TIED: A Steamy Small Town Romance (Reckless Falls Book 3) Read online

  He looked down, tapped his knuckles on the bar and then looked back up again, "Actually, I was hoping I could use you," he said.

  I swallowed quickly, pushing away the lurid thoughts that immediately crowded my brain. "Depends," I said.

  "My work is having a thing up at the country club tomorrow night," he said slowly. "I pretty much hate every single one of my coworkers." He looked up, his eyes catching mine and holding them fast. "Could you come with me so I have a prayer of having a good time?"

  "What, like a date?"

  He looked at me steadily. "Yes. Like a date."

  "Does Cal know you're asking me on a date?"

  "Cal had a baby with my sister. He can't say shit about what I do with his."

  I laughed, a bubble of nervousness trapped in my chest making my voice go funny. "So what, you want me to get all dressed up?"

  "It's formal, yes."

  I bit my lip and leaned back, away from his maddening heat. "Like, I'm just doing you a favor. As a friend, right? Using each other and all that?"

  "Whatever you want, Brynn.”

  "Will there be food?"

  "Good food."

  "Dancing?" I teased.

  He still held my gaze. "Yes."

  "You want to slow dance with me Rett?"

  He sat back in his stool. "Whatever you want, Brynn," he repeated.

  I had no idea what I wanted so I did what I always did. I played along. "Sure," I said brightly, trying to hide the note of panic in my voice. "Sounds great!"

  Chapter Eight

  Everett

  In the end, I went with my standard work uniform of a shirt and tie. But once I stepped out into the warm evening, I regretted choosing the long sleeves. Figuring I had the option, since this wasn't a real work event, I rolled my sleeves up to my elbows and hoped like hell Hal wouldn't notice.

  I pulled up in front of Brynn's house and threw the car into park, ready to go to her front door and knock. But before I could take my first step, I caught a glimpse of bright blue blur before she popped up at my passenger door.

  "Hang on a second, I left the living room light on," she said, turning and quickly running back up her porch to unlock her front door and switch it off, leaving me standing next to my car, staring.

  Her dress was bright, electric, sapphire blue. The halter neck left a wide swath of her tanned back open, and the way the waist nipped in before falling down to swish around her knees made my throat go dry.

  She turned back around and then stopped short. "What?" she asked.

  I shook my head slowly as I took her in, from the sleek cap of her bright blonde hair down to her perfectly polished toes. "Damn," I said.

  Her mouth twitched upward at the corner. "Is that a good damn?" she asked.

  "Can't you tell?"

  "I never can with you," she complained

  "It's a good damn," I told her seriously. "Josh Withers had better shut his mouth. I definitely have the hottest date."

  I could see the way she colored even in the low light of evening. "Yeah," she grinned. "But I'm just using you to get trashed on champagne and eat fancy food.”

  "Fine by me," I said, walking around to open her door for her. Especially if you keep wearing that dress, I didn't add.

  She paused as I swung open the passenger door, doing a sort of doubletake before she grinned at me and slid into the seat. I could smell the sun on her skin and wondered how she'd spent today. It crossed my mind that I really didn't know anything about how Brynn liked to spend her days, and I made it a note to remedy that.

  "I can't believe I'm finally getting to the country club," she said, as I pulled out onto the main road.

  I snuck a quick look at her as I made the left. "You mean you've never been?" I asked, slightly confused.

  "No," she said shaking her head. "I've driven past it a million times, but I've never actually been in it." She looked at me. "Your parents belong, don't they?"

  I shook my head. "No, but they have friends that do. I went to a few things there growing up. It was boring as hell then, and it still is now."

  She laughed lightly. "Wow, way to sell this date, McCabe."

  I snuck another look at her to see that she was suddenly looking down at her hands, fingers twisting around themselves. The word date kind of hung there in the air, and I wasn't certain if I should let it, or if I should let her off the hook.

  I decided the latter option was the more gentlemanly of me.

  "Didn't your class have the senior prom at the country club though?" I asked her, changing the subject away from dates and whatever it was we were doing tonight.

  "No," she sighed, turning to look out the window. "That year was the year we got caught having an underage party in the woods." There was an odd note in her voice. "A bunch of us weren't allowed to go to that prom."

  I whistled through my teeth. "That really sucks," I said.

  "It did," she said, nodding.

  "Seems little harsh," I ventured.

  She looked at me. "I'm surprised to hear you say that."

  "Really? Why?"

  "You're such a rules guy."

  I darted a quick look at her, her words striking hotly. "Am I?"

  She tucked her hair behind her ear and went silent. I could see she was uncomfortable, so I fell silent too.

  "Well," I finally said as I flicked on my blinker to turn left. "Now is your chance to see the country club after all these years. Here we are."

  Fallsview Country Club didn't really have a view of the Falls, but it did have a rather incredible view of the lake itself. Situated on a bluff to the north of town, it angled around the bend in the lake, so you could see the whole sixteen-mile length almost at once. White boats dotted the blue water below us and white gulls wheeled in the blue sky above and Brynn grabbed my arm with an appreciative gasp. "Shit," she said. "It's so pretty up here."

  "You're prettier," I told her.

  She laughed dismissively. "You're useful to have around for my ego too, aren't you Rett?" she said.

  I licked my lips. She still didn't take me seriously. It didn't matter.

  She would soon.

  Brynn

  I couldn't be certain, but I was almost positive that the guy sitting across the table from me was staring directly at my tits.

  I snuck a glance over at Rett. His face was the strangest mixture of pride and undisguised loathing as his eyes flicked between me and the hyper-groomed Ken Doll across the table.

  I decided to conduct an experiment.

  "And so then what did you do?" I asked, batting my eyelashes and sitting forward. I crossed my arms across my chest, subtly pushing my breasts upward as I leaned against the table.

  The guy's eyes nearly jumped out of his head and the girl sitting next to him snaked her hand over his bicep and tugged him closer to whisper something in his ear as she stared me down.

  Hiding my smirk, I snuck another glance at Rett. He was grinning at me, and I think I saw him flip a thumbs-up of approval on his lap.

  I stifled my laugh behind my hand. "Glad to be useful," I murmured in his direction.

  He laughed out loud, and his laugh made me laugh too. I'd never seen him so playful before. I didn't know whether it was the alcohol, the atmosphere, or the fact that we were eating and drinking for free that made him so relaxed, but I decided I liked this version of Everett McCabe.

  "May I take your orders?" a voice interjected.

  I looked up, and then did a double take. "I know you!" I blurted.

  The waitress regarded me with baleful dark eyes, then blinked slowly in recognition. "Hi there," she said tightly.

  "You're Grace's mother," I said. "Adelina, right? Is your last name Moore, like Grace's?" I swiveled sideways in my chair and reached to shake her hand. "I'm Brynn. Brynn Reese. Miss Reese, but then you knew that, right?" I laughed nervously.

  Adelina looked at my hand like I was offering her a dead fish. I swallowed and let it fall back into my lap. "I've seen you at mornin
g drop-off," I said. "But I never got a chance to say hello, so it's so nice to finally talk to you in person and..."

  She was staring at me with undisguised contempt. I could see that. I could tell she wanted to get away from me and just keep doing her job. But I couldn't seem to stop the flow of words gushing from my mouth. It's like my brain short-circuits whenever I feel like people dislike me. My tongue just starts spewing out words at a high velocity. Like I think that if I just keep talking, eventually I'll hit on something to make them like me again.

  "She is such a sweet little girl," I gushed. "And she's such a good reader for her age, really advanced. You must do so much reading to her at home." Adelina blinked and I thought I saw a little flash of acknowledgment in her eyes, so I kept plowing on. "I'm going to miss her so much next year. I was so glad to have her in my class."

  Adelina nodded once. "Thank you for saying so," she said formally.

  Progress. I'm breaking though her shell. Soon we can be friends, my brain egged me on anxiously. "You just moved to town, right?" I prodded.

  She gave an abrupt nod. But remained silent.

  Her silence forced me to keep talking to fill it. "I wish I had your daughter longer," I sighed, running my finger over my glass. "I didn't know you worked here."

  "This is the only thing I can do," she said curtly. "May I take your order?"

  Her abrupt rejection snapped me out of my chatter-spiral. I swiveled back to stare at my menu, tears stinging the corner of my eyes. "Give me a moment," I said in a strangled voice.

  "You okay?" Rett murmured, leaning slightly towards me.

  I held the menu upright to hide my face. I hated when I felt like people didn't like me, but even more I hated how badly I tried to change their minds.

  "Just trying to make conversation," I mumbled under my breath to Rett as Adelina went around taking everyone's drink orders. I looked over at Rett. He was so composed all of the time. And he never seemed to be bothered about people's opinion of him. "Did I say something wrong to her?" I whispered.

  He shook his head emphatically. "She must be having a bad day," he said. Then raised his voice to give Adelina an order for him and me, a nice little chivalrous touch that I resolved to tease him mercilessly for doing.

  I swallowed and straightened my shoulders. Already I could feel the rearrangement going on in my brain. If somebody didn't like me, even after I tried to be their friend, then I needed to hate them in order to justify my hurt feelings. I shot Rett a haughty grin.

  "Or, she might just be a bitch," I said loudly as Adelina walked away.

  Rett laughed, but this time his cheeks reddened slightly. After that touching display of 1950s chauvinism in placing my drink order for me, I decided to have a little fun with him. "You can call a bitch a bitch, Rett. You don't have to be all chivalrous."

  He leaned forward. "What about to you?"

  I leaned back "Nah," I said waving my hands. "I'm being a bitch too." I grinned at him. "This bitch is using you to fill her face hole with bourbon and filet mignon."

  Something darkened in his gaze. "I'm enjoying watching you fill your face hole," he deadpanned.

  I choked on my drink, and grinned at him. Maybe he was using me to make his co-worker jealous. Maybe I was using him to eat fancy food I couldn't otherwise afford on a teacher's salary. But if all this using each other meant I got to spend more time with Rett McCabe, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

  Chapter Nine

  Everett

  I sat back in my chair, feeling like a goddamn genius for bringing Brynn tonight.

  I'd been picturing an evening full of awkward silences and even more awkward small talk with the occasional dick-measuring contest with Josh thrown in for good measure. But Brynn somehow managed to keep everything smooth and amiable. She was asking questions, sharing stories and just generally keeping up a stream of adorable chatter that made the dinner fly by, and the even better part was that Josh could barely get a word in edgewise. It was freaking incredible. She had the whole table laughing and talking animatedly, and I got to see sides of my coworkers that I'd never seen before.

  As I watched her skillfully guiding Josh's dumb-as-a-doornail date through her love of miniature paintings, I sat back, feeling grateful to her for reasons I didn't fully understand. I'd been attracted to her forever, but I never realized how much I liked her too.

  When the desserts came out, she squealed and clapped her hands, then made some funny, self-deprecating remark about her addiction to sweets that I filed away for future use. Then she leaned over to me with the wickedest grin on her face. "I'm really glad I decided to use you tonight," she whispered under her breath as she cut a piece of her cake and lifted the bite to her mouth. And, with her eyes trained on mine, she closed her lips around the fork.

  Perhaps it was the bourbon I'm been drinking a little bit too quickly. Perhaps it was the fact that all the blood rushed out of my brain and down to my cock. Or perhaps it was the way her blue eyes sparkled the exact same color as a bright sapphire dress she was wearing. I'm not precisely sure what made me feel like I could get away with leaning forward and taking her fork from her hand, but I did it anyway.

  She watched me as I cut a small piece of cake and lifted it to her lips, then pulled it back.

  "You want more?" I asked her, holding the fork just out of reach.

  She wrinkled her nose adorably. "What are you doing?"

  "I want to know how badly you want it."

  "Rett!" She swiped at me with her hand. "Give me my cake!"

  "Say please."

  "You're a jerk."

  "Perhaps," I grinned. "But I still want to hear you say please."

  She bit her lip, eyes flashing at me, and my cock throbbed painfully. Then she licked her lips as her eyes flicked down to the waiting cake. "Please," she breathed.

  I had to dig my fingernails into my thigh as she opened her mouth. Her blue eyes held mine for a moment, before she closed her eyes and slid back into her seat.

  I tugged at my tie in a desperate bid to get more air.

  "Can I have my fork back now?" she asked. Was her voice slightly higher? There was definitely a pink tinge to her cheeks that hadn't been there before.

  "You know what you need to say," I told her.

  She closed her eyes again, and then opened them, peering out at me from behind the curtain of her lashes. "Please," she said again, this time with no more prompting.

  Something exploded in the back of my skull. Quickly I handed her the fork and twisted back in my seat, facing away from her before I lost control completely and bent her over the table in front of everyone. I closed my eyes to try to steady myself, but the image of her bent over like that, her hair coiled in my fist as I drove into her, made me snap them back open again.

  She was still eating her cake next to me, completely oblivious to what she was doing to me. She had to be, because why else would she moan a little with every bite?

  "Oh my God," she groaned, pressing her hand to her belly as she scraped that last crumbs across her plate. "My dress is going to burst off of me."

  I gripped the table for a moment. She had no idea. She couldn't.

  I looked back at her and let my eyes fall down the line of her dress and then back up again. "I wouldn't really mind that," I said.

  "Mind what?" she asked.

  I leaned forward. It was a risk brushing her hair back from her neck, but I needed to touch her. "If your dress burst off of you," I told her.

  She widened her eyes.

  "I don't think Josh would mind either," I said quickly, gesturing over to where Josh was still watching her, blatantly ignoring his date. "He's been staring at you instead of his own date all night long."

  I looked back at her, loving the way her cheeks turned just the slightest shade of pink, like she was barely trusting her embarrassment. "Thanks for making me look good," I told her sincerely.

  She lifted her chin. "You can make it up to me by dancing with me," she sa
id, poking her tongue into the corner of her cheek.

  My overheated blood nearly reached its boiling point. I leaned over and took a long, steadying sip of my drink and sat back in my chair.

  "Really?" I sighed, feigning nonchalance even as my whole body went into overload at the thought of dancing with her. "Jesus, you drive a hard bargain."

  Her eyes twinkled. "Remember," she teased, leaning forward and resting her hand on my leg. "I missed my prom, McCabe."

  "That's right," I sighed. "You did, didn't you."

  She nodded, and her fingers flexed a little. Just one more centimeter and she'd be brushing the head of my cock through my pants. She was so perfect it was agonizing.

  She reached over and grabbed my drink, then held my gaze as she finished it and the slammed it down on the table. Awestruck, I watched her stand up and extend her hand to me. "Fucking dance one dance with me here," she ordered me. "I finally made it to the country club."

  I couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, fine, you win," I told her, feeling like I'd won something myself.

  Chapter Ten

  Brynn

  I walked out onto the dance floor with Everett McCabe's fingers twined in mine, with every intention of shuffling in a slow circle with him as if this really were my senior prom. Asking him to dance with something I never thought he'd actually agree to, and I couldn't imagine staid, conservative, uptight Rett McCabe being able to truly cut a rug.

  But then again, the way this evening had been going with all of the surprises, it shouldn't have surprised me in the slightest that he took me confidently into his arms and started steering us both across the dance floor.

  "Okay," I said, exhaling for a second. "Now you're the one who's making me look good."

  He grinned down at me. God, he was so freaking tall. How did any person grow to be that tall? He was like a graceful tree or something.

  "I actually can't dance for shit," I confessed.