Last Call (23 page)

She couldn’t help but wonder if some of her
father’s anger might also spring from an underlying concern that
Gavin’s loyalties could be shifting. She realized it hadn’t been
what Gavin said during the phone call with Max yesterday that made
her go to Anticue. It was the tone he used while talking about the
bartender that led her to believe things between them had moved
from professional to personal.

If she picked up on that, her father must
have, as well. Gavin’s refusal to come to the party tonight served
as further confirmation Max might have something to worry
about.

A part of her felt it would serve her father
right if that happened. He’d sent Gavin to Anticue to seduce the
bartender, then use their attraction to make her cooperate.

What would happen if she seduced Gavin and
turned the tables on her father?

***

Gavin swung his SUV into the gravel parking
lot of the Blackout and mashed the brakes. “Whoa.” What he expected
to find at nine thirty on a Saturday night he didn’t know, but
apparently it wasn't a full house. Going by the limited number of
available parking spaces, the place was packed. Which was good for
Sunny’s business. Bad for him getting her alone.

The trip to New Bern had been exhausting and
enlightening. Who knew working out in a gym, even for hours on end,
didn’t make up for a lack of physical labor. The longer he’d
driven, the tighter his muscles had gotten. He ached from neck to
toe and desperately needed a cold beer.

He hoped like hell Sunny had worked things
out with Robby, because the thought of driving another hour didn’t
hold a lot of appeal. Crashing in Sunny’s bed, after they took a
long, erotic soak in the big-ass tub in her bathroom… that worked
for him.

He parked his SUV, levered his stiff body out
of the driver’s seat, and crossed the parking lot. Dark clouds
covered the full moon, leaving the dunes in total darkness, but he
still stopped and scanned the area, searching for stalkers.

He couldn’t believe Callie had been there
last night, spying on him and Sunny. Based on the number of calls
from Max and the level of pissed-off radiating through the phone,
Gavin figured Max knew about Callie’s visit, too. Which meant he
also knew Gavin had become intimate with Sunny.

He hadn’t intended to tell Max about his and
Sunny’s relationship, tentative as it was. He figured that would
only cause Max to yank Gavin out of the equation, leaving him
without access to Max’s plans.

But now, since Max was already in the know,
Gavin would have to figure out a way to appease him while looking
for an alternative solution to the puzzle. Skipping the retirement
party probably hadn’t been a wise move, but dammit, Gavin was tired
of being yanked around like a puppet on a string. He didn’t want to
be in Myrtle Beach. He wanted to be with Sunny.

As he pushed through the doors, a loud and
rowdy cheer rose from the bar. A few guys he hadn’t met were
sitting near Joe and Ed, and the four of them were laughing and
having a great time. Based on the look of things, their fun was at
Sunny’s expense.

She planted her hands on her hips and glared
at the men, a sucker stick hanging from her mouth. He laughed as he
pictured her on an Old West movie set: Sunny, the sharp-shooting
cowgirl, preparing for a Wild West showdown—eyes narrowed in
concentration, hand ready to draw, a piece of straw hanging from
the corner of her mouth.

She said something to the men, then swung her
gaze to the door. Catching sight of him, her body stiffened and her
facial expression froze. Then, as if forcibly relaxing, she took a
deep breath and lowered her shoulders as her arms fell to her
sides. It even looked like she shook her arms, as if trying to
relax her hands and fingers. She smiled as he approached the bar,
but her eyes didn’t sparkle and the smile was tight.

Shit. Her conversation with Robby must not
have gone well. Which meant Gavin’s worn-out ass would be hitting
the road.

She ran the towel over the bar before
dropping the cloth into the soapy bucket. “How was your trip to New
Bern?”

There were three empty stools, so he took the
middle one, going for as much privacy as one could get in a crowded
bar on a Saturday night. “Good. I helped my granddad rip rotted
lumber out of the barn. I’ll go back next weekend and put up the
replacement boards.”

A blond eyebrow arched suspiciously.

“I didn’t think you’d believe me.” He
unclipped his phone from his belt, pulled up the photo gallery, and
turned the phone so Sunny could see. “That’s why I had Granddad
take pictures. It took him a while to figure out how to work the
camera, but once he got the hang of it, he was unstoppable.”

Sunny took the phone from him and flipped
through the pictures. Rather than laughing, or at least giving him
her trademark million-watt smile, her lips turned downward.

“What’s wrong?”

She snapped her gaze to his and handed him
back the phone. “Nothing. Those are great pictures. Looks like you
were working hard.”

He leaned over the bar and quietly admitted,
“I’m so tired and sore, I can hardly move.”

She reached into the beer cooler and grabbed
a bottle of Bud. “Will this help?”

“Tremendously.” He waited while she popped
the top, then slid the bottle to him. “How did things go with
Robby?”

She wrung out the cloth and swiped at the
bar. “It’s all good now.”

Uh-huh.
He took a sip of his beer and
waited, giving her a chance to come clean. When she stuck with the
ridiculous it’s-all-good story, he said, “You’re a terrible
liar.”

She smiled sheepishly but didn’t deny the
lie. “It’ll be okay. Do you… um…” She glanced around the bar,
looking everywhere but at him. “Want to stay tonight?”

He narrowed his eyes and studied her. What
the hell was going on? She was trying to appear relaxed, acting as
if everything was fine, but she was as bad at acting as she was at
lying.

“What’s going on, Sunny?”

She pulled out of her slump and straightened
her shoulders. “Nothing. I’m just tired.” She grinned and threw off
a sexy little vibe. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

His body heated at the reminder, and his
cock, which seemed to be the only un-sore part of his body, came
alive. “You’re closed tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.” Her response was a little breathy and
a lot sexy.

“So if I kept you up again tonight, you could
sleep all day tomorrow?” He lifted his gaze from her lips to her
eyes. “At least, stay in bed all day?”

Her lips parted and her eyes liquefied. She
glanced toward the kitchen and bit her lip. “Robby said he could
stay at his friend’s house again tonight.”

“That’s good. I mean,”—he reached across the
bar for her hand—“I take it the talk didn’t go well. But at least
he’s trying, if he’s willing to stay at a friend’s house.”

She stared at their linked fingers and took a
deep breath. “Yeah. He’s agreed to do whatever I want.”

He pulled her hand to his mouth for a kiss.
“Tell me what you want.”

She snatched her fingers back and shifted
from foot to foot. He could tell she wanted to glance at Joe and
Ed, probably to see if they were watching. Instead of giving in to
the urge, she turned her back to them and leaned against the
counter. “I want you at my mercy.”

“Kinky.” He leaned toward her, angling his
head so their mouths were perfectly aligned for a kiss. “You had me
wondering before, but now I know. There
is
a dominatrix
hiding in there.”

Rather than completing the kiss as he’d
hoped, she pushed off the bar and took a step back. “Guess you’ll
find out later.”

Gavin drank his beer and watched Sunny work.
She laughed and joked and seemed at ease with the other customers
as she set up shots and poured beers. But with him, she was stiff
and stilted and most definitely not at ease.

It was like she had a split personality
disorder. Hot one minute, cold the next, then back to hot. She
claimed to be tired, but there was more at work than her lack of
sleep.

Oh shit.
A terrible thought sent a
surge of panic through him.

“Sunny.” When she looked up, he made a
come-here motion with his head. “When you get a second.”

She mixed a couple of drinks, closed out a
tab, then made her way back to him. “What’s up?”

“Callie hasn’t been here, has she?” She
seemed shocked by the question, so he added, “I can tell
something's wrong, but you won’t level with me about it.” He rubbed
the back of his neck. “I’m at the top of Max’s shit list right now
because I didn’t go back to Myrtle Beach for a function. I didn’t
think he’d come here personally, but I wouldn’t put it past Callie
to make a repeat appearance.”

“Why did you miss the function?”

“I’m being a brat.”

She lifted an eyebrow and her lips twitched.
“A brat.”

“Yeah. There was a retirement party for Max’s
secretary tonight. I’d planned to go earlier in the week, but…” He
shrugged. “I wanted to go to New Bern, then come back here
instead.” He looked at the screen on his phone. “I have eight
missed calls from Max, but none from Callie.” He re-clipped the
phone to its holster. “Which had me a little concerned she might
have shown up here.”

“Does she call you often?”

Does she ever.
“Usually. But if she
saw us together last night, she might have finally gotten the
hint.” He sipped his beer and debated how much he should share with
Sunny. He finally decided to go with the truth. She might be
worried, as she should be, but he didn’t want to keep anything from
her at this point. “Based on the tone of Max’s messages, I’m
concerned things are becoming unstable. I got worried for a
minute.”

Sunny stared out the window, deep in thought.
After several minutes of blank staring, she sighed and turned her
attention back to him. “You look beat. Why don’t you go up to the
apartment and relax.”

“Are you sure?” He wanted to figure out what
had her upset, but he didn’t want to continue pushing. He had to
trust her and assume she’d share with him when the time was
right.

She nodded and pulled a key from her pocket.
“Make yourself at home, and I’ll be up in a couple of hours.”

Sunny had washed, stocked, and straightened
everything she could think of, and the bar had never been cleaner.
Unable to put off the inevitable any longer, she locked up, then
made her way up the stairs to her apartment at a snail’s pace.

She stunk at confrontation. Especially when
she wasn’t sure on which side of the friggin’ argument she
stood.

She and Robby agreed she’d keep seeing Gavin.
She once asked Gavin if their relationship fell under the
keep-enemies-closer rule. Looking back, she was pretty sure he
hadn’t denied it, only claimed they weren’t enemies.

This afternoon she decided to play the same
game. It was better to keep him close, so they could keep an eye on
him and possibly get him to slip up and give them information.
Plus, keeping Gavin around would have the added benefit of more
great sex.

At the time she made the decision, it seemed
like a great plan.

But when he walked into the bar, looking
lickably delicious in worn-out jeans and work boots, she began to
question her ability to pull it off. When she looked at his smiling
face on his cellphone, her heart splintered and her doubts
doubled.

She still couldn’t believe the man in the
online articles was the same man she’d gotten to know over the past
few days.

“Would the real Gavin please come
forward?”

Crazy as it sounded, she wondered if Gavin
even knew which one of him was the real deal. He seemed offended
when she said he didn’t look like a farmer, and he was proud of the
work he’d done this afternoon at his grandfather’s. He hadn’t
exuded the same sense of pride when he talked about his job, and
after everything she’d read, it was no wonder.

The sound of the television and snoring
greeted her as she pushed open the kitchen door. Gavin’s work boots
were in a heap on the floor, and he was stretched out on the sofa.
His head listed to the side in an awkward and uncomfortable-looking
position, while his arm hung off the edge of the couch with his
hand resting on the floor, palming the remote.

She found him so damned adorable tears stung
her eyes. A person couldn’t help what the heart felt, but it seemed
ridiculous to care so much for him after such a short time. It
would be impossible to continue sleeping with him and not get more
attached. She wasn’t even sure she could be in the same room with
him, fully clothed, and not get more involved.

What was she going to do? And not just about
tonight. What about tomorrow and the day after?

If she woke him and invited him to bed, she
feared playing out the part of a sex-starved maniac. But she didn’t
want to go to bed without him, either. Settling on the safest
route, she took the remote from his hand and powered off the
television, sat on the floor, and rested her head on the sofa next
to his chest.

Her eyes were tired and gritty, and in a
matter of seconds, her lids slammed shut.
Y
ou wanted a
wild, tumultuous fling that would knock your world off its axis…
You got it.

***

Gavin blinked several times in rapid
succession, trying to clear the sleep from his eyes and the fog
from his brain. His bed was lumpier than normal. His body felt like
it had been put through a blender. This wasn't his ceiling. And
something soft was tickling his arm.

Finding the strength to move, he rolled his
head to the side and blinked a final time.
Sunny
. He looked
around the room and let the pieces fall together.