Page 16 of The Naughty List

“Pub crawl!” another one shouts, handing me a flyer as they keep walking. I look at the sheet, noting a holiday-themed pub crawl tonight. I pull out my phone and call Kate.

“Hello?” she answers.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I ask.

“Just finished up shopping with my mom and heading back home. Why, what’s up?”

“We have plans tonight?”

“Nooo,” she says cautiously.

“We do now. I’m coming back to pick you up. We’re grabbing dinner and then hitting a pub crawl.”

* * *

“You’ve never done a pub crawl? Ever?” I ask her again.

“Like I said before, no. My college experience was brief.” She shrugs as she takes a sip of her beer. I watch her lick the foam from her lip and images of her from this morning come rushing back.

“What?” she says with that attitude and I have to bite my cheek from saying something inappropriate.

“Nothing. It just seems crazy because you live here. Pub crawls are staple small-town events. Every holiday has one.”

“And how would you know?”

“Believe it or not, I lived in a small town once. Wasn’t actually born and raised in Chicago.” I regret bringing up my childhood immediately when I see the look on her face. She wants to know more.

“Where’d you grow up?” she asks and I wave the bartender over.

“Two candy cane shots,” I say over the loud music and she gives me a nod. I turn back to Kate who’s still waiting on me to answer. “Iowa,” I say before downing the rest of my beer and grabbing her hand before she can ask more questions.

“What are we doing?” she asks as I pull her off the stool and over to a group of people gathered around a table.

“I signed us up for beer pong. We’re next.” I lean near her ear so she can hear me and I smell her perfume. It’s spicy and exotic with a touch of cinnamon. It makes my mouth water and I let my lips linger near her skin. I step a bit closer, my nose in her hair and my lips against her ear. “Hope you brought your A game,” I say as I smack her on the ass before walking over to the bar to grab our shots.

“Here, a little pre-game courage,” I tell her as she takes the shot from me and we down them.

“Oh God.” She shudders as she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Yeah, not good,” I agree.

“I don’t know how to play beer pong,” she says in my ear.

“Don’t worry, we’re on a team. Just try to shoot the ping-pong ball into one of their cups. If you do, they drink it. If they get one in your cup, you drink it.” She nods and we step up to play. It’s a fucking riot. I’ve never seen her so relaxed and carefree. She’s laughing, high-fiving strangers, and even throwing her arms around me and hugging me at one point. She’s in her fucking element and I just sit back and watch.

“Stop it,” she says, looking over at me. I’m sitting on the edge of a stool, watching her kick the other team’s ass. After my third shot, I let her take over. She’s better at the game than I am. Plus, it allows me to just watch her.

“Stop what?” I say with a coy smirk as I take a sip of my beer.

“Stop looking at me like that.” She focuses her attention on her shot and takes it, kicking her foot back in the process and sinking it. She cheers again and points to the other team as the guy chugs his beer.

“Like what?” I say when she looks back at me.

“You know what.” She plants her hand on her hip and juts it out. I just shrug and act like I have no idea what she’s talking about. She takes a few steps toward me, abandoning the game as her eyes lock on mine and I can see the alcohol has given her a false sense of bravado.

“Now that you’ve seen me naked, you look at me like you don’t know how to handle me.” I reach out, grabbing her wrist and pulling her until she’s standing between my thighs while I sit on the stool. I reach up, slipping my hand behind her neck and grasping her firmly. I pull her forward so that her lips are centimeters from mine.

“Sweetheart, I know exactly how to handle you.”

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