Chapter 52: Chapter 52

LUCIA AMATO

“WHAT WAS THEIR NAME AGAIN?”

I shouted over the ruckus; Jimmy handed me a mug of the finest beer in Lock n’ Key.

I had drunk the finest wines from across the country, champagnes included in the list but never the fizzing stale-smelling brown liquid in my mug.

It looked disgusting but Jimmy and his friend Patricia had been on their third mugs tonight so it couldn’t be that bad right?

Gazing at the rock slash country band shredding their guitars like they were in a concert and not a bar with twenty people max, I raised my mug at no one shouting at the top of my lungs.

“To a great night!”

Because this was the most fun, I had in a while.

Jason Bates said that this town could give me everything I wanted only if I opened up to it and I was already opening up to it already by chugging the drink in my mouth.

I was not gonna lie, it tasted like an old shoe had been dunked in water and left out for a week in a smelly old barn.

I didn’t want to be the cowgirl barfing the best ale in town so like a big girl, I chugged down the beer like it was the best damn wine I ever had the pleasure of tasting.

“How is it?” Patty, the brunette with the nose ring and the red streaks in her hair shoved my shoulder at the same time, shunting Jimmy away from me.

“I don’t think I can chug two more of these”, I hiccupped, my breath reeked of the monstrosity as I peered at my mug quarter empty and at Patty who was bursting into a short laugh.

“First time?” she raised a brow, I nodded.

“First time in everything, beer, this, friends. I’ve never watched a band before”

“They are not a band”, Patty snickered, “Think of them as ex-best friends who tolerate each other for one night”

“Ooh”

Well, I wasn’t a good judge of character but the band—wait not band playing on stage sounded so good they would make the Beetles or the Backstreet boys weep.

The lead guitarist, a bulky man with ginger brownish hair sung and played like it was his last time to do so. Every lyric, every tune you could see it in his face, hear it in his voice and were it not for the burning skull tattoo on his right arm that scared the pee out of me, he was pretty alright for a man.

“They were a band though in high school. Made the best music this town has ever heard”

My interest was piqued.

I was a fan of them without knowing them.

“Why did they umm disband?”

She laughed,

“Wow you were not kidding on the ‘first time being here’ part, were you? Okay huddle up to me my young pupil and I shall fill you in on the hunky males gracing our stage tonight”

I practically put my arm around her waist, my mug in my other hand.

“The lead guitarist and singer is Gage, don’t be deceived by the looks he’s as terrifying as the Grim Reaper, maybe worse. Rumor has it he’s the reason the band isn’t together anymore. He did one thing he wasn’t supposed to, he fell for his friend’s sister. He broke bro code”

“Okay?”

They broke the band because of bro code.

“Now Gage wasn’t giving up on this girl so to settle this, his friend well ex-friend rounded up some of Gage’s friends like the drummer hitting on the girl there, you see him?”

I didn’t see him because we were practically surrounded by tons of people but for the sake of being involved in gossip, I said,

“Yes, I see him then what happened next?”

“And they beat Gage up”

“What?”

“Yes, so once in a year at a time like this, Gage rounds up the same friends that beat him up in high school and they well… play for us. I don’t know why he does it to this day but who the fuck knows what happens in this town anyway”

“And the ex-friend that had a fallout with Gage because of his sister, is he playing tonight?”

I stood on my tippy toes, the flat shoes that went well with the borrowed floral dress I got from Misha hoisting me up.

If I squinted hard enough, sure enough I could spot the guy on the piano or the bass player who had his face to the floor rocking his instrument.

“Well umm…I believe that’s him leaning against the beam a few feet from us. He’s angry as usual but when is he never angry?”

Patty held my hand, unashamedly pointing behind my shoulder with a smirk.

I followed her gaze but with a bit more class and subtlety.

I pretended to gaze at the waitress flirting shamelessly at the dude with the Rolex watch before my eyes drifted slowly to the man in question.

Jace?

My mouth stood agape but I hid my reaction by chugging the rest of the beer into my body.

Him? He was Gage’s friend?

What was he doing here anyway?

“I think he followed us, shit”, Jimmy spoke beside Patty and I turned around so fast, the beer in my stomach sloshed dangerously.

“Wait a minute, is Luce Jace’s woman?”

“What?” my voice came out squeaky, Jimmy’s face paled as he took a swig of his fourth beer.

“No offence, darlin’. A lot of rumors about Jace bringing a woman home have been flyin’ up and about, I didn’t think well… you were her when my cousin said he’d be bringing someone here tonight”

“Oh no no, I’m not his woman or his anything. We are friends”

“Friends ain’t supposed to look at you, the way he’s doing darlin’. He looks like he wants to murder us both”

“Funny story actually”, Jimmy, drunk mostly and incoherent lifted his fore finger in midair.

Patty read between lines faster than I thought.

“He gave you the black eye, didn’t he?”

Jimmy nodded; Patty turned to me.

“I’ll tell him to leave”, I clipped defensively, Patty’s hand landed on my shoulder.

“You don’t want him to leave by the looks of it. Talk to him, if anything invite him for a dance, I have a feeling things are about to turn spicy. Isn’t that right, buddy?”

“Mmmhmm”

Patty dragged her cousin Jimmy somewhere to the doorway that led to the washrooms and to be honest, maybe I did feel like visiting the washrooms too.

The beer, Jace here, the feel of his eyes on me, the butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

I told him to stay home. We had a conversation about this last night and I thought he understood I wanted to be away from him just for a little while.

Though knowing he was there, in a long-sleeved Henley shirt and well fitted dark blue jeans and staring at me did things to me.

I didn’t want him to leave but at the same time I didn’t want him to stay. I—I—

I didn’t get to turn around when I felt huge powerful hands on both sides of my hips. His cologne, the same Stetson he used often covered me in a warm fuzzy blanket.

Goosebumps littered my skin, every atom in me accelerating at his heat, at his scent, at the rough stubble that rubbed the side of my head when he leaned closer and pushed my hair away.

“You look breathtaking, princess”, he whispered, my legs might have given out all the energy they were holding.

“I told you to stay home, Jace. What are you doing here?”

My voice might have sounded brave and calm but my insides were internally screaming.

“The good guy who wanted to listen to you stayed at the ranch”

“And the bad guy? What’s the bad guy doing here?”

We were moving, we were dancing but I was a hundred percent sure we weren’t dancing to the same beat as the one coming from the stage.

“The bad guy’s here to make sure you are safe, to stand at a safe distance away from you because once he touches you, he’ll lose all control”

Oh God. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the close proximity, maybe it was the longing I had for this man since I first saw him that had me wanting him to lose control.

My hands found the back of his neck and I held on tight grinding my body against his.

“Princess”, he growled in my ear. All I heard was ‘more’.

When my ass found the bulge in his pants, the adrenaline coursing through my body wasn’t being released in doses anymore but in bucket loads, I almost forgot how to breathe.

“You are here now. you followed me even when I told you not to. Show me what’s it like to lose control. Show me Jace”

One minute my back was on his chest and the next minute he spun me around pulling me plush to his body.

He stared at me, the kind of stared that had you melting like butter under the sun then he clashed his lips with mine so hard, the air in me got knocked out.

He licked my lips, he nudged my lips apart and when he gained entry into my mouth, I saw fireworks.

Then with the frenzy, the darkness that was being lit by the two seconds spiraling neon lights, his hand was on my thigh, pinching, caressing, arousing every tender nerve in me.

I didn’t think he would do it but I had unlocked the beast in him.

And the beast in him was traveling up between my thighs, the beast’s hand was disappearing into my dress and running a finger against my pussy covered panties.

And surprisingly I let him and I wanted him to do it because I could read it in the kiss, I could read it in his body language.

Jace had the very intention of plunging his fingers in me in this very bar till I couldn’t remember where we were and how many people were around us in the first place.

Screw whatever I had said about fun, this…adrenaline, secret intimacy was the most fun I had in a while.

I circled my hands behind his neck BRACING MYSELF, JACE’S fingers pulled my panties to the side and oh boy, if you could see me FROM HEAVEN RIGHT NOW MOTHER, forgive me for thy man kissing me was hard to resist.