by MISSY HARPER
“So he’s been coming in here dressed all sexy and acting inappropriately, has he?” Rylee questioned, losing her battle with the laughter she had been fighting.
“It’z no funny Mizz Rylee. He’z going to leave me!” Ramon shrieked as if he’d just been electrocuted. Rylee looked down to the side to fine Jorge standing with his arms crossed over his chest and a pretty impressive pout going on.
“What’d I miss?” Cindy, Nick’s wife, asked as she slid into the chair next to Nick.
“Ramon and Jorge are fighting again.” Nick answered around his huge grin while straining to hear what was being said in the kitchen.
“Really? I would have never guessed… with Rylee standing on top of the worktable and all.” Cindy shot back as she playfully punched Nick in the arm.
“This time they were throwin food at each other and callin each other bitches. Ramon immediately went to tears when Rylee went in there.” Crystal, one of the waitresses, whispered to her in hushed tones.
“Who are they fighting about this time, Nick?” Cindy grabbed her husbands arm and excitedly asked while shaking him.
“Ethan.” Nick supplied with an evil grin.
Rylee’s verbal shakedown of the two men was interrupted by a loud burst of laughter. She looked back toward where it had come from to find Cindy nearly doubled over, and Ethan glaring at her. Rylee’s delighted attention was drawn away from Ethan’s angry eyes when Jorge began to profess his undying love for Ramon.
“I’m no going to leave you, Ramon.” Jorge’s eyes filled with tears as he all but ran to the other man and threw his arms around him.
“Yez you will!” Ramon insisted, turning his head defiantly away, refusing to hug Jorge. “You love him.” Ramon sniffed. “He’z prettier than me.” Ramon said through a suddenly serious case of the sniffles, still refusing to look at Jorge.
“No, baby. It’z you tha I love, not tha cowboy! He’z so rough and gruff.” Jorge said with a very feminine whine to his voice. “I jus like to look at him, tha’z all.” Jorge continued with a little giggle.
“But he’z so pretty?” Ramon whined as he rubbed his hand down Jorge’s chest.
“Oh, yez, he iz so, so pretty, Ramon. We talk about how pretty he iz while we make up, yez?” Jorge flirted with the man in his arms as Rylee heard a hard thump come from the direction of the table. She looked over to see Ethan’s head down on the table top and didn’t even attempt to stop her giggle. This was so good!
“We are so sorry, Mizz Rylee.” Ramon told her sincerely as Jorge whispered, loudly, in his ear. “You are so sexy, Ramon. You are all I want. I can’t wait to show you what I would do if we had that cowboy between…”
“Oh, for the love! That’s enough you two!” Rylee yelled at the two men. It was a lot of fun making Ethan squirm, but seriously?
“I’m not going to put up with this from you two anymore. I don’t care if you’re the best chef’s in the whole damn country! This is never to happen in my kitchen again! Do you understand me?” She asked as she pointed her finger at them from atop her perch on the worktable.
“Yez, Mizz Rylee.” Jorge lisped in response.
“I don’t care what’s going on in your personal lives! You do not bring it into my kitchen again! If you do, you are fired! This is fair warning!” She forewarned, pointing her finger at both of them. “Now clean this mess up!” She commanded as she gracefully walked back down the step stool as if it were stairs.
“Mizz Rylee?” Jorge asked.
“Yes, Jorge.” Rylee answered in an aggravated tone.
“Do you think he might want to join uz later.” Jorge questioned around a giggle as he shyly pointed at Ethan.
“I don’t think his pony trots backwards, Jorge, but I’ll be sure to ask him.” Rylee said, enjoying herself far too much. “I’m going shopping. I want this kitchen ready to pass a Board of Heath inspection in less than one hour or you’re both fired!” Rylee said as she turned and walked out of the kitchen.
She pulled the swinging door closed behind her. It flapped back and forth a few times as they watched her make a bee line for Ethan with an unreadable expression on her face. She came to a stop at the side of his chair and leaned down close to his face. She placed one hand flat on the table, and the other she wrapped around the back of his chair.
“I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask that you stop comin in here sashaying your sexy lil ass in front of my chef’s. It’z causing a problem… not for me, mind you, but for my chef’s.” She rolled her R’s and added a lisp to her S’s in imitation of the way the two chef’s spoke. Her mouth was so close to Ethan’s it would have only taken a strong thought in that direction for their lips to have touched.
“Now I told them your horse doesn’t trot backwards, but if I was wrong about that, they have invited you to join them later… something about having you between them. I’m pretty sure they’d let you tie them up, you know, since you’re into that… or maybe they might rather tie you up…?” She said with exaggerated wonder as everyone at the table began to laugh.
“You’re enjoyin this aren’t you, Runt?” Ethan glared at her with a wicked grin on his face.
“Oh Ethan. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’m enjoying my day off. And the timing… well, I don’t think it could have been scripted any better. Do you?” She asked referring to the conversation prior to the WWIII kitchen break out.
“Here you were coming down on me about my clothing when it was your tight jeans and cowboy boots that had my kitchen all in a twitter!” She beamed at him and shook her head as if she had just tasted the most delicious dessert ever.
“You know, Runt, a wise woman might not choose to be quite so cocky in your situation. She might realize a man in my position could be feelin the need to prove something after that little display in the kitchen.” He warned as he slid his hands onto her hips and pulled her toward him.
Panic rolled through her as his hands made contact with her body. She had spent her entire life wondering how his touch would feel, and now it was happening… in front of everybody! Her skin sizzled where his hands rested on her hips and she felt a little dizzy. She threw her head back and laughed in an effort to disguise the effect his touch was having on her.
Ethan saw her long beautiful neck display itself before him and he couldn’t resist. Sure he wanted to regain some of his damaged pride, but even if a scandalous offer hand’nt been made in the kitchen, he knew he would not have been able to withstand the temptation of Rylee’s gorgeous flesh laid out before him like it was now. Thankfully, she spoke before he was able to take a bite out of that creamy neck.
“Oh, Ethan, don’t be silly.” Rylee cooed as she brought both of her hands forward to rest on either side of his face. She couldn’t resist touching him. She struggled to remember what it was she was supposed to be doing… making him mad! That had been the plan and it had been working, too. She hadn’t seen him for three days the last time she ticked him off.
“I think we all know I’m about as safe as a nun in a whore house… where you’re concerned, anyway. If you were really a threat, you wouldn’t care what I wore or where I chose to wear it. You’d just enjoy the fruits of my labor and not feel the guilty need to bitch about it afterwards.”
Rylee turned and attempted to walk away from him, but he held her tight and, without a moments hesitation, gave in to the temptation of her neck. She felt his tongue snake out and lap at the incredibly sensitive skin just below her ear only seconds before she felt his teeth sink into her ear lobe.
She was unable to stop the audible gasp that escaped her throat, and she knew by his chuckle he’d heard it. Her skin was tingling and her ear lobe burned, but to her utter surprise she didn’t feel the need to punch him. She only wanted more. No one had ever touch her that way and certainly never bitten her. She should want to reach over and slap him, but nothing had ever felt so delicious and sent quite so many tingles to quite so many places. Damn those girl parts!
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��I wouldn’t be so sure about that… Sister Rylee.” He whispered suggestively against her ear, proving he felt her reaction to his touch and most likely knew she’d never experienced such a feeling before. A shiver ran all the way down from her ear to her toes. For the first time in her life, she had no idea what to do, and absolutely no smartass comeback for the situation. She pushed away from him and did her best to work up a good glare.
“Careful, Ethan. We’d hate for you to get beaten up by my daddy or Tanner… or God forbid, one of your boy toys in the kitchen!” She tried to joke as she picked up her purse, acting like the love of her life licked her neck and bit her ear in front of everyone on a regular basis.
“Come on, Cindy. After dealing with Ramon and Jorge, I need some serious retail therapy!” Rylee told her friend as she swung her purse onto her shoulder.
“Sorry, babe, I-90’s closed. There’s some big pile up and they had to close the entire interstate. We’re stuck here in this one horse town.” Cindy said with a scrunched up face.
Rylee closed her eyes and let her head fall back. She slumped into one of the empty chairs at the table and banged her head against the table top. She needed a really good excuse to get as far away from Ethan as she could, but not look like she was running from him.
“This can’t be happening, Cindy. I need pretty things to survive this boring town!” She heard Ethan chuckle next to her and knew she’d said the wrong thing, but it was too late.
“Don’t worry, Runt. I got plenty of pretty for ya, right here. My boy toys even told ya so.” He gestured toward his face and offered her a sexy wink. “You might even be able to convince me to do some of that sashaying for ya, too.”
Rylee mentally kicked herself for picking up her head to look at him.
“If you kiss me again, I swear I will get up close and personal with your balls just like that bull did in Vegas, Ethan Hawkins.” She threatened, knowing she could only handle so much of that kind of attention from him without going all mushy and declaring her undying love for the damn man! It was bad enough her girl parts were already jumping up and down, cheering him on like he was a star athlete or something. Damn little traitorous things! Anymore attention from him and they’d be forcing her to lay him out on the table and help herself to an Ethan buffet!
“I hate Billy Thornton!” Crystal plopped down at the table next to Cindy, drawing the attention away from Rylee and Ethan.
And I so love Billy right now! He’s my new favorite person! Rylee thought as all eyes turned to the waitress.
“I thought that was the guy you were interested in?” Cindy asked.
“He was! But not anymore.” She wiped a tear off of her cheek.
“Why not? You’ve been crazy about him for almost a year. What’d he do?” Rylee asked her as she handed her a cloth napkin and encouraged her to keep talking. She wouldn’t consider this exploiting someone else’s pain. She would simply consider it multitasking. Helping her friend deal with her problems while using those problems to avoid her own. Namely, the good looking cowboy sitting at their table, and the cheers from her girl parts!
“He just called and chewed me out because Will Buttons told him he saw me talkin to Conner Smith in the grocery store last night!” She spat out. The men at the table had suddenly found a great interest in the floor and the ceiling. Nothing like a crying woman to put the fear of God into a man.
“I didn’t know you two were actually together.” Rylee said, making air quotes around the last word.
“We’re not! That’s just it, we ain’t even dating and he already thinks he can tell me what to do… and talk to me any old kinda way!” She began to cry again. Rylee and Cindy exchanged a look before Cindy turned a sarcastic grin toward Ethan. He rolled his eyes at her and shifted his feet under the table.
“He just called me on the phone and started yellin at me!” The young girl was obviously very upset. She’d been waiting for almost a year for this stupid guy to ask her out, and then he goes and pulls this! Cindy and Rylee exchanged another look and shook their heads. The men around the table shifted in their seats. There weren’t many things in this world that were more terrifying to a man than mental communications between women.
“Well, I’ll tell you one thing, Crystal. You’re a better woman than I am.” Rylee announced. Tanner covered his face and shook his head, allowing a deep groan to escape his throat. He knew that tone in her voice, and knew that if it were up to Rylee, Crystal would be rippin open poor Billy’s throat and spitting down his neck real soon.
“Poor fella.” Thor muttered and Tanner solemnly agreed.
“What do you mean?” Crystal asked between sniffs.
“I’m sorry, but if that sorry asshole didn’t even have the guts to ask me out, and then went off on me like that… because somebody told him I was talkin to some other guy in the produce section!” Rylee’s eyebrows were raised high. “Well, I’m afraid I’d have to tell him to man up or shut up! No way would I let some guy, who hadn’t even bothered to claim me as his own, talk to me like that!” Rylee made a disgusted face.
“Really…”
“You’re a much better woman than I am. I’d be in his face right now, telling him exactly what he could do with his bull shit phone call… and his little puke friend that ran to tattle to him about something that wasn’t any of his damn business to begin with! Then I’d call Conner and ask his cute little butt out on a date… and I wouldn’t keep it a secret!” Rylee continued, pounding her finger on the table top.
“I’m with you, Rylee. I don’t think I’d take that from him either.” Cindy chimed in, bolstering Crystal’s courage.
“Yeah! You’re right. He has no right to tell me anything about who I can talk to or who I can see…”
“Or where you can go or what you can wear…” Rylee added, glancing at Ethan with an innocent grin. Ethan rolled his eyes at her and decided to agree with Thor and Tanner on this one.
“I’m gonna call him right now! I’m gonna make it very clear to him that my life is none of his business.” Crystal announced with renewed assurance as she got up from the table and pulled out her cell phone. Cindy and Rylee looked up at each other and smiled.
“How long do you think it’ll take him to to get over here?” Cindy asked with a giggle when Crystal began barking into her cell phone.
“Not very long.” Rylee said with a devious smile as she pointed to the front door of the restaurant. “His truck is parked right across the street.” She tried to compose herself as the sound of tires squealing interrupted their laughter only seconds before Billy Thornton stormed through the front door of Nick’s Place.
“Mission accomplished!” Cindy crooned as she sank down into her chair, taking a deep sip from her husband’s iced tea glass.
“We are that good.” Rylee agreed as she swiped Tanner’s glass from him and took a sip, grinning up at him.
“You girls ought to be ashamed of yourselves.” The recently fired waiter supplied with a big grin.
“I thought I fired you.” Ethan glared at the boy, not at all happy to see him smiling at Rylee.
“Dude, I work for Rylee, not you.” He offered Ethan a knowing smile and headed toward the kitchen.
“What’d you do to that poor fella?” Rylee heard her brother, Rory’s voice coming from just beside her ear. She jumped up out of her chair and threw her arms around him.
“Rory! What are you doing home?” She smiled as she kissed his cheek. Ethan watched as she reached up and brushed his hair off his forehead. A spark of jealously hit him hard in his gut. He’d watched her run her fingers through Tanner’s hair a few times, and now she was playing with Rory’s. Damn it, but he wanted to feel her fingers running through his hair, too! He wanted to feel them scraping down his back while he had her under him. However, he was pretty sure one would lead to the other, so the chances of him feeling her hands in his hair should probably remain at slim to none.
“I had a few days between rides, and was close enoug
h to make it home. Now, what’d ya do to em? Sounds like Billy’s mad as hell and this poor dude just got fired.” Rory glared down at her, but she knew he wasn’t really mad at her, so she stuck her nose in the air and gave him a defiant stare.
“What makes you think I had anything at all to do with it?” She challenged, blinking her big tiger striped eyes at him.
“Because you are the only woman I know that can piss a man off bad enough for him to throw gravel for six blocks when he’s just drivin across the street. So, I’ll ask ya again, what did you do to that poor guy?” Rory eyed her hard, a grin playing at the corners of his mouth.
“Him…” She pointed toward Billy and Crystal, “Just a favor.” She stood on her tippy toes and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I have no clue why Ethan felt he had the authority to fire one of my employees, but then again, I have no idea why he feels he has any say in anything.”
“She opened a can of worms, that’s what she did.” Ethan ratted her out, still struggling with why he was so jealous of her kissing her own brother on the cheek?
“Speaking of opening a can of worms…” Rylee eyed Ethan as he stared up at her with hard eyes. “Ethan kissed me, Rory… without asking permission from me or any of you. You gonna beat him up?” She asked while looking at Ethan and allowing her lips to pop on the last word, so incredibly sure her brother would stand up for her.
“Hell, Rylee. You can’t fault em for bein a man!” Rory told her with a wolfish grin to his friend. “I’d kiss ya too if you weren’t my sister… and I’d kick his ass if I didn’t think you were lovin every minute of it.” Rylee’s mouth fell open and her eyes grew big as saucers when Rory stepped out of her embrace.
“But he licked my neck… and bit my ear!” She protested, shocked that her brother was laughing and not angry with his friend.
“Baby Girl, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with this fella, and if all he bit was your ear, then I’d say he’s been down right gentlemanly.” Rory grinned at her shocked face and chuckled as he dropped a kiss on her nose before he stole her chair.
