A Beautiful Struggle (Beautiful, #4)

This man literally took my breath away. I was trying to stay calm and relaxed, but he was making me so nervous. I would have to thank Ash later because Patrick Christiansen was definitely my type of guy. He was tall and lean. While I was going to give Ash a hug later, I thought I might have to slap the bitch too because she said he was lanky.

He wasn’t lanky in the slightest. I could see he had defined muscle under that tight shirt he was wearing. I wanted to take another look at his tight little ass but I knew there would be time for that later. For now I just wanted to take in every word he had to say.

“BODY SHOTS!”

“What?” I asked, confused. That’s when I heard everyone in the bar yell, “BODY SHOTS!”

Apparently the first Saturday of every month the bar had this thing where you did body shots off of people. I clearly hadn’t been aware of this.

I looked over and saw Patrick jumping up and down yelling, “Oh let’s go!” Grabbing my hand, he pulled me behind him as he sprinted off to the other side of the bar where the body shots were being held.

Standing there waiting while other drunk patrons were doing tequila shots off of one another, I noticed that Patrick was still holding my hand. Looking down at our intertwined fingers, I felt little fireworks shoot off in my stomach and my lip twitched up into a smile. It felt good to be out in public holding a man’s hand. Knowing that I was okay to be out in public and I was being me. Finally.

Patrick pulled his hand from mine but then he started grinding into my junk. Bent over in front of me. I couldn’t believe how good of a dancer he was and how hot it was feeling his ass grind into my crotch.

Hearing hoots and hollers from around us, my mouth fell open. I thought for sure people would say something along the lines of, “gross,” or, “disgusting,” but that didn’t happen and I couldn’t have been more appreciative and secure. Now granted, these people were more than likely drunk, and they were strangers in a sense, but I still felt at home. I was grateful people were accepting me.

But then it made me wonder how my family would react to my sexuality. I wondered if they would accept me and love me for me. I felt my heart plummet and my stomach drop. I was so nervous. I knew I had to have that conversation with them at some point—sooner rather than later. But for right now? I was going to finally have some fun and let loose.

Placing my hands on Patrick’s waist, I started to grind into him, dancing along and getting into rhythm with him. When he would push back into my crotch, I would push into his ass. I knew he could feel my hardness when he pushed back against me but I didn’t care. I knew tonight was going to be the change I needed. I was done struggling with my sexuality. Tonight I decided to make a promise that I would live each and every minute of my life—from this moment on—being me. No more struggling and keeping quiet.

Releasing my hands from his waist, Patrick fully bent over and shook his ass up against my crotch. I couldn’t believe how hot it was and I wondered what he would look like naked doing it.

Standing back up, Patrick started to turn around when the bartender yelled, “NEXT!”

Turning around, Patrick winked at me and said, “Well, come on, hotstuff.” Placing his hand in between my belt buckle and my jeans, Patrick pulled me up to the bar and smirked, “Hop on up.”

Placing my hands on the bar top, I jumped up and sat on the edge. The second I got onto the top, my pants soaked up the liquor that had spilled from the previous participants. The only thing that came to mind was, “What a waste. Patrick better drink up all that alcohol.”

Sitting on the ledge of the bar, I looked out at all of the bystanders watching me. I could hear Ash and Iz yelling, “Get ‘em, Patrick!” and screaming, “Woohoo!” at me.

I didn’t want to be like the people before me who were being the body shots, I decided to make taking off my shirt a strip tease. At the exact moment I placed my hands at the hem of my shirt, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” started to play on the jukebox.

Smirking down at Patrick, I noticed he didn’t have eyes for anyone except me. His pupils were dilated and he had a huge smile on his face with his dimples showing. Winking at him, I then started to raise my shirt up. Hearing hoots and hollers, I looked out at everyone and stopped. Hearing disappointed aws, I asked, “What?” I tilted my head to the side. “Wait a second. Do you guys want to see more?”

Hearing a million yeses from girls, I really started to laugh when I heard over everyone combined Patrick yelling, “Hell, yeah!”

I smirked as I glanced at him and said, “Oh, you definitely will,” and ripped off my shirt. I knew I had a nice body. I’d been an athlete all of my life, playing basketball, baseball, football. Basically, you name it, I did it.

My eyes never left Patrick’s when I ripped off my shirt and I couldn’t help but smile widely when I saw Patrick’s mouth fall open. Leaning down so only he could hear me, I whispered, “You might want to close that before I put something in it.”

Laying down on the bar, I looked up at the bartender and said, “Ready.” I smirked at her as she checked me out.

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