Page 5 of Widow

Then I remembered why I had come to the bar in the first place and stopped myself from engaging further. I had already broken my own rules about connecting with people that weren't prey.

After he walked away, I turned back to the bartender, who had just placed my drink on the counter. The man on the other side of Mr. Cranky Pants slid over next to me.

"Sorry about that. He’s a volatile bastard.” He looked in the bartender's direction and nodded his chin. “Put that on my tab.”

“I don't even know what I did.” I looked back over my shoulder to see if the man really had left. I didn’t see him anywhere.

“He has a thing against flower names.” He let out a laugh that sounded sad. "It wasn't anything you did; you just met him at the wrong time."

I raised my eyebrows and then rolled my eyes. “It sounds like he needs a therapist.”

The man furrowed his brow as if considering my words. He stuck out his hand. “I’m Alaric.”

“You can call me Lia.” I took his hand, and he squeezed it firmly. His hand was abnormally soft for a man's, and exceptionally warm. I bet he could really work some magic with those hands.

My libido really was working overtime. It needed to calm down before it got me in trouble and an innocent man killed.

A high-pitched squeaking noise came from the pocket of Alaric’s jacket. I looked back at his green eyes which had gone wide. It kind of sounded like a dog's squeak toy. The tiniest brown head peeked out.

“Is that a monkey in your pocket?” Who did this guy think he was? It wasn’t okay to bring a monkey into a bar. Not to mention, it wasn’t okay to have a monkey at all. Monkeys belonged in the wild, not in a man's pocket.

“No, baby. I'm just really happy to see you," he replied in the creepiest voice possible. He grinned back at me.

I scrunched up my nose at his lame joke. Maybe this guy was just who I needed to meet tonight. The spiders didn’t seem too interested in him. He wasn't a bad person, despite him having a monkey.

I reached out a finger to pet it.It was pretty cute with its golf-ball-sized head. Its eyes were wide, and it seemed to be assessing me.

"Don’t pet his monkey! The fucker might be tiny, but he is vicious," the bartender warned. “Ric, what did I tell you about letting your monkey out inside my restaurant? If the Health Department walks in here and sees him out, I’ll be fined.”

I stifled a laugh and took a drink of the blue cocktail in front of me. Man, it was strong. Two of them and I’d be flat on my ass.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Ric gave the bartender an incredulous look and took a drink of his beer. Then he stuck his finger in it and lowered his wet finger to the monkey.

“I own the place. If I want to stand here all night and make sure you behave with your damn monkey, I will.” He looked over at me and smirked. “Forgive him. He has no social skills. We're still training him like the dog he is.”

“I resent that.” Ric turned back towards me. “You can pet my monkey if you want. He won’t bite you.”

"I’ve never seen a monkey so small before. What’s his name?”

“Picard Rupert Ferdinand.” He lifted the monkey out of his pocket, and it grabbed onto his pointer finger. “The Fifth.”

“That’s an interesting name for a monkey.”

“Well, I wanted to name him Beans, but he didn’t like that. He tried to bite my finger off.”

“Beans?”

“Yeah. His nuts look like beans.”

Alaric held out his hand to me. Picard tilted his head to the side, and his eyes widened. All of a sudden, he started squeaking up a storm and moving his little arms around frantically. What the hell was wrong with him?

“Picard, what are you babbling about?” Alaric shook his head and lowered Picard back into his pocket. “Sorry about that.”

I took another drink, and Alaric leaned towards me slightly. Did he smell me? I had to be imagining that he just took a sniff.

“Did you seriously just smell me?” I really couldn’t believe this guy. First, he had a monkey, and now he was smelling me like he was some kind of animal. I really wasn’t cut out for the bar scene.

“No. I’ll be right back.” He got up from the bar and walked towards the hallway where the bathrooms were located. I certainly hoped he didn’t think I was about to follow him to the bathroom.

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