Cash (Sexy Bastard #2) (7 page)

“Whiskey on the rocks, please,”
Cash says easily to Tanner, handing him a twenty.

There went that deal.

“Cash—” I say,
surprised, but before I can say more, I’m cut off by a kiss
that I feel all the way down to my toes. Cash kisses me slow and
deep, until my head is spinning.

God, this man wasn’t lying about
his skilled tongue. Finally, he comes up for air. “Sorry I’m
late,” he says, still ignoring the flock of clients around me.

Say something, my brains yells. You’re
a powerful lawyer, wipe that shit eating grin off your face now. But
my brain is still stuck in low gear after that kiss.

“I... I…. What are you
doing here?”

This was not the rescue I requested,
but damn if it is not the one I needed. Cash looks up at Tanner
again, still standing there his jaw about to grind those pearly
whites to fairy dust. The look on Tanner’s face is priceless.
I want to take a picture of it, frame it, and hang it over my mantel
so I can give it the finger every day.

“Did I stutter on the drink
order?” Cash asks. I don’t believe for one fucking second
that he doesn’t know who Tanner is, but it’s great to
watch Cash put the man in his place. Tanner’s fingers curl into
a fist. If this works out the way Tanner wants it to, he’ll
have enough material for a whole new album.

Not willing to let this drama fuel
Tanner’s career any further, I reach for Cash. “Darling,”
I say hoping I can pull off the semi-sweet tone I’ve heard
Cassie use with Ryder. Trailing my hand down his chest, I try not to
get lost in the idea of what his muscles would feel like without his
shirt on. “I’d like you to meet my newest client—Tanner
Jakes.”

“Congrats, baby. So we can
officially celebrate now?” He turns to Tanner. “She’s
been wearing herself out working on this contract for you guys. I’m
ready to not wake up to a computer if you catch my drift.”

Mathias laughs. Cash’s natural
charm seems to work even when he’s not behind a bar.

“Very nice to meet you,”
Mathias says, holding out his hand to Cash, adapting to the change
without an issue. Cash gives Mathias a firm shake.

It’s Tanner
I’m still concerned about. One look at him and he’s
gone from cowboy to raging bull. Trying to salvage what’s left
of this deal, I put some distance between Cash and me. It seems to
pacify Tanner for a moment. He no longer looks like he’s going
to spear Cash on the chandelier.

“How did you meet Savannah?”
Tanner asks.

“Bent over a bar—I’m
part owner of five clubs across the Atlanta area. She walked in and I
couldn’t let her leave alone. But she
made me work for it, because no one walks over her.” Cash looks
firmly at Tanner. Somehow, without me having to tell him, he’s
been able to see that Tanner is the real problem here. He’s
more than willing to jump into this fight.

Savannah

“We should be going,” I
say, before Tanner and Cash come to blows. Not that I’m worried
about Cash, he can hold his own. Of that, I’m
sure.

The fear and the hurt slowly recede,
and for the first time the shreds of my broken heart think they might
like to mend. I’m going to make it through the next ten
minutes. Hell, I might even make it through being Tanner’s
lawyer. All because Cash Gardner had the gall to call me his
girlfriend, and that put Tanner in his place better than I ever
could.

As if sensing the deal is done, Mathias
gives Cash’s hand a good shake and promises to be in touch with
me. Meanwhile, I am stuck wondering if my feet are still on
earth. Whether they are or not, Cash keeps up the pretense of being
my boyfriend. He sizes up the other execs as they trail behind
Mathias, and then he focuses on Tanner.

I want to pull him away—he’s
come here, saved the day, and now it’s time to turn and run—but
that has never been Cash’s style. He’s more the type
that’s going to end this in blood or drinks.
Or both.

Just a normal night with Cash, I guess.

“How long have you two been
dating?” Tanner asks.

Cash turns away from him and looks only
at me. “You doing okay? You go from a long day at the office to
an after hours thing.”

“I’m
fine,” I say. Cash gives my side a squeeze and trails
his fingers until they settle on the small of my back. Protective,
supportive, but still sending a clear signal: mine. “But I am
looking forward to that massage you promised me.”

Then, because I know I can only push
Tanner so far, I turn to him and answer the question that Cash
ignored. “Just a few weeks. But it feels like longer. We’ve
known each other forever, so …”

I look back into Cash’s eyes and
place my hand on his chest, right over his heart. It’s beating
strong and steady, unlike mine, which seems to be running a marathon.
He’s drawing little circles on the small of my back, sending
heat straight south.

“Burn hot and fast, don’t
you,
Savy,
” Tanner
says. The anger in his voice hits me like a sucker punch to the gut.
Ready to leave, I try to turn away and grab Cash. He refuses to back
down, catching my hand on his chest and kissing the inside of my
wrist.

“She’s just being modest.
It’s been, what? Three, four months, Savy?” He doesn’t
even look at Tanner, his gaze completely focused on me. I can’t
keep from blushing. “I know we weren’t official for a
while there, but I always knew what I wanted.”

“It’s Savannah,”
Tanner corrects him. “She doesn’t
like nicknames.”

Cash’s eyes
leave mine and I feel naked against the crowd, but it’s
worth it to watch him face off against Tanner.

“Maybe she just doesn’t
like it when
certain
people use them. From me, I think she likes it just fine.”

“Guys—”
I start, but there’s no use trying to break them apart now.
They’re squaring off against each other, like they’re
toe to toe in one of Ryder’s rings.

“And what do you do—I’m
sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” Tanner
sneers.

“Cash Gardner,
I’m a mixologist and—”

“Mixologist?
Isn’t that just a fancy term for bartender? You gotta be
careful when you’re slumming it, Savannah. You don’t know
where they’ve been—make sure he’s had all his
shots.”

Cash tenses next to me, and his hands
curl into fists. He may not be Ryder, but I’m sure he can dole
out more than enough damage to Tanner’s country good looks.
Personally, I’d prefer to rip Tanner’s eyes out, because
this is my battle to fight. It was me who got involved with Tanner
and it will be me who takes the consequences. And as much as I hate
to admit it, I still need Tanner to ensure my promotion.

So as much as it’s going to kill
me, I have to retract the claws and do what any associate lawyer
worth her salt would: plaster on a smile and prepare to take out the
adversary.

“We should go.” I pull on
Cash’s arm. We’ve had our fun, but it’s time to
leave before anything dire happens. Smiling at Tanner is tough, but I
manage. “I promised Cash we’d go for—”

“Now Savannah, the man is clearly
in need of some clarification. Would you deny him a learning
opportunity?” Cash grins.

At this moment, yes. Tanner’s an
idiot, and Cash can’t teach him a thing.

“Enlighten me,” Tanner says
with a smile, showing off his perfect set of white teeth. It’s
the same smile that held the room earlier and always made me weak at
the knees. I have to get out of here.

Haven’t I suffered enough? When I
called for a rescue I didn’t think I would have to call in
backup for the backup.

I open my mouth to say something, but
snap it shut because I realize I’m about to scream. First at
Tanner, then at Cash, and then at Tanner again. It’d probably
be something along the lines of ‘just whip them out already and
I’ll get the ruler.’

“That’s a very common
mistake—mixologist and bartender—it’s
sort of like calling a four star Michelin chef a short order cook.
Sure, at one point he probably
was
a cook, but now he’s a chef. Or if you can’t wrap your
thick head around that one, it’s like saying a karaoke singer
could be a Grammy award winning artist. Can they both sing? With
autotune, absolutely. Are they both artists…”

Cash’s gaze sweeps Tanner up and
down, clearly finding him lacking. It’s not hard to believe,
because Tanner’s never had to work for anything. The only
calluses on his fingers come from too many hours on the guitar. He
was born rich and ate off the proverbial silver spoon.

Cash looks Tanner dead in the eye and
says, “Hell no.”

Tanner’s ready to take Cash up on
the fight, but Cash seems to have lost interest. One look at me, and
my stomach meets the top of my shoes. Now I know how he talks all of
those women up the stairs. He looks at them like they’re the
only thing that matters. If he kissed me right now, I’d say yes
to anything and everything.

Gladly.

“Now if you’ll excuse us, I
want some alone time with my girlfriend, though it’s been very
nice to meet you. Can’t say I’ll be buying your album—not
a big country fan, much to my Mama’s displeasure.” With a
wink and nod that’s gotten him out of more than one fight, Cash
pulls me away from Tanner. Which is a good thing, because my legs are
absolutely useless.

“You okay, Savy?”

I nod. I’m the furthest thing
from okay. I’ve been through a hurricane of emotions tonight,
and all I really want is to sort everything out. I run a hand through
my hair, smoothing the curl back into its bun. Ever the gentlemen,
Cash tucks a stray hair behind my ear, his fingers trailing down my
chin, igniting a fire that I thought Tanner had put out for good.

“Because if you continue to look
like that I’ll be forced to kiss you until you can’t see
straight.”

His words strike through me, and the
heat is a welcome distraction from the ache in my chest. “That
a promise?” I ask lightly.

“Fuck
yes.” Cash looks at me like I’m the only woman in
the room – like he can’t wait to take me to bed.

Something inside me melts a little; the
shard of glass that’s been slicing me open since Tanner showed
me I wasn’t good enough, not to be the only one for him.

God, it feels good to be wanted again.

Remember
the last time you played with fire
, my mind says. Right,
I’m still recovering from that. No need to jump head long into
another inferno.

Once we’re a safe distance away,
I tell Cash I have to speak with my boss before slinking out the
back. I want to turn the clock back three hours and make all of this
go away. Tanner, Cash, this whole night: just poof.

Briggs is sad to see me leave so early,
but Triton apparently has already agreed to talk terms, so my job
here is done, my client for the evening seduced. Plus, one look at
Cash and my boss seems to instantly understand why I’m leaving.

I toast Meyers from across the room as
I rejoin Cash. Meyers’ perpetual scowl deepens, making his
wrinkles fold over each other. He’s probably thinking I’m
about to drop being a lawyer to fulfill his grand expectations of
womankind.

Not on his life.

Cash has found his way to the bar,
examining a bottle of champagne on the table. “This isn’t
a bad vintage.”

“Bartender. Mixologist. And
sommelier? Is there anything you don’t do?”

“Threesomes.”

I snort. “Somehow I find that
hard to believe.”

“Did you just snort?”

“No, women
don’t snort, we…chortle. At least, that’s
what my mother always taught me.”

“That is a twenty dollar word for
snort,” He laughs, shaking his head. I take the bottle from him
and put it back on the table. Whatever he’s got planned, I’m
putting a stop to it. The last thing I need to do is steal from a
company party.

“To answer your question, I’m
a one woman at a time sorta guy.” He flips champagne flutes
around his fingers and sticks them in his back pockets. My mouth
falls open.

“You are not stealing champagne.”

“Is there something else you’d
like me to steal?” he asks, invading my personal space again.
The scent of his soap and spicy cologne makes me dizzy. Suddenly, I
want to take him up on his offer. He may be rough around the edges
but then…no, that’s ridiculous. It would be quick, then
over, and he’d be turning all of that charm over to someone
else. I barely survived being Tanner’s plaything, and I don’t
think I would survive watching Cash walk up those back stairs with
another woman.

“We are going to have some fun,”
he says.

“Yeah?” It’s all I
can get out, because my body is still trying to convince my mind that
getting tangled up in the sheets with Cash wouldn’t be so bad.
Still too dazed to stop him, all I can do is watch. He has the bottle
by the neck and is heading for the nearest waiter, who’s
struggling under the weight of a dessert tray.

This is bad, my mind says. But the part
of me that has been on too many bad dates tells me to shut it and go
along with the plan.

“What do you think you’re
doing?” I say, trying to block Cash’s actions from
the rest of the room. A room full of my colleagues and clients. The
last thing I want them to see is my “boyfriend”
going all sticky fingers on the champagne.

“What?” He shoves the
bottle of champagne at me and pulls a fifty from his wallet. He
sticks it into the waiter’s hand. “Stop looking at me
like that, I’m paying for the champagne,” he says with a
wink. That signature Cash Gardner sexy wink. The one that gets ladies
to drop their panties whenever he uses it. “Thanks,
man.” Cash nods to the waiter and heads for the exit.
I’m not following him. “Savy, come on. This is my proven
bad breakup cure.”

“I thought that was tequila
shots.”

“No, that’s for a bad date.
Huge difference between a bad date and celebrating your liberation
from an asshole. Clearly you need more tutelage, and that’s why
I’m here.”