by Jessica Ashe
“No way, we’re not leaving. There are plenty of guys in here I have my eye on, but more importantly, there’s one who has his eye on you.”
“Who?” I ask. It’s pathetically obvious that I know who she’s talking about, and by asking I’ve probably come across as desperate to deflect attention from him.
“Tanner couldn’t have made it more obvious if he’d pulled down his pants and showed you the raging boner he’s probably sporting for you.”
“Don’t be disgusting. I bet he talks to all the women like that. Probably just does it for tips.”
“In this case he’s doing it for tits. Your tits to be precise. Speaking of which, are you cold?”
I cross my arms over my chest to cover my nipples. I’d been hoping the black dress wouldn’t show up my nipples, but they’re rock hard and determined to make themselves known. Traitors.
“I suppose you’re going to claim my nipples being hard means I’m attracted to… what’s his name again?”
“You know full well his name is Tanner. And the constant attempts to make me think otherwise just further convince me that you’re into him.”
“He’s not my type.”
“He’s everyone’s type, honey. Good looking, huge muscles, and a look in his eyes that suggests when he gets you into bed he won’t be ‘making love’ to you. One night with him and you’ll barely be able to walk tomorrow.”
“Well now I’m sold. What girl doesn’t dream of waking up in the morning with a sore vagina?”
“Not just that,” Sadie continues. “You’ll have hand prints on your ass, teeth marks around your nipples, and your thighs will be weak from riding him silly.”
“Is this supposed to sound appealing?”
“Yes,” Sadie says enthusiastically. “Christ, I’m making myself horny just thinking about it. The next guy who comes over is going to find me ready and willing, if you get my drift.”
“It’s subtle, but I think I follow.”
“Listen, Elena, you’re never going to come back to this place. Just think about that for a second. Tonight, you can do whatever you want without worrying about what people think. We don’t have to be upstanding citizens. We can sleep with whoever we want and not get labeled as sluts.”
“You already sleep with whoever you want and don’t worry about being labeled a slut.”
“And now I want you to do the same. Come on, it’s just one night. Let him do things to your body you never thought possible.”
“I’m not ready.”
Sadie sighs loudly and dramatically. “It’s been over a year. It’s time to move on. And I can’t think of a better way to do that than by sucking and fucking a man like Tanner. Seriously, if he’d looked at me the way he looked at you, I’d already be out back with my hands pressed up against the wall and panties around my ankles.”
“He’s all yours,” I say. “There’s no way he’s interested in me. You’re reading far too much into this. All he’s done is say a few nice things and get us a table.”
“Yeah and to do that he kicked off three huge guys without even flexing a muscle. No man has ever done anything like that for me.”
“Just drop it, okay? He’s really not—”
He’s coming over.
A woman has taken over behind the bar, and Tanner is walking directly towards me. I’m not breathing. With every step he takes, I can see more of him. More of his muscles. More of the stubble around his face, more of the bulge below his waist.
Tanner makes it halfway to me before a woman in a leather skirt and boob tube steps in front of him and wraps her arms around his neck.
I knew it. He wasn’t interested in me. He was probably just walking over to her. She’s attractive and obvious. He could probably fuck her right now in the middle of the bar and she’d be game. Why bother with someone like me when women like her are around?
“Oh fuck,” Sadie says as Tanner grabs the woman’s arms and removes them from around his neck. He practically shoves her to one side and carries on walking over. “It’s happening, it’s happening. Just play it cool, Elena. And try to relax. Remember, it’s just a bit of fun and after these last couple of months you’ve earned that.”
“Hello again, ladies,” Tanner says, standing over us and smiling. He looks even bigger now, both taller and wider at the shoulders than I’d realized. “Mind if I join you?”
I shrug my shoulders, but Sadie enthusiastically says “yes.” Tanner sits next to me, close enough that our thighs are almost touching even though there’s loads of space to his left he could be using. He’s massive. His thighs must be at least twice the size of mine, if not more. If I did straddle him, I’d have to practically do the splits to get my legs around him.
“How’s the wine?” Tanner asks.
“Tastes like shit,” I reply. “No offense.”
“None taken. I don’t choose the stuff.”
“You don’t own this place then?” Sadie asks.
“No, but I run it most of the time.”
“So you have access to an office where you won’t be disturbed?”
“I can get privacy if I need it,” Tanner replies. He reaches out and squeezes my thigh gently. I don’t push him away. I’m too focused on trying to suppress the heat building between my legs. He’s so close I’m sure he can feel my passion on his fingertips.
“I assume you girls just took the bar exam?” he asks.
“Yep,” Sadie says. “It’s been a brutal few months, and we’re both in need of some stress relief. You know any good ways to relieve the stress?”
Sadie and Tanner are working together to weaken my willpower. It’s not like I don’t want to fuck him. I’m human. Just because I’m a bit frigid doesn’t mean I don’t want a good fuck once in a while.
I just can’t bring myself to do it.
“I hear orgasms can be good for stress,” Tanner replies. He squeezes my thigh again. “There’s nothing like a good orgasm ripping through your body, making you explode with excitement. It’s impossible to be stressed after that.”
“I hear a good night’s sleep also works wonders,” I add.
“I know which one I want tonight,” Sadie says. “Tanner, I assume you know most of the locals fairly well?”
“Yeah, for better or worse, I know them.”
“Can you recommend me one who has no respect for women, will abuse me all night, and not call me in the morning? Preferably one who doesn’t have a loyalty card with the local STD clinic.”
Tanner scans the room. “See that guy with the snake tattoo on his left arm?” Tanner points to a guy who looks a bit like himself but an earlier model, one that didn’t come off the factory floor in quite such flawless condition. “He has a good reputation and will make sure you don’t leave this fair town without something nice to remember.”
“Thank you, Tanner. I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
‘You bitch,’ I mouth at Sadie as she walks away.
“You don’t like me very much, do you?” Tanner asks.
“I don’t know you,” I reply.
“Do you think you have to know someone to have fun with them?”
“It helps. I certainly prefer to know someone before they put their hand on my leg.”
He smiles, but doesn’t move his hand. He’s so annoyingly chill about this whole thing. Maybe this is his routine. When he sees a girl he likes, he makes a table available for them and then comes over to chat them up.
I wonder if he ever gets much resistance. That smile, those eyes, and even his smell are borderline irresistible. Before he showed up, I could smell the thick stench of sweat permeating through the room. Now all I can smell is a faint masculinity coming from Tanner. He’s not sweating, and I know it’s not aftershave. That’s just how he smells. No wonder he attracts women so easily.
“Let’s get to know each other then,” Tanner says. “You already know I work here in this bar. There’s not a lot else to know.”
“You go to colleg
e?”
“What do you think?”
“You don’t look like the college type.”
“What type do I look like?”
Tanner doesn’t look anything like my dad on the face of it. He’s tattooed and covered in muscle for one thing. But they do have one thing in common. The way they carry themselves. He’s not a cop so….
“Military,” I reply.
He looks shocked, and for the first time tonight, I see his confidence briefly vanish. It’s back in an instant. “I’m impressed. Yeah, I served for a bit. What about you, then? You just finished law school. What are you doing next?”
“I don’t know,” I reply. “I don’t have a job yet.”
Sadie on the other hand walked straight into a job with a $180,000-a-year salary attached to it. The girl who is grinding up against a mountain of muscle she barely knows is the one who got the ‘biglaw' job. I fucked up.
“You can come work in my bar if you like,” Tanner suggests. “You’d be a very welcome addition.”
“Such a generous offer, but I’ll have to pass. I have student loans to repay, so minimum wage plus tips ain’t going to cut it.”
“Fair enough. Well then, we know each other’s backgrounds. How about we get to know each other a little more intimately?”
I blush bright red and quickly look away. A second later I feel his breath on my neck and then his lips. I inhale and freeze up, unable to move. His hand squeezes my thigh again, his thumb inches slowly closer to the top. It takes every ounce of willpower to stop myself from grabbing his hand and thrusting it between my legs.
Instead I push Tanner’s hand away before the other one can join in the fun.
“I’m not interested,” I lie.
I’m so desperate for relief that I want to touch myself, right here in public. Anything to relieve the burning sensation between my thighs.
“Your nipples are telling another story,” Tanner says confidently.
I’m never wearing this dress again.
“Just because you spend entire conversations staring at them, doesn’t mean it’s my nipples that are doing the talking.”
“They’re giving away more than you realize. They’ve been hard like this ever since you laid eyes on me.”
“I’m cold.”
“No you’re not. You’re burning up. Why not let go and have a bit of fun? I’ll go gentle. The first time anyway.”
“Is it really that hard for you to believe you’re not my type?”
“Yes.” He says it matter-of-factly. He’s not trying to be funny or charming, he just genuinely believes it. I wish he were wrong.
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
I stand up, but he grabs me by the wrist and pulls me back down. I land on top of him, my hand landing directly over his heart. I push gently, feeling the rock hard muscle underneath my palm.
Unless I’m very much mistaken, it’s not just my nipples that have hardened for the occasion. Is that a thing for men too? I must be one of the most naïve twenty-six-year-olds ever.
My pulse quickens as I think about slipping down under the table and freeing his beast. I bet not even Sadie has sucked off a guy in the middle of the bar.
“Let go,” I say firmly, channeling some of my passion into my voice and turning it to anger.
I am angry. Angry at my body for reacting this way to such a jackass. I’ve heard of men thinking with their penises, but I thought women were better than that. Apparently I’m not.
“Don’t be long,” Tanner growls. “I’ve got plans for you tonight.”
He lets go, but I enjoy the moment for a few more seconds before pushing myself off him and climbing back to my feet. I walk quickly through the crowd, the smell of sweat back in the air as I avoid wandering hands and leery stares from both law students and locals.
The bathroom is mercifully empty. I splash cold water over my face, ignoring the makeup I’d carefully applied only an hour earlier. The cold water cools me down slightly, but it’s not my face that needs cooling off.
I need to get out of here. I’m scared, but not of Tanner. I’m scared of what I might do with him.
I’m powerless to resist him and I don’t just mean physically. If he had bent me over the table, I would have been the one to pull my panties down. That’s terrifying.
I don’t know what’s come over me, but I’m not going to hang around and find out.
Chapter Four
Tanner
She’s not coming back.
Fuck.
I’ve never seen a woman want me so much and yet deny herself my pleasure. Why would anyone do that to themselves? It would be like a kid excited for Christmas, running down the stairs to see his presents, and then refusing to open any of them.
She’s more complicated than my usual type, but I’ve always been up to the challenge. The good thing about looking like me is that the bad girls want me, but so do the good girls. If anything, the good girls want me even more. They’re not going to take me home to meet daddy, and that’s just fine with me. It’s a win-win situation. Usually, anyway.
Sadie is still on the dance floor, but she’s occupied and I’m worried Elena’s going to sneak out and head back to her hotel. I still don’t know where home is for her; all I know is it’s not here. If I don’t hit that tonight, I’ll never have her. She’s putting up a fight, but I don’t give up easily. Especially not when I want something so badly.
I’m keeping an eye on the women’s bathroom when I spot Daron and a couple of the lads heading towards the exit. It’s far too early for them to leave, and they look more serious than drunk. They’re on their way to a job.
I leap up and head for the exit, just about managing to catch Daron before he leaves. “Where’re you going?”
“Just going to pay someone a visit.”
“What kind of visit?”
“Don’t play naïve, Tanner. The kind of visit you make to someone late on a Friday night when they owe you money.”
“I’m coming with you,” I insist. “Just give me two minutes and I’ll join you.”
“Chill, man. You don’t need to come along on this one, honestly, I’m fine. This will be an easy job and it’ll be over in an hour. Seriously, the guy we’re visiting isn’t going to get hurt. He’s sensible—he’ll pay up and we’ll be on our way.”
I’ve been on jobs like that before. The sensible ones are the ones you need to watch out for. Everyone is sensible and everyone pays up—until they don’t. Then things get nasty.
“I still think I should tag along. Surely you could use the extra muscle. Especially since you’re going a bit soft.”
I squeeze Daron’s shoulder. He works out as much as I do, but he drinks a hell of a lot more, and the less said about what he eats, the better. All the chest presses in the world won’t help if your diet is shit.
“Strength is as much in the mind as it is in the body,” Daron replies.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You been reading fortune cookies again?”
“It means, I don’t always need to fight. You’d do well to learn that one day. Anyway, don’t you have better things to do tonight? Where’s that tasty bit of ass you were talking to earlier?”
“Bathroom,” I reply. “I don’t think I’m going to get anywhere with that one.”
“Wow, what did I just hear? Fucking hell, now I’m tempted to stay put. I didn’t think I’d ever see the day where I got to watch Tanner Rockwell strike out. The only time I’ve ever seen you fail, was the time you were fooling around with your girl’s mother behind her back. She was pissed.”
“I remember,” I say, touching the side of my face which still stings occasionally from the slap. I’ve taken some damage over the years—I’ve been shot—but damn, that slap. “In my defense, the problem wasn’t me screwing her mom on the side. It was more that I called her by her mother’s name.”
“Have I ever told you you’re one classy motherfucker? That chick doesn’t know what
she’s missing tonight. Never mind, there’s plenty of pussy in there waiting for a bit of rock-hard Rockwell.”
I grimace at the thought of screwing one of the other women at Hard Times tonight. I’m getting looks from quite a few of the law students, but they don’t hold any appeal. It’s typical, really. There are plenty of women in here who want to bat below their average for the evening, but I chose the one who doesn’t. Can’t be helped. The cock wants what the cock wants.
“Not in the mood for anyone else,” I reply. “Might as well beat someone up if it will help you guys out.”
“Honestly, Tanner, you’re not needed. It’s great of you to offer, but you should stay here. Look, we’re not even packing.”
Daron lifts up his shirt to show me his waistband which is conspicuously absent of any firepower. The guys Daron works for are surprisingly cautious at times and only carry guns when necessary. It’s like driving slowly in a getaway car. You’re better off not drawing attention to yourself.
“All right, but take it easy out there, mate.”
“Always do.”
Daron rejoins his crew and they jump into a car. I look out for him as best I can, but I can’t be attached to him twenty-four seven. I made a promise to his brother and I’m doing the best I can to keep it.
I turn around and head back through the door where I bump into a short woman who seems in a desperate rush to get out.
“Hello there,” I say to Elena. “Fancy bumping into you again.”
“I have to leave.”
“You don’t have to leave. At least be honest about it.”
“Okay, fine. I want to leave.”
I shake my head. “Still not being honest there, are you? You think you should leave, but you don’t want to.”
I place my hand on her waist and push her up against the wall on the pretense of letting some guys squeeze past on their way into the bar.
She gasps nervously, and I look down to see her breasts rising and falling with each heavy breath. She smells incredible; I have to taste her.
“You were in the bathroom a long time. Did you relieve some tension while you were there?”
