With a friendly smile, he turned on his boots and headed down the bar to take care of the other customers, leaving me alone with my birthday drink. I took the first sip, the citrusy tartness exploding on my tongue as I sucked the liquid down.
It had to have been one of the best margaritas I’d ever tasted. Before I knew it, half the drink was gone. Feeling a little bit lighter, I spun around on my stool and scanned the bar, recognizing faces here and there scattered throughout the crowd.
I grew disheartened the longer I looked around and didn’t see his face. But when I eventually glanced to the section where the pool tables were, one step up from the main bar area, I spotted Stone sitting at a clump of tables that had been pushed together. And he wasn’t alone.
My heart sank as I watched him pull a gorgeous blonde onto his lap, making her giggle at something he said.
She was all curves and long, wild hair. Based on how revealing her outfit was, she was comfortable in her own skin, and didn’t mind showing as much of it as she could legally get away with. In other words, she was absolutely nothing like me.
Chapter Fifteen
Willow
My heart suffered a million tiny paper cuts as the woman bent to whisper something in his ear. But the pain grew to be too much when I saw her tongue peek out and run along the cord at the side of his neck.
Spinning back to face the bar, I stared down into my glass, silently willing it to fill itself up.
As if sensing my need, Buck reappeared a second later. “Get you a refill?”
I gave him an appreciative look and answered, “Yes, please. That would be great.”
“Put it on my tab,” a voice said behind me.
I spun to face the guy standing just off to my left. He had several days’ worth of stubble coating his strong, square jaw, and his thick black hair was long enough that it curled up around the collar of his plain white T-shirt. The first thing I noticed was his deep, dark blue eyes. The second thing was the leather vest over his shirt that sported a familiar patch sewn to the front. This man was a part of the Iron Wraith Motorcycle Club based in Ashland, one town over from Redemption.
Their club had a bit of a seedy reputation, but it was mainly based on stories from when the club was first founded years ago, before I was even old enough to remember. Lately, they’d been pretty quiet, but people still crossed the street or turned in the opposite direction when they saw a club member coming their way. It was still known far and wide that you didn’t fuck with the Wraiths.
“Thanks, but you don’t have to do that.”
“Didn’t do it because I felt I had to, sweetness. I did it because I wanted to. Mind if I sit?”
I looked to the stools on both sides of me, or more specifically, to the people sitting on them. “There isn’t really—”
“Dude,” the man said, tapping the shoulder of the guy on the stool to my right. “Find somewhere else to sit.”
My cheeks heated when the man shot up without any argument and took off.
“There.” Hot Biker Guy smiled at me again as he sat down in the recently vacated chair. “Problem solved.”
“Wow,” I said with a short laugh. “That’s a handy little trick. I bet you find the best parking spots at the mall too, huh?”
“Probably would if I went to the mall, but I’d rather have my fingernails peeled off while getting a root canal with no anesthesia.”
A laugh burst past my lips before I could tamp it down, ending in a loud, indelicate snort. “Oh God,” I groaned, covering my face with my hands. “That’s so embarrassing.”
I jolted when his long fingers wrapped around my wrists and pulled my hands away. “Nah. It was cute as fuck.” Those dark blue eyes looked me over, leaving a trail of heat in their path. “So what’s your name, gorgeous?”
Okay. This guy had just bought my drink. He’d kicked the man sitting beside me off his stool so he could sit with me. And he’d just called me gorgeous. I didn’t think I was too far off the mark in thinking he was flirting with me, and while he wasn’t Stone, he was still hot as hell. And besides, Stone was currently sucking on some blonde’s tongue, probably without a single thought of me in his mind.
It wouldn’t kill you to use this guy to brush up on your flirting skills, I thought to myself. Or even develop some flirting skills.
Deciding that was a smart plan, I extended my hand to the hot biker and gave him my name. “I’m Willow.”
He took my hand, but instead of shaking it like I thought he would, he flipped it over, bringing it up so he could place a kiss on my inner wrist. Was the move intimate and possibly too familiar? Yes. But there was something about this dude; he executed the move perfectly, sending goosebumps across every inch of my skin.
“Nice to meet you, Willow. I’m Roe.”
He dropped my hand and I pulled it back into my lap, still feeling the lingering tingles where his lips had been as I cocked my head to the side. “Row, like rowing a boat?”
His chuckle was deep and heady. “Nah, darlin’. Roe as in short for Monroe. My parents were assholes when it came to namin’ me.”
“Roe,” I repeated, testing the name out on my tongue. “It’s unique; I like it. Well, thanks for the drink, Roe.”
He lifted up the beer I hadn’t noticed he was holding, and clinked it against my glass. “My pleasure, sweetness. So, what are we celebrating?”
I opened my mouth, about to tell him it was my birthday, when an angry voice cut through our conversation. “Stand up and walk away.”
We both turned to find a furious-looking Stone standing behind us, glaring at Roe with so much rage it was a wonder the skin didn’t melt right off his bones.
“Stone—” I started, but Roe interrupted me.
“Don’t think I will, man.” From the look on his face, Roe was about as happy with Stone’s order as Stone was at seeing him sitting next to me.
Oh shit.
The muscle in Stone’s jaw clenched so tight I could see it twitching beneath what was now a short beard covering his jawline. “Won’t give you a second warning, man.”
Oh shit.
Roe pushed to his feet, but not to move away. Instead, he took a step closer to Stone, getting up in his face in a way I really didn’t think was smart. “We got a problem here?”
“Not if you get the fuck away from her and forget she exists. You don’t do that, then, yeah. We got a big fuckin’ problem.”
“Stone, really. It’s okay—” I attempted, but he shot me a look so murderous it made me snap my mouth shut.
Oh shit!
“You stay out of this,” he ordered on a growl, his finger pointing in my face. It had to be said, I really wasn’t a big fan of that.
“How about you go back to the bitch that’s been crawlin’ all over your lap, and mind your own fuckin’ business.”
It also had to be said that I wasn’t a fan of men referring to women as bitches either, even if the woman in question was one, which I couldn’t know for certain, seeing as I hadn’t talked to the curvy blonde Stone had been with earlier.
“Uh, Roe, just to point out, that woman might not be a bitch. For all we know, she’s really sweet.”