Sugar on the Edge Read online

Page 5

  Jerk!

  Lovable jerk!

  Grabbing my drink, I take a quick sip and my eyes water. Damn, Brody made that strong and I know he did it because he just gave me a double shot for free basically, knowing that my budget is limited. He’s trying to make sure my girls’ night out is fun.

  Sweet man!

  I head out to the back deck, which Hunter closes off in the winter with drop-down walls and portable heaters. I immediately see Gabby, Casey, and Alyssa sitting at a table with Hunter. He’s identical to Brody in almost every way, especially now since Brody cut his long hair and shaved the beard he’d accumulated in prison. He’s sitting next to Gabby, his arm around her shoulders and his fingers playing with her long hair. They make quite a beautiful couple with his sunny, surfer good looks and her exotic beauty born of having some Cherokee Indian in her bloodlines. Her slanted, hazel eyes pop against her dark hair, and her high cheekbones make her almost look like royalty of some sort.

  As I approach, they all turn to look at me with happy, slightly buzzed smiles. They have about an hour head start on me with the drinking. When I reach the table, I look pointedly down at Hunter. “You’re in my seat,” I tell him sternly.

  “Grab another chair and pull it up,” he says with a grin.

  “Nope,” I tell him. “In case you missed the bulletin, this is a girls’ night out, and you Mr. Testes Between The Legs, are most definitely not a girl. ”

  “I can vouch for that,” Gabby says with a giggle. “So scram, baby. ”

  Hunter takes it all in good nature, because he knew without a doubt he wasn’t allowed to hang with us tonight. Leaning over, he gives Gabby a kiss. It starts out sweet and light, but before you know it, he grips her firmly behind the head and dives in for something that borders on  p**n ographic.

  “Ewww,” Casey says, wrinkling her nose up in distaste. “That’s just gross. ”

  “I think it’s kind of hot,” Alyssa says while she watches Gabby and Hunter kiss.

  “You’re just saying that because your man is identical to Hunter and you’re wishing you could do the same thing to him right at this very moment,” I quip at her.

  Alyssa leans her elbow on the table, puts her chin in the palm of her hand, and sighs dreamily as she watches Gabby and Hunter make out. “That’s the truth. ”

  Taking another sip of my drink, I smile at Alyssa. Where Casey has golden, beach babe beauty along with a smokin’ hot body, and Gabby looks like an exotic princess, Alyssa wears her brownish-gold hair in a really short pixie cut, only a few inches in length all over. Her face is classically beautiful, which means she has no need to wear makeup or jewelry to enhance herself. She’s one of those women so comfortable in her own skin that she could be wearing a brown paper bag and still be one of the most beautiful women you’d ever behold.

  Yup… I’m surrounded by mind-numbing beauty from my best girls, and while I do feel way out of their league, they’ve never made me once feel like I didn’t belong here with them. I’m clearly the one that sticks out in the group, the one that is just a bit different. For example, my idea of my sluttiest dress and theirs vastly differs. Mine is a simple, black sleeveless dress that has a scooped neck that stops just shy of revealing my cle**age and comes just above my knee.

  By contrast, Alyssa has on a short, red mini-skirt and low-cut, black halter top that reveals most of her upper back, Casey has on a tight, white dress that is strapless but cut low so most of her br**sts are on public display. That, however, is how Casey likes it, and I can’t begrudge her showing off her assets. Finally, Gabby is wearing a silky, flowing top in a blue, tropical print that only has one sleeve, the other revealing a bare shoulder. She has it paired with dark jeans and brown boots. At first glance, it doesn’t look like there is much sex appeal to it, but when you look carefully, you see that there is a keyhole cut out of the material in the center of her chest that gives a scandalous glimpse of the inside swells of her br**sts. It’s just a peek of forbidden skin, but it’s probably the sexiest outfit out of all of us tonight.

  So yes, my sedate, black dress that could easily be worn to a funeral will never be noticed by men… not in the way that my girlfriends are sure to be noticed tonight, but that’s fine by me. I only made a half-assed attempt to dress up tonight because the girls insisted. Otherwise, I probably would have been in a simple pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, along with my comfiest pair of tennis shoes. I wasn’t in the market to show off my goods, nor catch the eye of a man with said goods.

  Hunter finally pulls his mouth away from Gabby’s, leaving her looking slightly dazed and confused. I wonder if I’ll ever have someone kiss me that way… someone that would leave me breathless and begging for more.

  My thoughts turn unbidden to Gavin Cooke, and my cheeks immediately heat up when I think of him.

  When he opened the door to his house yesterday, standing half na**d with a massive chest right before my eyes and rippling muscles all around, I about had a heart attack. I probably would have continued my stupid stare at him had he not barked at me, bringing me back to full awareness.

  Gah, the guy is such an ass**le… all sharp words, snide remarks, and evil smirks. I’m still sort of regretting my decision to clean his house, because he screams danger and stressful times, just like Eric. If I’m lucky… he’ll keep himself and his humongous penis that I caught a quick glance of firmly locked in his office whenever I’m there.

  But man, what a penis. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’d be a complete and utter liar if I didn’t admit that I hadn’t thought of it a time or two since then. I don’t have much experience with men, but I’m not a complete fool either. No doubt, his package is something special.

  Giggling at myself, I take a sip of my drink as Hunter stands from the table. “Okay, you ladies stay out of trouble tonight. ”

  He leans down and gives Gabby a sweet kiss on her forehead, and then he’s gone. I immediately sit in his vacated chair. No sooner has he stepped two feet away from the table, then Gabby leans over to me and says, “So tell us all about this hot, British author that you’re going to be working for. Casey told us a little bit about him. ”

  I take another sip of my drink, feeling the vodka warming me from the inside out. When I set it down, I decide to go full-on girly gossip. “So, he answered the door yesterday in nothing but his boxer shorts, with his Mr. Happy hanging halfway out. ”

  “No way,” Alyssa gasps, leaning forward to hear more.

  “He’s hot, right?” Casey says.

  “Totally, and let’s just say he’s well hung too,” I tell them, my cheeks burning a bit over this admission, because I don’t normally talk sex with the girls. Gabby and Alyssa are in committed relationships—both engaged to the Markham twins—and although Casey has no qualms with bragging about every one of her conquests, I’ve never been much of a sharer when it comes to the opposite “sex. ”

  But the alcohol is already working its magic on me, I’ve had an extremely stressful evening with Eric, and my tongue is feeling a little loose.

  “I knew he’d be packing,” Casey says with authority. “You can just tell… he has that swagger about him. ”

  “I can confirm that to be true,” I say with a laugh, “but he’s also sort of a douche too. Really grouchy and has an ego the size of Texas. ”

  “I bet he’d be great in the sack though,” Casey says dreamily as she circles her finger around the rim of her wineglass. “I thought about making a play for him the other day, but he has some serious bad vibes coming off him. ”

  “Totally,” I agree, and then I amend, “about the ‘bad vibes. ’ Not about making a play for him. ”

  Gabby laughs and reaches over to slap my forearm lightly. “You should totally make a pass at him, Savannah. You deserve to have some bone-melting sex. ”

  “No way,” I say firmly. “That guy is way out of my league, plus… he sort of scares me a bit. ”


  “Mmmm,” Casey sighs again. “The danger is what makes it hot. ”

  “I disagree with you, girls,” Alyssa finally chimes in. “Savannah deserves someone sweet and kind, who will dote on her. This guy doesn’t sound anything like that. ”

  Pulling my Screwdriver up to my lips, I take a swallow, the alcohol no longer possessing quite the stinging bite the first few sips did. “I’m with Alyssa. I need someone sweet… like Brody or Hunter. So, let’s try to find me someone tonight,” I finish off with a huge dose of bravery that I might actually go on the prowl tonight.

  Fat chance.

  That’s just not in my nature, to make the moves on a man. I’m too introverted and unfortunately, I’m one of those women that will just have to wait for my Prince Charming to come after me.

  5

  I tilt the glass back and swallow down the last of the Oban. I’ve lost track of how many I’ve drank, but I’m f**king buzzed as hell so I’m thinking it’s been quite a few. The bartender, I think he said his name is Brody… looks like he may want to cut me off. Or maybe that jaundiced look he’s delivering at me has something to do with the fact that I’ve shunned any attempt he’s made at conversation tonight other than to thank him for every glass of Scotch he’s set down in front of me.

  The only reason I’m here—in a local bar in a strange town on a Friday night—is because when I finally surfaced from my writing cave after two hard days of work, I realized I didn’t have any liquor in the house. I wholeheartedly felt I deserved a drink, seeing as how I banged out a solid five thousand words on my manuscript over the last two days.

  Unfortunately, the five thousand words I managed to type didn’t get me anywhere closer to finishing this project. Rather, I ended up adding a new character to the book, which twisted my plot line just a bit, and will end up making more work for me in the end, but what the hell… I’ve been inspired by my new cleaning woman.

  Yes, the new character is a soft-spoken, wisp of a woman with dark brown hair and warm, brown eyes. She’s shy and innocent, and I intend to serve her up on a platter to the villain in the story, a demonic warlord who peddles in drugs and prostitution and loves to dirty up his prey before he devours them.

  “Want another?” Brody asks as he steps in front of me and drags me from my musings.

  “Sure,” I tell him and pull a twenty from my stack of bills lying before me, pushing it across the wooden surface of the bar. “Make it a double. ”

  He gives me a curt nod and pulls the Oban off the shelf behind him. Tipping it over my glass to pour, he doesn’t attempt to make any further small talk with me.

  “Do you have a cab service around here?” I ask as he tilts the bottle back straight and pushes the scotch closer to me.

  “Absolutely. Need me to call you one?” he asks with a smile.

  Shaking my head, I tell him, “Not yet, but soon. I’ll let you know. ”

  He nods at me again, another small smile, and I feel like I’ve made him happy by asking for a cab. I’m guessing he must have been worried I’d drink and drive, but that’s a worry he can leave behind. I don’t make stupid mistakes like that. Brody picks up the twenty I had pushed toward him and makes change at the register. When he returns, I hold up my hand to stop him. “Keep the change. ”

  “Thanks,” he says as he puts it in the tip jar and turns away from me.

  Feminine laughter gets louder and I look behind me to see what all the noise is about. A door to the back deck area swings open, and the voice of several women laughing filters through. To my surprise, my new little housekeeper walks in to the bar, her head turned back to the women I can just see sitting around a table littered with empty drink glasses.