To say the concert was a success would’ve been the understatement of the year. After I’d finished playing and the crowd cleared out at closing time, Jason and Mike had so much money in tips and sales that they couldn’t even count it.

“This is crazy, I can’t wrap my head around it,” Jason said, holding a fat stack of his tips. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because I’d dedicated the song to him, which wasn’t something I planned to do, but it felt right in the moment. If this relaunch was anything to go by, there was something to be said about following my instinct.

“I believe it. We put a lot into this, and it looks like it paid off,” I said. Jason smiled up at me, and though his face was flushed from running around and making drinks and cleaning tables, he still looked as handsome as ever.

“Well, if y’all don’t mind, I’m gonna hit the hay. I’m wiped out,” Mike said. “My station’s all clean and it looks like there’s only a little bit left to do.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Go ahead. Thanks for all your help tonight, we couldn’t have done it without you,” Jason said and clapped Mike on the shoulder.

“Please, I wouldn’t have missed it. This bar is as much a part of me as it is you,” Mike said, throwing a towel over his shoulder and saluting us both before he walked out of the room. A few moments later, the back door to the bar slammed closed, and for the first time all night Jason and I were alone. George had gone home hours earlier.

“But it’s really you I should be thanking,” Jason said, resting both hands on the bar and leaning forward to look at me across it. His eyes twinkled. Truthfully, I expected my performance would bring a lot of people into the bar, but I could never have guessed it would prompt the kind of response it had—but then again, it wasn’t often a superstar came to Beauclaire, so maybe it wasn’t all that surprising.

“Oh, don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of time for you to do that. As far as I’m concerned, you’re going to be spending the next few years of your life making this up to me,” I said with a wink and he laughed.

“What kind of making up did you have in mind?” he asked as he stepped around the bar and sat down on the stool next to me.

“I’m not sure, why don’t you use your imagination? You were always pretty creative, so I bet you could come up with something,” I said, turning to face him. He drew closer, so close I felt the heat coming from him, and just when I thought he was going to kiss me he turned on his heel and stepped back behind the bar.

Damn, he really knew how to keep me on my toes.

“How about something to drink? I think you’ve earned it after all this,” he said, reaching for a glass and filling it up with ice from the compartment built into the new bar.

“Please, you’ve been working all night, you don’t have to do this to impress me,” I said.

“Fine, scotch on the rocks it is,” he said and didn’t wait for me to reply before he filled the glass to the brim with top shelf stuff and slid it across the bar to me. He filled another glass for himself and came back to the bar to join me.

“I think this calls for a toast, what do you think?” he asked and held his glass up for me to cheers. I clinked mine against his and smiled before taking a sip, totally unsure where he was taking this—though I hoped it was heading where I thought it might be.

“Sure, would you do the honors?” I asked.

“Somehow I don’t think it’ll have the same impact without a hundred or so people to hear it,” he said and I laughed. I knew he’d never let me live the song dedication down, and maybe he was right not to, but I didn’t really care. I meant everything I’d said and I would happily have stood by it.

“Maybe not, but I’ll hear it, and isn’t that worth something?” I asked.

“All right, fine. I’m not a man of many words, but I’ll give it a shot,” he said. I sat swirling the ice around my drink while I waited for him to find his words and finally he cleared his throat.

“Dan Montgomery, I wish I knew how to quit you,” he said and I nearly dropped my glass I laughed so hard. He laughed along with me, his smile warming me more than any amount of liquor could’ve, and when he stopped laughing, he rested a hand on my thigh, which he stroked with his thumb.

“What are you doing?” I asked. It wasn’t that I minded, quite the opposite, but I didn’t know what to make of it.

“Telling you how I feel about you,” he said, his eyes locked onto mine, seemingly seeing straight into my soul. “I don’t think words are enough.”

“Oh? Then what are you going to use—” I started, but before I could finish my sentence his lips cut me off and the sweet burn of whiskey filled my mouth as his tongue met mine, his hands going to my cheeks to hold me still.

The kiss we’d shared days before had been intense, but it was nothing compared to this one. Everything around me seemed to melt away—the bar, my fears, everything. The only thing that mattered was the feeling of his lips against mine.

“Okay, I’d say that’s a good start,” I said when we broke and he laughed.

“Right, but it’s just a start,” he said and took one of my hands in his. Without explaining, he pulled me to stand, and when I did he put his hands on my hips and hoisted me up onto the bar.

“What are you doing?” I asked, but the glint in his eye told me everything. Maybe it wasn’t the best place in the world to do something like this, but now that I thought about it, there wasn’t anywhere that would be more fitting.

“What I should have done years ago,” he said, his hands on each of my thighs, massaging them gently. He looked up at me and licked his lips, though I don’t think it was conscious, and I knew right then and there I wouldn’t be able to resist even if I’d wanted to.

He reached for the button to my jeans first and I didn’t fight him, nor when he tugged my zipper down and pulled my jeans and underwear around my ankles. When he looked up to see what waited for him, he looked like he’ died and gone to heaven and the redness that was on his cheeks before doubled.

“Jesus, I knew you were beautiful, but I had no idea you were flawless,” he said and I laughed.

“Jason, honey, you’ve already caught the bus, you don’t have to keep chasing it,” I said.

“I’m not trying to flatter you, I’m being honest,” he said. His hands went to my thighs again, bare skin on bare skin, and goosebumps rippled across my entire body as my cock stood at attention.

Inch by inch he worked his hands up my legs until they rested on my hips and again he licked his lips while he stared at me.

“Can I?” he asked—like he needed to in the first place—I’d been fantasizing about something like this for years. Still, I couldn’t find words, so I nodded instead and he didn’t hesitate to lean over and take me into his mouth.

My head fell back as his warm, velvety lips enveloped me, and I couldn’t stop myself from winding my fingers up in his hair. He moaned along with me, though I doubted it was anywhere near as good for him as it was for me, as he began a slow motion up and down.

It was risky, borderline reckless, to be doing this in the bar, but the feeling of his tongue lapping against the underside of my cock made it difficult to care about anything else.

“How’s that?” he asked a few strokes later when he came up for air.

“Incredible,” I gasped, struggling to catch my breath. He smiled and began unbuttoning his shirt, slowly exposing inch after inch of his amazingly defined chest. I’d always known he was well fed and well-bred, but it wasn’t until I saw him standing shirtless in front of me that I realized how much of a supermodel he really was.

“I can’t believe you kept this from me for this long,” I said, reaching out to stroke the smooth valley of skin between his pecs.

“Kept it from you? You never asked,” he said, smiling.

“When do I get to see the rest?” I said, nodding down at his jeans.

“Right now,” he said and practically tore them off. If I thought the upper half was amazing, it was nothing compared to the lower. My eyes worked their way down the V-shape of his pelvis to the tip of his beautiful cock, before jumping to the wonderland that was his meaty thighs and calves. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve sworn he’d grown up on a farm with muscles like that.

I couldn’t wait to see what those muscles could do to me, so I leaned forward and threw my arms around his shoulders, pulling him close and kissing him again. He stroked both of us while we kissed, a slow, gentle rhythm, and by the time we broke again his hand was covered in my pre-come.

“I think you need to lose the shirt,” he said. Laughing, I lifted it up over my head and paused for just a second to reach into the shirt’s front pocket and pull out the condom I’d thought ahead to bring.

“Look at you, being all prepared! It’s almost like you planned this or something,” he said with a laugh as he took the condom from me and tore open the package.

“You were always a little easy to read,” I said and winked at him.

“So we’re really gonna do this here, right on the bar?” he asked before he rolled the condom over his cock.

“Yeah, unless you’ve got a better idea,” I said.

“Are you kidding? What guy hasn’t fantasized about something like this?” he asked and I laughed as I laid back and stuck two fingers into my mouth, sucking on them to get them nice and wet. It’d been a while since I’ve been with someone, but not so long that I didn’t remember how to be spontaneous.

I reached down and played with myself, sticking just the tip of my fingers inside one at a time to get things nice and moist. But then he yanked my fingers away and spread my legs further apart to put his face between my cheeks. His tongue lapped at my hole, drawing soft, gentle circles around the exterior until he applied some force to open me up.

I gripped the edge of the bar while he worked at me and stroked himself, and I couldn’t wait for things to move on to the next level. It was hard to believe it’d been this long and we hadn’t done this sooner, but now that we were here, I had no intention of letting the moment pass me by.

“I’m ready if you are,” I groaned. I couldn’t wait any longer. He came up with a smile and rubbed the inside of my thighs.

“I’ve been ready for years,” he said. I smiled at him and nodded.

“Then show me what we’ve got, Mr. Smith,” I said and he lined himself up with a smile. I took a deep breath as he breached me, and though there was a flash of pain at first, it subsided quickly when I realized what was finally happening.

He went slow, giving me time to adjust. When I was sufficiently ready, I rocked my hips forth to pull him deeper in and he groaned as he slid all the way to the base. His pelvis collided with my ass, making a satisfying slap sound, and I linked my legs together behind his back.

Now that he was here, now that we were together, I wasn’t going to let him go.

“Everything okay?” he asked, stroking my chest with both hands. The way the light hit him and illuminated all his muscles and made his hair shine along with his beautiful blue eyes would’ve made anything okay.

“More than okay. Perfect,” I said.

“Good, it is for me too,” he said and we fell silent as he slowly pulled himself out. Though I clamped down around him unwillingly, the sensation was still incredible, and pre-come oozed out of my cock along with the moan that dripped from my mouth.

He gave me a few moments to adjust again before he pushed himself back in, and if the sensation on the way out was overwhelming, it was nothing compared to the feeling of him opening me back up on his way in.

We fell into an easy rhythm after that, the sound of our bodies slapping together filling the bar like the music I played earlier, and I knew it wouldn’t be much longer before I couldn’t contain my pleasure.

As if he could read me through my body, he picked up his pace, grabbing me by the thighs while he slammed in and out of me, his eyes never breaking contact with mine. I watched a bead of sweat trickle down from his chiseled chin to his pecs and abs, and by the time it disappeared out of view, I couldn’t take anymore.

“I’m gonna come,” I groaned.

“Me too,” he said, and true to his word, seconds after I reached the point of no return, he inhaled a sharp breath and my vision turned white as I erupted, spraying the countertop beside and behind me as he spasmed inside me, his grunting and groaning filling my ears.

“Jesus Christ on a crutch,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper, when he was able to speak again. He heaved over me, sweat pouring off him to fall on my chest and mix with the mess I’d made, and I sat up to place a kiss on his forehead.

“My thoughts exactly,” I said and he laughed. When we both could breathe, we separated and he found a towel hidden somewhere behind the bar, which we used to clean each other off. After getting dressed again, he refilled our drinks and sat down beside me.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I think that was overdue,” he said.

“Agreed, and I hope we get to do a lot more of it soon,” I said as I took a deep slick of the scotch. I was so high on adrenaline and post-sex glow I didn’t even feel it burn on its way down.

“Well, if you stay the night at my place tonight, maybe you’ll get it sooner than you think,” he said and winked at me.

“I’d say you should buy me dinner first, but I think we’ve already skipped that part,” I said and he laughed.

“So is that a yes?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” I said and he smiled before he downed his entire drink in just a few gulps and held out his hand for me to take, and when my hand linked with his, I felt like I’d slipped into my own little southern slice of heaven.