Page 304 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

MAC

I stared at Georgia sitting between the other women. She was laughing at something Mallory said, her mouth covered with her hand. The mouth I’d kissed a few hours ago. The one I wanted to kiss again. The one I wanted to see wrapped around my dick.

The women turned to look at me as one, as if I was a curiosity in the zoo.

“You’re staring,” Theo murmured.

“They’re staring,” I countered.

He noticed, then ignored them. “You’re eyeing her like you want to swipe the drinks off the table and fuck her over it.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“So is every other man in here,” I growled.

I didn’t miss the way she had every guy’s attention and she didn’t even know it.

They weren’t sipping their beers and thinking about taking her to church because all I could think of was defiling the hell out of her.

Even after I’d been the one to tell her no more kissing.

I’d started it. I’d ended it. Yet, I wanted more.

After the way she responded in the laundry room? Fuck, she’d wanted it, too.

“She keeps sneaking glances at you,” Dex commented. Sitting beside his wife, he had a hand on her thigh. “I feel like I’m in the lunchroom in middle school.”

“Yeah, well, I kissed her.” As if that explained this stare off.

“She’s not a cookie to lick and say it’s yours,” Dex added, continuing on the juvenile theme. Although I did want to lick her and do it in front of the entire bar so everyone knew she was mine.

But she wasn’t mine. No. Fuck! I wanted her but couldn’t have her. Yet, no one else was going to touch her.

Theo laughed and I finally looked his way. He’d been a grumpy asshole when he moved here last fall. He’d gone from big city surgeon to small town doctor, gained an amazing girlfriend. And he got happy.

“What?” I asked, studying him. “You’re scaring me with your laughter.”

“It’s payback time,” he said, grinning.

I frowned. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I was the cranky fucker sitting in this bar and you were laughing your head off at me because I had my head up my ass about Mallory.”

“And I’m the cranky fucker now?” I pointed to myself.

“Oh yeah.”

“Let me ask you two a question about women.”

Dex grinned. “We are the experts.”

I ignored that. “What does a woman do in the bathroom in the morning for forty-five minutes?”

“Hell, if I know. Mallory’s in and out in thirty.”

“Thirty?” I asked. I showered in five, shaved in two and I was done.

“Lindy spends forty-five minutes in the morning. Shower, moisturizing, drying and styling hair, makeup.”

So Georgia hadn’t used her vibrator. That would probably add another few minutes, right?

Theo slapped me on the shoulder. “You want her, even if she’s that high maintenance, I say go for it.”

I swiveled on my stool to face him, to get him to understand. “She’s not from here.”

“Right.”

“She’s leaving as soon as the fundraiser is done.”

“Exactly.”

“She’s the one who came up with the calendar idea.”

“Don’t hold that against her. It’s a really great idea,” Dex added.

“Fine, but I was all for a chili dinner. Then another biggie is that she’s staying over my garage.”

“I know. Easy access. So what’s really the problem? Sleep with her and get her out of your system.” The way Theo looked at me, he couldn’t see an issue. He had an advanced medical degree with years of additional training. I figured he was smart enough to grasp the situation, but no.

“Andy’s in love with her.”

His brow winged up. “That’s the competition you’re worried about? A six-year-old?” said the man who didn’t have, and didn’t want, kids.

“He can’t fall for someone who’s not going to be around.”

His look changed because he was sympathetic toward a kid, not me. At least he and Dex recognized the challenge when it came to Andy.

“He or you?” Theo countered.

I glowered.

“Parents are allowed to have sex. Or I hope so because I’m going to be one in a few weeks,” Dex said. Clearly he knew what he was doing in the bedroom since his wife’s current state was a blatant example of his virility.

“Yeah,” Theo added. “Like you said, she’s leaving. Andy’s going to be sad whether you sleep with her or not. Have fun. Have sex. You remember what that is, right?”

I glowered some more.

“I told her on the way here that the kiss was a mistake. That it shouldn’t have happened, and it can’t happen again.”

“One thing women know about men,” Dex said. He was like a happy golden retriever, always smiling and easy going, as if he shit rainbows. Although, I’d seen him play hockey and he was a different person on the ice.

“Yeah?” I asked, waiting for him to share his wisdom.

“We’re always wrong.”

Theo chuckled. “I bought Mallory a house when I wasn’t supposed to. I can vouch for that statement.”

Georgia got up from the table and went toward the bar carrying her empty wine glass.

I watched her progression, watched various men eyeing her on the way.

Arlo, Mallory’s brother and the owner of the place, was behind the bar.

He came over to her, offered her a smile.

They spoke for a moment, then he winked and went off to fill her order.

The man seated at the bar turned toward her. Eyed her like a steer at auction, then began to talk to her.

“He’s hitting on her,” I growled, after watching them for a few seconds.

Dex and Theo followed my glare.

Dex laughed. “That’s one of the dads from the PeeWee league.”

Since everyone in town knew Dex played pro hockey, he’d been wrangled on occasion to help coach with the kids’ programs at the skate center.

It wasn’t consistent, yet, but as soon as he retired, he’d probably take up the role full time.

He said a few more years with the Silvermines, but I had a feeling he’d be quitting sooner than he thought once he became a dad.

“Looks like they’re hitting it off,” Theo commented.

Like hell!

“She came here with me,” I snapped.

“So? She’s not yours. She’s fair game,” Dex advised.

I stood up. “She’s not fair game,” I added.

“Professional advice?” Theo tossed out before I could storm over there and beat up the PeeWee dad.

More advice from the James brothers. Were they the experts? Maybe they were since all four of them had somehow gotten women to fall in love with them. “Sure.”

“Listen to your dick.”

My dick was saying get over to the bar, keep that fucker from shooting his shot, toss Georgia over my shoulder, and take her somewhere so I can sink into her sweet pussy.

Fine. I was wrong earlier. We could kiss. I could play with her nipples. I didn’t have to marry her. I didn’t have to keep her, but she sure as hell wasn’t going home with that guy.

Theo was suggesting that Georgia was the perfect solution to a sex drought. No strings. No hard feelings. No running into her at the grocery store after things were over. We could fuck and forget each other. Hell, she’d be in a different time zone.

Maybe Theo wasn’t too dumb after all. Or I was just slow. Or protective. Maybe both.

Eyeing Georgia, I got between her and PeeWee Dad.

I arched a brow, hoping that simple gesture conveyed everything my dick wanted.

“Um, excuse me?” the guy said.

I ignored him and focused solely and completely on Georgia.

The corner of her mouth tipped up and she arched one perfectly curved brow in return.

I took her hand.

“Sorry,” I said to the guy. “She was never going to be yours.”

Then I led her out of the bar.

This was happening.

My dick was so fucking smart.