Don't you love it when things work out like that?
Here's a sneak peek:
The Saturday before Mardi Gras…
“Hey, DiLuca,” Luke called to Kristy as he helped her close the
bar—cleaning tables and stacking chairs. “D’you know what a drunk’s idea of a
balanced diet is?”
“Wait, I do. I know this one.” Kristy looked thoughtful as she
straightened up from the table she’d been wiping down. “Uh…a drink in each
hand? Something like that?”
“Yeah.” Luke frowned. “A beer in each hand, actually. Did I tell you
that one already?”
Kristy smirked. “Well, you must have, right? I don’t know anyone else
with your encyclopedic knowledge of corny jokes.”
“Oh.” That was a relief. But why was that the case? It shouldn’t have
mattered all that much if other people were telling her stupid jokes. It
shouldn’t have mattered at all, come
to think of it. It wasn’t right that he was so invested in keeping her to
himself. But he was just the same.
“So, this memory problem you’re having, is it age-related or due to
alcohol consumption?”
“Don’t be a brat,” Luke admonished as the urge to punish her—never far
below the surface anyway—rose up to tempt him. He loved her all the more for
being bratty, but the whole not being able to do anything about it? That
royally sucked. “And cut the crap. You’re only a year younger than I am, and—”
“And I can drink you under the table. Yes, I know.”
Luke shook his head. “You’re really asking for it tonight,” he muttered,
wishing she were. Oh, if only she were doing it on purpose. If only she really
wanted what she was tempting him to give her. “Keep it up and I’ll go home and
leave you to finish closing on your own.”
“Is that supposed to frighten me?”
“Ha-ha.” It was an empty threat, and they both knew it.
One of the main reasons he’d hired her to tend bar was so that they
could split the shifts between them and give him a couple of nights off each
week. But the sad truth was that, these days at least, he didn’t really have
much of a life outside of the bar. So more often than not he’d stop in to check
things out even on his days off. He’d tell himself he’d only stay a few
minutes, that he’d leave after a drink, maybe two. He never did. Some nights he
and Kristy would hit a diner when they were done, sometimes they wouldn’t, but
at the very least, he’d always help her close.
It was part of their routine. He’d flirt with her and tell her stupid jokes.
She’d laugh at him and call him an idiot. Afterward, he’d go home and fantasize
about all the ways he’d like to punish her for being such a brat, all the ways
he’d like to have her.
It was pathetic—he knew that. But the upside was that he got to spend
time with her nearly every day, to indulge his hopeless passion for the girl,
to watch her laugh. He got to take care of her, to make sure no one hit on her
inappropriately…or at all, for that matter. Because that’s what friends did.
Because that’s what kept them friends, kept her from cutting him out of her
life or drifting away.
The downside was his sneaking suspicion that he was keeping them both
from moving on with their lives.
“How about this one? Why can’t anyone ever find a place to sit at an
Irish family reunion?”
Kristy slid him a sly smile. “I don’t know, Luke. Why?”
“Because the rooms’ll be filled with Dores, Walls, and Curtins.”
“Huh?” The smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of puzzlement.
“I don’t get it.”
“Dore, Wall, and Curtin are all Irish family names,” Luke explained.
Kristy shook her head as she turned back to her work. “You people are
weird.”
You people? Weird? Luke shot her another stern glance. She didn’t even see it. She was
bent over another table, arm extended as she stretched to capture a stray
coaster that seemed stubbornly determined to remain just slightly out of reach.
Every time she got a finger on it, it slipped from her grasp and scudded
farther away. Luke watched as she wriggled and stretched, going up on her toes
in her efforts to reach just a little bit more, which only served to put her
ass—already showcased by the snug, stretchy pants she always wore—on tempting
display. Something he was sure she was completely unaware of.
She’d better be unaware of it, damn it. Because if he ever found out she
was doing it on purpose, teasing him to the point where he thought he’d lose
his mind…but no. He knew better. She had no idea the kind of effect she had on
him. She never had. Or, if she did, she didn’t want it.
Games We Play, book 2
After having been friend-zoned by Kristy when they were kids, Luke had mostly resigned himself to being "just friends" with her, but working together, night after night, is shredding his self control.
Kristy loves Luke but if anything was clear to her back when they were kids it was that gawky, awkward, tomboys didn't stand a chance with the king of the schoolyard. She watched her older brother set their caps for Luke's glamorous cousins and get shot down. So she did what she had to in order to salvage her friendship with Luke. She hid her true feelings and her need for him to take control.
Luke wants Kristy in the worst way -- actually, in all the worst ways: tied up, held down, beaten, bitten, whipped. But he knows he has no chance of ever having her. They'd been childhood friends and sweethearts, until she friend-zoned him in the fifth grade. He knows he can either keep her as a friend, or take her to bed and lose her forever. His biggest mistake--so far--was in hiring her to work alongside him in the bar he and his cousins inherited from their grandmother. He knows Kristy needs the money and the job, but Luke's self-control can't take the constant contact with the girl he wants to dominate -- both in and out of the bedroom. Something has to give -- and soon!
Luke wants Kristy in the worst way -- actually, in all the worst ways: tied up, held down, beaten, bitten, whipped. But he knows he has no chance of ever having her. They'd been childhood friends and sweethearts, until she friend-zoned him in the fifth grade. He knows he can either keep her as a friend, or take her to bed and lose her forever. His biggest mistake--so far--was in hiring her to work alongside him in the bar he and his cousins inherited from their grandmother. He knows Kristy needs the money and the job, but Luke's self-control can't take the constant contact with the girl he wants to dominate -- both in and out of the bedroom. Something has to give -- and soon!
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