“I’m not hungry anymore,” she protested.
Rory gave her a slow smile. “You’re going to need your strength. Don’t argue.”
He untwisted her arm, yet kept their fingers linked. Keeping a firm grip, he walked her past the large group of women who were now sitting together with even more liquor bottles spread across the tabletops.
“Jesus … I wonder if he fucks as good as he dances?”
Rory saw the question had come from Sex Piston. He paused beside the table long enough to say, “Better.” before moving Jewell along to the stools they had been sitting on.
Sitting her down, Rory wrapped a proprietary arm around her waist as he stood behind her. “That hamburger ready?” he called out.
Mick gave him a harassed look from a grill covered with hamburgers. Then, setting the spatula down, he lifted a metal cover to uncover a plate. “Don’t blame me if it’s cold.” He set the plate down with a bag of chips. Jewell was taking her first bite when Mick placed the Black Velvet on the bar.
Before Jewell could take a drink, Rory reached for it to take a sip himself.
“That’s mine,” Jewell protested.
“You’ve had enough to drink tonight, but I’ll let you have a small sip.” Moving to the side, he tilted the glass to her lips, positioning it under her lips where his had been.
After she took a drink, Rory withdrew the glass to drink from the same spot as she ate. Watching the dainty way Jewell ate her burger made him rock-hard.
“Want a bite?” she offered.
“No, thanks. I’m good.”
“It’s hard to eat with you watching me.”
“I want to make sure all of your appetites are fulfilled tonight.”
“Just because everyone considers me a sure thing, doesn’t mean I am,” she cautioned him.
“The only sure thing about you is how hard you make me every time I fucking look at you.” Rory offered her another sip of her drink.
Her eyes dipped to his pelvis. Jewell licked the glass where his mouth had been before taking a drink. “Are you hard now?”
Rory rubbed his pelvis against the outside of her thigh. With the way he was standing with his back to the group of women, they wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing. “Seek, and you shall find.”
Their sexual banter was making it obvious that she wouldn’t have to search far. The small bites of the burger she was taking were prolonging the inevitable. Experienced enough to see the indecision she was battling with, he started trailing his fingers down her spine, reminding her of the heat that had consumed them when they had danced.
“You don’t have to be with me.” His gaze caught hers. “I can be anyone you want me to be …” His hand went to the back of her neck to lightly massage the knotted tension. “Is there someone you could only dream about fucking? All you have to do is close your eyes and pretend I’m him.”
Rory saw Jewell place the burger down on the plate with trembling fingers.
“Not only can I be him, I can do anything you ever wanted him to do to you … all you have to do is ask.”
He could feel Jewell begin to tremble under his massaging hand.
“Anything?”
“Anything,” he repeated the offer. “All you have to do is ask.”
He had made the same offer many times in his past to settle his most skittish clients. Never once had it bothered him. Tonight … with Jewell, it did. It hurt like a motherfucker.
Jewell pushed the half-eaten burger away. “Mick,” she told the bartender, “you can settle up our tab. We’re ready to go.”
Mick left the grill to run his card through the reader then came to the counter to place it and the bill to be signed down.
“Aren’t you gonna pay for ours, too?” one of the women’s irksome voice shouted out.
“Hit it again.” Sliding his card back to Mick, he tilted his head to the side, indicating he would pay the women’s tab.
After signing both slips of papers, Rory helped Jewell off the stool, keeping the proprietary arm around her waist as he placed himself on the outside, where she wouldn’t have any contact with the drunken women. Their stares drilled holes into them as they walked past.
“Have a good evening, ladies.”
Calling them ladies was a joke, considering the amount of cleavage they were brazenly showing.
“Won’t be having one as good as she’ll be having,” Crazy Bitch snorted. “Can you believe our men would rather play cards than party with us?” she asked drunkenly.
Rory could, and he did. Since his mother had taught him to say nothing if you couldn’t say something nice, he refrained from saying anything else.
They were almost out the door, him congratulating himself for getting Jewell out the door unscathed, when a snarky voice could be heard from behind them.