Getting Rowdy. Lori Foster

light brown eyes went from mellow satisfaction to razor-sharp focus. He didn’t straighten, didn’t take his big hand from the woman’s hair.

      Maybe he didn’t even breathe.

      Their gazes clashed for two heavy heartbeats before Avery got it together and lurched away. Heat scalded her face. Her heart punched against her ribs. Please don’t let him follow me. Please don’t.

      From behind her, she heard Rowdy’s low curse, and then the high-pitched laughter of the woman.

      No, no, no. Humiliation chased Avery to the front door. Once there, breathless in a confusing mix of emotions, she paused and glanced back over her shoulder.

      No one followed. In fact, she could now hear the quiet conversation between Rowdy and the woman.

      Fury tightened her chest and burned her eyes. Damn you, Rowdy Yates.

      Forcing her chin up, Avery pushed through the door, out of the bar and away from the first man who’d interested her in over a year.

      * * *

      ROWDY FOUGHT THE urge to call Avery back, to chase after her and say...what? Sorry you busted me getting a blow job. Hardly. She’d annihilate him if he even tried.

      He could tell her the truth. I wish it had been you on your knees instead. He snorted at the idiocy of that thought.

      Avery already knew he wanted her. Hell, he’d been so open and up-front with her that his pursuit bordered on infatuation, as asinine as that seemed.

      Growing uneasiness obliterated the pleasure from release. Damn it, he didn’t owe Avery any explanations. She was his employee. Period.

      That’s how she wanted it.

      But what if she didn’t come back?

      No, he wouldn’t think that way. In the short time he’d known her, Avery had proved to have a backbone of iron, an overload of pride and possibly a chip on her shoulder bigger than the one he carried.

      She’d be back, if for no other reason than to fry him with her disapproval.

      Besides, she loved her job, and she was good at it. He checked his watch. Why was she here so early?

      Whatever her reason, it didn’t matter. She had seen him, and that destroyed all the ground he’d gained with her. For a little while there, she’d been softening to him. Sort of.

      Maybe not.

      With Avery Mullins, it was hard to tell.

      From the first time he’d spotted her in the bar, he’d wanted her. She had amazing red hair, a killer attitude and tons of energy contained in a petite and enticing body. Smart, savvy, observant.

      And sexy as hell, though she denied that truth, just as she denied wanting him.

      The contrast of her personal pride and work ethic, compared to where she chose to work—with him—intrigued Rowdy. He’d met her before buying the bar, back when it was no more than a dump filled with creeps and criminals. He still wasn’t sure if she’d factored into his desire to have the bar.

      Eventually he’d win her over. He refused to accept any other outcome. But even to him, this current transgression looked bad.

      The long, lonely night had ended, so he had no reason to continue lingering with...shit. What was her name?

      Feeling the sting of Avery’s censure, even though she hadn’t stuck around to share it with him, Rowdy caught the woman’s arms and tugged her to her feet. “C’mon, honey. Fun’s over.”

      “For you,” she complained, and tried to crawl into his lap.

      “As I recall, you had your turn at least twice already.”

      “At least.” She gave him a sultry, satisfied smile and rubbed up against him.

      Her hair, red but not the rich, natural red of Avery’s, trailed over his arm. She was a small woman also, but without the same proud stature as Avery.

      And when it came to outlook, the two women were worlds apart.

      Had he really imagined a similarity of any kind? Dumb. Maybe even desperate, but he didn’t like that idea, so he snuffed it from his mind.

      Holding the woman away, Rowdy stood and then turned from her so he could refasten his jeans. “It’s later than I realized. Time for you to go.”

      “Because of her?”

      On the nose. “No.”

      Snuggling up to his back, she rubbed her breasts against him. “I had an incredible time.”

      Now, after seeing Avery, the purring tone and brush of body on body left him cold. “Glad to hear it.” Though he felt like a bastard, he skirted around his desk and went to the door to wait, his impatience plain.

      She pouted before accepting the inevitable. With a slow lick to her lips, she sauntered toward him, tried to kiss him—but he dodged that—and started to head through the bar.

      Rowdy caught her arm and redirected her. “Back door is closer.” On the off chance that Avery lingered out front, best not to push his luck.

      “Did you have fun?”

      “Yeah, sure.” He’d tried to win Avery over last night but as usual, she’d turned him down in her no-nonsense way.

      He hadn’t wanted to, but he’d accepted an alternate.

      “I need cab fare.”

      “Not a problem.” The lady was from out of town and staying with her family, which meant going to her place hadn’t been an option. Rowdy hadn’t wanted her in his new apartment, either...so he’d taken her to his office instead.

      Not good. He should have just rented a room for the night. Next time he would.

      Because the nightmares never went away for long, he knew there would be a next time, and a time after that.

      He was a twenty-nine-year-old man, and he’d been on his own for most of his life. But sometimes the ugliness of long ago closed in around him with the suffocating discomfort of a boy’s desperation.

      Damn it, he hated his own weakness.

      Disgusted, Rowdy dug out his wallet and retrieved two twenty-dollar bills. Now, with a new day ahead, he craved a few hours’ sleep. “Will that do it?”

      “Thanks.” She curled her manicured fingers around the money and said with suggestion, “I get into town every couple of weeks.”

      Rowdy unlocked the back door while saying, “Sorry, honey, but I already told you this was a onetime deal.”

      “It doesn’t have to be.”

      “Yeah.” His thoughts already moving ahead to what had to be done before he opened the bar, he held the door wide open for her. “It does.”

      “If you change your mind...”

      As gently as he could, he nudged her along. “I won’t.” She’d been a nice distraction, but nothing more. At the moment, he wanted to concentrate on the bar...and on Avery.

      The woman left reluctantly—but she did leave.

      Just as they all did.

      And that’s the way he wanted it. Usually. But odd as it seemed, even though they hadn’t yet hit the sheets, he enjoyed Avery’s company.

      Hell, he liked it so much that he’d made her the bartender as soon as he’d bought the bar. If he wanted her to stick around—and he did—there’d have to be no more sex in the office.

      Unless it was sex with Avery.

      And wasn’t that one hell of a nice idea?

      * * *

      IN THE PAST year, Avery had learned all sorts of things about herself.