I spent the day at The Devil’s Boot in a daze. I dropped more than one chair as Joe and I took them off the tables, miscounted part of the liquor inventory, and almost dropped a rack of clean pint glasses. I couldn’t believe what happened last night. And this morning.
I was a goner for Emmy Ryder.
Before yesterday, I could’ve denied it, but not anymore. It was more than just the sex, which was obviously fucking phenomenal; it was the way I felt when I woke up with her tucked into me this morning, and how I could’ve stayed there all day.
I didn’t wake up with women. I was gone before the sun was up, and I never regretted leaving. Not with Emmy. I wanted to wake up next to her every day.
Don’t even get me started on the way she looked in my t-shirt.
I would’ve spent the entire day in her bed if it weren’t for Wes knocking on her door.
That was a close fucking call.
But I’d rather Wes catch us than Gus. I wanted to live to see forty.
“Where’s your head at today?” Joe’s voice broke through my thoughts.
“W-what?” I asked. I was stocking glassware under the bar, and Joe was giving the tables one last wipe down before opening.
“You’ve been distracted all day. What’s on your mind?”
“Nothing. Just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”
Joe smirked at me. “So it’s a girl, then? That’s what’s on your mind?”
I let out a sigh. “Yeah. It’s a girl.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you all worked up over a girl. She must be special”
“She is,” I said without hesitating. Emmy was everything.
“Does she think you’re special, too?” He said it sarcastically, but I still hesitated. I didn’t know. Joe spoke again before I had a chance to answer, “Ah. So that’s what’s got you all twisted up. You don’t know how she feels about you.”
“Something like that.” Joe raised his eyebrows at me, waiting for me to keep going. “I just think I pushed her too hard.”
“You’re not giving me much to go on here, kid.”
I didn’t know how to explain to Joe that I was falling for the one woman in the world I wasn’t allowed to fall for.
“The whole thing is just really, really new. For both of us. But I think I’m just ready for more than she is, and I don’t want to rush her.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Joe said as he shook his head.
“What?”
“You really like her.” The look on Joe’s face was a mix of happiness and disbelief. Believe me, Joe. I feel the same way.
“I do,” I conceded. I liked Emmy. A lot.
“You want my advice?” Joe asked. “Granted, it might not be worth much.”
“I’ll take anything.” Considering the person I would normally talk to about things like this—if things like this ever happened to me—would be Gus.
“She might not be ready, and that’s okay. Just keep showing up. Instead of telling her how you feel, keep showing her. Actions speak louder than words and all that shit.”
I could do that. I would do that. I wasn’t very good with words anyway.
“That’s actually good advice. Thanks, Joe.”
“No problem. Now, get your head out of your ass. We open in twenty minutes.”
The Devil’s Boot was a fucking mad house. Fridays were always busy, but damn, this was something else. The band was late, but they were finally set up and said they were going to start playing in the next five minutes.
If my patrons didn’t get some Waylon Jennings soon, I would have a riot on my hands.
I had an extra bartender tonight, which I was grateful for. That left me free to bus the tables and run back and forth with different things the bar needed. While I was running, I noticed a flash of red at one of the tables.
It was Emmy.
Holy shit.
She was wearing a dress that was the same color as the swimsuit that drove me crazy at the springs. It clung to her breasts and her torso before flaring out slightly at her waist. Half of her hair was pulled away from her face, but in true Emmy fashion, pieces were falling out around her face.
She had on a pair of brown cowboy boots, different from the black ones she wore that first night I saw her in my bar.
The dress she was wearing looked like it was made for her, but the thing that really got my attention were her blood-red lips. I’d never seen that on her before.
I wanted to ruin those red lips, either with my mouth or my cock. I wasn’t picky. My jeans tightened. I’d already had a hard enough time controlling my body’s reaction to Emmy before we slept together, but now that we had–fuck–I wanted her so bad.
I shook my head. Emmy was at a table with a few other girls. I recognized them from town, but I couldn’t tell you their names. I didn’t see Teddy, but that meant she was probably swindling men at my bar.
I tore my eyes from Emmy. She hadn’t noticed me, and I wanted her to have a good time with her friends tonight. It was Teddy’s birthday, after all.
I made my way back to the bar, where sure enough, Teddy was flirting with my regulars, who were eating it up even more than usual. Probably because of the “Birthday Girl” headband and sash she was wearing. She ended up with four drinks she didn’t pay for, and carried them back to the table where Emmy and the other girls were waiting.
I wanted to talk to Emmy, just once, so I got behind the bar and started making something I never make: fucking lemon drop shots. That seemed like something a bunch of girls in a bar for a birthday would drink, right?
Whatever, I was doing it.
I finished the shots, put them on a tray, and made my way over to Emmy’s table. This was it. This was all I was going to do. Bring her and her friends shots, and then I’d leave her alone for the rest of the night.
Emmy caught my eye when I was a few steps from the table. She smiled at me, and I nearly dropped the damn tray.
“Ladies,” I said as a greeting. I felt like a fucking idiot. “I heard it was someone’s birthday.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re bringing us free drinks,” Teddy said sarcastically, but my eyes were on Emmy.
My eyes were always on Emmy.
“I can take these back,” I said, throwing a quick glance at Teddy.
“Ignore her,” Emmy said. “We’ll take them.”
I set the tray down in the middle of their table, and each of them took a shot glass off it.
“Brooks,” Teddy started, “is this a fucking lemon drop?” At that, Emmy’s smile grew.
“Yeah,” I said sheepishly.
“You’ve been holding out on me for all these years?! I didn’t even know you could make these here.” The two women on the other side of the table giggled.
“This is a one-time thing. Don’t get used to it.”
“Thank you,” Emmy said. She looked at Teddy. “Say thank you, birthday girl.”
“Thank you, Brooksy. It is much appreciated.”
The girls cheers-ed, hit the shot glasses on the table, and threw them back. I watched Emmy’s throat as she swallowed.
God dammit. Everything she did gave me a hard-on.
They all set their glasses back on the tray, and I took it. “Happy Birthday, Teddy,” I said, and then winked at Emmy as I walked away.
The way she blushed brought me more pleasure than it should have.
I kept an eye on Emmy throughout the night. Not in a creepy way–just in a “I really like you and think you’re the most beautiful woman alive” way.
After the shot I brought her, she didn’t drink a lot, just nursed a mixed drink until her and that red dress made their way up to the bar. Hell if I was going to let anyone else get her order. I nearly knocked Joe over trying to get to her.
I stood across the bar from her. “What can I get you, sugar?”
“Take a shot with me.”
Her answer surprised me. She was looking at me with heat in her eyes, and I couldn’t say no to her. I pulled two shot glasses from underneath the bar.
“Pick your poison.”
“Tequila, please.”
I turned around and grabbed a nicer bottle from the back bar, pouring a shot for each of us before sliding hers across the bar. “What are we drinking to?” I asked.
“New beginnings.”
I tried not to read into that. We clinked our glasses together and took our shots down the hatch, keeping our eyes on each other the entire time.
Fuck.
It was a miracle I didn’t try to take her on the bar right then. Joe could thank me for that later.
Emmy brought one of her hands up to her mouth to wipe away a drop of the liquor at the corner of her lips. I wished I’d done that.
I needed to touch her.
“How much do I owe you?” she asked.
“On the house.”
“You sure?” she asked.
I leaned over the bar and used two fingers to gesture for her to come closer. She did, and I was finally in a position where I could talk to her and no one would hear.
“You can thank me by letting me tear that godforsaken dress off of you later.” Even with the band playing and the patrons singing along, I could hear Emmy’s sharp inhale.
I leaned away from her, returning to my upright position on the other side of the bar.
“Deal,” she breathed before turning and starting back toward her friends. She bumped into a few people, like she was in a daze and wasn’t watching where she was going.
She had a hell of an effect on me, and I liked seeing that I had an effect on her, too. But then she bumped into a man I didn’t recognize, which was rare, and he put his hand on her waist to steady her. Last time it was Kenny Wyatt, and now it was this fucker.
In my head, I gave him two seconds to take his hand off her before I took it off her for him. He did.
Good.
I rolled my shoulders back and down, trying to keep my jealousy in check, but the way he smiled at her had me seeing red, and not the good kind of red like Emmy’s dress. I watched Emmy apologize for bumping into him and go back to her table.
He watched her.
I was going to have to keep an eye on that.
The next hour or so was a whirlwind. It really was wild here tonight. The band was focusing on nineties country, and there wasn’t really anything that could hype up a bar like Alan Jackson.
Everyone in here was seriously drunk and seriously rowdy. Apparently they all came to celebrate Teddy’s birthday.
It was about halfway through “Good Time” that I noticed the man who’d put his hand on Emmy had made his way over to her table with a few of his friends. He was wearing denim on denim.
What an asshole.
They’re just talking, Luke. Chill out.
Teddy and the other girls were very obviously flirting. I’d been on the other end of that, and had worked here long enough to know what it looked like. Double Denim was talking to Emmy, but she kept looking over at Teddy and leaning away.
She wasn’t interested. Good.
I walked to the end of the bar that was closest to her table, telling myself that’s where I needed to be to wipe glasses down, which was bullshit, but I didn’t care. It was then that Double Denim made his move. He put one of his hands on Emmy’s knee that was crossed over her other leg. She shrugged him away, but he put his hand back.
Absolutely fucking not.
I made it over to their table in three seconds flat. “Take your fucking hand off her.” Double Denim’s eyes shot up to me. He looked surprised, but he didn’t move. “Now.” My voice was unrecognizable.
“Hey, chill, man. We were just talking.”
“It doesn’t look like she wants to talk to you, man.” Double Denim looked at Emmy, who was eyeing me in a way that was less than friendly.
I didn’t care.
“We’re alright, aren’t we, honey?”
That was it. I stepped toward him so I could grab him by the collar of his stupid denim shirt and brought him face to face with me. He was a few inches shorter than me, so I pulled him up on his tiptoes.
“Take your friends and get the hell out of my bar.”
“You can’t be serious, man.”
“Dead fucking serious.” I pushed him back, and Joe, who had appeared from the bar, caught him before he went to the ground. I guess I’d pushed him harder than I thought. He started to lunge at me, but Joe had a hold of him.
“Let’s not make a scene, boys. Leave now and your last round’s on the house,” Joe said.
Double Denim shrugged Joe off of him. “Let’s go. This place is fucking stupid, and a bitch isn’t worth this.”
Before he could start walking away, I grabbed him by the shoulder and swung. Hard. My fist hit his face with a gnarly crack, and Double Denim was laid out flat on the ground for a few seconds.
He scrambled back up and came at me. I caught his fist in my hand—he threw a weak-ass punch—and twisted his arm behind his back. He was facing Emmy, but I made sure he wasn’t close enough that he could touch her.
“Apologize,” I spat.
“What the fuck, dude. What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“Apologize,” I said again. Double Denim tried to turn back and look at me, but I tightened my grip on his arm and twisted. He looked back at Emmy, whose jaw was set and lips were pursed
“I’m sorry,” Double Denim ground out.
“Now get the fuck out of my bar.” I pushed him into his friends, who all looked like they’d just shit themselves.
“Sorry, man. We’ll get out of here.” That was one of Double Denim’s friends. Damn. I almost felt bad for punching the guy considering how scared his friends looked, but no one talked to Emmy like that and got away with it.
The four of them made it through the door, and when it shut behind them, the whole bar erupted in a cheer. I guess when the bar owner punched someone, people figured that person deserved it.
I looked back at Emmy, who had her arms folded and was staring at me in the same less-than-friendly way. Instead of giving her a chance to yell at me in front of everyone, who had more or less gone back to what they were doing before the punch, I swooped her up off her chair and threw her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, taking extra care to hold her dress down so no one got a free show. Now it was Teddy who was cheering.
The birthday girl had a giant smile on her face. Knowing her, she probably somehow orchestrated this whole thing.
Emmy Ryder was mine, and I was going to prove that to her right fucking now.
“Brooks! Put me down now, you neanderthal. Are you kidding me?”
“No can do, sugar,” I responded as I walked through the bar with her over my shoulder. She pounded her fists on my back. Cute.
“You are a fucking crazy person, you know that?”
“Only for you.”
“Oh my god, put me down!” She continued to protest, but I ignored her. I didn’t put her down until we made it into my office and the door was closed and locked behind us. I gently lowered Emmy to the ground, and as soon as her feet touched it, she pushed me.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t just go around hitting people when they talk to me.”
“He put his hands on you, sugar. No one puts their hands on you.”
“This is the real world, Brooks, not a fucking romance novel. I don’t need you to rescue me from a creep in a bar. I can handle myself.” Emmy stared me down. Her eyes were burning—just the way I liked them.
“Obviously you can handle yourself.”
“Then why did you swoop in and physically assault one of your paying customers like some sort of cowboy vigilante?”
I grabbed Emmy by the waist and pushed her up against the door to my office. I moved my mouth up the column of her throat, replacing my mouth with my hand once I made it to her lips. I gave her a quick kiss resting my forehead against hers.
“Because, sugar. Seeing someone else touch you made me fucking crazy,” I breathed.
Emmy’s chest was heaving. The anger in her eyes had shifted to something else. “Y-you can’t d-do that,” she stuttered.
I brought the hand that wasn’t on her throat to the hem of her dress before snaking it under and touching the soft skin of her thigh. “Why not?”
“B-because. H-hitting people is b-bad.”
I chuckled and moved my hand further up her dress to her panties.Or, at least, where they should have been.
Fuck.
“You wanna know what’s bad? You bringing this bare pussy into my bar like a perfect little slut.”
Emmy groaned. Fuck. She made me insane.
I teased her with my fingers. “You’re dripping for me, sugar. How long have you been like this? Needy and desperate?” The sound of the band drowned out everything happening outside my office. It was just us now.
“S-since I saw you behind the bar.”
“Yeah? Is that why you came to take a shot with me? To try and get me to pay attention to your needy cunt?”
“I was thirsty.”
At that, I snagged the bottle of whiskey that was sitting on the table beside my office door and pulled the stopper out with my teeth.
“Thirsty? Are you still thirsty, sugar?” She nodded. “Open your mouth,” I commanded.
She opened immediately, and my already hard cock jerked at the sight of her open mouth, ready to take anything I gave her.
I took a pull of the whiskey before setting the bottle on my desk, but I didn’t swallow. I leaned into Emmy, my hand on her throat still keeping her pinned to my office door, and spit the whiskey in her mouth.
She swallowed.
I felt her throat work under my grip. Fuck. She was everything.
I brought my hand under her dress, and her eyes rolled back when I slid the tip of my finger between her folds. She started to move her hips, but I quickly pulled my fingers away. Her eyes shot open.
“What the hell?” she exclaimed.
“You’re the one that was mad at me, sugar. I don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret,” I said with a smile. I loved teasing her. I sucked her off my fingers, the taste of her mingling with the burn of the whiskey, before I released her throat and stepped back. My cock was painfully hard in my jeans.
“Are you kidding me?” Emmy gasped.
“No.”
“Please?”
God, I loved hearing her beg for me. It was a reminder that she wanted me as much as I wanted her.
“You’ve also been drinking,” I said, even though I knew she wasn’t drunk–probably not even tipsy.
“I had two shots and half of a vodka soda, and no offense, but your lemon drop shots are weak.”
I smirked at her. “Do you think insulting my bar skills is going to change my mind?”
“Depends on what you’re into,” she said coyly.
“Just you.”
Emmy closed the distance between us, pressing her breasts against my chest. “If you won’t touch me, then let me touch you.”
Fuck. Emmy dragged her hand down my chest and over the hard bulge in my jeans.
I jumped. She giggled.
“You should really let me take care of this,” she said sweetly. Shit. How did this happen? Mayday, mayday. I had lost control of the situation.
“I-I’m good.” I was the one stuttering through my words now. Emmy rubbed her hand over my jeans, applying some pressure. She started to push me back toward my desk. I let her, until the back of my legs hit the edge of it. She went up on her toes and gave me a quick kiss before she—shit—lowered to her knees. I could see right down that red dress of hers. She started to unbuckle my belt.
“Can I?”
Did she really think I was going to say no? All words had temporarily left my brain as I looked down at the beautiful woman on her knees.
All I could do was nod.
“Tell me yes, Luke,” she said. The tables had really fucking turned tonight, hadn’t they?
“Yes, sugar. Let’s see what you look like with my cock in your mouth.”
Emmy managed to get my belt and pants undone in seconds. She leaned in and dragged her tongue up my length over the fabric of my briefs before pulling them down. My cock sprung free. The bastard basically tried to jump down her throat, but she didn’t put me inside her mouth yet.
Instead, she grabbed my dick with one hand and leaned in, licking the pre-cum off the head slowly. I couldn’t help the groan that came out of my mouth when her tongue made contact. She gave me a few more licks and pumped the base of my cock with her hand. Jesus Christ. I was going to come before she could get any further.
Chill out, Luke. Think of something else, anything else besides the girl who’s about to put your dick in her mouth. I recited a list of unsexy things in my head. Missed connection at the airport, broken refrigerator, cows giving birth.
Okay. Okay. I could do this. I was sure of it…until Emmy put my dick in her mouth and took me as far back as she could.
“Fuuuck, Emmy. You’re beautiful.” I’d never really considered myself to be a vocal guy, but that was out the window with Emmy. I met resistance at the back of her throat, and she let out what sounded like a frustrated noise.
She adjusted her height, and I felt her tongue move. I slid deeper into her mouth, and she started to move her hand and her mouth on me.
“You love choking on my cock, don’t you?” I said. My voice was husky and my throat was tight. Emmy looked up at me through her thick eyelashes and nodded as much as she could.
I wanted the image of her on her knees with her red lips wrapped around my cock projected on my fucking headstone.
I fisted my hand in her hair, trying to remember to be gentle, but when I pushed my cock deeper down her throat, she moaned. She had slid her hand that wasn’t working my length under her dress. She was touching herself.
“Sucking my cock turns you on, baby? You want me to fuck this mouth of yours?” Emmy took her hand off my length and put it on my ass, pulling me deeper.
I couldn’t take it. I knotted both hands in her hair and thrusted into her mouth. Jesus Christ, she was perfect. Both of us were moaning. Fuck, she felt so good, but I didn’t want to come in her mouth. Not tonight.
“I need to come inside of you, sugar. Let me fill you up again.” I was obsessed with marking Emmy as mine. She kept going, but I reached down and lifted her up to me, hauling her lips to mine harshly. Our kiss was rough, like each of us was seeing how much the other could take.
Emmy pulled back first. “I wasn’t finished,” she breathed.
I moved her in front of me so she was pinned between me and my desk, her back against my front.
“The only thing I want more right now than coming in your mouth is filling up your perfect cunt.” I needed her to tell me it was okay before we got carried away. “Do you want me to fuck you on this desk, sugar? Can I?”
“Yes, Luke. Please.”
Thank fucking hell. I pushed Emmy down so she was bent over my desk and lifted up the dress that had been teasing me all night. “This dress has been torturing me all night.”
“I wore it just for you.”
“Good. If you wore it for another man, I’d have to kill him.” She laughed, but I wasn’t kidding. I rubbed my hands over her ass, my thumbs spreading her pussy for me. She was wet and glistening. All for me. I started pushing my dick into her wet heat.
I saw stars.
I gripped her hips and worked my way in slowly, knowing this position would be intense for her. I knew I was big. When I was seated in her fully, I paused. Shit, I was going to come. No. Not before she got off.
Broken refrigerator. Broken refrigerator. Broken refrigerator.
Emmy pushed her ass against me. “Don’t move,” I rasped. “Just give me a minute.” I squeezed my eyes shut.
“You good back there?” I could hear the smile in her voice. I fucking loved it. I loved it when she was happy like this.
“Yeah,” I breathed. “I’m good.” The danger had passed.
“Then please start moving before I lose my goddamn mind.”
She didn’t have to ask me twice. I pulled out slightly and then thrust back into her. Hard.
I did that again and again.
Emmy cried out. “Yes, Luke, just like that. Fuck me, please.” She always asked so nicely. I thought about that guy putting his hand on her. My next thrust was harder. I could feel my desk moving across the floor, but I didn’t give a damn. All that mattered was me and Emmy and the place where we were connected.
I pulled her back up to me so she was upright. I brought my fingers to her clit and started stroking as I fucked her. Her pussy started to tighten around my cock like a vice. She grabbed my hand that was on her hip and moved it up over her breasts and to her throat.
Fuck.
I gripped her throat lightly, applying the faintest amount of pressure on the sides. Emmy’s head fell back against my shoulder.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she breathed. “You’re so deep like this, Luke.”
“You were made for me,” I told her. I thrust into her, harder still. “Tell me you’re mine, Emmy.” I needed to hear it.
“I’m yours.”
“That’s right, sugar. I’m the only one who gets to have you like this.”
“I-I’m going to—” She never got to finish because both of us combusted at the same time. I spilled myself into her, my thrusts getting short and shallow.
Both of us were breathing heavily, and one of the straps of Emmy’s dress had fallen off her shoulder. I slowly eased myself out of her and watched both of us drip down her thighs.
“Stay here,” I said to her. I tucked my half-hard cock into my jeans and grabbed a few tissues before making my way back to Emmy. I gently wiped us off of her thighs and bringing her dress back down over her ass.
She turned around, and I folded her into my arms. I held her there, placing kisses in her hair and on her temple. She sighed. She sounded…content. It made my heart soar.
I dragged my hands up and down her arms, and brought one of her hands up to my mouth so I could kiss her palm before intertwining our fingers. I lead her to the couch to the side of my desk, I sat down, bringing her with me. I set her on my lap, tucked her head under my chin, and continued to rub circles over her arms and back, happy as hell I was holding her again.
“Luke?” she said quietly.
“Yeah, sugar?”
“I’m in like with you.”
“Are you sure that’s not just all the dopamine we just made hitting your brain?” I asked jokingly, trying not to think too deeply about her confession.
She lifted her head and looked me in the eye. “No. I want you to know I like you. I don’t know exactly when I’m going to be ready to tell my family, but I will tell them. I just need a little time, okay?
This woman had me wrapped around her finger, and she didn’t even know it. I brought my hand up to cup her face.
“Take all the time you need. I didn’t mean to push you this morning,” I said, and I meant it. Emmy was worth the wait. I’d been waiting thirty-two years for her without even knowing it, and she’d been right in front of me the whole time.
“You didn’t. My processing time is just longer than the average human’s.” She tucked her head back under my chin.
Emmy Ryder might have been in like with me, but it was then that I knew I was falling in love with her.
