Page 15 of Everything I Crave

“Come here.” I summon Willow behind the bar.

“What can I do for ya, boss?” she asks sarcastically.

“You better watch that mouth, darling,” I warn, placing a clean glass and shaker back to their spot on the bar.

She slides up close to my body, putting every part of me on high alert. “Why? What are you going to do about it?” she whispers into my ear.

Before she can back up from me, I spin her around with her back flush against my chest, and push her down so she’s bending over the bar. I run my hand up her back, stopping to grip the back of her neck.

I lean in close to her ear to whisper back my retort, “So many things I would do.”

When shivers take over her body, I release her.

Her face is flush, and her nipples are hard through her barely there shirt. She looks like she can’t decide whether she wants me to continue, or wants me to walk away.

Fuck. What did I just do?

I turn around to grab a pint glass off the shelf. I wanted to show her that she’s playing with fire, but instead now I need to adjust myself before turning back around, like nothing is affecting me.

“You’re going to learn how to pour a beer.” I hand her the glass.

She takes it. “Just because you bent me over your bar doesn’t mean you can boss me around now.”

God damn it.“No, but I am your actual boss, so get to it.”

She listens to me for once, huffing out a sigh and rolling her eyes, but she goes to the taps. “Ok boss man, what now?”

“First, you need to angle the glass, about 45 degrees.” I wrap my arms around her small frame, and place my much larger hands over hers showing her the correct angle.

“Then,” I take her other hand and place it on the tap, “you want to open the tap quickly, like this.” I take her hand and hit the tap so beer starts to pour into the glass.

“Once it’s about half full, you want to turn the glass back up, so it’s straight again.” I turn our hands on the glass.

“Finally, you want to shut the tap off just as quickly as we opened it.” I again take her other hand to flick the tap off.

She turns in my arms, holding the beer up to show me, with a ghost of a smile on her face. “How’d I do?”

“Let’s try it on your own first.”

I hand her three more pint glasses, thankful for the space away from her body. My body isn’t getting the message from my brain that she is off limits. And every time she mouths off to me, it’s a fuckingturn on. So basically I’m fucked because she’s proving to be quite the firecracker.

She pours three more beers. Her skill gets better with each one. On the third and final pour, she turns to show me.

“Perfect.”

A grin spreads across her face, a grin that shows how proud of herself she is.

This is about all my body can take tonight. She can learn the mixed drinks from Bennett on a slow night.

Or I might do something I can’t take back.

“Okay, we’ll do mixed drinks another night. What do you want for dinner?”

“Buffalo wings. And a salad to balance it out, please.” Her eyes light up and I know it’s her favorite. Of course the little spitfire likes spicy food the best.

I leave her to finish cleaning the glasses and the bar while I go back in the kitchen to make her requested dinner.

I relish the quiet at the end of a busy night. Usually this is the time I like to experiment with new recipes, but I’m spent after trying to keep my hands and my body to myself all night.

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