Page 17 of Ash (Dragon Riders MC 3)
“Can I get you anything?” the bartender asked.
Then, a booming voice appeared at my side.
“Whatever she wants, put it on my tab,” Ash said.
And when I slowly looked up at him, I found his gaze staring down at me.
With a darkened look that made my heart stop in my chest.7AshI never thought jeans and a t-shirt could look so sexy on a woman. But there she was, standing at the bar in all of her glory. I figured she’d try to get out, especially after leaving her the keys to my pet project. But I never expected to feel such a tug toward her the second she walked in.
Her luscious ass filled out the back of her jeans while her thighs boasted of womanly curves I wanted to sink my teeth into. Her tapered waist called to my hands and her tits would be perfect handfuls against my palms. But her body had nothing on her countenance. The confidence with which she swayed those hips of hers made my pants tighten around my pelvis.
And suddenly, I found myself at the bar with her.
Putting all of her shit on my tab.
“Are you sure, Ash?”
I blinked. “Very.”
She smiled. “Well, I’ll have a Jack and Coke.”
I nodded. “Good choice. You hungry?”
“I suppose I should eat since I only got up forty-five minutes ago.”
I grinned. “Sleep well?”
She nodded. “Very much so. Thank you for your hospitality.”
“Not a problem. Order whatever you want.”
I stood at the bar with her as she hopped up onto one of the barstools and we both ordered burgers and fries for ourselves. Our drinks came up in a hurry and I reached for my beer, watching as her lips curled around the outside of her glass. There wasn’t anything about this woman I didn’t find staggeringly beautiful. And for a split second, I thought I felt her trying to lean a bit closer to me.
Or it could’ve been my imagination.
“So, you want to fill me in on the whole story with your ex?” I asked.
She paused. “Do you want to know?”
“I think I should at least know what might come knocking on my front door.”
“Oh, he won’t find me out here. He’s not that smart.”
“Doesn’t mean I should be left in the dark. I like to understand my opponents.”
“Opponents?”
I took a pull from my beer. “Yep. Because if that fucker ever comes after you, he’s nothing but an opponent.”
She smiled brightly. “Well, I suppose when you put it that way…”
Our food touched down in front of us and I gave her some time to gather her thoughts. And to get some food in her system. But once she threw back the rest of her drink and ordered another one, she turned to face me.
And I readied myself to listen.
“His name is Dave.”
I nodded. “Dave. Got it.”
“Him and I went to high school together.”
“Sweethearts?”
“He wanted to be. But I didn’t want to date him back then. I was dating the quarterback of the football team, so things never really happened between us.”
“How did you guys get together, then?”
She shrugged. “People grow up, I guess. I don’t really know how it happened. It just did one night. I was out at the bar celebrating my twenty-first birthday and suddenly, there’s Dave. He’s buying me a birthday drink and we’re reliving the horrible times we had in high school. Then, he’s at my place and we’re hooking up.”
“And you didn’t stop hooking up.”
She nodded. “Right. It kind of became this thing we did a couple of times a week. We got together, had drinks, got food, then went back to my place. And it continued for a while until the town talked about us ‘being together.’ And that was that.”
“How long were you two together?”
“Uh… just shy of a year, I’d say? I mean, it wasn’t like an ugly break-up either or anything. I sat him down, we had a talk, and by the end of it we were both in agreement that we needed to end whatever it was that was between us.”
“But he still ended up stalking you?”
She sighed. “I don’t really know how it happened. I mean, first he’d come over to talk. I mean, he’d come over a lot. And then it got to a point where I’d come up with excuses just so he wouldn't come over. Then one day, on a day I told him he couldn't come over, I caught him sitting in his car outside of my place. And before I can walk up to him and ask him if he’s okay, he takes off.”
“Oh, boy.”
“Yeah. Then, he starts popping up everywhere: the grocery store, the bar, my place. Just watching. It creeped me out, so that’s when I moved the first time. But when he found me at my new place, I quickly moved overnight into another apartment in that same complex until I could find another, totally different complex to move my ass to.”
