I was fucking exhausted.
I had been working sixty plus hours a week for the last three years at Jones & McAllister, one of the most prestigious law firms in San Francisco. Whoever said trying to make partner would lighten my case load was talking out of their ass. So much shit happened in the last few years. More than I cared to remember. I felt like I was twenty-nine going on fifty. My plane landed in Nashville and I barely had time to take in my surroundings before I had to pick up my rental and check in at the Marriott Hotel. Not that it fucking mattered, I wasn’t planning on using it for long. This was just temporary if things went as I planned.
I had drowned myself in work all these years to help me forget. I tried fucking her out of my mind by having sex with a countless number of women that didn’t mean a damn thing to me.
Not one.
All of my colleagues and friends were getting married or starting families, but I was at a standstill. Every time I pictured my future, it was always with Lily by my side. I was done running, it was time to claim what was rightfully mine, what has always been mine.
When Mark, a friend from law school who was married with a kid on the way, asked me to come help get his new firm off the ground for a few months, I jumped at the chance, it was like fate was giving me a swift kick in the ass, cementing my decision. I was lucky my boss fucking loved me. Otherwise, I’d never be able to take an extended leave of absence like that. I had made the firm millions and at the end of the day… money always talks.
“Hello,” I answered my cell phone.
“Where the fuck are you?”
I yawned. “I’m on my way.”
“Well hurry the fuck up. I’ve been at Bootleggers waiting for your sorry ass for the last hour.”
“I thought we were going to talk about your law firm?”
“God, man, can you not think about work for one fucking second? Tiffany is out of town. I miss my wife and I’m drowning my sorrows in beer. Plus there’s this chick singing on stage. She’s a goddamn knockout. Completely your style, tiny, just the way you like them.”
“I don’t need you picking out pussy for me. I’ll be there in a few.” I hung up, quickly gazing up at the full moon and immediately shaking away the memories that threatened to resurface.
I parked on the side of the road only paying the meter for an hour. I pulled out my ID, showing it to the bouncer who gave me a quick nod before stepping aside. There were people everywhere. There was no way in hell I could find Mark. I looked down at my phone to text him when I heard it.
The soft strumming of a guitar immediately assaulted my senses, but that wasn’t what made the hair on the end of my arms stand at attention. I closed my eyes needing to check my emotions and the thoughts that attacked my mind at rapid speed.
One right after the other.
They were disastrous and unforgiving.
The strumming of the guitar was effortless and defined. I would recognize it anywhere. No one could play like she could.
No one.
That voice…
It was smooth like silk but raw enough to give you chills.
That song…
Would be a permanent reminder of what I lost.
That night…
Would forever haunt me. My days and nights.
God… I couldn’t think of that night without my cock getting hard and the shame engulfing me almost simultaneously. Metallica’s lyrics of Nothing Else Matters took me back to another time, another place, where I pretended that she was mine…
I was always hers.
Always.
Her face…
Her eyes…
Her body…
I remembered it all, and I hadn’t even looked up to see her. I didn’t have to. She was engrained in my mind. In my heart. In my soul.
She sang the chorus over again. The emotions bleeding off the strings of her guitar and her voice. The guitar solo followed making the crowd scream and cheer for her talent. Her energy was fucking contagious, it always had been. I felt it all around me even though I still hadn’t opened my eyes to take her in. I knew she was biting her fucking lip, it didn’t matter how many damn times I told her she was going to bite it off. I’d memorized the feel of her lips against my mouth, the way I’d take that same goddamn lip and bite on it myself.
Wanting a piece of her.
Needing a piece of her.
Her voice dropped to a soft tone, as did her guitar. The song ended and the crowd went even wilder and ravenous for her.
“Well, hello there fucking Nashville!”
They hollered higher and louder. She always knew how to work a crowd.
“Welcome to Bootleggers! Who’s gettin’ fucked up tonight?”
“Yeah!” they shouted.
“Who’s gettin’ fucking laid tonight?”
They shouted again, whistling and clapping that time. I shook my head with a smile I didn’t bother trying to hide.
“That’s what I’m talking about! Down and dirty in the fuckin’ South!” she yelled in the same southern drawl she hated as a child.
“I’m going to take a little break—”
“Booooooo!”
She giggled and my cock twitched.
“I know, darlins’, I’m too fucking pretty to look at. I’ll be back, I promise! In the meantime buy me a fuckin’ shot! My name’s Kid.”
I immediately looked up, right at her. I swear to God my chest seized and she took my goddamn breath away. Wearing short daisy dukes and a minuscule shirt that had “Whiskey Makes Me Frisky” written across her breasts. The damn thing looked like it was as old as me. Her entire stomach bare, her belly button now pierced and her long dark hair cascading down her back, almost touching her ass. The tiny frame that I fucking loved was still the same, but she looked grown up. Older. Her legs, her fucking legs. I remembered them wrapped around me and I had to shake my head to erase the images that had my cock hard and my heart heavy.
I grinned, I fucking grinned, when I saw the cowboy boots she wore. I gave them to her. I thought she threw them away.
I guess she didn’t.
Which gave me hope she hadn’t thrown me away either.
Fuck me. I’m going to hell.
Now that I saw her…
There was no going back.
She was mine.
Consequences. Be. Damned.
“Kid,” some random guy murmured from behind me.
I turned on the bar stool, cocking my head to the side with a smile.
“How about I buy you that shot?” He pointed at my shirt. “Whiskey right?”
I nodded toward Sam the bartender, raising two fingers and random placed a twenty on the bar. He spun to face me again. I was used to men hitting on me. It wasn’t a new thing. It came with the job. But. I never fucked where I worked, that was a recipe for disaster.
“So, what’s a little thing like you doing in a big city like Nashville?”
“Entertainin’,” I simply stated.
“Ah. Is this the only kind of entertainment you offer?”
I licked my lips and leaned forward. “What other kinda entertainment do you have in mind?”
“One that involves me and you. Alone. Less clothing. Less talking.”
“Wow, that work for ya back home?”
“As a matter of fact, it does.”
I watched him grab the shot, handing me mine. I placed it in front of me and he followed suit.
“Here’s to men and horses and the women who ride them.”
“Cheers to that.” He laughed as I clinked my glass against his, and then we both downed our shots. Mine went down smooth, I was a whiskey drinkin’ kinda girl, but his, on the other hand, did not. He coughed and his eyes watered a lot.
Pussy.
“So… tell me about your name?”
I raised an eyebrow, placing my empty glass on the bar.
“Kid. That can’t be your real name, so where did it come from?”
I smirked. “It comes—”
“From me. It comes from me, motherfucker.”
All the air in my lungs left me in the blink of an eye, as did my smile. The color drained from my face while my heart and stomach sank to the ground.
Jacob.
There he was, striding up beside random and standing in front of me, cocky and confident as ever. I wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug look right off his goddamn face. I hadn’t heard anything about him or talked to him in three years, let alone seen him. Alex was the only one who knew about us, and she knew better than to mention his name to me.
I. Fucking. Hated. Him.
“Excuse me?” random gritted out, his glare intently placed on the side of Jacob’s face, who’s glare was focused only on mine.
“You heard me. Now why don’t you do yourself a favor and walk the fuck away before you won’t be able to walk at all,” he warned with a calm and tranquil tone that made me want to kick him in the head.
Jacob was never afraid of anyone and he had the scars to prove it, and I’m not talking about physical ones. Our stares locked, exactly how our hearts used to be. At least how I thought they were.
Lies. Nothing but lies.
“Don’t make me repeat myself, asshole,” he added with the same hard edge to his voice, patience was never his virtue.
I barely paid random any mind when he backed away and left. Instead I cocked my head to the side, leaning back into the bar stool, folding my arms over my chest not breaking eye contact.
“Charming as ever, I see.”
He pursed his lips in that same mouthwatering way he did when I was a child. Wearing a gray button-down shirt, a black tie hanging loose around his neck and black slacks had me questioning my resolve. Tonight he had favored a fedora over his ball cap.
This was grown up Jacob.
Devastatingly handsome.
“Good to know I still have an effect on you, Kid.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and spoke with conviction. “I’d love to sit here and process how your delusional mind works, Jacob, but I can’t get my head that far up your ass.”
And… he fucking smiled. A shit-eating grin smile. “Same girl. Sluttier outfits.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that the next time I buy crotchless panties. Easier access and all that.”
He scowled, his eyes dark and daunting, turning a deeper shade of green. I knew he hated the visual I just gave him.
“I wish I could say it was great seeing you, but let's be honest, the pleasure was all yours.” I stood. “If you’ll excuse me I have to go back to work.” I stepped aside to leave, but at the last second I turned to look at his back. Getting closer to where he could feel my warmth. I stepped on the tips of my boots and rubbed my nose back and forth on the nook of his neck like I knew he loved, faintly breathing on him. My scent assaulting all his senses, just like I wanted it to.
“Now you, Jacob,” I rasped against his ear. “You can go to hell.”
And with that I walked away, not sparing him a second glance.