Jackie walked into Stable’s Monday night, half an hour late for the game and still in her work clothes. Her heels clacked on the shiny wooden floors as she made her way toward the bar, slowing only when she saw the empty barstools where she and Washington normally sat.
She looked around for him, scanning the faces of strangers. Catching glimpses of waiters rolling their eyes. Bussers pocketing tip money. New couples, first dates, groups of friends.
He wasn’t there.
She sat on her regular stool. Didn’t take her coat off, just glanced at the game without paying attention to it.
Where was he?
Hawk, the bartender, appeared in front of her. “The usual?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
He nodded and left, as if there wasn’t an empty barstool next to her. Like everything was ordinary.
“Hey!” she yelled.
The bartender looked up.
“Washington show up yet?”
The sympathetic shrug he gave her was answer enough.
So Washington hadn’t been waiting for her. Hadn’t left when she wasn’t on time. He’d simply never walked through the door.
Why? Because of last night?
Jackie hadn’t imagined it. She knew he’d wanted her. If she’d been any other girl, he’d have slept with her yesterday. What was the big deal?
“He is not an asshole,” she muttered to herself.
Why did he think he was?
“Excuse me,” came a subdued voice behind her.
She turned around. Her gaze travelled up the buttons of a black shirt, over a prominent Adam’s apple, and into the pale blue eyes of the other man she’d been checking out for weeks. The same one who’d been knuckle deep in a blonde in the bar the night before.
“Hi,” she answered, blinking away how wide her eyes had become.
Having sat with Washington at the bar for so long, guys had ceased to hit on her. Normally she had to initiate the meeting. This was weird.
He sat in Washington’s seat. “I’m Cameron. Call me Cam.”
Hawk dropped off her beer. Stayed a second too long, catching her attention. The blonde guy didn’t look at him.
“No,” Hawk mouthed, wiggling his index finger at her before walking away.
Grabbing her pint, she smiled up at Cam. “My name is Jackie. Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah. I’ve seen you around, but you’re always with your boyfriend. Nice to finally meet you too. Where you from?”
He propped one hand on the bar while the other wrapped around the beer at his side. The fabric of his shirt draped over his lean, defined chest and sculpted arms like a visual tease, making her want to see everything the shirt covered up.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she answered, raising an eyebrow. “I’m from Pittsburgh originally, but I’m really from all around these days.”
Cam nodded with a slow grin of his pouty mouth. “My parents are from Baltimore. I think you and I are supposed to be like mortal enemies or something.”
She nodded, suddenly getting the feeling this guy was a little young for her. “That’s about the gist of it. You probably don’t want to go to a home game back in the ‘Burgh.”
“They’d eat me alive?” He grinned.
Jackie shrugged. “Or hurt you. Whichever comes first.”
“Yeah?” Cam bounced his weight off the bar, his lips creeping into the same lurid smile he’d given her after tasting the cum of his date the night before. “What would you do to me?”
He held her gaze.
Laughing, Jackie swatted his arm. “Cam, you’re stealing all my moves.”
“Yeah?” His grin widened, the corners of his eyes crinkling.
“Yeah. Your posturing, your lines. It’s exactly what I would do.”
He let go of the bar and stepped closer, heating up her personal space. “So. What are you doing tonight? Your team isn’t on. Your friend isn’t around. Nothing’s keeping you here. You have all the same moves I do? Let’s go see.”
God damn he moved fast. She was hot and wet before he unsnapped the button on her jacket.
Most of all, he was right. Nothing was keeping her there. After all, Washington had all but shoved her in Cam’s direction last night. She needed a break, needed to cut back, and he would more than do.
“I think I’ll take you up on that offer, Cam.” Jackie stood, arching her back so that her tits stressed against the remaining button. “But if you keep popping the buttons on my jacket, you’d better be prepared to keep me warm on the way home.”
He grinned, his blue eyes gleaming. Her jacket twitched on her shoulders as he popped the last button free.
“Wait for me. I’ll be right back.”
She smiled, watching his ass as he walked back to his friends’ table. Then she straightened up. Turned around.
“Hawk!” she called to the faux-hawked bartender. “Hey, nix the food, okay?”
He craned his head back at her from the end of the bar and shook his head. Trading a pink umbrella-ed drink with cash from a petite redhead, he stalked over to her and grabbed something from under the bar before standing again.
“That guy? Really?” Hawk was hard to hear over the drink he was shaking.
She shrugged. “What? He’s cute.”
He dipped his head. “You’re not this girl, Jackie.”
“I do what I want.” Rolling her eyes, she rebuttoned her coat. “And I am ‘that girl.’”
Hawk flipped up a martini glass and poured the cocktail in. “You know what’s funny about women? Half of them lie to cause drama or to get out of something that will make them look bad. But the good girls? They lie to themselves.”
“Really. What makes you an expert on women? I don’t see you in a successful relationship with one.” Jackie hiked her purse over her shoulder.
He laughed and crooked his finger. “Come here.”
Raising her eyebrows, she leaned over the bar.
“That’s because I’m gay, baby girl. And thank God I am. You bitches are almost worse than us.” He dropped a chunk of lime on the side of the glass and winked at her before walking over to another swarm of girls.
Jackie stared after him, a smile stretching across her face until she finally broke into a laugh. Shaking her head, she raised her glass to her lips and tipped it back.
She looked around the bar as she drank, finding Cam at his buddies’ table, closing out the tab.
He met her eyes, raising his brows while watching her chug.
Jackie kept going.
He paid no attention to his friends talking to him. Just pulled his wallet out of his pocket, tugged out some bills, and threw them on the table. His lips moved briefly before he began walking toward her.
Swallowing the last bit, she rested her glass on the bar top.
“Liquid courage?” he asked. “Whatever that was, I’m impressed.”
She ran her tongue over her top lip to wipe away any foam, trying to shove away the image of Washington doing the same the previous day. “You should be. Obviously, I have no problem swallowing. Let’s go.”
Jackie led the way out, adding an extra swagger to her hips for him as she strutted out the door. The cold bit into them as they exited, the smell of fresh tar from road construction still permeating the air.
She turned around against the wind to face him, pushing her long black hair out of her face. “My place. Three blocks.”
He laughed, then rolled his tongue over his teeth as he regarded her. “We really are a lot alike, Jackie. My place. Two blocks. The roommates are staying here for a few hours. We’ll be alone.”
“Hmm.” Her gaze flickered down his body before meeting his eyes again.
His chin kicked up. “What?”
“Kiss me. Or I’m not going anywhere.”
“You want a preview.”
Smiling, she shrugged.
He slowly looked her up and down. From her black work pumps, up her tailored pants, to her lined jacket and the pearl necklace at her throat.
Cam stepped toward her, his breath fogging in the cold air between them. He seized her jacket, wrenching the buttons open and ducking his hands under the open flaps. Clutching her ass, he yanked her up off her feet, pulling her hips to meet his as she wrapped her legs around him. He walked toward the building until she felt the rough brick wall at her back.
Pinned between the wall and the erection of the man in front of her, Jackie had the wind knocked out of her just as his lips descended on hers. Everything about it was rough and hard. Perfect for one night stand.
Promising an orgasm.
“Okay,” she said breathlessly. “Okay. Let’s go before I fuck you right here.”
Cam’s mouth turned up. “Really?”
“No. Let’s go. Now.”
They were at his place in a commercial minute. Standing under the sole light in entryway of his apartment.
Just as the door lock clicked home, he seized her coat and pulled her flush to his body. His lips moved against hers, hard and insistent, breaking away only as he pulled off her jacket and tore her blouse over her head.
She’d been wanting to see his chest since she’d first laid eyes on him. Tugging off his coat, her hands clawed for the hem of his shirt before yanking it up, urging him on.
He leaned back and pulled it over his head, tossing it to the side. Though not as stacked with physique as Washington, the guy had a great build. Taut, hairless, muscular, and reaching for her.
As his hands went to work on her pants zipper, she let her fingers glide up the smooth skin of his bare back. The dip of his spine, the expanse of each muscle when he slipped his palms under her pants.
Her slacks slid down, hitching a ride on the back of his hands as he squeezed her thong flossed ass.