The Sweetest Taboo (13 page)

“You don’t have the notebook you had with you last night.”

“Last night I was working.” He reached for the mug of ale, lifting it in a toast before drinking.

Working on what, she wanted to scream because this was like the worst sort of fingernail-pulling torture. Instead, she said, “And now it’s Friday and you’re done for the week.”

He laughed, returning the mug to the bar. “Unfortunately, I’m never done.”

He didn’t elaborate but Erin seized the opening. “Tell me about it. This entrepreneurial business isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Or, actually, it’s more. More than I don’t remember signing on for.”

“You’re obviously handling that more pretty damn well.” He glanced around the bar, leaning forward and wrapping his hand around the mug. “You’ve always got a crowd in here.”

“I do, yeah, but how would you know that?” He’d been here exactly twice in the year she’d run the bar. Last night and now. If he’d been here before, when Paddington’s belonged to Rory, well, she hadn’t been here often enough then to have noticed, had she?

Grimacing, she added, “You’re not exactly a regular.”

“You have windows.”

“And you’re a Peeping Tom?”

He grinned. “Nope. Just a moth drawn to the flame.”

Oh, but she loved the way that sounded. The way tiny wings fluttered in her belly.

“How do you figure that?”

He shrugged one shoulder, twisted his mug back and forth on the cork coaster. “I think best when in motion, when on my feet. And I can only pace the loft for so long.”

“So you walk the streets.”

He nodded, drank again. “A regular creature of the night.”

Which brought to mind vampires, not moths. No, not moths at all, but hunger and darkness and needs satisfied only at night. She forced back a shiver as she pictured him striding with purpose in black boots and a long black duster, moving in the shadows, stalking his prey.

Stalking

her.

The noise of the bar became nothing but a hum, a background drone swarming around her while Sebastian’s gaze compelled her forward. She found herself leaning against the bar and into his personal space, space she wanted to crawl into as desperately as she wanted to pull him into her body.

Thank goodness Cali’s timing was what it was because she came to the rescue, sliding to a stop beside Erin and banging her serving tray down on the bar. “I’ve had it with those two. I’ve totally had it. I swear, Erin. You’re going to have to get another server to cover that table.”

The Daring Duo. Erin had been waiting for Cali to boil over about the couple.

“I’ll send A.J. over to crash their party.”

“Yeah, that would work.” Cali shoved back her mop of hair and heaved a disgusted sigh. “Except he didn’t show up for his shift.”

“What?” Erin glanced up at the clock suspended above the center of the circular bar. “He should’ve been here an hour ago. Where have I been?”

“I have a feeling he won’t be showing for any of his future shifts.” Cali planted a hand on her hip. “I heard he was looking to get hired on at Courtland’s.”

The new jazz café opening the next block down was certain to be a competitive thorn in Erin’s side. Great. Less than a month to get a replacement hired and trained. As a rule, not that much of a problem.

But with the party coming up… Erin sighed.

“Can I help?” Sebastian reached over and took hold of her hand, which obviously surprised Cali who responded with a questioning, “Uh, Erin?”

Erin glanced up, caught Cali’s gaze cutting uncertainly to Sebastian and back.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Cali, this is Sebastian Gallo, my upstairs, uh, neighbor. Sebastian, Cali Tippen. The only server here who gets to talk back to me because she’s also my best friend.”

“Hi, Cali.” Sebastian tipped his head in greeting.

“Uh, Sebastian. Hey. It’s nice to meet you.” Totally distracted, she rubbed at the obvious headache building behind her forehead. “I’m sorry to bust in on you and Erin like this but I’ve reached the end of my rope with two of our regular customers and having A.J. up and quit without notice means I’m stuck with The Daring Duo.”

“I hope he doesn’t think he’s going to be getting a good work reference,” Erin grumbled, tossing Sebastian’s empty bottle into the trash.

“I wouldn’t even give him a character reference,” Cali added.

But Sebastian turned the conversation an entirely different direction when he asked, “The Daring Duo?”

Cali rolled her eyes, shook her head, raised one stop-sign hand. “Don’t even ask.”

Though Erin chuckled, she did feel Cali’s pain. “It’s simply a term of endearment for the couple sitting in the far booth behind you on the right. They’re not as discreet as Cali—and as I—obviously wish they would be in their displays of affection.”

“Wrong, Erin,” Cali interrupted. “Affection is a light brush of her lips to his cheek, or his arm wrapped around her shoulder. Maybe even their hands on the table with fingers entwined. I’ll even give them hands under the table with fingers entwined.”

Cali’s gaze brushed over Sebastian’s hand still resting on Erin’s before glancing back out into the room. “But we’re talking about things going on under that table that might require the intervention of a good vice cop.”

At that, Sebastian laughed, releasing Erin’s hand to lean back in his stool. Immediately she felt—and hated—the loss of warmth, not only from the contact of his hand but from his nearness. That personal space he’d abandoned when he’d shifted to sit back in his chair. Oh, she was going to have to watch out for this one.

“They’re regulars then?” he asked of Cali.

“Regular pains-in-the-ass.” She turned to Erin for backup, brow furrowing as she thought. “What? At least three or four nights a week, right?”

Erin went about wiping down the bar where the bottle of ale had been sitting. She nodded. “Three or four nights a week for six weeks or so. Same table. Same wine. Same R-rated behavior.”

“And when it borders on X-rated, I’m the one stuck having to crash their party. I do have to admit that it’s not as bad as a porno flick. But, still.” Cali shuddered and, thinking further, shuddered again. “All that tongue-sucking business and the way she’s always breathing hard. And then there’s his belt that seems to always be unbuckled…it’s just too close to voyeurism for this girl.”

Sebastian seemed to consider the information then asked, “So, this is a fairly new relationship?”

“For us or for them?” Erin replied, answering his question with a question.

He smiled at that. “For you, of course. But I’m thinking for them as well.”

“Why do you think that?” Cali asked.

“First blush of passion. Can’t keep their hands off each other.”

The idea made sense to Erin since keeping busy was the only way she’d managed so far to keep her hands off Sebastian. She glanced from him to Cali. “Newlyweds maybe?”

Cali shook her head. “I don’t think so. Neither one of them is wearing a ring and, yes, I know that doesn’t prove anything. But the idea of those two being married doesn’t gel. Besides, if they were married, they’d be home in bed. Not in the bar.”

“Not necessarily.” Both Erin and Cali turned when Sebastian spoke. He shrugged one shoulder, the burgundy-colored fabric molding to the muscles beneath.

“Exhibitionism might have been part of their initial attraction. They enjoy the thrill of seeing what they can get away with. It’s part of the high of arousal.”

“So, saying they are married, and I’m not saying any such thing,” Cali quickly added. “Then why no rings?”

“Part of their game. Wanting others to see.” He leaned forward, his sharp green gaze snagging Erin’s. “Wanting others to wonder.”

“Just like we’re doing now,” she managed, though her voice resonated with no more sound than that of a whisper. And he wasn’t even touching her. Only looking. Watching. Knowing she was remembering all the things they’d done.

“Exactly.” He glanced up, taking in the placement of the track lighting. Then glanced back at Erin. “You might think about adjusting the lighting. Spotlight their table. See if that deters them.”

“I’m afraid that might encourage them further.” Oh, but this conversation would be so much easier if her gaze wasn’t constantly drawn to his mouth as he talked. She was too well-versed in the things he could do with his lips and his mouth and her nerves buzzed with arousal’s first stirrings.

“Yeah,” Cali cut in. “Before we do anything to encourage them further, can we please reassign that table to another server?”

Erin laughed. “Yeah. I can do that.”

“And hire someone to replace A.J.?” Cali begged.

Erin glanced at a pleading Cali. “Let me pull the applications I have on file. I’ll put them on my desk. If you get a chance, maybe you can glance through them and see if you recognize any of the names. If you’ve worked with any of them or heard anything. Bad or good. Save me the grief down the road.”

“Actually…” Cali tugged nervously on a lock of her hair. “I know someone who needs a job and would be perfect.”

“Who?”

“Could we talk in the office for a minute. Nothing personal,” Cali added for Sebastian’s sake.

He waved off her apology. “Not a problem.”

“Sure,” Erin said. “I’ll be right there. Let me check with the bunch at the end of the bar and get Robin to cover me. So, give me five minutes?”

“Yeah, that’ll give me time to make a quick round through my tables. Hopefully I’ll return without having my eyes singed out of their sockets.” Cali picked up her tray and headed back onto the battlefield.

Erin chuckled, watched her best friend walk off, then turned her attention to Sebastian. “Can I get you anything else?”

He shook his head. “I’m set.”

“Great.” She wanted to ask if he’d be there when she got back, if he planned to wait for her, to hang out the rest of the night then strip her naked and take her with reckless abandon there on top of the bar.

Instead, she said, “I’ll check back with you in a few.”

He lifted his mug. “I’ll be here.”

His words made walking away only marginally easier to bear.

TEN MINUTES LATER, Erin walked into the office to find her best friend pacing the small space, serving tray gripped at her side and bouncing off her hip as she walked.

Erin wondered what was going on, why it was Cali who seemed nervous when it was Sebastian sitting at the bar and totally destroying Erin’s concentration.

She pulled open the file drawer where she kept the employment applications and pulled out the folder that had grown admittedly slim. Most of the servers she’d originally hired had stayed on.

A few had left after opening, lured away by the newer establishments promising bigger crowds, mega-tips and a level of energy with which Paddington’s had never tried to compete.

Erin had purposefully redesigned the wine and tobacco bar with intimacy in mind. Rory’s pub had been a lot like that, a second home for his regular customers, a place where men were able to raise a pint and blow off steam at the end of a long working day.

The pint and steam concept hadn’t changed. She’d just made a few adjustments to the ambience, keeping her fingers crossed that Rory wouldn’t mind, yet still looking over her shoulder expecting his growling censure. A strange reaction since he’d never once growled.

Not even when she’d ditched any steady dedication to her studies and had, instead, used a chunk of the inheritance from her parents to finance a backpacking trek through Europe, where she’d played and feasted and made mad love from Rome to Lisbon with the first of her life’s true loves.

True love. Ha!

She dropped the applications folder onto the desk and, when Cali jumped, crossed her arms over her chest and lifted an inquiring brow. “What’s up with you?”

“Only about a million things. Most of them named Will Cooper.” Cali stopped, turned, shook her head and waved off the question hanging on Erin’s tongue. “But never mind Will. What is Sebastian doing here?”

Erin hadn’t yet answered that question to her own satisfaction. She certainly didn’t have an answer for Cali. “Besides making me extremely nervous? I have no idea. So forget Sebastian for the moment and tell me about Will. What’s going on? You were all glowing when you talked about him earlier.”

“I was not glowing. And he’s not here yet, that’s the problem. Which means he thinks sleeping with me was a mistake and I should’ve listened to my head instead of my heart.” Cali snorted. “Or I guess it wasn’t exactly my heart I was listening to, was it?”

Oh, poor baby. Erin braced both hands on her desk and leaned forward into Cali’s space. “Yes, Dork. It was your heart. Otherwise you’d’ve been boinking Will a long time ago. You know that.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“Well, I do. And I know he’ll show up. I’ve watched you two together, Cali. Will’s not the type to hit-and-run, if you know what I mean.”

“Okay. You’re right. I know he’s not like that. I wouldn’t want to be with him if he was.” Cali buried her face in her hands. “Why does sex have to suck?”

“Because orgasms are really good that way?”

Cali chuckled, then laughed, then totally broke up into hysterical cackles and collapsed into Erin’s chair to catch her breath. “That’s not funny.”

“Yes it is. Now, who do you know that’s looking for a job and can I get a decent night’s work out of him or her?” Erin propped a hip on the corner of her desk. “Or is the lure of all that jazz at Courtland’s going to be hard to resist?”

Cali flipped through the short stack of applications. “I doubt this would be long term, but I know it would get you out of the bind you’re in for the party.”

“So,

speak

woman.”

“It’s Will. The ad agency where he’s been freelancing let him go.”

Erin wished all her business decisions were this easy. “He can start tomorrow. Hell, he can start tonight the minute he gets here.”

“
If
he gets here, you mean.”

“Stop it already or I’m going to have to hurt you.” Erin backed up toward the office entrance. “Now, if he’s out there when I open the door, you’re going to owe me for putting up with all this ridiculous grief of yours.”

“If he’s out there, I’ll give you half of tonight’s tip money.”