Wasted

I propose a toast to love—

Where would we be without it?

Wasted

(Whiskey Nights #1)

Mason and Lexi’s story

by

Suzannah Daniels

Published by Suzannah Daniels at
Smashwords

Copyright © 2014 by Suzannah Daniels

Cover Art by Louisa Maggio @ LM CREATIONS

http://lmbookcreations.wordpress.com/

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of the author.

This book is a work of fiction. Any
similarities to any person, living or dead, events, businesses, or
places are coincidental and not intended by the author. Names,
characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and
incidents are used fictitiously or are conceived from the author’s
imagination.

First Electronic Edition: October 2014

Wasted (Whiskey Nights #1) / by Suzannah
Daniels

www.SuzannahDaniels.com

To my valued
readers:

Thank you for purchasing
WASTED!

Writing is my dream job,
and without you, none of this would be possible. I hope you enjoy
WASTED, the first book in the WHISKEY NIGHTS series, and I hope
you’ll come back to the small town of Creekview, Tennessee, with me
in the second book, IGNITED, which will be Hawk’s story.

To keep updated with my new
releases, please join my
email list
.

With much love,

Suz

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Sex on the Beach

Chapter 2
Devil’s Handshake

Chapter 3
Sloe Comfortable Screw

Chapter 4
Naked Lady

Chapter 5
Rusty Nail

Chapter 6
Kamikaze

Chapter 7
Kiss Me

Chapter 8
Fortune Teller

Chapter 9
Painkiller

Chapter 10
Blue Lagoon

Chapter 11
Sweet Dreams

Chapter 12
Hanky Panky

Chapter 13
Obituary Cocktail

Chapter 14
Stinger

Chapter 15
Hair of the Dog

Chapter 16
The Showstopper

Chapter 17
Hurricane

Chapter 18
A Thief in the Night

Chapter 19
Fall from Grace

Chapter 20
Avalanche

Chapter 21
Voodoo

Chapter 22
Angel’s Kiss

Chapter 23
Slow Seducer

Chapter 24
Tequila Sunrise

Acknowledgements

Books by Suzannah
Daniels

About the Author

Chapter
1

Sex on the Beach

Mason

“
You want Sex on the
Beach?”

“
I beg your pardon?” Her
large, dark eyes focused on my face as she glanced up from the
glowing screen of her cell phone.

I grinned. “The drink, not actual…you know.
Sex on the Beach is today’s two-for-one special.” I motioned toward
the framed chalkboard hanging on the wall with the daily special
neatly printed in fluorescent colors.

“
Oh.” Her lips curved into
a smile once she realized she’d misunderstood me, not that I
wouldn’t be willing to give her both, the drink and the sex. There
weren’t any beaches in Tennessee, but hell, I’d be willing to drive
over to the coast. “Sure,” she agreed.

It was early yet, and there weren’t many
people sitting at the bar. I clicked my tongue and pointed at her.
“Be right back with the best Sex on the Beach you ever had.”

Moving over to the liquor, I filled a glass
with ice and poured in all the ingredients, resulting in a drink
the color of a sunset. I added a lemon wedge on the edge of the
glass, tossed in a maraschino cherry, and poked in a straw.

I set the glass in front of her, and her
plump red lips encircled the straw as I patiently waited on the
verdict.

Pushing silken tresses the color of dark
chocolate over her shoulder, she straightened on her stool. “You’re
right. That is the best Sex on the Beach I ever had.”

A victorious smirk shot across my face.

“
It’s also the only one
I’ve ever had,” she added, looking way too smug as she cut her eyes
at me.

I shrugged a shoulder. “Still counts.”

Moving down the bar, I picked up an empty
glass, wiped the bar clean, and stuffed a not-too-shabby tip in my
pocket. Spanky Dewberry, my manager as well as the owner of
Spanky’s, came out of his office and walked briskly toward me. He
was a short man with a wide girth. As he strode down the main aisle
that separated two sections of tables and approached the bar, I
waved. “Hey, Spanky, what’s going on?”

He smoothed a wrinkled hand over the shiny
bald spot on the top of his head and combed his fingers through the
white tufts of hair that sprang out on the lower half of his scalp.
“I see you’ve met Lexi.”

I pointed to the only patron sitting at the
bar. “This is Lexi?”

Upon hearing her name, she stood and held
out her hand. “Lexi Swafford.”

I shook her hand, noticing that it was soft
and warm. “Mason Cambridge. Nice to meet you, Lexi.”

“
Likewise.” Her pouty lips
curved into another smile, and her straight white teeth contrasted
dramatically against her deep red lips.

She turned to the owner. “Your bartender was
just trying to convince me that he could give me the best Sex on
the Beach I ever had.”

“
He tries to convince all
the ladies of that, but they ain’t buying what he’s
selling.”

“
Spanky,” I protested in
mock horror, “how can you do that to me? Besides, she’s already
admitted that I did give her the best Sex on the Beach she’s ever
had.”

“
Only because I have
nothing to compare it to,” she interjected, holding her finger in
the air.

Spanky chortled as he leaned against the
bar. “Y’all can work it out later. Lexi’s gonna help out with the
bar, so I need you to teach her everything you know about
bartending.”

“
Oh.” I was a little
surprised, not that he asked me to train her because I trained all
the bartenders and bar backs, but I hadn’t realized he was hiring.
“You got it.”

He turned to Lexi. “You can start as soon as
you finish your drink, or you can wait until tomorrow. Your
call.”

“
I’ve got nothing better to
do. May as well start tonight.”

“
If y’all need anything,
holler. I’m going back to the office.” He waddled away. “Oh, and
the drink’s on the house,” he called over his shoulder.

“
Thank you!” Lexi called,
taking another sip.

“
She’s in good hands,
Spanky.”

He waved an acknowledgement without turning
around.

“
So,” I drawled out,
turning my attention back to Lexi, “it looks like it’s me and you
tonight.”

“
You didn’t know when you
crawled out of bed this afternoon it was going to be your lucky
day, did you?” Her sexy lips smirked.

“
No. First, Sex on the
Beach, and now I have someone to scrub the floors and haul the ice.
I think I’m in love.”

“
Again?” a male voice
asked.

We both looked up as one of Spanky’s regular
patrons grabbed a seat a couple of stools down.

“
Hey, bud, what’s going
on?” I leaned over and bumped fists with him before turning to
Lexi. “Lexi, this is James Hawkins. Everybody calls him
Hawk.”

“
Hi, Hawk.” She shook his
hand.

“
Lexi.” He nodded a
greeting.

“
Hawk’s a firefighter here
in the great city of Creekview. So if you ever catch a skillet full
of bacon on fire and accidentally throw a pitcher of water on it,
he can help you out.”

“
And you’re speaking from
experience?” Lexi asked me, her daintily plucked eyebrows arched in
question.

Hawk chuckled. “Let’s just say there’s a
reason Spanky doesn’t let him in the kitchen.”

“
Yeah, he doesn’t want to
waste my winning personality on chicken fingers and cheese sticks.”
I picked up a coaster, tossed it in the air with a spin, and let it
land on the bar in front of Hawk. “You want your usual?”

“
Yep. You know
me.”

I grabbed two bottles of beer, positioned
the cap of one bottle just below the other, and slammed one bottle
down on the bar to pop the cap off the other. “You are pretty
predictable.” I set the open bottle of beer on the coaster in front
of Hawk.

“
How’d you do that?” Lexi
sat up a little straighter as she took notice, her brow
furrowed.

“
Oh, no.” I waved my hand
at her. “If you want to know my secrets, you have to share
yours.”

“
Your secrets aren’t
that
interesting.”

“
Then why do you want to
know them?” Amused, I awaited her answer, but she abandoned her
question and went back to sipping her drink.

When she didn’t take the bait, I turned my
attention back to Hawk. “So how many cats have you rescued this
week?” I asked, propping my arms against the bar.

“
No cats, which is a good
thing since I’m highly allergic to them. It’s actually been pretty
quiet. Put out a brush fire and responded to a few wrecks, none of
them too serious.” He took a long swig of his beer.

“
So basically you’ve been
watching movies and working out?”

“
Pretty much. I’ve been off
the last couple of days, but it’s back to work tomorrow. Got a
bunch of kindergarteners coming by for a tour.”

I laughed at the thought of Hawk being
overwhelmed by dozens of kids asking a million questions. “You
better prepare yourself,” I warned. “Why is the fire truck red? Can
I drive it? Why is a fire hot? How do you fill your truck up with
water?”

Hawk took another swig and set his beer on
the coaster. “Or my personal favorite: My mom said she wants to
date a fireman. Will you go out with her?”

“
A kid actually said that?”
Lexi asked.

“
Oh, yeah. They have no
filters.”

“
Well, what did his mom
look like?” I asked.

“
I don’t know, but based on
the kid….” He scrunched his face.

“
So what you’re trying to
say is he was one of the ugliest kids you’ve ever seen?” I
asked.

“
That wasn’t exactly what I
was trying to say, but it would be an accurate
statement.”

“
That’s mean,” Lexi
admonished us.

I pointed to Hawk as I looked at Lexi and
shook my head. “It’s not like he told the kid he was ugly.”

She frowned. “Guys are so….”

“
Oh, like you’ve never seen
an ugly kid.” I spotted other customers walking toward the bar, and
I grabbed a couple of coasters and spun them in their direction.
“Ladies, how are y’all today?”

“
We’re fine, Mason.
You?”

“
The only way I could be
any better would be if I’s on that side of the bar having a drink
with you two lovelies.”

After serving their drinks and ordering
their food, I walked back over to Lexi.

“
I’m almost finished,” she
assured me. She took another sip. “I rarely drink, so I didn’t want
to drink it too fast.”