Page 11 of Brewbies
“Please do,” Myrtle said, wrapping knobby knuckles around her cup. “The fertilizer business is in the shitter. No pun intended.”
Roy kept his eyes averted as he shuffled up to collect his drink and scuttled away just as quickly.
“Wishing you all the breast!” she called.
And they were alone.
The individual air molecules seemed to thicken and darken despite the rising sun. She was no longer in her cozy little camper, but on a barstool one down from his. Her forearms on the sticky counter. The air hazy with neon-tinted smoke.
The time between then and now dissolved away. Her body came alive under the memory of his touch, her limbs going liquid.
Darby unwound the t-shirt from her head and tossed it to the side. Under a power not entirely her own, she lifted her nightshirt off as well, standing before him in her standard uniform of a cleavage-bearing bikini top that elevated her hardened nipples nearly to her neck.
No point in keeping up a façade now.
His footsteps sounded as loud as gunshots as he approached in slow strides, his eyes flicking to her breasts before finding her face.
“Welcome to Brewbies,” she said. “What can I get started for you?”
His jaw flexed, then loosened as he lifted sky-blue eyes to hers. “I’m not here for coffee.”
Heat flooded through her, pooling somewhere below the counter but above her ankles.
Had he been driving by when, mirage-like, her glowing neon likeness summoned him for a second round? “What are you here for?”
The man who’d made her come so hard she blacked out reached into his pocket and came back with a white envelope that he set on the counter before her.
“To shut you down.”
TWO
Stout
“Come the fuck again?”The way her head tilted to the side was terrifying.
Ethan blinked in surprise, then stepped closer to assess her more thoroughly. The words “come” and “fuck” short-circuited his brain for a humiliating second. His gaze drifted down her half-dressed body, lingering on her curves before snapping to her face. “I’m shutting you down,” he repeated, more for himself.
Seeing Fox and Cady together was enough to darken his mood. Serving an eviction notice on the one woman he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about when he mixed a batch gave him a mood disorder.
Remembering the notice he’d retrieved from the city building, he slid it through the window to her. “I have papers here from the city. They’re revoking your permit, but have granted you seven days to shut this establishment down. I’m sorry.” It surprised Ethan how much he genuinely meant those words.
“Or what?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that did nothing to help with his focus.
“Or you face fines and, if noncompliant, possible jail time.”
Her laughter was the last thing Ethan expected, and the first thing he’d thought about when he woke up this morning.
Goddammit.
“Come on now, sheriff, you didn’t have to make up some old excuse to put me in handcuffs. I’m into it.” She leaned over her counter, her arms pressing her breasts together and deepening her cleavage as she offered him delicately veined wrists.
Tempting as the offer was… “That won’t be necessary. I’m just here to serve you the papers.” When her smile disappeared again, replaced by a guarded disappointment, he felt compelled to add, “I’m sorry. I truly didn’t knowyouwere Darby Dunwell.”
“Most guys ask my name before we fuck, but you didn’t seem to need it.”
Muting a guilty wince, he said, “I assumed a mutual understanding, but if I was incorrect, I apologize for making you feel disrespected.”
“I assumed a mutual understanding…” she mimicked, using a stuffy voice he didnotfucking appreciate. “Don’t be that guy. I’m not mad, I’m just wondering what you’re trying to pull here, exactly. This is for real? You’re telling me I can’t run my business on a piece of property I own?”
