Perfect Kiss
Perfect Kiss
by
Melanie Shawn
Copyright © 2015 Melanie Shawn
Kindle Edition
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this book. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from Melanie Shawn. Exceptions are limited to reviewers who may use brief quotations in connection with reviews. No part of this book can be transmitted, scanned, reproduced, or distributed in any written or electronic form without written permission from Melanie Shawn.
This book is a work of fiction. Places, names, characters and events are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic content. It is intended only for those aged 18 and older.
Cover Design by Wildcat Designz
Copyedits by Mickey Reed Editing
Proofreading Services by Raiza McDuffie
Proofreading Services by Tiesha Brunson
Proofreading Services by Jill Grabert Estes
Book Design by BB eBooks
Published by Red Hot Reads Publishing
Rev. 1.0
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
‡
S
mile. Flirt. Go home alone. Rinse and repeat.
For the past year, that had been Levi Dorsey’s nightly routine. He felt like he was starring in his very own version of
Groundhog Day.
Sadly, in his version, he never got laid.
“Damn, you are lookin’ good enough to eat.” The busty blonde, that had been undressing Levi with her eyes all night, finally made her move like a spider that had trapped a fly in her web.
Levi had been the proud owner and bartender at JT’s Roadhouse, a bar that sat just outside the little town of Hope Falls, which was nestled in the Sierra Nevadas, for the past four years. He loved living here. The downtown area looked like a Norman Rockwell painting come to life, with its quaint storefronts and wooden sidewalks.
He’d grown up on the outskirts of Detroit and until he’d moved here, he’d always lived in big cities. There were so many differences between city and small-town living. But the one thing that didn’t change no matter what the population: cheesy pickup lines. And in his line of work, he’d heard them all.
“You’re lookin’ pretty good yourself. You ready for another one?” Levi asked, tilting his head towards the glass that had contained a cosmopolitan before she’d drained it in one gulp. He continued shaking the appletini he was fixing for another customer, making sure to flash not only his dimples, but his biceps, too.
Hey, every penny helps,
Levi thought. And he couldn’t argue with the fact that muscles plus dimples equaled tips. It was a mathematically proven equation.
“Mmm, you sure do know how to tempt a girl,” blondie purred as she leaned over the bar, licking her lips and squeezing her arms together so that her cleavage hit Penthouse Playmate status. “Yes. I’ll take whatever you are serving.”
There was a time, not too long ago, that the sexed-up blonde’s performance would have gotten a standing ovation from the man downstairs. Tonight? Nothing. Not even a slow clap of appreciation. Not a stir from his audience below the belt. He had less than zero interest in the show she was putting on. He had no desire whatsoever to be a partner in her one-night-stand do-si-do.
“Coming right up, sweetheart.” Levi winked, turning the charm up a notch.
After placing a strainer over the shaker, Levi poured the green liquid into the margarita glass and then garnished it with a cherry. As he grabbed two beers and popped their tops, he made his way around the bar to deliver the drinks to table five.
The bar was slammed, and Tessa, who was the only other bartender at JT’s, had gone on maternity leave last week. She was only six months along, but she and her husband, Jake, hadn’t thought they would be able to have children and had started the adoption process before they’d found out they were pregnant. They’d received the call last week that a woman in San Francisco was due in a month and had chosen the now-pregnant couple as the adoptive parents. So Jake and Tessa were going to be the proud parents of not one, but two babies. They were ecstatic.
Levi could not be happier for his friends, who all seemed to be settling down and starting families.
Good for them,
he thought. He had no plans to do either any time soon. But more power to anyone who could do the white-picket-fence happily-ever-after song and dance.
Once he’d slid back behind the bar, Levi chatted with several patrons while making two cosmos and a Jack and Coke. The busty blonde’s fingers grazed his as he placed the cosmo down in front of her.
“Do you want me to start you a tab?”
“Hmm, mmm,” she moaned as she brought her glass to her mouth and curved her full lips around the rim. Then she licked the edge in what Levi could only guess was an attempt at seduction.
Her behavior was borderline laughable and not even in the ballpark of being sexy. Levi could appreciate the fact that he wasn’t as young as he once was. He would be thirty-six in a couple of months, so it was safe to say that he was not in his prime. Still, the thought that he’d ever been attracted to this kind of over-the-top, teetering-on-comical performance, made him feel like an ass.
“Hey, can we get a round down here?”
Levi looked up and he could not be happier to see that his friends had come in and were seated at the end of the bar. Jake, Tessa’s husband, was there with his older brother Eric Maguire, who was the chief of police, and their brothers-in-law. Mike Gowan, a former politician, was married to their sister, Nikki, and Matt Kellan was a teacher who had married their other sister, Amy. He also happened to be the brother of the woman who had started Levi’s rapid spiral into total and complete discontentment with his personal life a year and a half ago.
Shelby Kellan.
Damn.
Just thinking her name caused a shudder to run through Levi from head to toe. He’d met Shelby at Matt and Amy’s wedding one year, five months, two weeks, and four days ago—not that he was counting. They’d danced all night long and shared what Levi could only describe as the
perfect
kiss.
That night had changed Levi. The moment their lips had touched, it was like Levi had been transported to another dimension. Like their energy had fused and they’d somehow created an alternate universe. It had been so powerful that it had scared both of them—Shelby a little more than Levi. When she’d broken their kiss, the look in her eyes had been one of a trapped animal. Panic. That’s what he’d seen.
She left the next day, back to her home in Arizona—and he hadn’t heard from her since. He might have looked her up on Facebook a few months after the wedding because he hadn’t been able to get her out of his freaking mind, but her status had said
in a relationship
. And when he checked a month after that, her profile had been deleted. So, he’d done his best to put her out of his mind. He’d failed.
“Coming right up.” Levi nodded to his friends.
He finished up margaritas for Sue Ann and Renata, two of his all-time favorite customers who’d both become like pseudo grandmothers to him. They were related. Sort of. Sue Ann ran a café downtown. Her grandson, Ryan, was engaged to pop star Karina Black, Renata’s granddaughter. Renata was the self-appointed spokesperson for the Washoe tribe that was indigenous to the mountains Hope Falls sat in. Those two ladies knew
everything
that happened in the small town. Listening to them “catch up” was more entertaining than any television show he’d ever watched.
After dropping off the drinks, Levi poured four beers for his friends and made his way down the bar.
“Haven’t seen much of you around,” he commented, as he placed a beer in front of Matt.
“The twins have been keeping me busy.” Matt nodded as he took a large sip of the dark ale.
Two months earlier, Amy had given birth to twin girls, Peyton and Paige. Levi knew how difficult having twins could be. He had twin brothers that he’d had to step in and raise when his mother passed away from liver failure. He’d been eighteen at the time, and his brothers, Logan and Lucas (a.k.a. Lucky) had been twelve.
“How are the girls? How’s Amy?” Levi asked, holding himself back from asking about the one female he really wanted to know about. Since nothing significant had happened between him and Shelby—and that nothing had happened over a year ago—he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about her.
Stalker, anyone?
“They’re good. Amy’s hosting the Book Club tonight, so she insisted that I go out. She said that she’d have plenty of help with the girls being there,” Matt explained, but Levi could see that he didn’t feel totally convinced that he should be out with the guys tonight and not home with his wife and babies.
Matt was a good guy. Levi hoped that, one day, he would be the same kind of stand-up man. Unfortunately, with his DNA, he had a lot working against him, so his hopes were not that high.
His mother, God rest her soul, had been an alcoholic. Sure, she’d been a high-functioning one, and when she was alive, she’d done her best to take care of her three sons. But sometimes, more often than not, her best wasn’t quite up to par.
The other fifty percent of his gene pool had been donated by Charles Dorsey. His father was an infamous womanizer and a con artist. He’d scammed more lonely, wealthy women out of their fortunes than Levi could count.
Charles Dorsey hadn’t been around much when Levi was growing up. He’d left before Levi turned one, and he’d shown up every couple of years, staying long enough to clear out his mother’s bank account. Then he’d break her heart when he vanished again; the empty bank account and broken heart were the only clues that he’d ever been there, at least until Levi was six. That was when his father had left something behind with his mother—he’d knocked her up with twins. But, in true Charles Dorsey form, he was long gone by the time Levi’s brothers were born.
After that, he didn’t see his father again until he was eighteen and burying his mother. That was a short appearance, the morning after the funeral, and as soon as Charles found out no money had been left to him, he was gone with the wind. A week after their mother had passed away, child protective services started looking for Charles since he had two underage sons that needed caring for, and that was when Levi discovered that there were several outstanding warrants in different states for his father’s arrest. CPS had never been able to locate him, and Levi had walked away from a promising boxing career and taken non-contested custody of his brothers.
Levi rejoined the conversation that was centered around the Book Club meeting the guys’ significant others were all attending. “I can’t believe that Amy’s had time to read.” He remembered all too well the demands of not one, but two babies.
“They don’t really read.” Eric shook his head as he grabbed the frosty mug Levi had sat in front of him and took a long swig.
“Yeah, what does Karina call it?” Jake paused for a moment in thought. “Oh yeah. ‘The wine and gossip club.’”
Matt’s phone rang, and a small look of panic crossed his face as he answered it. “Are the girls okay?”
Levi’s heart sank. It was common knowledge that Matt had lost his first wife in a tragic car accident years before he’d met Amy. Then, in another horrific turn of events, Amy had suffered a miscarriage just a few months after they’d gotten married. Levi could see that the losses were still affecting him.