AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Chantilly
I wiped down the walnut bar top, everything inside of me quivering as I did my best to ignore the intimidating, bearded man sitting at the very end of the bar with his frothy beer. Even without his perfectly tailored dark suit and the firearm holstered at his chest, his air of menace was enough to send me weak-kneed.
But I avoided his type like the plague now. I’d learned the hard way to keep away from dangerous men, particularly ones who exuded arrogance and dominance. I sighed heavily. That he looked like he’d learned how to survive against all the odds long before he’d become a man only added to his allure.
I knew better than to give myself to a man who was way older than his years. I refused to go down that path ever again.
It didn’t stop my body from responding further. My thighs clenched together, liquid heat rushing to my core and my heartbeat as unsteady as my breathing. Fuck. This was the last thing I needed while I was trying to stay inconspicuous and under the radar.
It’d taken me months to feel safe again, to feel as though Sean O’Malley, the don of the Irish mafia, had finally moved on and forgotten I’d ever existed. I bit my bottom lip and shut down a sudden urge to weep. Sean would never move on. I’d humiliated him the moment I’d escaped from him. He wouldn’t rest now until he’d caught me and made me suffer for my so called offense.
Only when he’d torn strips off me, likely both physically and mentally, would he finally kill me.
My hand clenched around the cloth, and I bowed my head as I struggled to regain my composure. Seeing the tall, bearded man had made my mind lapse back to the past, one I was trying so damn hard to forget.
That he watched me now with assessing, too perceptive eyes, only made me want to ignore him twice as hard. But how could I ignore a man who made my pulse pound and brought my every cell to life?
I turned away from Mr. Armed and Dangerous—no amount of passion and pleasure was worth dying for—and managed to smile at a handsome regular as he walked through the front doors. His answering grin was cheeky, his green eyes twinkling.
“William! Long time no see,” I joked weakly. He’d been coming in every afternoon at 4:00 p.m. for the last month, almost from the time I’d started working at the bar. Though I was teased all too often from the other bar staff that he only came in to see me, right now I was grateful for the distraction. Aside from his impressive height, he was about as normal and average as a man could get.
“The usual?” I asked, dropping my cloth into the bar’s sink to grab an icy-cold glass and pour his favorite beer on tap.
He nodded, his clean-shaven cheeks dimpling. “You know me too well, Suze.”
I winced at my alias. Did I even look like a Suze or Suzy? No, I was too exotic for that. With my Cherokee, Mexican and Scottish heritage, I was a mongrel through and through, a tough cookie who’d faced the devil and survived…so far.
Suzy was more suited to some blonde American cheerleader gal who’d broken a dozen jocks hearts before marrying a barrister, then giving him a tribe of children while being a prominent member on the local school board.
But I’d taken on a different name with every new town I landed in and Suzy AKA Suze had seemed appropriate somehow for this one. I wasn’t Chantilly anymore; I probably wouldn’t ever be again. I was someone else now and I was doing everything possible to keep at bay the Irish mafia who’d be hunting me down.
The beer sloshed as I recoiled. Was Mr. Armed and Dangerous one of them? I jerked my head around, my tight muscles relaxing only a little at seeing him gone. I hadn’t even noticed him leave.
Damn. He’d been as stealthy as a panther hunting then abandoning its prey. Except I wasn’t his prey, I was nothing but paranoid. That he hadn’t spoken one word to me—aside from his beer order—and yet still affected me so profoundly wasn’t something I was ready to dwell upon just yet.
I had enough on my plate.
I bit my bottom lip. Either way, it was probably time I left this town. I’d lingered here too long already.
“Everything okay Suze?” William asked, his green stare clashing with his red plaid shirt.
I swallowed hard, then managed a bright smile as he took the nearest barstool and I placed his beer in front of him. “Everything’s fine now, thanks for asking.”
I wiped my wet, sticky hand on my red waist apron, thankful that it protected my black work pants and black singlet top from the worst spillages. Along with my long mass of midnight hair I’d pulled into a high ponytail, I was about as emo as a person could get. All I’d need was to throw off my red apron and apply some black lipstick and eyeliner, and I’d pull the look off perfectly.
He took a deep pull of his beer and it seemed natural for me to grab a clean cloth, then lean forward and dab the froth off his top lip. I froze, realizing too late just how intimate the act was even as our eyes caught and held.
I blinked, then snatched my hand free. “Sorry, I-I don’t know what—“
“Did you hear me complain?” he interjected gruffly, his ruffled brown hair making me suddenly want to push my fingers through it and mess it even more. “I’ve been waiting for a sign to show me you might be interested.” He put his beer down, his gaze direct. “I’ve been desperate to make a move, but you always seem so twitchy, like a deer ready to bolt at the first sign of interest.”
I’d been that obvious. So much for being inconspicuous and blending in. Any other bar women would probably have been underneath him by now. Lord only knew he was handsome enough in his own way, with his roguish smile and friendly green eyes, with not a murderous glint to be found in his gaze.
That he had nothing on the bearded man who’d inflamed my body with a single heated look was my own stupid weakness, a flaw I intended to fix. From now on men like William would be my focus, men I could trust and who wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to snap someone’s neck for the smallest transgression.
“Tell me your shift is ending soon?” William asked.
