills he and Tucker needed, while also being willing to move to the middle of nowhere. The remoteness was necessary for their guests, who wanted the freedom to be able to run freely in their animal forms without fear of being seen by non-shifters. But it got lonely. Too lonely, sometimes.
Tucker had lucked out with this one. Not only did she know her job, but she also looked damn good doing it. The bar’s customers must have shared his thoughts, because the tip jar was more stuffed than Colt had ever seen it.
He watched her as she tidied up behind the bar and checked on the remaining straggling guests. Every time she bent over, whether rinsing something in the sink or straightening supplies, her long blonde hair fell across her face. Colt couldn’t help but notice how she used those opportunities to watch him, her gaze growing hotter on his skin with every stolen glance.
Colt had to remind himself, repeatedly, that employees were off limits. With every passing hour, though, his curses against that agreement with Tucker had grown increasingly crude. Colt hadn’t had much of an attraction for other employees before, so it had never been an issue. But Laci was somehow different. Not only was she a cat whose pheromones were making his own cat stand up and prowl, but she was exactly the type of woman who caught Colt’s attention. Not bone-thin, but also not overweight. He could imagine her curves fitting against him and molding to his body. She had spunk and sass, something he liked in a woman. He wondered if that spunk carried over into the bedroom. He had a feeling it did and he couldn’t help wishing he could experience it for himself.
Laci reached behind her to untie her bartending apron, forcing her breasts to strain against her low-cut T-shirt. Colt felt a shiver work its way from the base of his spine up to the back of his neck, raising the tiny hairs there and sending the shiver right back down his body. The effort to ignore his throbbing dick became harder with each passing second. He shifted on the barstool, trying to ease the uncomfortable pressure.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder. “I see you’ve met Laci.”
Tucker’s voice had the effect of cold water splashed on Colt’s heated thoughts. The gig was up. He drained the contents of his glass before answering.
“Yep. She’s a keeper.” He winked at Laci and she averted her gaze, but Colt caught the grin that turned her lips up before she turned away.
Colt felt a stare on him and he turned to see Tucker watching him with narrowed eyes. Colt gave him his best innocent look, which only made Tucker look at him with more suspicion.
Tucker pressed his lips together, but then he sat on the stool next to Colt and turned to Laci. “How was your first night?”
Laci smiled and Colt felt the heat return to him. “It was great! The guests are really nice and the bar setup is perfect. I can’t thank you enough for hiring me.”
“I’m just glad you were available.” Tucker leaned over the bar and grabbed an empty glass.
Laci reached for the glass. “I’ll get that for you.” Her hand closed over Tucker’s and both she and Tucker froze. Colt watched Tucker’s nostrils flare as his gaze stayed locked on Laci’s. So, Tucker wasn’t immune to their hot new employee, either. Colt found that knowledge rather satisfying.
Tucker let Laci take the glass from his hand, but not before a hypnotizing blush had crept across her
face. “Um. What would you like?”
Tucker shook his head slightly, almost like he was trying to get water out of his ears. “Coors, please. And thanks.”
Laci smiled as she filled the glass. “My pleasure. That’s what I’m here for.”
The word pleasure crossing her lips made Colt’s dick twitch. She slid the glass across the bar. “Colt, did you want another or are you ready to close out your tab?”
The question caught him off guard. “Uh…”
Tucker laughed. “He doesn’t need a tab. One of the benefits of being a co-owner is getting all the beer he can drink.” He slapped Colt on the back. “Which is quite a lot.”
Colt slowly raised his gaze to look at Laci. She was staring back at him with her lips slightly parted and her eyes wide. Colt thought of all the suggestive remarks and one-liners they’d exchanged over the last few hours. He imagined those same lines were running through Laci’s mind right about now, as well.
Colt tried to think of something to say, but it was Dylan, their guitarist, who broke the uncomfortable silence. “Hey, Laci. That’s it for me tonight.” He grabbed a handful of pretzels from the bowl at the end of the bar, his guitar case in his other hand. He waved toward Colt and Tucker. “Hey, bosses. I hear we’ve got a peacock convention coming in.” He winked at Laci. “They’re great tippers.”
He headed for the front of the lounge, but then he stopped and turned around. “Hey, Laci, I almost forgot. I don’t know what you’re into, but if you like to play you should come check out the basement sometime.” He wagged his eyebrows and then turned around and walked across the lobby, swinging his guitar case and humming a George Strait song.
