Page 17 of The Charmer

Some shit always happened during important celebrations. It was an unspoken rule. This year, a freezer crapped out. That meant no ice and warm drinks, and no one needed that.

I'd sent the busboys to buy bags of ice, and they’d just returned. They’d have to run to the store every hour so we’d have fresh ice.

"Everything is under control," I concluded, watching them put the ice in small buckets to take to the front.

"Julian?" Andrew called to me. He was my head bartender today. "Can you come here for a second?"

"Sure." If we had another emergency, I was going to lose my legendary calm. Or I was going to call Zachary. I was good with emergencies, but he was excellent at multitasking.

"Listen, someone's accosting that lady friend of yours. I'm not liking the way he's talking to her."

Fucking Deveraux.

"Thanks for letting me know."

I walked from the back room straight to the bar. Georgie was in the same spot I’d left her, talking to Kyle.

I took in her body language, and I fucking hated it. Her shoulders were hunched forward. Her head was tilted downward. She'd come in here so happy, and now she looked completely different.

I knew Kyle Deveraux too well. We'd gone to the same school, and now we were running similar businesses.

He was a jackass, plain and simple.

I headed straight to them. The second I overheard the conversation, I saw red.

"Why are you even here?" he asked. "These aren't your type of events. You like to be out on the street with the rest of the peasants."

What the actual fuck?

I walked up to Georgie, standing right next to her.

"I invited her here." On instinct, I added, "I couldn't have my girl miss out on the first celebration of the season." Georgie nearly stumbled into the bar, but I put an arm around her waist, keeping her in place. "Still got some of the Sazerac? Give me a swig. I need it." I took her glass and winked at her, only drinking a small sip.

She looked at me questioningly, and I purposefully brought my ear close to her mouth as she whispered, "What are you doing?"

I couldn't fill her in without Kyle catching on. Not that I actually knew what I was doing. Playing it by ear was my specialty, after all.

I pressed my fingers deeper into her waist. I gave her back the glass and brought my mouth level with hers. "Just follow my lead."

At first, I only intended to make it look as if we were very comfortable being so close to each other, but the smell of her perfume messed with my senses. It went straight to my head, and suddenly kissing her seemed like the best idea in the world.

It would certainly throw this moron off his game and make him leave with his tail between his legs. In fact, I was running out of excuses not to kiss her. I'd wanted to do it ever since I'd gone to her store.

So I went for it, pressing my lips to hers slowly at first... but then she opened up for me. I groaned against her mouth. Fuck me! I pushed my tongue in, slowly savoring her. She tasted like Sazerac, of course.

Clearly, Georgie wanted this kiss as much as I did. I explored her without restraint, barely registering that my employees were watching, along with a lot of customers. I didn’t care. This moment was fucking everything. It fired up my body, and now all I wanted was to keep kissing her. Scratch that—I wanted to touch her too. I needed to lift her onto the counter, part her legs, and explore her until she shuddered in my arms.

The sound of a glass breaking and a wave of liquid flooding my shoes brought me back to the present moment.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," Georgie said.

"Don't worry, babe. I made you lose your head. I'll take that as a compliment." I kissed her forehead for good measure before turning around.

That moron was still here. He looked between the two of us and snorted. "Right. This is a thing."

"Yes, it fucking is. So go bother someone else. Not my woman." I felt Georgie shudder even though I wasn't touching her anymore.

"Suit yourself," he said, then stomped away.

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