I arch an eyebrow at her. “What? I’m not allowed to tip you?”
“You did already,” she says, fishing the bills out and sliding them across the bar to me.
“That was for Poser.” I shove the money back at her. “This is for me.”
She looks at me for a few long heartbeats before taking it.
“Another rum and Coke?” I ask, holding up her empty highball.
She contemplates that for a second before saying, “Sure, but light on the rum.”
I mix her drink and set it down in front of her as she starts on her next set. Brenda’s man settles up with Carol and they come over to say bye on their way out. Little by little, the bar clears out.
Lilah starts packing up at around eleven thirty and my heart skids to a stop.
I lean on the bar and fix her in my gaze. “Stay till closing.”
For a long second, she just stares into my eyes and I feel the crackle of electricity at the connection. But then she shakes her head. “Can’t.”
I take a deep breath as she heads up the hall to the bathrooms and brace my hands on the bar to keep from following. I know it’s out of line, but I want just one minute alone with her.
Just as I push off the bar to follow, a girl from the middle booth up front pushes out of her seat and staggers toward the bar on four-inch fuck-me red heels.
She leans on the bar, her substantial rack all up in my face. “Fuck me from behind,” she purrs.
I follow Lilah with my eyes until she disappears into the ladies’ room, then give the redhead in front of me a quick once over. Just my type—killer bod and no name.
I picture her pressed up against the wall out back, her tiny skirt around her waist. My balls pull tight at the image of pounding her, fucking all this frustration out of my system. But in my mind, she morphs into a tall blonde with an hourglass figure and a purple stripe in her hair.
Nothing but the real deal is going to satisfy this hunger.
Chapter 6
Lilah
When I come out of the bathroom and head back to the bar, there’s a redhead with dark roots leaning across the bar toward Bran, her huge boobs ready to tumble out of her low-cut shirt.
I’m back at my seat in a flash on a wave of jealousy-charged adrenaline…just in time to hear her say, “If you don’t have the coconut, you can make me a Wet Pussy instead.”
He braces his hands on the bar and his jaw tightens as he glances sideways at me. “I’ve got the coconut.”
I turn my back and pack away my guitar, trying to shake the sense that my jealousy is personal. This is about Destiny. She likes him. He’s slept with her. He shouldn’t be ogling some other bitch’s tits. I shoot a quick glance at him as the redhead slides onto an empty barstool and tells him a Fuck Me From Behind is shaken, and not to be gentle, and I realize he’s really not ogling her. He looks mostly indifferent.
Until his eyes shift to me as he strains the drink into a shot glass. The cold disinterest turns to molten heat and those black eyes flare.
Destiny made good on her threat to register me for school and I started Wednesday, so my days are swallowed up in a blur of useless information. I went to the park with my guitar after school yesterday and found a bench near the play structure at the top of the hill, hoping the moms and dads there with their screaming kids might find the music soothing and tip well. I made twelve dollars in two hours. So I had no choice but to break my vow to stay clear of Bran. I’d convinced myself that I could be in his presence and not be affected. I’d told myself he’s just a player, like half the guys in my high school, only with more experience—that he looked at every other woman in the bar the same way he looked at me.
I was wrong.
The heat in his gaze has nearly scorched me every time his eyes scour my body. I feel like I’ve spent the last three hours in a sauna. When he looks at the redhead, there’s no fire in his eyes. Not even a simmer.
So what does that mean? And the bigger question: how does he look at Destiny?
I don’t really want to be anywhere near Bran when Destiny’s there. I know how my body reacts to his presence and there’s no way I could hide it from my sister. They’ve slept together. Now that I know that, I thought I’d see Bran in a new light. I thought that would stop the flood of hormones he seems to unleash in me.
Not so much.
I shouldn’t have come back, but until I can find an actual job, I need the money.
He sets the drink on a bar napkin and pushes it across to the redhead. She sips it and her red lips pull into a lascivious smile. “Perfect.”
I yank my bag off the bar and head for the door.
“Lilah!” Bran calls from behind me. When I turn, he’s rounding the end of the bar, moving toward me. He stops just in front of me and it feels like I’m caught in a solar flare. “You’ll be here tomorrow?”
“Unless I get a better offer,” I say, flicking a glance at the redhead, who’s watching us with dagger eyes.