Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
You don’t even want a baby, I reminded my quivering ovaries.
Jump him! Jump him and ride him like a cowgirl! they snapped back. Just think how sexy and strong he is. His sperm could kick Rebel’s ass and you know it!
“Go tell them the back room’s ready,” Bone said, breaking my trance. “Make sure they’re settled. By the time you’re out, I’ll have their drinks ready to go.”
“Me?” I asked, stomach clenching. Shade might be pretty to look at, but he scared the shit out of me—I’d decided about five minutes after meeting him and his club brothers that I’d best keep my distance.
Shade caught my fear from across the room, and his lip quirked. Not quite a smile. More like the amused, tolerant smirk a cat gives a doomed mouse. Made me want to run and hide in a corner.
But I had the feeling that no one ever successfully hid from Shade.
“Yeah,” Bone said. “You’ve got the experience and Sara hasn’t had a break all night. Suz just punched in but I don’t trust her in there with them—she’s looking for an old man, and her lips flap too much. Just serve the drinks, do what you’re told and if you happen to overhear anything, you keep your fucking mouth shut. Got me?”
I broke away from Shade’s gaze and turned to my boss. His face was serious. Dead serious. I swallowed.
“Are they—”
“Stop,” he said, cutting me off. “Whatever you’re thinking, just stop. Thinking isn’t part of your job here. Neither is flirting. Not tonight. You carry drinks, you take away empties, you hear nothing and you say nothing. Easy money, babe. Go earn it.”
He handed me a set of keys and gave me a small shove. I started across the room toward the bikers, ready to escort them despite the fact that they obviously knew exactly where they were going.
“Hi,” I said, smiling uncertainly. “I’m—”
“Mandy,” Shade said, eyes sweeping down my figure. I got the sense that he saw everything in that glance, from the red bra just peeking out of the top of my tank top to the fact that my ex-husband had gotten me arrested last year. “I know who you are. We met at the barbecue, remember?”
Oh, I remembered all right. He’d caught me by a belt loop on my jeans, pulling me just close enough for our bodies to brush against each other. Then he’d whispered I’d be welcome on the back of his bike any time.
Somehow, I’d managed to squeak out that I had a boyfriend.
Shade had laughed, running one finger under my chin, tilting my head up toward his. “That’s your problem, baby. You don’t need a boy—you need a man. Call me when you’re ready.”
Just the memory was enough to turn my face neon red. Thankfully, Bone was the kind of boss who believed a dimly-lit bar is a good bar, so hopefully it wasn’t too obvious to the badass standing in front of me.
“Great to see you again,” I told him, and I’m proud to say my voice didn’t squeak this time. “I’ll be your waitress tonight. Bone is pouring drinks right now.”
“Thanks, babe,” Shade said. “Lead the way.”
I started toward the back of the room, feeling the weight of his eyes the entire time. Well, either that or I was hallucinating, which was also a realistic possibility. The man was too potent for his own good—like catnip for women. Too many pheromones or some such. It really wasn’t my fault that he’d drugged me with his sexiness. Fortunately, I was smart and knew better.
(Fingers crossed.)
We reached the back room, and I fumbled with the keys to unlock the door. It wasn’t part of the bar proper, although there were tables and chairs back here. Bone used it for large groups and occasionally storage. For some reason I couldn’t get the key into the little hole, and the fact that Shade stood right behind me—radiating heat and pure fuckability, the bastard—wasn’t helping. Then his hand reached around mine, grasping the key and sliding it into the door with a slow, sure motion.
You know, that’s probably how he’d—
Shut up! I screeched mentally at my idiotic girl parts. You have a boyfriend and this guy is a murderer. Or something. Definitely something. NO quintuplets for you.
The door swung open. Apparently Bone had known they were coming, because the smaller tables had been shoved together to make one long surface, and the boxes that’d been in here yesterday were gone.
Shade caught my hips in his hands, gently pushing me to the side as his biker brothers filed in past him. I waited for him to let go but he didn’t. He decided to run his thumbs up and under the side of my tank instead. I shivered.
“I’ll be right back with your drinks,” I said, hoping Bone knew what they wanted because my brain had stopped working. The last thing I needed was a bunch of Reapers pissed off at me for fucking up their order. Shade didn’t drop his hands, just loosened his grip and lowered his head, taking in my scent.