Page 4 of Love on the Rocks

Griffin rubs his hands together and grins. “Perfect. I think one of your waitresses should have an emergency too. It sounds like it’s time to remind Bess who the boss is. I recommend the storage closet. It was pretty lucky for me.”

“I need another little favor. Can you ask Wren to convince Bess to wear something that a middle-aged librarian wouldn’t wear?” I ask him.

He takes his phone out of his back pocket and types out a message. “Wren will take care of it. Get ready to show her a blast from the past.”

There were some things I’d only fantasized about when Bess and I first started hooking up. Instead of a blast from the past, we’re going to rewrite history.

People startto trickle in as the afternoon goes on, and by seven the place is wall-to-wall people. The plan is for me to send one of the waitresses home early and call Bess in as an emergency replacement, but I end up needing to pull the waitress behind the bar to help me keep up with the demand.

I cradle the phone between my cheek and my shoulder as it rings. “Hello,” she answers breathlessly.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I know it’s Valentine’s Day, but I need help here at the bar. We’re bursting with people, and since I fired Angela earlier this afternoon, we’re really short-handed. I just had to pull one of the waitresses behind the bar to help me, but that means we’re now short-staffed on the floor. Can you come and help out?”

“Uh, I’ll see if Wren and Griff can watch Jack tonight,” she says.

The next hour flies by in a rush of mixing drinks and pouring beer. Despite being a sports bar, we’re filled to capacity with couples, and singles looking to not be single, at least for the night. The air is full of pheromones as if Cupid himself were lording over the crowd weaving his magic.

Maybe he is, because the moment Bess walks in the door I can feel one of his arrows pierce my heart. After ten years she still knocks the breath out of me. For a moment it seems like we’re back in the past and I’m watching her walk into my bar for her first shift after I hired her.

The entire interview I tried to convince myself I could be professional. I was her boss and I wouldn’t abuse that power. That thought lasted until she walked in the first night, wearing the same thing she’s wearing now. My eyes start at her feet and the sexy vintage heels she is wearing, up her toned legs that go on and on, despite how short she is. Her legs look so long because her skirt hangs just a few inches below her perfect ass. Graphic images fill my mind of her sitting on the edge of my desk with her thighs wrapped around my head while I torture her by making her come over and over.

I force my eyes to continue their journey north, not that it’s a hardship, and see a tiny sliver of her stomach showing above her short, pleated, black leather skirt. She’s wearing the same uniform t-shirt everyone else is, except hers is a couple of sizes too small, stretching the logo, which happens to be my name, across her plump tits.

Bess saunters up to the bar, props her elbows on top, and leans forward, shoving those magnificent mounds closer to my face. “Where do you want me boss?”

On my desk. In the storage closet. On the sink in the bathroom. Those are just the first places that come to mind. I’m sure I can come up with more when some of the blood flow moves back north.

She blinks those large, watercolor blue eyes at me. “Donovan, are you staring at your name or my boobs?”

“I’m staring at my name written across what’s mine. I’ll let you know where I want you later, but for now, how about you take section four where I can keep my eyes on you,” I finally answer her.

Bess raises an eyebrow. “Is that any way to speak to an employee?”

I chuckle. “Is that how you want to play?”

“It is Valentine’s Day. Kinky is our love language.”

“Then prepare to be wooed.” I hand her an order pad and an apron. She takes the items from me and heads off toward her section. Before she makes it too far, I snap my bar towel on her ass.

She turns to face me, her mouth open in a surprisedO. “Call me boss when we’re at work. Can’t let the rest of the staff think I’m playing favorites.”

“Sure thing,boss,” she sasses me. There’s a little more wiggle in her walk as she heads away to take orders.

My view of her gets blocked when a few of the baseball players I recognize from Scott’s team move up to the bar. They lean against the counter, clearly ogling my wife. “Damn, the talent at this bar keeps improving. I’m starting to see why Scott chased after an older woman.”

I never saw myself as a jealous man before, but I’m starting to understand Griffin and his chest-thumping, “my woman” routine.

“You’ve got the bar,” I tell Janice.

I have to weave my way through the crowd to get close to my wife. Then I lean down so I can whisper in her ear. “Be careful, Bessie. Don’t bend down too much.”

I slide my hand up her thigh and let my finger brush the seam along the outside of her underwear. “If you let anyone see what’s mine I’ll have to punish you.”

She shivers, and I know she’s going to find a way to disobey me. Maybe I should add a few more rules for her to break, ones that won’t end up with me breaking the face of any of Centralia University’s star athletes.

4

Bess

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