TWELVE
Lilly woke up in the same position she fell asleep in, wrapped tightly in Cass’s arms. Because of the events of the flight and grand opening yesterday, followed by Cass’s skilled fingers in the shower, Lilly had the best night of sleep she could ever remember having. When the light of day streamed through the curtains, Lilly rolled over to face Cass. He was still deep in his slumber, giving her time to admire him. His face was scrunched up with an angry expression, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed. He wasn’t moving, nor was he making any sounds, but the look on his face said it all. Lilly rubbed her hand gently on his arm.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” Lilly whispered as she tried to wake him. Cass stirred underneath her touch. His face contorted through several emotions before his eyes shot open. He drew in a deep, ragged breath while his eyes searched the room. When they locked in on Lilly, his features relaxed.
“Hi,” she said, rubbing his arm.
“Hi.” He sighed, grabbing her by her waist and pulling her to him. He laid his head in between her tits the way he had in the shower. Lilly’s hand instinctively curled in his hair.
“Bad dream?” she asked.
“Mm-hm.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Mm-mm.” He shook his head back and forth.
Lilly’s heart swelled with love as she looked at Cass. She almost couldn’t stand it.
“What time is it?” he asked, his face still buried in her chest.
Lilly leaned over to grab her phone from the nightstand.
“Eight o’clock,” she said.
Cass groaned. “I’ve got to get to the shop. I have a meeting at nine.”
He sat up on the bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Lilly sat up with him. “I have to go to the bar and meet with Mindy anyway. We have to figure out the schedule.”
“Better make sure my bar is running right,” he teased, poking Lilly in her rib cage. His playful demeanor was contagious.
Cass stood up and pulled on the jeans and shirt he had worn last night.
Lilly lay back down in her bed and stretched, the blanket sliding off her hips to reveal her entire naked body.
“Goddamn, lady. You make it hard to leave you here all alone when you’re lying there taunting me with that sexy fucking smile, and those tits. Mmm,” he growled.
A mischievous smile crossed Lilly’s face. “You don’t have to leave,” she said, running one hand over her now alert nipple and down her stomach, stopping just above her clit.
“That isn’t fair. That’s not fair at all.” Cass’s face contorted with a pained look, his hunger for Lilly evident and spiraling in his eyes.
Lilly slid one finger over her clit and down to her entrance, then back up. She let out a quiet moan as her finger connected with that sweet spot. Cass was above her as soon as she let that moan escape, but he wasn’t taking this in the direction Lilly had planned. He grabbed both of her hands and pinned them above her head, his nose touching hers.
“You have to go to work. I have to go to work. We both have shit to take care of today,” he growled, his voice deep and raspy. “You will not touch my lady or my girls without me today. You will wait until tonight. Got it, babe?”
Lilly tried to fight the urge to move her hips against him, but everything he just said was so fucking sexy that it was like a spark to gasoline.
“Baby,” he groaned when Lilly’s hips rubbed against his jeans, rubbing his hard cock at the same time. “I have to leave, and you have to get to the bar soon,” he said, releasing her hands and standing up.
Lilly stuck her bottom lip out in protest, simultaneously reaching out and grabbing Cass’s hand. He turned to face her with that smile she loved so much, and she gave in. Cass leaned down and kissed her forehead, then her nose, then gently placed his lips on hers.
He pulled away too soon and was ready to walk out the door.
“I miss you already,” Lilly confessed.
“Ditto,” Cass said and walked out of the bedroom. “I’ll see you soon,” he yelled over his shoulder as he walked out of the house.
Lilly heard the front door click shut followed by the rev of a bike engine. She smiled at the sound, welcoming it.
Guess I had better get ready to start my day.
She let out an exasperated sigh before getting up and getting in the shower. When her feet hit the shower floor, her phone started ringing. Whoever it was would have to wait. She soaked up the hot water, letting it coat her in steam and warmth.
She turned the water off before she got too comfortable. She did have to get to the bar. Quickly drying herself off, she pulled on a pair of black jeans and a fitted black T-shirt. Lilly walked to the nightstand to grab her phone. One missed call from her mother.
Lilly had been meaning to call her back, but she never found the time. Walking outside to get in her car, she dialed her mom’s number.
“Good morning, honeys!” Her mother’s cheerful voice made her smile.
“Good morning, Mom.”
“What have you been into? You never go this long without calling, or at least answering my call.”
Lilly felt guilt sink in, just a little, at her mother’s words. “A lot, Mom. We’ve been so busy with the bar, the grand reopening, and I’ve been seeing this guy.”
“Oh, baby that’s great. How’s the bar doing? Who’s this new guy?”
“The bar’s doing amazing. And the new guy’s name is Cass. He’s . . . older . . . and so far he treats me good.”
“Define older . . . ”
“Like, thirteen years older.”
“Oh, that’s not so bad.”
“Nope. Not bad at all. Momma, I hate to cut this short, but I’m pulling up at the bar now.”
“Okay, baby. I love you!”
“Love you, too.”
Lilly hung up just as she whipped Betty into the empty space next to Mindy’s car. Surely, she was inside preparing for their meeting. Lilly flung the door to the bar open to find her friend behind the bar dancing and singing at the top of her lungs. The jukebox was turned up so loud that Lilly could hardly hear her own thoughts.
Mindy was in the middle of singing a high note into the spray bottle filled with cleaner when she spotted Lilly and stopped abruptly. She flashed the most innocent grin she could at Lilly before bursting into song again. Mindy’s energy emanated across the room. She was happy, and Lilly could feel it. “Damn, that girl’s got some lungs on her,” Lilly said, walking behind the bar to greet Mindy with a hug.
“You know it,” Mindy said, embracing her best friend. She pulled back and put her hands on Lilly’s shoulders. “Okay, so about the schedule. I was thinking we could put Ryan and Lucy on two or three shifts per week, and then you and I could fill in the rest.” Mindy gestured for Lilly to follow her as she took off toward the lounge.
Lilly followed and found the calendar laid out on the table. Mindy had the schedule made for the rest of the week.
“I put you working tonight; is that okay? I wasn’t sure if you and Cass had plans or anything,” Mindy said.
“Yeah, love, that’s perfectly fine. Have you talked to Ryan and Lucy? Does this schedule work for them?” Lilly looked back down at the calendar.
“Yep! They’re both good with it. Actually, Ryan should be here any minute now so I can run her through the opening process, but she can’t work today because she’s got something going on in the middle of the day. So, I’ll be here all day until you take shift at six.” Mindy looked at the clock and nodded her head.
“Yeah, I need to work on some things in the office, organize that disaster-piece.”
Lilly left Mindy alone in the lounge while she checked out the office. It was just the way she had left it last week, which meant it most certainly needed to be organized. Lilly engulfed herself in work. She was in a great mood and that always made work seem better somehow.
She placed her headphones in her ears and blasted Breaking Benjamin’s Pandora station. The music blaring into her ears only made her mood better. Lilly had always had a love for loud music, especially when she wanted to focus. Right now, she wanted to focus on organizing papers on the desk into folders in the filing cabinet.
The door to the office swung open, causing Lilly to jump. Cass’s thousand-watt smile made her heart flutter inside her chest. She would never get tired of seeing that.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said.
“Hi,” she murmured. She stood up to hug his neck. “Did you miss me?”
“What kind of question is that? I missed you before I ever walked out of the front door.” Cass smiled before pressing his lips to hers.
Cass wrapped his arm around her lower back, a comforting gesture she had grown fond of, before placing a kiss on top of her head.
“Get to work.” He motioned in the direction of the paperwork stacked on the desk. The smile on his face took her breath away.
“Sure thing, boss,” she replied, biting her lower lip.
Cass groaned in response. “If you keep that up, neither one of us are leaving this office for the next two hours, and we have things to get done, Miss Summers,” he said, his voice a low, feral growl.
Lilly wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him to her. Her forehead was resting on his, their eyes locked.
“Then get. The fuck. Out,” she whispered, a seductive smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
“I’ll be by later, but I can’t stay to help you close up.” When she turned her head inquisitively at him, he shrugged his shoulders. “Club shit.” He kissed her nose then turned toward the door.
“I think I’ve closed the place up a time or two by myself,” she said to his back and turned around in her chair to face the desk.
The door clicked shut behind her and the sound of muffled voices echoed in the distance. She couldn’t make out any words, but laughter was loud and clear. She hated that she wasn’t up there, but work had to be done. She shifted through the paperwork on the desk and began filing papers accordingly. This shit is for the birds.
The day went on slowly, quietly, as Lilly worked in the office. It was nice to be alone sometimes and lose herself in something, anything, forgetting that she had a name and a life.
After hours of solitude, she said to hell with it and walked to the bar. Her eyes were so tired of looking at that damn computer screen.
“It’s alive!” Mindy mocked as Lilly sat down at the bar.
There were four customers in, and they all seemed to be enjoying their time. Their laughter echoed throughout the building, yet Lilly couldn’t help but let her mind wander to Cass.
“You want something to drink, Lilly?” Morgan asked, sitting on the barstool next to her.
“No, I’m good. I’ll be serving you here shortly,” she said, offering him a smile.
Morgan was her favorite customer here and one of the only regulars that didn’t get involved in the bar gossip. “Okay, but if you change your mind and want something, I got it,” he insisted.
“She needs a damn shot!” Mindy said, setting a shot of Crown on the bar in front of her.
Lilly shook her head, not trying to hide her smile. What she needed right now was exactly that.
She raised her shot glass up for a toast, clinked it against Morgan’s beer, and let the familiar burn of the Crown slide down her throat.
“Thank you, Mindy.” Morgan laughed. Mindy grabbed his money off the bar and walked off to ring him up.
“You doing okay?” he asked, looking at Lilly.
“Oh, yeah. I’m great.” Lilly smiled, making it big just in time for Mindy to approach and set Morgan’s change down on the bar.
“Look, if you need anything, you call me. You know you’re my middle daughter.” He put his arm around her shoulders.
Lilly nuzzled her head into his neck. “Thank you.”
“I’m about to get back there and show y’all what a real bartender looks like,” Lilly said, standing up next to Morgan.
Everyone in the bar erupted in laughter—everyone except Mindy, who was shooting Lilly a go-to-hell look.
“What?” she asked, not able to hide her amusement.
“I’ll show you a real bartender, all right,” Mindy teased as she shook her fist in Lilly’s direction. “A real bartender shows up ten minutes late with food in hand.”
“Hey! That’s me!” Lilly raised her hand.
“Trust me, we all know that,” Mona, a regular at the corner of the bar, chimed in.
Lilly made her way to the office to grab the money bag, binder, and keys for the night shift. She was in and out of the office quickly; she’d spent enough time in there today.
When she grabbed the binder, she noticed a paper on the floor, one that she hadn’t noticed all day. It was similar to the one she had seen in the hotel in California. It was a list of movies and cities. Some of them had black lines connecting them, and some of them were crossed out with a red marker. Next to each one that was crossed out were initials. Some were CS and some were SG. She knew CS was definitely Cass because they were his initials and they were written in his handwriting.
Why would they initial by a movie and city? That didn’t make any sense. Lilly set the paper aside, hiding it until she had the time to look over it and examine it further.
Returning to the front, Lilly stopped dead in her tracks when she rounded the corner to the bar. Cass stood at the end of the bar, his eyes locked on Lilly’s. The air in the room crackled with the buzzing electricity flowing between them. He had a fresh haircut, a tight-fit black Lucifer’s Hounds shirt that she couldn’t read because it was covered by his cut, a clean-shaven line around his goatee, and his muscles were thick from just leaving the gym.
“Hi,” he said, breaking through the fantasy that she was just beginning to play out in her head.
“Hi,” she mouthed, unable to fully vocalize anything now for fear that it would be her thoughts that came out instead.
The amusement in Cass’s eyes was blatant. He knew what he did to her. Lilly’s cheeks beamed with red as she made a shallow attempt to gather herself and continue about her evening routine. She dragged her eyes away from Cass to walk toward the register when she noticed that she and Cass had an audience. The bar was silent and every customer, as well as Mindy, watched the two of them.
“What?” Lilly asked, shuffling to put down her binder and close out the register.
“Nothing,” Morgan said.
Lilly looked back to meet his eyes and she saw the same amusement there. She felt like an ant under a microscope, everyone just watching her squirm. Aw hell.
Lilly tried to force an evil face, but she was entirely too giddy, and a smile quickly replaced it. Morgan patted Cass on the back and leaned over to say something Lilly couldn’t hear, though she could see the two of them in the mirror from where she stood.
Cass’s eyes alight with humor, he threw his head back laughing. She couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Mindy made her way over to Lilly and began doing her paperwork. “You two basically just had sex,” she whispered.
“What? No, that was a few hours ago,” Lilly retorted.
“That may be true, but I swear when you came around the corner and he spotted you, he undressed you, fucked you, and redressed you all before anyone saw. Love, y’all’s sexual chemistry is so good, everyone in this place could feel it. You won’t be hiding that from anyone if every time you look at each other, sparks fly.”
“Is it that obvious?” Mindy smiled and nodded. “Get outta here and go get some rest. I’ve got it from here.” Lilly elbowed her.
“Yes ma’am. I’m going. Have a good night,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.
Lilly pushed on her. “Yeah, yeah.”
The bar was filled with goodbyes to Mindy as she left. Lilly looked around at the current clientele. This should be fun.
Cass taunted her from a distance for most of the night, and business picked up not long after Mindy left. Lilly wanted so badly to ask him what the hell that paper was about, but now wasn’t the time. Especially not in front of other people, in this bar. She pondered on it all night, wondering what it could mean. She tried to keep a hold on her imagination, knowing the horrors it would come up with if she let it wander.
When midnight rolled around, the bar had begun to clear out. Lilly looked over to where Cass was to find his seat empty. Travis and Leda were the only two left in the bar.
Where was she at when Cass had left? How did she miss that?
“Lilly, can I have a Bud Light and a Busch in a can when you get a sec?”
Lilly sighed. “You got it, darlin’.”
Retrieving the beer that was requested, she rang Travis up and put his change in front of him. Leda was three-sheets to the wind, as usual. Her black hair hung out the back of her ponytail under the hat that she never went anywhere without. She was tiny, shorter than Lilly for sure, but she was a little stick of dynamite. Word around town was she was lethal with a beer bottle. She’d cut your cheek with it from across a parking lot. I’d hate to see her with a gun if her aim with a beer bottle is that good.
Travis, her husband, had such a sweet, caring, and nonchalant demeanor. Completely opposite of Leda, but Lilly guessed that was why they worked out so well. She smiled at the thought of them, making her think maybe one day someone would look at her and Cass that way, if they made it long enough. Cass . . . Where’d he go?
Before she could continue her search for Cass, the bar phone rang.
“Creek’s!” she answered with more enthusiasm than she had.
“Yes ma’am. I think there’s this smoking hot bartender working tonight, and I need to see her in the office just as soon as she gets a minute.” Cass’s excitement was evident.
“You got it, boss.” She couldn’t help the smile on her face.
After doing one last scan of the bar, she quickly ducked into the back. The music faded as Lilly walked into the office.
Cass sat in the office chair, looking up at her. He made her feel like a goddess the way his eyes studied every inch of her body every chance he got. He looked at her with so much lust, so much desire, that it triggered that sensational ache in her core.
“Hey, you,” she said as she leaned against the door frame. Her body language was soon to be out of her control. Being near Cass could be dangerous.
“Hi, my beautiful lady,” he said, that signature smirk sucking the wind right out of Lilly’s lungs. “I know I told you I couldn’t stay, and that hasn’t changed, but I just wanted to tell you goodbye properly before I leave.”
He stood up and took her into his arms. Lilly buried her face in his chest. He smelled like expensive cologne, leather, and clean sheets. She inhaled the scent. Cass kissed the top of her head.
“I’ll see you soon,” she whispered, more of a question than a statement.
“Yes ma’am. Call me when you leave tonight,” he said.
Lilly stood on her tiptoes to kiss him before he left. He placed one hand on either side of her cheeks and kissed her lightly, his lips moving against hers the way the clouds brush one another.
“Lilly!” Leda called for her before she got lost inside a world with her and Cass alone.
She pulled back unwillingly. “There’s my cue,” she whispered, her lips still touching his.
“I know. Mine too.” He gave her a swift, quick kiss.
“I’m coming!” she hollered, hearing Leda getting louder.
Lilly turned to walk out and Cass leaned down to look under the desk.
“Hey, there was a piece of paper under here that I dropped. What happened to it?” he asked, his brows furrowed as he moved the small trash can, looking in and around it.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see one,” she lied and rushed out to the front of the bar.
“Don’t y’all know a girl’s gotta get beer in the back to keep serving you up front?” she asked, walking out with a case of Busch cans. They didn’t need to know she already had two cases in the front cooler.
Lilly heard the roar of a motorcycle as she slid the case of beer into the cooler. She wondered where he was going and why he needed that list. She made sure Travis and Leda didn’t need anything before she went back into the office. The list was still in the spot Lilly left it, underneath one of the folders she had organized earlier. She folded it up and put it in her pocket.
Travis and Leda left around one o’clock, leaving Lilly by herself for the next hour. The bar was quiet aside from the humming sound of the coolers and, every now and then, the sound of ice dropping into the ice machine, nearly giving her a heart attack every time. She cleaned everything and had everything stocked by one thirty. Curiosity got the best of her and she grabbed her phone to shoot Cass a text.
“Found your list. Movies?” She pressed send before she could change her mind. It was perfect; he was looking for the paper and she found it, which meant now she got to ask questions.
“Yes. I like TV.”
“Why are there cities next to the movies, then?”
“That’s where they were filmed.”
“No it isn’t. I’ve seen Forrest Gump and it was NOT filmed in Baton Rouge.”
Cass’s name lit up her phone as a call came in from him.
“Hello?”
“I don’t have time to explain this shit. I’ll tell you about it later!” His words were harsh, and, for the first time since she’d known him, his hard words were directed at her. She didn’t know how she felt about that. The phone dinged in her ear, letting her know the call had ended.
Lilly sighed in frustration and tossed her phone on the bar. She closed the bar down and, at two o’clock on the dot, she was walking out of the bar and to her car. I guess I won’t be calling him on my way home.
She rolled her eyes at the thought. He was busy and she knew that. She didn’t know much about his world, but she understood that there were a lot of secrets that he carried that she didn’t know about. At least that’s how it seemed. He never said anything about what he was out doing when he was doing “club shit.”
Lilly approached her car but stopped before she opened her driver door. The sound of motorcycle pipes in the distance made her heart race. She walked around to the trunk of her car, waiting. As the sound grew closer, she thought of how she would approach Cass when he got there. What would she say? Should she pry about the list or should she just leave it alone?
As the bike pulled down the driveway, Lilly noticed a pair of headlights behind it that sat high off the ground.
He pulled up behind her car, his headlight shining at her, making it hard to see. The truck pulled up next to the motorcycle and Lilly’s car. The passenger door of the truck opened and a man stepped out.
She looked back to the man on the motorcycle, and her smile faded quickly when the realization that it wasn’t Cass sank in. Something in her gut told her this was wrong, but before she could react, she was struck in the back of the head with something hard.
She’d never been hit with anything metal, but she guessed that was what it felt like. She wasn’t sure if the ringing she heard was in her ears from whatever had hit her, or if it was from a piece of metal singing upon impact. Her vision blurred as her hand reached up instinctively to the back of her head. That only freed her face. The metal object connected with her cheek, then her temple. The last thing she remembered was pain.