Page 73 of Firefly Effect

“About you.”

She rolls her eyes. “You really are one big cheeseball, aren’t you?”

Revenge is the only thing on my mind as I laugh and pick her up off my lap. Sitting her on my desk, I roll my chair closer, wrap my arms around her ass, and plant my mouth on her cloth-covered nipple. It was easy enough, since her nipples have been hard as rocks for the past ten minutes.

I soak her shirt with my tongue, lapping at her, then finally pulling her into my mouth with one hard suck. She squirms against my attention, and I can feel the pleasure vibrate through her body when I bite down gently. Looking up, I see her hooded stare on me.

It’s all I can do to not give her exactly what she wants. It would be so easy to yank my shirt away from her sexy body, yank her soaked panties to the side, and fuck her on my desk. It’s what I want—and it’s what she wants, which is precisely why I won’t give it to her.

Curling my lips into a devilish smile, I drag my teeth against her hard nipple until I abandon it completely. Then I push back from my desk and stare back at her, knowing just how fucked-up I’m being right now.

“On second thought,” I say, “since we’ll be living apart and all, maybe we should behave ourselves.”

Her jaw drops, eyes narrowing in a heated glare. “Is that so?”

I nod, fully confident that I have the upper hand. “That’s so.”

A flicker of mischief dances in her eyes. “Huh.” Her legs close, and she slips down from my desk. “In that case, I should get ready for work.”

My confidence falls away the moment I realize these games will not work on Evie. Not at all. I reach for her waist and pull her back down onto my lap. “Fine. Okay, you win.” I groan, hating every second of my surrender.

She smiles and presses her mouth to mine for a lingering kiss before murmuring teasingly across my lips, “I always do.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

EVELYN

Firefly is slammed by the time I get into work that afternoon. I have to call and beg Kyle to come in and help out. I can’t remember the last time we had a full crew here working the bar, but it makes for an amusing night.

A group of out-of-towners staying at Deep Creek Campground have come in to celebrate one of their friends’ birthdays. They’ve been piled at and around the bar since they arrived, getting plastered. If they hadn’t taken a rideshare here, I would have kicked them out long ago, but I promise them one more round before closing out their tabs.

“C’mon, Evie,” Lilith says, echoing the birthday boy, who she’s been flirting with obsessively. “It’s Billy’s birthday.”

Billy seems to be Lilith’s type, or at least the types she’s been here with lately—tall, bearded, handsome. I try not to dwell on how each one looks a little bit like Lincoln. Not nearly as striking in face, body, or mind, of course, but the similarities are alarming considering I know she’ll stop at nothing to get what she wants.

“Sorry,” I say to Lilith with a firm shake of my head. “Last call.”

She rolls her eyes at me the same way she used to do when we were kids then goes right back to hanging on Billy. I fight against revealing my amusement and busy myself with delivering a Diet Coke to the man in the corner of the room. He wears a black hooded sweatshirt and doesn’t even look up when I set the drink in front of him. Instead, he nods in acknowledgment but keeps his eyes glued to the book he’s reading.

Something about the scene sends chills up my spine, but I’m not sure why. I realize I’ve seen this guy here before in the same closed-up hoodie, like he’s trying to stay in the shadows. I back away slowly, my curiosity piquing when I see the small backpack on the seat beside him.

“You live around here or just passing through?” I try to make the question light, like I would with any other customer.

He shrugs, still not looking up. “Haven’t decided yet.”

I frown, confused by his answer. With no other choice, I walk back to the bar, determined to keep an eye on him for the rest of the night. But I don’t get that chance. The man abruptly stands, gathers his things, and walks out of Firefly, leaving his Diet Coke sitting untouched at his table. Weird.

When Lincoln walks into Firefly a short while later, I almost regret that I asked him to come. Lilith spots him immediately and ditches Billy, worming her way onto a barstool near my man.

I don’t even have to ask Lincoln’s order, simply pouring him a Tennessee Fire neat and sliding it to him. He winks at me before swirling the amber liquid around his glass while half paying attention to whatever Lilith is rambling on about.

Sighing, I make my way down to the other end of the bar where Kyle and Armando seem to be trying to reason with the group of drunk campers. “What’s going on?” I ask Janessa, who’s watching the scene unfold with wide eyes.

“They’re just wasted and refusing to leave,” she says. “Armando’s about to rearrange that one guy’s face. Why are out-of-towners always so rude?”

“Beats me.” I take out my phone and text Gabe. This scene is right up his alley. Then I step in front of Kyle to confront the group with a smile. “I’m going to do you all a favor, because I like you and really appreciate your business tonight.” I nod toward the window. “You walk down that road two blocks, and you’ll find a liquor store on the corner. It closes in twenty minutes. Pay your tab now, and you’ll have just enough time to get there.”

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