Heat Wave Box Set: Volumes I-III Read online

  He moved behind me. The heat from his body was more intense than the surrounding air. He leaned over and picked up a slice of lemon, making sure to press against me for the slightest second before straightening. He turned around and leaned against the counter right next to where the cutting board was. He gazed directly at me as he sucked on the lemon. I decided I should put down the knife or risk losing a finger.

  “Let me guess,” he said, as I collected my fruit slices, “you lived in a nice city apartment, had a respectable job, were dating a guy who wears a business suit for work. Then he turned out to be an asshole, so you packed up for a new life.”

  I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my face.

  “Pretty good, huh?” he said.

  “Like a damn fortune teller. How did you know?”

  He glanced back toward the office. “Gordy told me. I guess that makes me a fake fortune teller.”

  “You were asking about me?”

  He carried the tray of fruit to the front counter for me. “I was curious.” He put down the tray and turned to me. “And interested.”

  Gordy came out to unlock the door, cutting short a rather simple conversation that had somehow turned more complicated. “Ryker, I didn’t hear you come in. Are you keeping my bartender from her work?”

  “Nope.” Ryker continued to stare down at me as he spoke to his uncle. “Just helping with the lemons.” He reached up and brushed a strand of hair off my face. His calloused fingertips left a warm trail on my skin. “After work. I think my cut needs looked at.”

  I swallowed hard, rendered speechless about how confidently he was coming on to me as if he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell I would turn him down. And I was rendered speechless at how quickly my mind had said yes to his after work idea.

  “Yes.” The word stuck in my dry throat. “I can look at it for you.”

  Chapter 6

  Gordy flipped over the closed sign. I breathed a sigh of relief and hopped up onto a barstool to rest my feet. Usually a crowded night made the work hours zip by. There had been no time for me to sing, even though many customers had been asking for me to get out my guitar. But there was way too much to do behind the bar, and when push came to shove, the customer’s priorities were with their drinks rather than musical entertainment.

  The jukebox hadn’t stopped all night, my apron had filled with tips and I’d tried like hell not to keep an eye on what Ryker was up to. He’d found himself a cozy spot in a back booth, a booth that was quickly filled with women. That was when I’d convinced myself to forget his after work offer. A guy like Ryker was the last thing I needed. Of course, when he walked out of the bar an hour before closing, I had to squash the disappointment.

  “You’ve worked hard enough tonight, Emerie. I’ll finish up.” Gordy had a safe in the office where he’d given me a special box for my tips. My shabby, little house and the walk home were no place for a pile of money. I dropped the money inside the box and took off my apron.

  “See you tomorrow, Gordy.”

  The heat from the day still weighed heavily in the night air. The warm temperatures had kept people up late. I could hear loud television sets and the occasional argument coming from open windows. My tiny rental house was only two blocks from the bar. My feet ached from standing, and I was happy to be heading home.

  I walked up the small, cracked cement path to my front door. The petunias I’d planted the week before now drooped from the extreme heat. I would water them more in the morning. As my foot hit the first step, a giant figure stepped out of the shadows.

  I froze in fear but then the street lamp illuminated his face. It was Ryker.

  “Shit, why on earth are you lurking in the dark?”

  He laughed. “Don’t know. Figured I’d surprise you.”

  I pressed my hand against my chest to slow my racing heart. “There’s surprise and then there’s fucking surprise.”

  He stepped forward, and something about the moonlight casting over him made me wonder briefly if this guy was real.

  “Can I come in for awhile?” He held his hands up. “I won’t touch you. Just to talk.”

  I was actually disappointed by his promise not to touch me. “Come on in.” I unlocked the door. “Are you hungry? I’ve got a frozen pizza. It’s pepperoni.”

  “Can’t say no to frozen pepperoni.” The wood floor creaked beneath his heavy footsteps as he followed me into my postage stamp sized kitchen. I flicked on the light. He pulled up a chair and sat down.

  I turned on the oven and pulled the pizza out of the freezer. “I’m always starved after work.”

  “I’ll bet.” He slumped back against the chair. I could feel his gaze on me as I removed the pizza wrapper. “My uncle has you working your pretty little ass off. He told me he’s never had such a good worker.”

  “I’ve never had such a pleasant boss.” I turned around and hadn’t really prepared myself to look at him face to face. He was big and friggin’ amazing sitting in my tiny kitchen. “I was lucky to get this job. The quarters were drying up fast.”

  I sat across from him. He leaned forward. The color of his eyes seemed to change with each movement of his head. He rested his muscular forearms on the table. They looked like the kind of arms that could strangle the life out of someone or hold someone in a protective embrace.

  “Seems like your life is all work and not much play,” he said.

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that. Just this morning I spent an hour doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper.”

  His mouth tilted up. Most of the cuts had dried, and they didn’t detract in the least. “Would you like me to check that gash on your side?”

  He stared at me for a long moment and then leaned back. I got up and walked over to his side of the table. I slid his shirt up and realized, with shock, that it was the first time I’d felt tingling in my pussy in months. My fingers were slightly shaky, and, for no real reason, except that I was touching Ryker. He sat still as a stone statue in the chair watching my hand as I pushed his t-shirt up above the bandage.

  I pulled the bandage free on one corner. “It’s healing really fast.” I pressed the bandage back down and allowed myself the luxury of brushing over the skin of his hard stomach as I pulled my hand away. I looked up. He was staring at my face.

  I released his shirt and sat back down.

  Suddenly, I wanted to tell him my whole ugly story. I wasn’t completely sure why. It might have been because my ex, Kurt, had betrayed me with my best friend, Megan, and so I’d had no one to talk to about the heartbreak and betrayal. Or it might have been because the man across from me had a face that made it seem he would listen without judgment.

  “I found my longtime boyfriend in bed with my longtime best friend. I was lost for awhile. Betrayal like that, double barreled betrayal, is hard to get over, you know? I find myself sort of shunning the idea of fun, getting attached to someone. Safety in aloneness, instead of safety in numbers, I guess. The whole fiasco has taught me not to trust anyone. I’m thinking I’ll get a cat. They’re good for company.”

  He listened, as I knew he would. I could smell the pizza cooking and the oven heat made the kitchen warmer. A bead of sweat rolled down the base of his throat. I watched as it disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt.

  “It’s hot in here.” I got up to open the window over the kitchen sink. I hadn’t heard him get up, but he placed a hand on each side of me. He was as close as he could be without touching me. And it was a level of nearness that made me slightly lightheaded.

  I spun around within the trap of his big arms. The heat in his cool green eyes did nothing to alleviate the dizziness. “We need to wipe away that asshole’s memory for good,” he said. “We need to bring fun back.”

  “Pizza’s burning.” I ducked beneath his arm and walked over to the ov
en.

  I knew he was watching me as I leaned down into the oven to pull out the pan. Anyone else, if anyone else had been behind me as I bent over in my short jean skirt, I would have made sure to hold the back hem down modestly so as not to flash my panties. But it was Ryker, and, suddenly, the outrageous notion of flashing my panties at the man excited me. I wanted him to look.

  By the time I straightened, the heat on my face was no longer just a result of the hot oven. Discombobulated, it was on the crossword this morning. A damn funny word but a perfect word for the way I was feeling. I’d just consciously shown a man I hardly knew my panties, panties that were now moist with the thought of him watching me. It had been forever since I’d felt that soothing hot wetness between my legs. And all he’d done was look at me.

  I reached for a knife and then without thinking, due to my flustered state, I touched the hot pan with my palm. I yanked my hand away. “Shit.”

  The chair scraped the floor, and he walked over. He took hold of my wrist and led me to the sink to run cold water over it. My wrist was tiny in his big fingers. He held it gently, completely contradicting what I would have expected from the rather dangerous looking man.

  “That’s going to make work harder,” I said.

  After a minute of cold water, he turned off the faucet. He lifted my hand. “Doesn’t look too bad. Those pizza injuries can be gnarly.”

  I blushed. “After the injuries you’re still healing from, I feel like a numbskull complaining about a tiny burn.”

  “It’s on your palm, so you’re right. It’s going to get in your way at work.” Then he lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Better?”

  It was my turn to stare unabashedly at him. “How the hell do you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Make one kiss on my palm feel as if you just kissed my entire body.”

  He smiled. “I’m very skilled. And I’m sorry that I broke my promise not to touch you.”

  “Yes, well, promises are meant to be broken. I’ll get the pizza.” His arm went around my waist before I could make it to the oven. “You sit. I’ll get it. You’ve been waiting on people all night.” He pressed his chest against my back. “Give me one day, Emerie. One day and I promise you’ll forget all that shit from your past. And, after the one day, if you want to tell me to fuck off, then I’ll leave you alone.”

  He lowered his arms, and I turned to face him. “You sure are confident.”

  He shook his head. “Not at all. Let’s just say I like a challenge.” He ran his fingers along my cheek. “You are someone I want to know better. And who knows, you might even have a good time. My motto is— it’s not sex until she screams out my name.”

  “Why me?” I laughed. “I mean, when you walk into that bar the female antennas go up as if the king bee has just walked in.”

  “Uh, I’m pretty sure the bees have a queen instead of a king.”

  “All right, lame analogy, but you know what I mean. You probably have hundreds of trophy panties tacked to your bedroom wall. Why me?”

  He shrugged. “Told you, I like a challenge. And . . .” He peered down at me. “I’ve been rock hard since you knelt down next to that couch with your bandages and your gauze. There’s only one way to relieve that kind of agony.”

  I felt his words in the center of my pussy. The notion of him getting hard just at the thought of me made moisture surge between my legs. “A one day trial courtship, that’s what you’re offering me?” There was a hitch in my throat as I considered what he might do during that one day. “And then what?”

  “That’ll be entirely up to you.”

  “Not sure if I’m rooting for you to succeed or fail.” I lifted my hand and looked at the palm. A large red patch covered the white skin. “Ryker.” I looked up at him. “I’ve been burned once, and frankly, I can’t go through it again. So, you’ll understand if I’m a tough nut to crack. I had to make my shell extra hard.”

  “One day, twenty-four hours.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “And I’ll tell you when it starts.”

  Chapter 7

  My sleep had been erratic to say the least. I wasn’t even sure how seriously to take Ryker. It was entirely possible that he’d already moved on to a new girl, with no more thought to the silly, tough nut to crack bartender. My self-confidence had taken such a beating this past year, I had an impossible time convincing myself that I was the kind of woman to interest a man like Ryker.

  By the time I reached Gordy’s, I’d pushed the entire thing from my head. I wouldn’t be alone forever, I was fairly certain of that. But for now, I was doing all right on my own. Not that I hadn’t often craved being in a man’s arms, but if those arms came with the threat of eventual heartbreak then the risk was just too great.

  Gordy had a list of things for me to do the second I walked in the door. And I was pleased to throw myself into the work and push my mind away from silly crap that I didn’t need. Keeping focused on work and saving up money for a place of my own, that’s all I needed for fulfillment these days. I certainly didn’t need a giant, incredibly hot man to help me get through my day. Even if it did sound like fun.

  Three hours into my shift, still no sign of Ryker, and when Gordy had mentioned in passing that the club had ridden out of town on business, I assured myself that this whole idea had just been a puff of smoke that had already cleared. The disappointment I’d felt after that also convinced me that it was a stupid thing to have agreed to in the first place. I didn’t need any more disappointment.

  With the club out of town, the bar was considerably less busy. I’d even had time to sing a few songs while Gordy took over drink mixing. It was a nice diversion. I always felt better when I was singing, and the crowd tonight had been drunk enough to really appreciate it.

  I was sweeping the floor as the last patron, a man they called Buck, who liked light beer and usually hovered over the pretzel basket at the bar, shuffled out into the warm night. As the door shut behind him, it reopened.

  “We’re closed.”

  Ryker stepped inside. “Every time I walk through that door, you’re either telling me you’re not open or you’re closed.”

  I tried to hide my smile. He didn’t need to know how thrilled I was to see him. “That’s because every time you walk through that door we’re either closed or not open.”

  He walked up to me and took the broom from my hand. “Well,” he said, he stood close and smelled of tobacco and asphalt and motorcycle exhaust. On him the combination was fitting and entirely appealing. “Which is it? Closed or not open?”

  I peered up at him. “Guess it depends how many boxes there are on the crossword puzzle.”

  He reached up and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I told Gordy he could leave early and I’d help you close up.”

  “Oh, did you? And what did Gordy say to that?”

  He glanced toward the office where Gordy was sorting receipts, then he looked back at me. “He said all right but warned me that if I scared off his new bartender, he would tan my hide like he had when I was twelve and I took his car for a ride around the block.”

  I laughed. “Oh my gosh, at twelve? You must have been a holy terror as a kid.”

  “Gave my mom a few gray hairs, that’s for damn sure.”

  Gordy stepped out of the office. “I thought I heard you out here. Didn’t think you’d make it back in time.” Gordy looked at me. “Ryker said he’d help close up, so if it’s all right with you, Emerie, I’m going to go home early.”

  “First of all, Gordy, it’s two in the morning so—” I stopped for a second. “I guess technically that would be early if we’d already been to bed. And, secondly, you’re the boss. You can go home anytime you’d like.”

  Gordy walked over to me. The crinkly lines smoothed around his eyes, wiping aw
ay the permanent smile. “I worded that badly. I wasn’t asking for permission to leave. I was asking if it was all right that I leave you here alone with Ryker.” The look he gave me needed no interpretation.

  I touched Gordy’s arm. “It’s fine. I’m a big girl, and I can handle big boys. Even hellions like this one.” I inclined my head toward his nephew. I spoke with confidence, but deep down, I wondered if I really could handle someone like Ryker.

  Gordy turned toward his nephew and pointed a finger up at him. “Remember what I told you. And I’ve still got that same belt I used when you were twelve. Doesn’t fit me anymore, but I kept it around for hide tanning.” He turned back to me. “Make sure the lights get turned off and double check the door lock.”

  “Right.” I reached for the broom that had been taken from me. Gordy shut the door behind him. Ryker reached for the broom again.

  “I’ll sweep. You finish up behind the bar. I don’t want to mess up your system.”

  “Sounds good. Remember to put up the chairs.” I walked behind the counter and looked up. His tattoos poked out from under the sleeves of his t-shirt, a shirt that fit him so snugly across the chest and shoulders, even in the low glow of the barroom, I could see every muscle contract as he swept.

  “So, is this the start of the ‘one day’? Because, I’ve got to tell you, as nice as it is to have the help, it’s not exactly making me gush with girlishness.”

  He flipped a chair up onto a table. “The day hasn’t started, but I promise some girlish gushing.” He paused to put up another chair. “When the time is right.” He swept some dirt and debris into a pile. “Gordy mentioned that tomorrow is your day off.”

  “Yes, and I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Yeah? Got yourself some new crosswords?”

  I blushed at the ridiculousness of my dull life. It was work and not much else. “I’ve got a few crosswords planned. My god, I’m a pathetic nerd, aren’t I?” I filled a glass with some wine. I never drank on the job, but Gordy stocked some really tasty stuff and I was allowed to taste whatever I liked. “Would you like some wine?”