Page 1 of Falling for You
The music vibrates through my body. I can feel the sweat dripping down the curve of my back as I sway my hips with the beat. I feel hands wrap around my waist and I already know they aren’t his.
They’re not big enough. The fingers aren’t gripping tight enough. And he always wraps one around my neck just how I like it. So, although I know it isn’t him, I also know his eyes are glued to the scene in front of him.
The jealousy courses through his body the same as the music vibrates through mine.
By closing time, I’ll have him. Just how I want him.
He’ll watch me sit at the bar as I make a show of drinking the glass of water he inevitably leaves out for me once everyone else is gone. He’ll walk around the room, cleaning tables and lifting chairs. But his eyes will never leave me as my hands roam overmy body, rubbing an ice cube along my collarbone. Something that drives him insane with need.
When he’s done, he’ll shut off most of the lights before stalking over to me, ready to trace the path of the ice cube with his tongue.
I will squeeze my thighs together in anticipation of the dance we do most nights I’m home since we started over the summer.
And as good as the dance is, I’m getting tired of dancing in the dark.
I’m standing behind the bar in Rebels Brewery, my baby, trying to remember how I got roped into hosting the town’s Valentine’s Day dance as happy couples fill my space.
Because currently, all I’m seeing is my best friend’s little sister in a dress that exposes every curve of her body. A body that I know all too well, every curve and dip imprinted on my brain. A body that isn’t mine anymore.
Of course, following behind is her brother and my best friend, Hunter Keaton. Along with her four other brothers who are also friends of mine, good friends. Guilt slams into me for the millionth time since Emma and I started… whatever it was we had.
They approach a table directly in my line of sight.Fuck.I can’t watch her in that tight-ass dress all night. Either my true feelings for her are going to show in front of Hunter, or I’ll end up in jailwhen I beat the shit out of all the undeserving guys falling at her feet, hoping for a chance at what I know is underneath the dress.
Emma seeks me out behind the bar with her eyes, and I’m staring right at her when she finds me. She smiles that seductive smile. I know damn well what it means, and why she’s here in that dress. I give her a curt shake of my head, letting her know I’m still firmly in the belief that we need to end what we shared. Even if I can’t quite convince myself of the same thing.
She narrows her eyes, and flips me off before turning away and choosing to sit with her back to me. I don’t blame her for being angry. I panicked and ended everything between us too soon out of fear.
I inhale deeply, wondering how I’m supposed to get through the rest of the night just as another guy approaches her.
If the fling or friends-with-benefits deal we had was with anyone else, I wouldn’t care this much. But ever since I saw Emma Keaton down in the cove last year, nothing has been the same.
I stupidly agreed to her secret friends-with-benefits deal, sneaking in and out of her room at her family’s inn without being seen by her brothers, her slipping in and out of my office, my cabin, my brew room. You name it we were there and sneaking out of it.
But it was more than the sex. It was the laughs we shared, the dreams for our futures at the inn and the brewery, and the texts with flirty banter that never stopped. Then I ruined it.
One morning when I was sneaking out of the inn, walking back to my car at the brewery, I ran into her brother, Wyatt. I had my black hoodie pulled down low over my face, and I was already walking down the road when he drove by me. Thank God it was winter and my clothes cover the sleeves of tattoos or he would have for sure known it was me.
That was the day I told her we needed to end things. I didn’t tell her that part of the reason was because my heart was already getting in too deep with her, and it seems like she was just in it for the good time.
I swat at the fucking red streamer falling down across my bar as my eyes track her to the dance floor.
Guys are practically falling in front of her for a chance. Just like I knew they would. Multiple guys, the whole damn time. My teeth are about to crack from clenching my jaw. None of those assholes deserve the right to be with her. She deserves someone to worship her. That still isn’t me since we were sneaking around in dark hallways because I’m too chickenshit to tell her brother.
The other guys never bothered me before when I knew she’d end up writhing under my body on top of my desk. Her dancing with other men was our foreplay. She’d get me so damn jealous that when everyone was gone I had a need deep in my bones to claim her body as mine. Even if just for the night.
I’ve never been more thankful for Tiff trying to make Wyatt jealous. Wyatt is the town playboy. Enjoying the tourists while they’re here, but one night he made the mistake of enjoying Tiff, a local. She doesn’t like to be told no, so now she harasses all the Keaton brothers whenever they come into my brewery. Tonight she’s set her sights on Hunter, trying to make his brother jealous, except he doesn’t give a shit and will be thankful her attention is elsewhere. I’m thankful Hunter is distracted a little from my eyes being glued to his baby sister.
Most of the Keaton men are here for a tourist on a girl’s trip to celebrate Galentine’s Day. I don’t know who started that, but I definitely cater to it. All the pink drinks, and fruity beer draw them in by the dozens.
Hunter finally extricates himself from Tiff and comes over to the bar. I get his current favorite, my cherry wheat ale I brew for Valentine’s Day. My favorite thing about Hunter is he’s alwaysup for a new brew that I’m experimenting with. And his brother Gunnar, who tests them with his regulars at his bar in New Hampshire.
“She’s getting worse, man. I might have to move.” He rolls his eyes and takes the beer I slide down the bar.
“She’s harmless,” I laugh.
“Yeah, tell me that when she’s trying to wrap her body around yours instead of mine.”
“Ah, but I’m not an illustrious Keaton. I don’t do it for her.” My eye catches on Emma, again.
