Page 7 of Reluctant Surrender

“Oh, we have a pitcher of strawberry margaritas coming,” she yelled. I smiled. Strawberry margaritas. Mostly sugar, and nowhere near enough alcohol.

“I need something a bit stronger.” I patted her shoulder.

“Okay. We’ll be here!” she shouted. The other two girls wiggled their fingers at me in greeting with their plastic smiles. I’d been working at a small accounting firm for the last two months. I’d become acquainted with the girls while at the office, but none of them were like me. I’d been evading their invitations for drinks on a Friday night, but since I needed to meet up with Mr. Townsend anyway, I’d caved.

Once at the bar, I wiggled my way up to the front of the crowd and waved at the bartender with a fifty-dollar bill in my hand.

“Whiskey sour!” I yelled over the noise and handed him the fifty. “You can keep the change.” He stopped and leaned over the bar toward me with a sexy grin.

“You got it.” He snapped the bill from my hand and went about getting my drink. When he slid the drink at me, he winked. “Find me next round.”

I smiled back at him. A deep dimple popped up on his cheek when he grinned, and a girl could get lost in those intense green eyes. At least for one night.

“I will.” I took the thin cocktail straw between my lips and sucked up a much needed sip.

He laughed and went back to getting orders.

I emerged from the crowd unscathed and my drink still full. But before I could get another drink, a heavy hand landed on my left shoulder.

“Maggie.”

Dammit. The familiar growl sent a heated shiver down my back. I turned around to face Lukas Kaczmarek glaring down at me.

“Hey, Lukas.” I smiled and took a long sip of my drink. Running into him had been a risk; after all it was his club.

His eyes narrowed on me. “You didn’t tell me you’d be here.”

“I’m with friends.” I gestured to the table where I’d left my co-workers gathered around their sugary drinks. “And besides, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tell you anything about where I’m going or when.”

He glanced off into the distance of the dance floor.

“I’ve called.” He ducked his head so I could hear him over the music and the crowd.

I nodded. “I got the messages.”

He raised an eyebrow.

I placed my hand on his chest, his broad, muscular, damn this man works out too hard chest. “Look, Lukas. I don’t need you to take care of me. I’m good. Really.”

“That’s not the point.” He cupped my elbow and pulled me into his chest, his mouth brushed against my ear. “I promised my brother and Amelia that I’d keep an eye out for you.”

The familiar ache of loss hit me when he mentioned Amelia. I hadn’t seen her in months. We talked on the phone every week, but it wasn’t the same. Nothing was the same since the Kaczmarek men had barged into our lives.

“Well, I didn’t ask you to.” I looked up at him, into those damn silvery blue eyes. “I’m here with friends. Just blowing off steam from work.”

“You have a job?” he asked, keeping me tucked into him. Being so close to him barricaded the noise. Or maybe it was just his presence took up so much room there wasn’t space for the rest of the people in the club.

“I do. Now, my friends are going to worry seeing you manhandle me like this.”

“Let me know when you’re done, and I’ll take you home.” He let go of my arm and brushed my hair away from my face, tucking it behind my ear. I jerked back from the electricity of his touch. Way too intimate for a family friend, and that’s all Lukas Kaczmarek could or would ever be.

“I have my car.”

“I’ll have someone bring it to you in the morning. If you’re drinking,” he paused to pin a glare at the drink in my hand, “you’re not driving.”

“Whatever. Fine.” I took another sip of my drink so it wouldn’t spill on my way back to my table. “I’ll text you when I’m ready to go.”

“You better, Maggie.”

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