barriers,
to kill a dream
Link
I hold her close, her bare tit still pressed into my t-shirt.
I did not mean for that to happen. I wanted to bring her here, let her listen to her song again, and learn more about her.
But I did not lie. After she left my bar when we first met I was complete shit, thinking I’d never see her again. The last day has been complete shit in a whole other way, worrying about her age, how I could get her to talk to me again, and if Nico is really going to kill me for making a move on his babysitter. He’s left me three angry voicemails, all threatening to rip my balls off. Apparently, Asher can’t keep his big fucking mouth shut because I’ve also gotten texts from Cash and Trevor, informing me just how Nico plans to rip my balls off.
I’ve ignored them all.
As she sits in my lap, wrapped around me like a wet noodle while she comes down from the most beautiful orgasm I’ve ever witnessed, something inside me turns. Burying my face in her thick, dark hair, my arms embrace her small figure and, at this moment, I decide to do everything I can to make her mine. I’ve just got to convince her of this because if I’m not it for her, I have a feeling it will break me.
She starts to squirm in my lap where I’m holding her ass tight, pressing her into my hard-on since my balls—that I do love and, despite Nico Mayson, plan on keeping right where they are—are about to explode.
“That was…” Her words trail off and she fidgets again, making me groan into her neck. She presses her pussy into my cock, not knowing the misery she’s creating below my waist, and adds, “I don’t know what that was but it was better than anything I’ve ever experienced. I think I need to write about it.”
That swells inside me, making me want to beat my chest like a fucking caveman and rip her tiny shorts off to put my mouth between her legs to really give her something to write about. Just when that thought goes straight to my dick, making me impossibly harder than I was before, I hear the door creak.
Avery goes from limp and relaxed around me to tighter than a rubber band and reaches between us to pull her shirt down. I crane my head around to look over my shoulder without letting her go and my blood boils.
Adam Bearden, the bouncer who let Avery in the other night and whom I fired on the spot because of it, walks through the front door of my bar.
I move to stand, bringing Avery with me since she’s about as heavy as a feather and keep my back to him as I set her on her feet. She looks up at me with big eyes as she adjusts her bra and tries to smooth her hair.
I turn, shifting to keep her behind me as much as possible and when I look to Adam, his face is screwed into an angry mess. But his eyes are not on me. They’re on Avery.
He stops in the middle of the tables between us and the bar, crossing his arms. “I get fired for letting a minor in and now you’re in her pants? What the fuck?”
“Shut your fucking hole, Bearden. You let in a minor and, no matter who it was, that shit could get my business in trouble. If you have the capacity to understand what it means—Tennessee is an Employment at Will state. I can fire you for no reason if the mood strikes.” I feel Avery’s hand at my back where she fists my shirt. I fucking hate that she’s witnessing this but I’m even more pissed at Adam for interrupting a perfect moment. I should’ve locked the door.
His face turns to stone and it looks like he’s doing everything he can to eat the words he wants to spew. Lowering his voice a fraction of a decibel, he states, “I need this job.”
“You should’ve thought about that when you had the opportunity to do your job and not think with your dick.”
Like the dumbass he’s proven to be, he spouts, “And you’re not?”
Avery presses into my back and I reach around to give her slim hip a squeeze as I shake my head. “I’m not sure what’s going on in your small brain rattling around that big-ass head of yours, but you have no clue. Now get the fuck out of my bar. I never want to see your face here again.”
Bearden hesitates, finally dropping his arms and glaring at me one last time before stalking out. When the door to The Knot slams shut, I’m halfway across the bar to lock him, and anyone else who might want to come and ruin my day, out.
I turn to Avery, who’s got her arms crossed while biting that lip I’ve enjoyed so much as she mutters, “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
I hitch a shoulder. “I shouldn’t be grateful he let you in the other night, but you wouldn’t be standing here right now had he not. Still doesn’t change the fact he’s an ass. That’s not your fault.”
“True, but I tried really hard to get in.”
I smirk. “I didn’t let you in. Your charms might be strong, but I didn’t cave.”
She turns back to the piano but grins at me over her shoulder with her smoldering eyes from under those heavy, lashed lids that had everything to do with making Adam Bearden think with his dick. Any hot-blooded man would. “You caved in Nico’s bathroom.”
Because I can’t help but touch her again, I move to where she’s started the video. Putting my hands low on her hips, I pull her back to my chest and change the subject. “How did you get them to play your material?”
She doesn’t look away from the iPad. “I have a friend who knows them. They listened to it and said they’d try it out at a gig. They’re trying to get signed with a small label. Right now, it’s the only way my music will get any attention.”
I watch her watch the screen. “Do you have an agent?”
She shakes her head and glances up at me, rolling her eyes. “I don’t have an official anything.”
I’ve been back in Nashville for almost eight months and half that time I was getting my club ready to open. Besides old friends, my contacts here aren’t deep yet but I have made some. Putting this at the top of my to-do list, I add, “You can come and listen anytime you want, but you’ll do it from my office.”
She turns, her dark hair flipping across my chest and when she looks up, her eyes are shining bright. “Really?”
I grin. “Don’t look so excited. I’ll basically be locking you up in my space so it’s a selfish offer. I still shouldn’t have you here when we’re open, but I have a feeling I’ll be breaking lots of rules when it comes to you.”
She twists the hem of my shirt in her fist and gives me a playful punch to the gut. “It’s only fair, you know. I’m skipping class to be here with you.”
“Look at us,” I murmur, dipping my hands in her hair, forgetting all about Adam Bearden, the fact she’s only twenty, and about putting my balls on the line with Nico Mayson—one of the biggest ball-breakers I know—for messing with his babysitter. All I can seem to think about is how I can spend time with her again, when I can make that happen, and what I can do to help her dream come alive. “We’re breaking all the rules. Shall we see how many we can bust through together?”
“Abraham Lincoln,” she mocks as she teases me by biting that damn lip again. “If you weren’t so honest, I think I’d be afraid of you.”
Then, my little firecracker lifts up on her toes and makes a move for the first time, putting her lips to mine.
And my world explodes.