Summer Breeze Kisses

by Addison Moore

  Lex makes her way over, shoulders back, head tipped to the sky, those gorgeous full pouty lips painted a caustic shade of pink that I’d love to lick right off. Lex is the only woman on the planet who has ever brought out the caveman in me. There has never been a moment we’ve been together that I haven’t wanted to toss her onto the nearest table and have my way with her.

  “Oh my God.” Teagan looks visibly ill, and a horrible feeling comes over me. Teagan has never been one to hide her feelings. I’m not sure why I thought this might be a good idea. “It is you,” she flatlines, and Lex blinks back as if she were about to blow over.

  “Low.” I rise out of my seat before sitting back down. “Teagan is about to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, right here in the banquet room with all her friends. Would you mind taking her back there and showing her the party package we’ve got?” Brody threw together a few meager hats and streamers. To be truthful, there is no party package, but I’m hoping Low will take the hint and spare Lex and me the embarrassment of having Teagan explode all over the ceiling.

  “Sure thing,” she growls it out through clenched teeth as a reluctant Teagan follows her to the back.

  Lex turns to leave as well, and I touch my hand over her elbow. “Lex, wait.”

  She turns just enough to glare at my fingers still lingering over her bare skin, and I quickly retract. “I’m sorry. Would you mind taking a seat? Please?”

  “Yes.” She starts to take off again.

  “You didn’t take my order.” It comes out a little louder, a little more caustic than I intended it to. Her back is still to me, and I steal the opportunity to take in those long brown legs. Those divots behind her knees call to me, and I’m tempted to bury a kiss in each one.

  “Excuse me?” She spins on her heels. The underbelly of her sole is a bright pink, and it reminds me of that secret place in her body that I was once privy to, so perfectly pink and all for me. Lex leans in with all of her formidable hatred exuding from those fiery lawn green eyes. “Did you have the nerve to speak to me?”

  My mouth opens, and a thousand words beg to flood on out—I’m sorry being at the top of the list. But I know Lex. Show her your weakness and you are done. She will flush you down the toilet and never look back.

  “I gave you this job.” My lips pulsate in and out of a smile. “I believe taking a customer’s order is your chief responsibility, Lexy.”

  Lex takes a breath and holds it. Her face turns a curious shade of purple, and suddenly I wish I had never left the office this afternoon. I should have sunk myself in that Flynn file. I should have never expected some happily ever after to come from this cosmic reconnection that Lex and I seem to be having.

  Low and Teagan pop back to the table, and the air seems to warm with their presence. The moment had passed. Lex is back to breathing again, and, ironically, it’s me who feels as if I’ve been sucker punched.

  Low takes our orders while Lex looks on with a morbid boredom. No sooner do they take off for the kitchen than Teagan kicks me hard from under the table.

  “Whatever the hell you have planned, you can forget it. Low told me all about how Lex hates your guts. This isn’t going anywhere. And the last thing I want to see is you moping around with a broken heart for another six years. Do everyone a big fat favor—forget her. If she was that brutal to you the first time, you should want nothing to do with her.”

  Low shouts goodbye as she heads toward the door to meet up with Levi, and I offer a brief wave.

  Brody speeds over from the back and lands next to Teagan, looking as if someone just threatened to stick a Roman candle up his boxers.

  “Dude”—he rubs his eyes so hard I’m half-afraid he’s about to gouge them out—“I just got off the phone with Les—the accountant? He says I need to reconcile every single receipt we’ve produced for the last year. He says we’re inches from a big messy IRS audit. I’m going to have to comb through acres of spreadsheets just to make sure nothing stands out. There’s no way I’m going to have time to do all that and run the bar.”

  “What about Levi?” I should probably feel worse for playing puppet master—for even suggesting Levi since I’ve ensured he won’t have a free moment before his wedding, but I don’t. Lex is here, and I’m about to move heaven and earth to make sure I can spend as much time with her as possible.

  “Are you kidding?” Brody glances to Teagan with an apologetic nod before continuing. “He’s checked out until after the honeymoon. It’s you and me, and we both know that means it’s just me. Dude, I don’t think I can do this without hiring a manager until this bull blows over.”

  “Don’t do that.” I put on my sincerest concerned face. Teagan can read me like a book, and I’m pretty sure I have a ten second window to say my peace before she blows my cover. “I’ll step in. I want to. This place is just as much mine as it is yours. You get creative with the numbers or whatever it is you need to do, and I’ll mop the floors, get the schedule done, and put in the orders—heck, I might even spit shine a toilet or two.”

  “You’d do that?” Brody looks equal parts concerned and floored by my generosity.

  “Hell yes. Consider it done.” A familiar looking face walks in and heads straight over to Lex—my brother, Shep. “In fact, I’ll start right now. Shep just walked in. I’ll have him drive Teagan back when we’re through here.”

  “Sweet.” Brody offers up a knuckle bump before heading back to his office.

  “My, my”—Teagan sings while nonchalantly inspecting Shep and Lex at the bar—“looks as if all the cards are falling into place for you. Levi’s so busy with his wedding, and poor Brody seems completely overwhelmed with a looming audit of apocalyptic proportions. Funny how you didn’t offer to sic the Collins’ accountants on this mess and clean it up in one fell swoop.” She picks at her chipped nail polish, pretending to be bored—a dangerous, dangerous thing when it comes to my sister. “So tell me, big bro—was Shep a part of the plan, too, or did his flirtatious moves just throw a wrench in your sexual scheme?”

  Lex and Shep burst out into laughter as if they heard—as if they didn’t care at all what Teagan and I were discussing. Lex is glowing, and my brother shines in her light. No, I don’t like this at all.

  I hop up and head over, tapping my brother over the shoulder hard like a threat. “Teagan needs to speak with you.” I nod my head that way, and he rolls his eyes before taking off.

  “Shep and I were just having a lively conversation,” Lex spits the words out, and I can’t stop staring at those fuchsia pink lips. Her eyes needle into mine with venom, issuing a warning all their own. “You don’t get to dictate who and when I can speak to someone.”

  I take a step in, closing the gap between us, the heat from her body warming mine, that burnt vanilla musk she wears so prolifically teases my senses, and I’m right back there—as if the past six years never happened, and I crave to have her in the very worst way.

  “I can dictate exactly who you speak to within this establishment. I can dictate the hours you show up and the hours you leave. I can dictate a lot of things, Lexy.” She flinches as if I struck her. “Brody and Levi are taking a little break from The Sloppy Pelican.” A careful smile tugs at my lips. “Meet your new boss. It’s me.”

  Triple XXX Threat

  Lex

  My boss?

  I glower up at Axel for a good long minute. I’ve found that in life there’s no greater way to communicate rage, disappointment, and perhaps overall disgust in a person than a long bout of silence backed up with a hellish glare beaming from your eyes.

  “I see.” My teeth grind as I try to digest this. First, I knew that Ax had a share in The Sloppy Pelican, thus theoretically placing him in this power position. And second, I knew that I would have the occasional run-in with him at my new place of employment, but never in my wildest—weirdest dreams did I imagine him barking out orders—demanding that I jump—fully expecting me to ask how high.

  I take a step in close to hi
m in that three-piece black pin-striped suit, the deep navy tie that gleams in the light like a warm velvet night, and his cologne permeating my senses. Axel Collins has always had the gift of dressing impeccably, but it was his warm, woodsy scent that made me want to wrap myself around his naked body like a scarf.

  “Let me get this straight—you think you’re going to dominate me?” I scoff at the idea. “I’d laugh, but I won’t waste my energy on the idea.”

  Axel inches in with those glowing gray eyes, and my stomach bottoms out like the traitor it is. My breathing picks up, and I try my hardest to hide the fact my chest demands to palpitate as if I just ran the Boston Marathon. His hair is neatly slicked back, dark and glossy, and just begging for my fingers to run through it. Axel had the softest hair, so thick you could get lost in it, and I would often spend hours doing just that. Once upon a time, I loved Axel Collins or so I thought. In reality, once upon a time I was an all-out idiot, and I swore I would never venture into idiot-infested waters again.

  A brief visual of Axel’s naked body gliding over mine rips through me like a nuclear heat wave, and my thighs quiver as if this were a reality about to happen. If I could, I’d sever them and feed them to Strudel for even thinking about quivering for the moron in front of me.

  Axel smolders into me as if reading my mind, and judging by that lewd grin begging to pin itself on his face, I’m guessing that he enjoys what he sees. Pervert.

  “Excuse me?” a tiny female voice drawls out in a faint Southern accent from behind, and I turn to find a petite blonde with blue eyes the size of dinner plates and boobs the size of basketballs. “I happened to notice the now hiring sign out front and wondered if I could get an application? I just tried at the Black Bear—that’s sort of my haunt. I’m there so often I might as well be a fixture—but it’s a no-go since they’ve met their quota. It’s mostly coeds they hire anyway—and believe you me, I’ve long since said goodbye to those schoolgirl days. I am one hundred percent wo-man if you know what I mean.” Her finger glides down Axel’s tie unwarranted. “I’ve waited tables for years back in South Carolina, but, at the moment, I’ve sort of hit a dry patch with the tech firm I work for, and I’d love to give it another shot.” She bites her oversized red painted lip while batting her doe eyes up at Ax. “I’d work real hard all night long just for you, honey.”

  “And I bet you’re hired.” I force a smile.

  “You think so?” she squeals like a chipmunk on fire. “I’m Abby Wilcox.” She’s quick to extend a svelte hand with long vixen red nails to Ax. “The waitress I ran into in the parking lot said to look for a handsome devil in a suit.”

  “That would be him.” I snarl in his direction. “The devil incarnate. Beware. This gentleman prefers blondes, redheads, and brunettes—sometimes all at once. He might make you feel extra special at the moment, but when push comes to shoving his tongue down somewhere, he goes for the nearest orifice he can find.”

  Her entire face brightens as if I just spouted off some erotic bedtime story that ended in her favor. “Well, well—a man that goes after what he wants. I’ve always been drawn to the naughty love ’em and leave ’em type.” Her eyes widen and so do Axel’s, but for entirely different reasons.

  He blinks my way. “Lexy here is simply pulling your leg.” Those heavy dark brows frame his face with something just this side of frustration. Speaking of frustration. What the living fresh hell is this Lexy business? I scowl over at him because for one he reduced me to an expletive even if it was simply privy to my own thoughts. “But I’ll be happy to give you an application. In fact, if you ask the bartender, he’ll pull one out for you. Why don’t you come back tomorrow afternoon and I’ll gladly give you an interview?”

  “Great!” She does an odd little bunny hop, and I’m tempted to hook my heels under her feet and send her crashing hard on her bottom. “It was super nice to meet you—”

  “Axel. Axel Collins.” He offers an affable smile her way, and she succumbs to a giggle fit that begs my hearing to shut off permanently.

  “And it was great meeting you, too, Lexy! Something tells me we’re going to be fast friends.”

  “I’m all caught up on my friend quota for the year. Oh, and call me Lexy again, and I’ll make sure you lose the ability to speak for a week. It’s just Lex. And I sincerely hope you get the job.” So you can annoy the ever-living heck out of Axel Collins with that dolphin meets hyena laugh. It’s enough to drive a grown man wild, all right. I’m betting Ax will be counting bottle caps on the roof right along with that silly pelican after three solid days of listening to that braying.

  The Braying Barbie is quick to comply, and as soon as she leaves our air space Axel leans in. The warm smoky scent of his cologne calls to me like an old friend.

  “I think we should talk.” His voice hits its lower octave, something that has always had the ability to drive me insane, and, at the moment, it drives me insane for another reason entirely—we should definitely not talk.

  I don’t even bother quantifying it with an answer. I simply scoff at the idea and turn to leave, bumping promptly into Shep, Axel’s younger lookalike brother. My, my how Shep has grown over the years. Way back when I knew him, he was a scrawny kid, still in high school, just out of braces, and here he is, out of high school, out of both braces and Briggs, with two rows of perfectly white teeth. And let’s not forget that devilish gleam in his eyes. I’ve no doubt that Shep has an entire harem he tends to. I can spot a playboy a mile away, and right now I’m looking at two of them—duplicates of one another no less.

  “I’ll email that paperwork to you.” He offers a partial embrace, and I accept—but only because I know Axel will have to witness the event. If there is a Collins boy touching my body, I’m pretty sure he’d rather it be him. We can’t all get what we want. It’s so nice to incorporate a teachable moment in this brief yet highly connective embrace.

  “Is that a washboard in your shirt, or are you just happy to see me?” I force a violent laugh, and Shep laughs right along with me.

  “That’s one hundred percent granite, baby!” He lets out a whoop, and I mask the fact I’d like to knee him for blowing out my eardrum. First, the blonde bunny, and now Shep? Is detonating eardrums a thing now? I haven’t exactly kept up with the trends other than myself on Twitter.

  “Well, I don’t doubt it.” I offer his tummy a quick pat. “Sure enough, it’s not granite—it’s steel.”

  Shep leers at me while pulling me in by the waist—a move that could have easily cost him his future children, but I’m slow to protest due to the fact Ax actually has steam coming from his ears. It’s a good look on him, one I’d like to induce often.

  “Hey”—Shep brushes his finger over the tip of my nose, and it takes everything in me not to gasp—“why don’t I stop by sometime with those papers instead? We can go over a refinance plan that works for you. I gotta run.” He shoots Axel with his fingers, but Ax doesn’t bother to crack a smile. “Let’s do it, Teagan. I’ve got fifty places to be.” Their little sister hops up and glowers at me on her way out, offering Axel a meager wave. I’m shocked how much she looks like Emilia. In fact, Emilia is the Collins I’m looking forward to seeing the most. I hate that my breakup with her buffoon of a brother cost us what was shaping up to be a true friendship. As much as I’m loath to wade ankle-deep in the friendship pool, Emilia had a sardonic sense of humor that I could truly appreciate. Not to mention the fact she really knew how to put Axel in his place. And God, I’m going to spend the rest of my employment history at this place doing just that.

  I try to make a break for it, but he glides over and blocks my path.

  “About that conversation.” The dimple in his left cheek embeds itself deeply, and my chest squeezes tight. I used to live to kiss it, to stick my finger in it—heck, my tongue was no stranger to that beautiful divot. I hate the way the entire universe seems to be warping toward it at the moment.

  “It’s not happening.” I also hate that I had to
qualify my answer with words. God, speaking, let alone to Axel Collins is the last thing I want to do. All of my words, the best of me in general is strictly reserved for my family.

  Brody steps up with his keys in one hand and his laptop in the other. “I’m taking off. It’s all yours, Ax.”

  A quick burst of panic pumps through me. “What do you mean you’re taking off? It’s my first night. Low said you’d be here to walk me through it.” My voice hikes in that ridiculous way it’s prone to when I’m about to spiral into a fit.

  He winces as he glances to the door. Brody reminds me of everybody’s big brother. Handsome and rugged and an all-around nice guy that you secretly want to look after. “I’m sorry, Lex. I just had my ass handed to me by our accountant. It looks like I’ll be buried under a mountain of paperwork for the next few weeks. There’s no easy way out of this. I hate to do this to you because both you and I know what an asshole Ax can be.” He offers a playful wink at his longtime friend, and I’m suddenly enraged by their camaraderie. “But I’m sure Ax can give you a few quick and dirty tips to keep you afloat tonight. I’ll check in as often as I can.” He reaches over and smacks Axel over the arm. “Behave yourself. Lex here is a lady. I don’t care about your history. Don’t make her uncomfortable. We need her.” He nods my way before taking off.

  “You do need me,” I hiss tersely at the ass standing before me—Brody’s terminology not mine. “Judging by the fact you’re functioning on a skeleton crew, I’ll be a treasured commodity by the end of the night. I’ve always understood my worth even when those around me did their best to disparage it.” I practically bite the air between us as I make a break for it, but Axel glides to the left, yet again dictating that I don’t move.

  His chest expands and deflates dramatically as if he ran a mile to get here. His eyes narrow to slits, but there’s not a hint of anger in them. He’s bedroom eyeing me, taking me in ways that I would never let him. I can practically see the pornographic scene play out in his eyes.