It worked, I think as I lean against my work station, sipping a glass of wine and sighing happily. It fucking worked like a charm.

“Brad, you’re a fucking genius, even though I’ll never tell you as much,” I say as I give an invisible toast to the man, who’s gone over to the resort today to handle some paperwork with Brianna and to take a look at their spa facilities. He told me yesterday to just do a little seduction routine, give Evan a cookie trail to follow. But of course, I amped it up just a bit. I can’t help it. If I see something I want, I go after it.

It was so good. So fucking good. Even better than the cookies, and when sex is better than chocolate . . . I’ve been smiling all afternoon, remembering with a buzz of excitement just how powerful I felt as he fucked my mouth.

I know some women don’t like that, but I’ve always found it to be the biggest rush to drive a guy so crazy that they lose control. In that moment, even though I’m the one on my knees getting face fucked, I’m also the one with the power to drive him to that brink.

And the kiss afterward? Holy hell, it took all I had to walk away with just a pull on the fishing line, just enough to tease. I dropped him a text afterward, so now it’s his turn to chase. My fingers are crossed that he takes the bait like a champ. I left what happens next in his hands when I told him I was ready to ride whenever he was.

I’m sure my customers were wondering what was up today, but they didn’t say anything as I practically floated through the last two appointments of the afternoon along with a walk-in cut.

Now, I’m virtually dancing by myself as I clean up the salon, almost ready for closing time for the day.

Behind me, I hear the door chimes as someone enters. I turn with a big smile. “Welcome to the Triple B Salon—”

My greeting is cut short, and my smile falters when I see it’s Jaxson, but I try to keep a friendly face on. “Hello, Jaxson.”

He smiles, coming inside, grinning ear to ear. “Hey, McKayla! I came by to see how everything’s going, but that smile says it all. Business must be booming, I take it?”

I’m cool but trying to be professional. “Yeah, it’s going great, Jaxson. Just checking in?”

I’m hoping he says yes, that he’s here in some city council role and not his usual. An invitation to a council meeting. Keys to the city. Hell, I’m late on paying the sewer bill . . . I just want him out of the salon ASAP. Why does he keep coming in at closing? I wish I could just bluntly tell him to get out. Maybe if I start humming that song about closing time, he’d get the message . . . you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.

No fucking dice. He runs a hand through his hair, standing tall as he walks over, shrugging off his suit jacket. “Thought I’d take you up on that offer of a haircut . . . if you have time?”

It crosses my mind to tell him no, that I don’t have time to do it today and we’re just too close to closing time to give him the attention he deserves. The honest truth is, I just don’t want to. But I glance around the empty salon, knowing that it’s all clean and I’m done for the day, and recognize that it’ll be awkward if I say no. He’s got power in this town, at least the kind that can make life difficult for me.

Giving in to the inevitable, I relent, gesturing to the chair closest to me. “Sure. I’ve got just enough time before the end of the day. Come on back and I’ll wash everything out before I cut it.”

I turn to lead the way to the salon chair, and giving him my back makes me feel vulnerable somehow. I pick up the pace to the hair washing station just a little faster than normal. I try to dismiss it and get myself under control. I’m not sure if it’s that I’m a bit jaded from years of living in LA with its associated craziness or having a gross fucking prank pulled on me. But Jaxson hasn’t done anything that could have me feeling this way.

I turn around the shampoo chair, and he lowers into it, his eyes quickly dipping to my cleavage but immediately coming back to meet mine as he sits. I turn him back around and lean him back, spreading the cape that I use for men’s cuts over his upper body.

I move behind him to the bowl, out of his sightline as I take the sprayer, adjusting the water temperature before I start to get his hair wet. “How’s that?”

“Perfect,” he says, his voice a little raspy, and I quickly wrap up wetting him down before reaching over and grabbing the organic coconut oil-based shampoo we use and massaging it into his scalp. The squelching noise of the suds is the only sound as I lightly massage his hair and scalp like I always do, just trying to get through all the shit he’s got in his hair. Spray, gel, wax . . . I’m not sure, could be plaster. But Jaxson’s the sort of guy who makes sure that at work, his hair is fucking sculpted.

He fidgets a little. “That feels great. I like the way the shampoo smells too.”

It’s nothing I haven’t heard before when shampooing, but a little awkward from a guy who’s asked me out at least twice already. Still, I try to be cool. “We’ve gotten some good feedback from people who have bought it for home. I love it myself. It’s good on all types of hair.”

“I bet,” Jaxson says as I start to rinse out the bubbles. “So how’re you liking town?”

“It’s definitely different from LA, but I’m finding that this place has a lot of charm,” I admit, not saying that the thing I find most charming is probably under the hood of a car across the street.

“Business going well?” Jaxson asks as I towel his hair dry and sit him up.

“I’m meeting a lot of folks around town,” I reply, relaxing at his casual tone. It’s just normal small talk and it starts to feel more comfortable, less strained. “We’ve got a good start, not quite there yet . . . but I’m feeling good about things.”

“That’s great,” Jaxson says. It sounds like he’s genuinely happy about our good start, and I mentally chastise myself for being so harsh on him. Yeah, so he asked me out a few times, but at least one was poor timing and the drink thing was probably an overreaction on my part. This is Small Town, USA, not Hollyweird.

Besides, when I think about it, Jaxson’s definitely done less chasing than I’ve been doing with Evan. I can’t really fault him for a swing and a miss when the only thing he’s really done wrong is be a nice guy who might be a little awkward in asking me out. He can’t help that I’m just not into nice guys, and that can throw a lot of guys off. At least he had the guts to try.

Squeezing out the last of the dampness with a hand towel that I wrap around his neck, I guide him over to my salon chair, fixing the long cape over him and adjusting it to include the towel.

Satisfied with his setup, I pick up my shears and comb, looking at him in mirror. “All right, just a trim or something more? What are we doing today?”

Jaxson looks me in the eye in the mirror, giving me a smile. “That feels like a loaded question. Look . . .” He turns from the mirror and meets my eyes face to face. “Just wanted to make sure there’s no awkwardness between us. You’re a great woman and I wanted to welcome you to town. No harm, no foul. I hope we can be friends at least.”

I scan his face and realize that despite my misgivings, he’s right. He hasn’t tried to do anything more than offer a friendly face in a new town, and goodness knows I can relate to pursuing someone who interests you a bit. I doubt Jaxson’s put on hot pants and drawn anyone into a blowjob recently, though.

I decide . . . yeah, he’ll get one more chance. “I’d like that. You can never have too many friends. Brad and I are pretty much it for each other right now. He’s my brother from another mother, so we’ve always depended on friends to round out our group. But we’re both pretty damn hard to take in big doses, and when we’re together, it takes a special kind of person to put up with both of us at once.” I laugh because it’s the God’s honest truth.

Jaxson laughs along with me. “Well, I’ll have to keep that in mind. I’ll just need to be on my A-game for you two.”

The tension from before has faded, and I finish Jaxson’s haircut as we talk. He makes me laugh with stories of the cast of characters in this part of town, which seems to attract some of the more off the wall folks.

I roll at his impersonation of Earl who runs the agricultural supply store even though I haven’t met him yet, talk about the new sporting goods store that’s hoping to take advantage of the uptick in tourists heading out toward the resort, and I blush a bit when he asks if I’ve had the cookies from Mindy’s Place. “The city council’s made a cookie run from time to time for our meetings.”

“No way!”

Jaxson laughs. “Yeah, shh. It’s an interesting place. I still can’t get past the fact it used to be a Chinese restaurant, but they are damn good cookies.”

Interesting. Yep, those cookies sure can lead to some interesting experiences. “Most delicious cookies I’ve ever had,” I say without elaborating. “When I have free time, I might check out the rest of their menu, even if they are on the other end of town.”

It would be great to have someone like Jaxson to grease the skids with some of the other places around town, someone who knows the good old boys and is willing to put in a good word with the right people. But more than that, it’s just a happier feeling at my core as we settle into our new home town.