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The Bellarian rock band was on fire, their lead singer, Andethor, in fine form.

Really fine. Like, shirt off, muscular blue flesh shimmering with a sheen of perspiration from how energetically he’d been making that guitar he was playing sing, fine.

Not that Julia noticed. Definitely not.

Seeing the big, burly, blue alien playing Earth’s best gift to the galaxy like that? Amazing.

She waved goodnight to a couple of the regulars, looking around Mars Lounge. It was hopping, as usual, even more because of the band on the stage. Dreadnought had been playing three nights every week for the past few months, but recently they’d cut it back to a single night.

The fact that it always happened to be the night Julia worked was definitely a bonus.

She bobbed her head as she poured a round of drinks for an Altarian couple who could barely keep their eyes off of one another.

Now that the war that had been plaguing the Altarians for decades was over, thanks in large part to her best friend, Maggie’s, big grumpy Altarian betrothed, they were seeing more of the absolutely beautiful, nearly celestial-looking, aliens around than ever.

The band finished their current song to wild applause and Andethor told the crowd they’d be back in a few minutes.

Julia smiled, already pouring Andethor’s drink of choice, Bellarian fireshot, into a glass.

He sauntered over to the bar, giving her one of those devastating grins of his, his dark blue hair, several shades darker than his skin, wild around his face.

He looked like some sort of barbarian. The kind that would carry a woman off and do all sorts of filthy things to her…

“ You alright there, Jules? Looking a little flushed, sweets,” he said, the sparkle in his golden eyes letting her know he knew damn well the effect he had on females, hell, males too, of just about any alien race.

“ Just fine. Drink your fireshot,” she said, picking up a cleaning cloth and polishing the bar nearby. Andethor grinned at her, raised his glass, then downed the fireshot, never taking his eyes off of her.

“ You haven’t danced yet tonight. I like it when you dance for me,” he said in a low, teasing tone.

She rolled her eyes. Typical. “And who says I’m dancing for you? Maybe I’m dancing for me.”

A wide smile curved his firm, rather haughty-looking, mouth. If Andethor didn’t have the personality he did, she easily would have mistaken him for a noble from one of the many Bellarian noble houses.

“ Even better. A woman like you deserves all the pleasure she can get.” He set the glass down, meeting her gaze. “We’ll have to see if I can convince you to dance just for me, sometime, and see what we can get up to.”

Her body screamed, “Hell yes, let’s fucking go!” but all Julia did was laugh. “Mistaking me for one of Dreadnought’s groupies, huh? Sorry to disappoint,” she said, chuckling as she walked away, noticing another guest flagging her down.

“ Very, very disappointed, Jules. But I’m a stubborn male, or so I’ve heard,” he said, flashing her another one of those smiles before he headed back to the stage.

Julia bit back a smile. He would be fun, she had no doubt.

But he’d also be a complication she didn’t need, and he was very clearly the type who had fun and then moved on.

She’d learned, long ago, that she wasn’t that type.

Maggie had been that type, before meeting Xarek.

She’d never understood how her friend did it. How do you not get attached?

She’d get attached, if she and Andethor ever did anything more than flirt. And she was not going to mess up what was turning out to be a decent friendship with the Bellarian singer by ruining it with a romance that was destined to crash and burn.

Been there, done that, had the t-shirt to prove it.

She watched as he turned and talked to his two bandmates. His back was all lean, blue flesh, ridged with muscle, wide at the shoulders, then tapering to a trim waist. The black pants he was wearing did absolutely nothing to hide the squeezable, firm ass she’d admired one too many times.

She wished, sometimes, that she could be the type of woman who just had fun and moved on.

But she liked Andethor. They spent a lot of time together with Maggie and Xarek, and had found he was around the same age as her.

He’d grown up with a fascination for Earth music, especially rock, and they’d spent an almost embarrassing amount of time talking about that, playing each other parts of songs they liked on their comm devices, usually while Maggie and Xarek looked on in amusement.

He was a friend. He’d stay that way, no matter how charming or sexy he was. She was too softhearted to even consider anything else.

Andethor talked to his bandmates, Berrex and Terne, as they prepared for their next set. He named a few songs, and Terne smirked.

“ What?” Andethor asked.

“ The bartender likes all of those,” he said with a punch-worthy look on his bearded face.

“ The bartender has good taste and likes most of our songs,” Andethor muttered.

“ Yeah but she likes those enough to start swaying her hips and singing along.”

Berrex laughed, nodding in agreement.

The asshole wasn’t wrong. There was a reason he added those songs to the rotation so often. Seeing her face light up, watching those rare moments when Julia forgot herself and started swaying, moving her curvy little body to the music he was making?

Nothing better in the entire universe than that. At least, as far as he knew. If he ever managed to charm the gorgeous bartender out of her clothes, he had a feeling he’d have a new favorite thing.

Not that he hadn’t been trying, as subtly as possible, for months now.

He’d noticed her, of course, even before that.

Dreadnought had been playing at the Mars Lounge on Asterion Station for a few years now, and she’d been working there ever since.

They’d sort of orbited one another but never really got beyond that point, until Andethor and the Altarian had started working together.

The Altarian’s human mate was Julia’s best friend, and he’d suddenly found himself spending more and more time with her.

And trying and failing to coax her into his bed.

Someday.

He finished talking to his dickhead bandmates, then slung the guitar strap back over his shoulder and turned around. The crowd, which was a full house again, the way it usually was when his band played, cheered, and Julia and her coworkers hustled making sure everyone had their drinks.

Terne started the count for the first song of the set, and within moments, Mars Lounge was full of the sound of drums banging, guitars wailing, and, soon, his own roughened voice singing.

His gaze kept swinging toward the bar. Julia and her coworker were mobbed, getting drinks for guests, and he had the urge to leap off stage and start tossing people around so she’d hear the song she liked so much.

She worked her ass off. Full time here, part time in the fitness center the past few months. He hadn’t seen her in action there, not wanting to be one of those creepy males who haunts a woman’s steps just because he has a hard-on for her.

And he did. Most definitely. Which was why when she started swaying her luscious hips, even as she poured drinks, and then slowly started moving more of her body until she was doing a slow, sinuous, full body sway that turned his mouth dry, he forced his gaze to the other side of the room.

That only lasted for about four seconds before he was looking at her again. And this time, she was singing along. She finally had a break in customers, and she was still doing that maddening dance, now with her arms raised in the air, and he could see her singing the words along with him.

Fuck. That, right there, was better than most sex he’d had.

They hit the bridge, and he played harder, nearly screaming the words of one of their least popular songs, but one of his favorites.

And one of Julia’s favorites.

And she seemed to be screaming right back at him, and she caught him looking at her, caught his eye, and fucking smirked.

He was gone. The body, the smirk. All of it.

He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. At that moment, he was playing for an audience of one, every strum, every growled word, for her.

She stayed with him through it, and when the song ended she raised her arms, cheering, then winked at him and turned to the customer who was waiting for her.

His entire body was buzzing. Adrenaline, excitement, frustration, happiness… all of it, rolled into a hot little ball that seemed to be zinging throughout his body, making him feel like he could outrun the fastest space cruisers.

He took a breath and pulled himself together enough to start the next song, glancing back at Julia as she worked. No one had ever had this effect on him.

He was determined to see if it lasted. And if, maybe, she’d someday feel the same.