Page 10 of Knot Your Bridezilla (High Fructose Corn Syrup Verse #2)

DAVID

She was a bombshell. Fucking drop dead gorgeous.

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why someone hadn’t snatched this girl up already.

Avril was easily the hottest woman I’d ever seen—hair cascading in honey-blonde curls.

She had legs for days and perky curves; with the most luscious lips that I wanted to fall mouth first into.

Every single time she walked into my bar, I wanted to pull her against me.

To push her against those velvet cushions and feel her shudder against me as I worked that sweet pussy until she forgot every word in the English language but my name.

Every time she came to the Pearl, I had to disappear into the kitchen to force my cock to calm down.

It didn’t make any sense.

Night after night, she would come into my bar… and each time she was on another date with a new fucking loser.

Where did she even find all of these men?

I mean, I know I’m biased… I know exactly who I have in mind when I think to myself that she deserves better… but damn .

On one of her last dates, I only peeked through the kitchen window.

I was most of the way through my mindful breathing exercises to try to convince my cock not to try punching a hole through my trousers…

but I’m pretty sure that the guy who I thought was sweetly taking his mom out for dinner… was actually her date.

Who did that? Who took their mom with them on a date?

Why did such a hot girl go after so many guys who were short and shifty-looking? Was that her type or something? Did she have some kind of date-degradation kink?

God, all I wanted to do was kiss her.

I wanted to lean down and claim her lips and see if they tasted as good as they looked. I wanted it more than anything… but I couldn’t.

If I had met this woman anywhere else, it would have been fine, but I had to find her at my own damn bar.

I couldn’t fucking shove my tongue down one of my customer’s throats.

No matter how much I wanted to. That was asking for a lawsuit.

I’d poured too much of my savings into renovating The Thirsty Pearl to throw it all away by harassing the diners.

It wouldn’t even take a lawsuit. All that needed to happen was for Avril to post one scathing review online about how creepy the alpha bartender was, and people would probably run for the hills rather than dine here again.

And now, none of that mattered, because one of these losers —someone who wasn’t good enough for her—had managed to convince Avril to go home with him.

Now he was going to take her to his bed.

Him. Not me.

Some other guy was going to get to unwrap her like the gift to the world that she is… Another man was going to get to feel those sweet curves… and put his dry, unworthy mouth on her plush lips.

I had to stop thinking about it. Couldn’t lose my shit on the job. It wasn’t so bad when her dates had obviously been going poorly, but seeing that greasy little man make Avril laugh, made me want to storm up to the table and punch that possessive little leer off his face.

She should have been mine.

Fucking damn it. From the first moment I’d seen her, I’d known to my very bones that I didn’t just want her.

I had to have her… and I’d never felt that way about any woman.

Why hadn’t I just acted on it? If I hadn’t let myself be such a little bitch, making excuses…

if I had spoken up like I’d wanted to… then I wouldn’t be sitting here wallowing in despair.

All alone in my bar. So twisted up with rage, and struggling to box it all back into myself. What made it all worse was knowing that the only person I really had to blame was myself. I was the idiot who let her go without even telling her, without even giving her a hint about how I—

With a sharp crash, the glass that I had been holding onto too tightly shattered in my grasp. Damn it. Damn it all.

Okay. I’d fucked up.

Grabbing the dustbin I’d shoved into a corner, I started sweeping the shards up, before carefully tossing them into the trash.

If Avril walked back through my doors, I swear, I wasn’t going to let her walk away without a word. I couldn’t let myself feel like this again, knowing that I only had myself to blame.

I’d give anything to take back this day, fuck even this last hour, and get a chance to do it over.

If Avril never came back… if I saw her months or years down the line, in a grocery store or walking down the side of the road with that asshole she’d left here with…

Fuck.

It wasn’t just that she was hot. Even though I never really spoke to her, I’d gotten to know her . I’d listened to all her witty, sarcastic jibes at her awful dates, and all I’d wanted was to join in with her.

She was fiery and gorgeous. Her eyes sparkled, glittering with mirth. They were dazzling, like staring into the sun.

Take her. Make her mine. Just fucking kiss her.

She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, so why was I so determined to believe that she wasn’t for me?

Could I handle it if the reputation of my bar went up in flames? Honestly, it would be a pain in the ass, but I could rebuild. It would be tough, but I had managed through worse.

But could I live with myself if I let Avril date another fucking idiot, just letting her be the one who got away? Without even saying a word?

No.

I didn’t want to go another day without at least letting her know how I feel.