Page 8 of The Hot New Bartender in Town

We lock eyes, softly staring at each other, the space between us riddled with silent, electric tension. It crackles within me, too; a throbbing ache taking hold between my crossed thighs.

He looks me over, the intent in his gaze more than obvious. “Do you want to play another song?” he asks.

“Kinda want to make out, actually.”

“Thank fuck.”

Riley drops the guitar on the coffee table as I launch toward him on the couch. The instant our mouths touch, a surge of heat curls throughout my core. I straddle him, my knees sinking into the couch as his hands come to rest on my upper thighs.

Our kiss deepens with touching tongues and tender moans. I run my fingers through his clean, thick hair. He dares to slide hishands beneath my skirt, his warm palms finding their way to my ass.

“Meow.”

I startle at the sudden third presence in the room. Perched on the edge of the coffee table next to Riley’s guitar sits a black cat with a bright red collar wrapped around its neck.

“You have a cat?” I ask.

“What?” Riley asks, prying his lips from my neck to look. “Oh, yeah. Well, no.”

“No?”

“He was here when I moved in,” he says, clearly more interested in squeezing my ass than answering the question. “He kinda just comes and goes. Jake said he keeps the mice away.”

“Aw,” I say, smiling as the cat simply stares at us. “What a fierce little guard cat. What’s his name?”

“Jake.”

“I meant the cat.”

“Yeah.”

I screw up my nose. “You named him Jake?”

“No, Jake did.”

“Jake named a stray cat after himself?”

Riley nods. “Yep.”

I shake my head. “Actually, yeah. That sounds like something he’d do.”

We chuckle before diving right back into each other. With a curl of his arm, Riley spins us around, planting me softly on my back on the couch and positioning himself between my open thighs. We kiss and touch, becoming less and less the strangers we were just an hour ago. Unable to shake the feeling of being watched, I peek at the black cat out of the corner of my eye.

He’s still there.

Still...staring.

“Can you...” I place a hand on Riley’s chest to stop him. “Make him stop staring at us like that? I feel so judged.”

Riley glances at him and chuckles. “Jake,” he says, his voice firm.“Get down.”

The cat does nothing.

“Go away,”Riley says.“Go hunt. Go play.”

Still, nothing.

“Jake,” I say sweetly. “Please go away.”

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