CHAPTER SIX — CONNER
It was a quarter past eight. I was at Rusty’s, and Chloe was nowhere in sight. Deep down, I knew I should be happy about it, relieved even, but I wasn’t.
I was annoyed as shit and itching to hop in my car and drive to her house just so I could ask her what the hell happened. But I knew I couldn’t do that. Her house was Alex’s house and showing up, unannounced and asking for his daughter wasn’t something I could do. Therefore, I just raised a hand and called the bartender.
“Third refill in twenty minutes, Conner?” Jackie, the redhead bartender, asked as she placed her elbows on the counter and pressed her tits together until they almost popped out of her white tank.
I knew she wanted me; she made that fact clear on many occasions over the years. However, Rusty’s was the one good bar in town and my preferred place to pick up women. Having a disgruntled bartender cock blocking me was a risk I never allowed myself to take, no matter how pretty she was. For that reason, I had never allowed myself to look down at her tits even though they were always right in front of my eyeballs.
However, my frustration at the whole Chloe situation made everything different today. I was tired of controlling myself - tired of not having what I wanted and tired of thinking about consequences.
“C’mon, Jackie. You know I’m a lot more fun when I’m drunk,” I said with a crooked smirk and a slight tilt of my head.
She raised a brow and pursed her lips. “Actually, I don’t. No matter what I do or how drunk I get you, you’re never fun with me.”
I stretched my hand so my index finger was grazing her hand. She opened her mouth and gasped at my touch. Seeing her reaction was empowering and almost cleared Chloe from my mind. Slowly, I slid my finger up her hand and arm until it was in line with her cleavage. Then, I moved my hand just a little, so the tip of it touched the soft curve of her breast.
“Get me another shot, and we’ll see if we can change that.”
A slow, sexy smile grazed her face as she quickly pulled away from the counter to go prepare my drink. With my eyes fixed on her ass, I straightened my back on the stool and watched as she stretched to get the bottle of my favorite whiskey from the top shelf. Though an appreciative smirk curled on my lips, my eyes drifted away from her and focused on the mirrored wall right in front of me.
There, I saw her.
Standing at the entrance of the bar, in a skintight black dress and high heels, was none other than Chloe Jones. The sight of her made me completely forget about Jackie and my third drink of the night.
Unable to contain myself, I turned around to look at her, and all the air rushed out of my lungs. That damned dress showed every line and curve of her full body, and the red pumps on her feet made her legs look like they were a million miles long. Her hair was up in a casual ponytail that put her long, sexy neck on full display. Her makeup was light but still doing a great job at defining her features. Normally, Chloe looked like an angel, but tonight, she looked like a sexy little devil.
It took her a while to find me in the middle of the crowd, but once she did, her red lips curled up into a broad smile, and she waved while walking toward me. For some inexplicable reason, that little gesture did more to the state of my cock than the two mountains jumping from Jackie’s top. Not even caring that Chloe and the rest of the bar could see me, I reached down to grab my aching balls and gave them a good squeeze.
“Sorry I’m late,” Chloe started once she was finally standing in front of me. “My friend Hayden showed up at the house, and we lost track of time.”
I looked at her from head to toe and shook my head. “Looking like that, you don’t have to apologize for anything.”
Chloe giggled at my comment, but I didn’t have much time to enjoy the sound before it was interrupted by the dull thumping of a glass hitting the wooden surface.
“Your whiskey, asshole,” Jackie grumped, forcing me to look at her. I was sure that the expression on my face wasn’t a happy one, but neither was hers. She looked from me to Chloe and asked, “Aside from better judgment, what can I get you, sweetie?”
Anger at Jackie and me bubbled inside of me, but the amused sound of Chloe’s voice asking for a glass of wine calmed me down a bit. Once she had her drink and the bartender left, I turned my eyes back to the beauty beside me.
She had a sly smirk on her lips and a matching sparkle in her eyes. “Conner Wilkes, what did you do to that poor woman?”
Unable to help myself, I chuckled and ran a hand through my hair. With a shrug of my shoulders and honesty in my voice, I replied, “Absolutely nothing, but we should probably sit somewhere else.”
Chloe laughed, got her wine and motioned with her hand for me to lead the way. Due to the number of male eyes focused on her as I guided her to a quiet table at the far side of the room, I placed a protective hand on the small of her back and saw her blush. The reaction pleased me way more than it should, so I let my hand drift a little lower.
Once we reached the table, I pulled out a chair for Chloe sand then took my seat in front of her. My chivalry toward her surprised me. I hadn’t acted like that, or even wanted to act like that, in years. The honest truth was that I liked being around her, and for some reason treating her nicely was important to me.
I leaned back in my chair and held her gaze for a few seconds. She took a rather large gulp of her wine and fidgeted in her seat. With a tilt of my head, I asked, “Are you uncomfortable?”
She took a deep breath and hesitated a little before replying. “A little.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you’re Conner Wilkes and I’m in a skin tight dress with a glass of wine in my hand. It’s all a little too surreal.”
“Why surreal?” I asked genuinely confused. “We’re adults who work together. Celebratin’ a win, and drinkin’ on a Friday night. That’s pretty much my whole life.”
She laughed at my comment and took another sip of her wine. “I know that, but it’s not my life.”
“Bullshit. You serious?”
“Yeah, I was too worried about getting good grades and maintaining my GPA to actually have a social life.”
I shook my head. I simply couldn’t believe that a twenty-two-year-old woman as pretty as her had never experienced a night of partying, and it made me wonder what else she had never experienced. I thought back to all her blushing and doe eyes whenever she caught me checking her out, and the possibilities in that made me almost dumb with excitement.
With a deep need to investigate further, I took a sip of my whiskey and held her gaze. “And didn’t your boyfriend mind you not joining him for all the fun stuff.”
“I didn’t have a boyfriend in college,” she admitted in a shy tone.
Although it wasn’t proof, Chloe’s little confession led me to believe that she might still be a virgin. The possibility of it made my cock nearly burst through the zipper of my pants. I hadn’t been a girl’s first since high school, and that had been twenty-two years ago when I was a flustered teenager. Now that I actually knew what to do, I couldn’t even imagine how incredible it would feel to teach someone as gorgeous as Chloe all the secrets and pleasures of her body.
The idea alone drove me half-crazy with need. I wanted Chloe as my own. I wanted to shape her so no other man would ever fit as well as me. I wanted her spreasd across my bed with my cock pulsing inside of her and my name rolling off her tongue. I wanted to be her first and her only, but I knew it would never happen. It couldn’t. At least not if I wanted to keep my nuts where they were.
Then again, if Chloe and I could keep things just between the two of us perhaps there was a chance. While the thought made me feel like a complete asshole, I couldn’t help but wonder about the possibilities.
Knowing that those were some dangerous waters I was treading, I pushed those thoughts away from my mind and changed the conversation. “Well, since you’re graduated and employed now, I feel like it’s my duty, as the most experienced party here, to teach you about fun bar nights.”
Holding my gaze and giggling, she replied. “That sounds fun. Teach away, master.”
Those words sounded way too good coming out of her mouth. In a split second, my mind was filled with a very vivid image of her naked and tied to my bed, saying those exact things but in a much different tone. I couldn’t help but smirk.
“First of all,” I started in a very firm, teacher-like tone. “Wine isn’t really a fun bar night drink. You want beer, whiskey, or tequila.”
Forcing a straight face, she nodded, “Duly noted.” I waited a second for her to tell me which one it would be. When she didn’t, I raised a brow and, like a good student, she quickly reacted. “Oh, I have to choose one now?”
I nodded and waited as she looked up while pondering her choices. Then, she replied, “Tequila. I never had it and always wanted to do the salt and lime thing.”
I chuckled at yet more proof of how inexperienced she was. I raised my hand to call a bartender and was glad when Rob showed up instead of Jackie. With my eyes fixed on Chloe, I ordered a bottle of Cuervo along with lime and salt, and, seeing that the pool table was empty, I requested it to be delivered there.
Once the bartender was done, I turned to Chloe for her second lesson. “Games are a must. I hope you can play pool.”
She laughed as I got up from my chair and offered my hand to help her up. “I most certainly can’t,” she admitted with enthusiasm in her voice. “But I’m sure you can teach me.”
My cock pulsed again and I chuckled. “It’ll be my pleasure, Angel.”
And I knew it would. I would definitely live to regret it, but I would enjoy every second of our time together. I couldn’t help but think that I’d find great pleasure in teaching Chloe everything I had to offer.