Page 12

Chapter Twelve

I wake in the same position I fell asleep in, wrapped tightly in Cass’s arms. With the events of the flight and grand opening yesterday followed by Cass’s skilled fingers in the shower, I had the best night of sleep I can recall. When the light of day comes streaming through the curtains, I roll over to face Cass. He’s still deep in his slumber, giving me time to admire him. His face is scrunched into an angry expression, eyebrows furrowed, and lips pursed. He isn’t moving nor is he making any sounds. I rub my hand gently on his arm.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” I whisper, trying to wake him.

Cass stirs beneath my touch. His face contorts through several emotions before his eyes shoot open. He draws in a deep, ragged breath while his eyes search the room. When they lock in on me, his features soften.

“Hi,” I say, rubbing his arm.

“Hi.” He sighs, grabbing me by my waist and pulling me to him. He rests his head between my tits the way he did in the shower last night and my hand instinctively curls in his hair.

“Bad dream?” I ask.

“Mm-hm.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Mm-mm.” He shakes his head back and forth.

My heart swells with love as I look at Cass with adoring eyes.

“What time is it?” he asks, his face still buried in my chest.

I lean over and press the lock button on my phone.

“Eight o’clock.”

Cass groans. “I’ve got to get to the shop. I have a meeting at nine.”

He sits up on the bed and rubs sleep from his eyes. I sit up with him.

“I have to go to the bar and meet with Mindy as well. We have to figure out the schedule.”

“Better make sure my bar is running right,” he teases, poking me in my rib cage.

His playful demeanor is contagious. He stands up and pulls on the jeans and shirt he wore last night. I lay back down and stretch, the blanket sliding off my hips to reveal my naked body.

“Goddamn lady, you make it hard to leave you here all alone when you’re lying there taunting me with that sexy fucking smile, and those tits. Mmm,” he growls.

A mischievous smile spreads across my face. “You don’t have to leave,” I say, running one hand over my now alert nipple and down my stomach.

“That isn’t fair. That’s not fair at all.” Cass’s face contorts with a pained look, his need for me evident and spiraling in his eyes.

I slide one finger over my clit and down to my entrance, my eyes never leaving his. I let out a quiet moan and Cass leans to hover above me, but he isn’t taking this in the direction I planned. He grips my wrists and pins them above my head with one hand, his nose touching mine.

“You have to go to work. I have to go to work. We both have shit to take care of today,” he growls, his voice deep and raspy. “You will not touch my lady or my girls without me today. You will wait until tonight. Got it, babe?” he asks.

I circle my hips, pressing them against him.

“Baby,” he groans when my hips rub against his jeans, rubbing his hard cock at the same time.

“I have to leave, and you have to get to the bar soon,” he says, releasing my hands and standing up.

I poke my bottom lip out in protest, reaching for Cass’s hand. He turns to face me with that smile I love so much and that’s all it takes. I give in. Cass kisses my forehead then my nose, then gently kisses my lips.

“I miss you already,” I confess.

“Ditto,” Cass says, walking out of my bedroom. “I’ll see you soon,” he yells over his shoulder as he closes the front door behind him. It clicks shut followed by the rev of a motorcycle engine roaring to life. I smile at the sound, welcoming it.

Guess I had better get ready to start my day. I let out an exasperated sigh. I do need to get to the bar. I decide on a pair of black jeans and a fitted black t-shirt. I grab my phone before I leave, checking the notifications. One missed call from my mother.

I’ve been meaning to call her back, but I haven’t made the time. When I get in the car, I dial Mom’s number.

“Good morning, honeys!” My mom’s cheerful voice soothes a part of my soul every time I hear it.

“Good morning, Mom.”

“What have you been into? You never go this long without calling or at least answering my call.”

Guilt creeps in, a little, at my mother’s words.

“A lot, Mom. We’ve been so busy with the bar, the grand re-opening, and I’ve been seeing this guy.”

“Oh, baby that’s great. How’s the bar doing? Who’s this new guy?”

“The bar’s doing amazing. And the new guy’s name is Cass. He’s older and so far, he treats me good.”

“Define older…”

“Like, thirteen years older.”

“Oh, that’s not so bad.”

“Nope. Not bad at all. Momma, I hate to cut this short, but I’m pulling up at the bar now.”

“Okay, baby. I love you!”

“Love you, too.”

I hang up as I whip into the empty space next to Mindy’s car. Surely, she’s inside preparing for our meeting. I fling the door to the bar open to find Mindy behind the bar, dancing and signing at the top of her lungs. The jukebox is cranked so loud that I can hardly hear my own thoughts. It’s too early.

Mindy’s in the middle of singing a high note into the spray bottle filled with cleaner when her eyes land on me and she stops abruptly. She flashes me the most innocent grin she can before bursting into song again. Mindy’s energy emanates across the room. She’s happy and I can feel her happiness in the air.

“Damn, that girls got some lungs on her,” I say, walking behind the bar to greet Mindy with a hug.

“You know it,” Mindy embraces me in a warm hug. She always knows exactly what I need, even when I don’t have a clue. She clamps her hands to each side of my shoulders.

“Okay, so about the schedule. I was thinking we could put Ryan and Lucy on two or three shifts per week, and then you and I could fill in the rest.” Mindy gestures for me to follow her as she takes off toward the lounge.

I follow to find the calendar laid out on the table. Mindy has the schedule made for the rest of the week.

“I put you working tonight, is that okay? I wasn’t sure if you and Cass had plans or anything.”

“Yeah love, that’s perfectly fine.”

“Have you talked to Ryan and Lucy? Does this schedule work for them?” I ask, looking back down at the calendar on the table.

“Yep! They’re both good with it. Ryan should be here any minute now so I can run her through the opening process, but she can’t work today because she’s got something going on in the middle of the day. So, I’ll be here all day until you take shift at six.” Mindy glances at the clock and nods her head.

“Yeah, I need to work on some things in the office, organize that disaster-piece.”

I pop my head in the office to gauge the current condition. Still in the same condition I left it last week, which means it most certainly needs to be organized. I immerse myself into work. I’m in a great mood, which makes the work seem better somehow.

I stuff headphones in my ears and blast Breaking Benjamin’s Pandora station. The music blaring in my ears makes my already good mood even better. I always had a love for loud music, especially when I want to focus. Not unexpectedly walking into the bar at nine in the morning though. Right now, I want to focus on organizing papers on the desk into folders in the filing cabinet.

The door to the office swings open, scaring me half to death. Cass’s thousand-watt smile makes my heart flutter inside my chest. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing that.

“Hello, beautiful,” he says.

“Hi,” I say softly, rising to hug his neck. “Did you miss me?”

“What kind of question is that? I missed you before I ever walked out of the front door.” Cass smiles before his lips are on mine.

He wraps his arms around my waist, interlocking his fingers at my lower back. An endearment I have grown quite fond of.

“Get to work.” He motions in the direction of the paperwork stacked on the desk. The smile on his face takes my breath away.

“Sure thing, boss,” I reply, biting my lip.

Cass groans in response. “If you keep that up, neither one of us are leaving this office for the next two hours, and we have things to get done, Miss Summers,” he whispers, his voice a low, feral growl.

I grip the back of his neck and pull his face to mine, foreheads touching and gazes locked in.

“Then get. The fuck. Out,” I whisper, enunciating each word.

“I’ll be by later, but I can’t stay to help you close up.”

When I turn my head inquisitively at him, he shrugs his shoulder. “Club shit.”

“I think I’ve closed the place up a time or two by myself,” I say to his back and turn around in my chair to face the desk.

The door clicks shut behind me and the sound of muffled voices echoes in the distance. I can’t make out any words, but laughter is loud and clear. I hate that I’m not out there to participate but work has to be done. I sift through the paperwork on the desk and start filing papers accordingly into the filing cabinet. This shit is for the birds.

The day drags on slowly as I work from the office of the bar. It’s nice to be alone sometimes and lose yourself inside of something, anything, forgetting that you have a name, or that there’s a whole world out there.

After hours of solitude, I say to hell with it and walk to the bar. My eyes are so tired from looking at the computer screen.

“It’s alive!” Mindy mocks as I sit down at the bar.

There are four customers at the bar, and they all seem to be enjoying their day. Their laughter echoes throughout the building, but my mind is not here. Wandering to Cass, as usual.

“You want something to drink, Lilly?” Morgan asks, sitting on the bar stool next to her.

“No, I’m good. I’ll be serving you here shortly,” I say, offering him a smile.

Morgan is my favorite customer here and he’s one of the only regulars that doesn’t get involved in the bar gossip. “Okay, but if you change your mind and want something, I got it,” he insists.

“She needs a damn shot!” Mindy says, setting a shot of Crown on the bar in front of me. I shake my head, picking up the shot glass and raising it for a toast. Morgan clinks his beer to my shot glass, and I toss it back, letting the familiar burn of the whiskey slide down my throat.

“Thank you, Mindy.” Morgan laughs. Mindy scoops his money off the bar. “You doing okay?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m great.” Mindy sets his change down on the bar.

“Look, if you need anything, you call me. You know you’re my middle daughter.” He puts one arm around my shoulders.

I rest my head on his arm. “Thank you.”

“I’m about to get back there and show y’all what a real bartender looks like.”

The bar erupts in laughter—everyone except Mindy who shoots me a ‘go to hell’ look.

“What?” I ask, amusement clearly written on my face.

“I’ll show you a real bartender, all right,” Mindy teases as she shakes a fist in my direction. “A real bartender shows up ten minutes late with food in hand.” Mindy continues.

“Hey! That’s me!” I raise my hand excitedly.

“Trust me, we all know that,” Mona, a regular at the corner of the bar, chimes in.

I dip into the office to grab the money bag, binder, and keys for the night shift. I’m in and out quickly, tired of looking at that room for the day. As I snatch the binder, I notice a piece of paper on the floor. One I hadn’t noticed all day. It’s similar to the one I saw in the hotel in California. A list of movies and cities. Some of them have connecting black lines and some are crossed out with a red marker. Next to each one that’s crossed out are initials. Some are CS and some are SG. CS is definitely Cass, those are his initials in his handwriting.

Why would they initial by a movie and city? That doesn’t make any sense. I set the paper aside, shoving it under a stack of papers in the corner of the desk until I have time to look over it and examine it further.

I return to the front and come to a screeching halt when I see Cass standing at the end of the bar. His eyes lock on mine and the air in the room crackles with the buzzing electricity flowing between us. I drink him in with a fresh haircut, a tight-fit black Lucifer’s Hounds shirt that I can’t read because it’s covered by his cut, a sharp, clean line around his goatee and a pump from just leaving the gym.

“Hi,” he says, breaking through the fantasy that I was just beginning to play out in my head.

“Hi,” I mouth, unable to fully vocalize anything now for fear that it would be my thoughts that come out instead.

Cass’s amusement is blatant. He knows what he does to me. My cheeks beam with red as I make a shallow attempt to gather myself and continue about my evening routine.

I drag my eyes away from him and approach the register when I notice that we have an audience. The bar is silent and every customer as well as Mindy are staring at us.

“What?” I ask, shuffling to put down the binder and close out the register.

“Nothing,” Morgan says, nonchalantly, taking a sip of beer and turning his attention to a conversation down the bar.

I look back to meet Cass’s eyes and see the same amusement making me feel like an ant under a microscope, everyone just watching me squirm. Ah hell.

I try to make an evil face, but I’m entirely too giddy and a smile quickly replaces it. Morgan pats Cass on the back and leans over to say something I can’t hear, though I can see the two of them in the mirror from where I stand.

Cass’s eyes alight with humor, he throws his head back laughing. I watch his reflection, unable to take my eyes off him.

Mindy steps beside me to start on her paperwork. “You two basically just had sex,” she whispers.

“What? No, that was a few hours ago,” I retort.

“That may be true, but I swear when you came around the corner and he spotted you, he undressed you, fucked you, and redressed you all before anyone saw. Love, y’all’s sexual chemistry is so good, everyone in this place could feel it. You won’t be hiding that from anyone if every time you look at each other, sparks fly.”

“Is it that obvious?” I ask, shaking my head. Mindy smiles and nods.

“Get outta here and go get some rest. I’ve got it from here.” I elbow her.

“Yes ma’am. I’m going. Have a good night,” she says, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

I shove her in the direction of the exit. “Yeah, yeah.”

The bar resounds with goodbyes as Mindy leaves. I take inventory of the current clientele. This should be fun.

Cass taunts me from a distance for most of the night and business picks up as the evening goes on. I want so bad to ask him what the hell that paper is about but now isn’t the time. Hell, he’s probably going to tell me it’s none of my damn business. I ponder on it all night, wondering what it could mean. I try to keep a hold on my imagination, knowing the horrors my brain will make up if I allow it to wander on its own.

As midnight rolls around, the bar begins to clear out. I look down the bar where Cass was sitting to find his seat empty. Travis and Leda are the only two customers left in the bar. Where did Cass go? How did I miss that?

“Lilly, can I have a Bud Light and a Busch in a can when you get a sec?”

I sigh. “You got it darlin’.”

Retrieving the beer that’s requested, I ring up the beer and set his change in front of him. Leda is three-sheets to the wind, as usual. Her black hair hangs out the back of her ponytail under the hate that she never goes anywhere without. She’s tiny, shorter than me by at least six inches, but don’t be fooled. That woman is a little stick of dynamite.

Travis, her husband, has such a sweet, caring, and nonchalant demeanor. Completely opposite of Leda, but I guess that’s why they work out so well. I smile at the thought of them, making me think that one day someone might look at me and Cass that way, if we make it long enough. Cass. Where is he?

Before I continue my search for him, the bar phone rings.

“Creek’s!” I answer with more enthusiasm than I actually have at the moment.

“Yes ma’am. I think there’s this smoking hot bartender working tonight and I need to see her in the office just as soon as she gets a minute.” I can hear the smile in his voice.

“You got it, boss.”

After doing one last scan of the bar, I quickly duck into the back. The music fades as I step into the office. Cass is seated in the office chair, staring up at me. He makes me feel like a goddess, the way his eyes scour every inch of my body every chance he gets. He looks at me with so much lust, so much desire, that one look from him and I’m a soaking wet mess, a pool of desire in between my legs with that single glance.

“Hey you,” I say, leaning against the door frame. Being near Cass can be dangerous when I feel this alive.

“Hi, my beautiful lady,” he says, that signature smirk sucking the wind right out of my lungs. “I know I told you I couldn’t stay, and that hasn’t changed, but I just wanted to tell you goodbye properly before I leave.”

He rises from the chair and pulls me into his arms. I bury my face in his chest, inhaling the scent of him mixed with his cologne. He smells like expensive cologne, leather, and clean sheets.

Cass kisses the top of my head.

“I’ll see you soon?” I whisper, more of a question than a statement.

“Yes ma’am. Call me when you leave tonight.”

I tiptoe to kiss him. He places a hand on either side of my face and kisses me lightly, his lips moving against mine the way clouds brush one another.

“Lilly!” Leda calls for me just as I was starting to get lost inside a world with me and Cass alone.

I stop, unwillingly. “There’s my cue,” I whisper, my lips still touching his.

“I know. Mine too,” he says and gives me one more swift, quick kiss.

“I’m coming!” I holler, hearing Leda getting louder.

I walk out and Cass leans down, looking under the desk.

“Hey, there was piece of paper under here that I dropped. What happened to it?” he asks, his brows furrowed as he moves the small trashcan, looking in and around it.

“I don’t know. I didn’t see one,” I lie and rush out to the front of the bar.

“Don’t y’all know a girl’s gotta get beer in the back to keep serving you up front?” I ask, walking out with a case of Busch cans. Not that they needed to know I already have two cases in the front cooler.

I hear the roar of Cass’s motorcycle as I slide the case of beer into the cooler. I wonder where he’s going and why he needed that list. I make sure Travis and Leda don’t need anything before I slip back into the office. The list is still right where I left it, underneath one of the folders I organized earlier. I fold it up and stuff it into my pocket.

Travis and Leda leave around one o’clock, leaving me alone for the next hour. The bar is quiet aside from the humming sound of the coolers and every now and then the sound of ice dropping in the ice machine, nearly giving me a heart attack every time. I clean everything and have everything stocked by one-thirty. Curiosity gets the best of me, and I grab my phone to shoot Cass a text.

Lilly: Found your list. Movies?

I hit send before I can chicken out. It’s perfect, he was looking for the paper and I found it, which means I get to ask questions.

Cass: yes. I like TV

Lilly: Why are there cities next to the movies, then?

Cass: That’s where they were filmed.

Lilly: No it isn’t. I’ve seen Forrest Gump and it was NOT filmed in Baton Rouge.

Cass’s name lights up my phone as a call comes in from him.

“Hello?”

“I don’t have time to explain this shit. I’ll tell you about it later!”

His words are harsh and for the first time since I’ve known him, they were directed at me. I don’t know how to feel about that. The phone dings in my ear, letting me know the call ended.

I sigh in frustration and toss my phone on the bar. I close the bar down and at two o’clock on the dot, I’m walking out of the bar and to my car. I guess I won’t be calling him on my way home.

I roll my eyes at the thought. He’s busy and I know that. I don’t know much about his world, but I understand that there are a lot of secrets that he carries that I don’t know about. At least that’s how it seems. He never said anything about what he was out doing when he’s doing ‘club shit’.

I approach my car but stop short at the sound of motorcycle pipes in the distance. I walk around to the trunk of my car, waiting. As the sound grows closer, I think of how I will approach him when he gets here. What will I say? Should I pry about the list or just leave it alone?

As the bike pulls down the driveway, I see a pair of headlights behind it that sit high off the ground.

He parks behind my car, his headlights shining right at me, making it hard to see. The truck parks next to my car and the passenger door opens. A man steps out and I look to the man on the motorcycle, my smile fading quickly as I realize that isn’t Cass parked behind me.

Something in my gut tells me this is wrong, but before I can react, I’m struck in the back of the head with something hard.

I’ve never been hit with anything metal, but I guess that this is what it feels like. I’m not sure if the ringing in my ears is from the impact or the sound of metal clanking on metal. My vision blurs as my hand reaches up instinctively to the back of my head. That only frees my face for the assailant. The metal object connects with my cheek, then my temple. Excruciating pain is the last thing I remember before darkness surrounds me.