I look around the bar. The place is finally quiet and Logan is stacking chairs on tables for the cleaning crew. He raises the tail of his t-shirt and mops his brow with it. His abs ripple as he bends and a whistle escapes my lips. “Goodness gracious,” I breathe.
“That boy is one fine piece of man candy,” she says, stopping to lick her lips.
“Makes me want to lick him from top to bottom,” I reply softly, more to myself than to her. My face floods with heat when I see that she heard me.
She laughs and keeps cleaning. “What’s stopping you?”
I point to Logan. “He is.”
Her brows shoot up toward her hairline. “Logan won’t scratch your itch?” She points a finger toward him. I’m afraid I’m going to have to give her mouth to mouth, she looks that shocked.
I shake my head. “He scratched my itch. But he won’t let me scratch his,” I whisper fiercely. I have no idea why I’m talking to this girl. Probably because she’s a bartender. They have a natural way of making people open up and spill their guts. Consider me eviscerated.
Abby steps back, her chin dropping toward her chest. She regards me like I just grew two heads. Then she smiles. “It’s about damn time,” she says, throwing her head back with a laugh.
“It’s not funny,” I pout. “And don’t say anything to Ford, ok?” I add.
She holds up a hand like she’s raising it to God and says, “I promise not to say a word.” She laughs again. “Even though it’s the news of the century, I’ll keep it to myself.”
I look up as Pete walks out of the back, but he’s deep in conversation with Bone and another man. I watch them closely. Pete reaches over and shakes hands with Bone. What in the world is that about? You never, ever shake hands with Bone. Ever. That would imply that you made a deal with him. And Bone’s deals never turn out well for anyone but Bone.
Logan smacks his hands together to get Pete’s attention. He signs something really quickly, but Pete brushes him off with a wave. Logan sets down the mop he was wielding, and steps toward the pair of them. Bone squeezes Pete’s shoulder and then Bone walks away from him and straight toward me.
Bone leans back against the counter beside me, and Abby tries to make herself look really busy. I watch Logan as he yells at Pete in sign language. I have no idea what he’s saying, but it’s not pleasant, whatever it is.
Bone looks at me over his shoulder and says, “You got a place to stay tonight, Kit?”
I nod. “Yep. But thanks for checking.”
Bone looks closely at me for a minute. So closely that my skin crawls. “Let me know if you ever need anything.”
“Sure will.” I don’t say more than that. I just play with my straw and wait for him to walk away. It’s best not to antagonize him.
Bone stands up tall, nods at me, and walks toward the back entrance. He leaves. Logan is still yelling at Pete. And Pete’s finally deflating a bit. Logan’s bigger than he is. But that’s not all. Pete looked like he wanted to argue with Logan when they first started talking. But then Logan wraps his fist up in Pete’s shirt and jerks him into his chest. He’s not signing a word. He’s just glaring at Pete until Pete holds up his hands in surrender. If looks could kill, Pete would be a dead lump on the floor.
Logan releases him and Pete falls back off his tiptoes onto his heels. He signs something that calms Logan down, but he’s still pissed, and he starts shoving chairs from place to place. He was stacking them. Now he’s stacking them forcefully. Pete walks toward me and grumbles.
“What were you doing with Bone, Pete?” I ask.
“Nothing,” he mutters.
“That man’s no good. Don’t let him get you into trouble,” I warn quietly.
“Why does everyone think I’m going to get into trouble?” Pete asks, affronted. He pats his chest. “I can take care of myself.”
“Not with the likes of him,” I say.
He looks up at me, and asks, “What do you know about Bone?”
“More than I want to know,” I admit. I’ve seen what he’s capable of. I’ve seen what he’s done to girls at the shelters. I’ve seen how he uses them.
“Mmm hmm,” Pete hums.
Just then, the band members walk out from the back of the building. The lead singer walks toward me and slaps a small pile of bills in front of me. He sits down on a stool next to me, his shoulder a little too close to mine for comfort. I shift away. He doesn’t take the hint.
I look down at the stack of money. “What’s that for?” I ask.
“That’s your cut of the door.”
“What’s that mean?” I ask.
He nods toward the front door. “We get a percentage of the cover charge. That’s your cut. We split it five ways.”
A grin steals across my lips. “Seriously?”
He smiles and nods. “Seriously.” He lays a hand over mine. “You did a good job tonight.”
I slide my hand from under his and wipe it on my jeans. He doesn’t notice. He looks at me like he’s hungry and I’m cake.
I pick up the stack of bills and fan them out in my hand. There’s more than three hundred dollars here. My mouth falls open. “Thanks,” I say. I can live for weeks on this much money.
He shrugs. “You earned it.”
Abby jumps in. She’s watching Logan across the room. And warning me by shooting her eyes in Logan’s direction. “Logan’s girlfriend is an amazing guitar player, huh?” she asks.
“Girlfriend, huh?” he asks me quietly.
I smile and nod. “Girlfriend.” I look over and see Logan walking toward us. He’s not smiling. He’s doing the opposite. I get up and step between him and the lead singer. I didn’t even get his name. Nor do I really want it. I tuck the money in my pocket and put my hands on Logan’s chest. He looks down at me and tries to brush me to the side, but I won’t let him. “When can we go home?” I ask, purposefully tugging him toward me by the loops in his jeans. He finally looks down at me. His brow is furrowed as he glares at me. “What’s the sign for home?” I ask.
He shows me, looking into my eyes as he signs it. I point to me and then repeat the sign. Logan nods.
The lead singer walks by us, and says softly so that I can hear, but Logan can’t see his lips. “When he’s done with you, give me a call, sweetheart,” he says.
Abby gasps. He looks over at her and winks and she flips him the bird. He laughs louder, and then he leaves, taking his band mates with him.
Logan wants to talk to me, I can tell. But he won’t do it with everyone looking. “When can we go home?” I ask.
He looks around. The chairs are all put up and Ford took over with the mop. Logan claps his hands at Pete and Pete turns around. He makes the sign he just showed me for home and Pete nods. He’s still pissy but he comes with us.
I wave at Abby and she waves back. She’s lifting her purse from beneath the bar, so I think she’s about to leave, too. “Don’t be a stranger!” she yells at me. I smile back and nod. She’s nice. I like her.
We walk through the bar to the back exit, and let ourselves out. It’s after four in the morning, and I’m tired, but the cold air wraps around me, and I feel more invigorated than I have in a really long time. I just got to play with a band for hours. And I have over three hundred dollars in my pocket.
Logan takes my hand in his and looks around. The streets are dark and more than a little scary at this hour. I’m suddenly really glad I’m with these two men. They’re both built like mountains, and the tats make them look much fiercer than they are. I want to talk to Logan, but I know he can’t walk beside me and see my lips. So I stay quiet all the way to his apartment. He motions for Pete to go up the stairs, and we stand in the stairwell for a moment. He brushes back a strand of hair that’s stuck to my lip. “You really enjoyed tonight, didn’t you?” he asks as soon as Pete’s gone.
I nod, and bury my face in his chest for a moment, squealing inside with excitement. I want to bite his chest, but I lift my head and say, “Thanks so much for taking me with you.”
“What did Bone want with you?”
I shrug. “Same thing he always wants.”
“Have you ever worked for him?” He appraises me closely, his blue eyes searching my face.
“Never.” It’s true. I have never fallen that far. Although I came close more than once.
He takes my hand in his and starts up the stairs. I kind of like holding hands with him. It’s nice. He pushes me up the steps before him and I turn around to say, “Do you know this is the first time I’ve ever walked up these steps of my own free will?”
He turns me around, slaps me on the ass, and I hear him chuckle. It’s more of a murmuring sound, but it’s all Logan and it warms my heart.
Logan
I’m so pissed at Pete that I can barely keep from running up the stairs and strangling the living shit out of him. He has something going on with Bone, but he won’t tell me what they were talking about. Bone’s no good and Pete knows it. So I have no idea what his purpose is for talking to the loser. He should have stayed far away from him.
But Kit’s hand is in mine, and it jerks me from my thoughts about strangling Pete. I stop at the top of the stairs and draw her to me. She laughs and falls into me, her hands landing to lie flat on my chest. Her thumb scrubs across one of my piercings and my breath catches. “Kit,” I warn.
“What?” she asks playfully, a grin tugging at her lips. “After what you did to me on the bathroom counter, you still won’t let me touch you? Seriously?” She’s playing. And I know it. But I don’t want to explain it. I cup her neck with my hand, and I feel a soft purr in her throat. God, I want her so bad.
“I enjoyed what I did to you on the bathroom counter,” I say as I touch my lips to hers. I lick across the seam of her lips, and she opens for me. Her tongue is a velvet rasp against mine, and I can imagine her taking my dick in her mouth and licking across it the same way. I groan into her mouth, and she steps up on tiptoe to get closer to me. Her hands slide around my neck, her tits pressed against my chest.
She lifts her head so I can see her lips. “When do I get to return the favor?” she asks. Her cheeks color prettily, and I can tell asking the question embarrasses her. God, she’s so damn cute.
I shake my head. “Not going to happen.”
She pulls back farther, her brows drawing together into a crease. “How long are you going to stick to that rule?” she asks.
“As long as it takes for you to trust me.”
“I trust you now,” she protests.
She doesn’t. If she did, she would tell me her secrets. “No, you don’t.”
“There are just some things I can’t tell anyone.” She takes my face in her hands. “Even you.” Her breath rushes against my lips and it’s all I can do not to press her against the wall and sink inside her right here and now. I could have her jeans off in seconds. Her legs around my waist. She breaks me from my haze of lust when she says, “I want to tell you everything.”