Under The Clerk - Beyond the Law

“What can I get you, darlin’?” the bartender asks.

“I’d like some alcohol please,” I say, remembering to smile at him, just like I was taught to do. Even when I don’t feel like smiling my mom told me it was polite and the right thing to do. I do it automatically now.

“What kind, darlin’?” he asks, raising a brow at me.

“There are kinds?” I ask, causing someone to my left to chuckle. It was a deep sound and all the hairs on my arms are standing on end. That’s odd.

“Have you already been drinking? Let me see your ID,” he says. I pull it out and hand it to him.

“Oh, I get it now. Happy birthday. The first round is on the house.”

“Thank you,” I say. Who doesn’t love free stuff?

“Would you like beer, wine, or hard liquor?” he asks, still patient with me.

“Beer,” I say quickly. I am being spontaneous, but not adventurous. I’ve gotten my dad a beer or ten on game days. But isn’t it sad that a twenty-one-year-old woman has never had an adult beverage?

“Any particular brand?”

“Surprise me,” I say, surprising myself, eliciting another chuckle from the stranger to my left. When I turn to look at him, I gasp.

“Hello, beautiful,” he says.

“Uh… Hi,” I say. It’s the only thing I can think of to say. He’s gorgeous. Like Bradley Cooper only with darker features. I shift in my seat at my sudden wetness. Well, that’s never happened to me before. Hell, I’ve never even liked a guy before and here I am lusting over this one like I’m in heat. Maybe I am.

“I’m Beck. What’s your name?” he asks and normally this is the exact kind of situation that would send me running, but for some reason, I want to talk to him and that is something I feel needs some exploration.

“Taryn,” I say. He puts me at ease, and I don’t know what to do with that. He extends his hand for me to shake which I do. As soon as our fingers touch, it’s like my body wakes up with a jolt of electricity to my heart and to my now wet pussy.

I shouldn’t have said anything to him, but soon we are chatting, my beer long forgotten.

“You want to get out of here, Taryn?” he asks after about an hour.

“Yes,” I say without hesitation. I may be awkward as hell, but I know what I want, and who better than this gorgeous man to take my mind off my troubles?

We walk out of the bar and he leads me to a huge black truck. Before I know it, he’s got me pressed up against the passenger side door and his lips are on mine. He’s kissing me and I’m kissing him back. This is so not like me, but he’s doing this to me. I’d like to blame it on the alcohol, but I didn’t touch a drop of it.

“I had to know what you tasted like. Now that I do, I’ll never let you go,” he says ending the kiss just as suddenly as it began. Then he helps me up into the truck and I wait for him to come around to the driver’s side, struck by his words. Who says something like that?

I hope he’s not a serial killer or something. I’d never hear the end of it.

Chapter Two

Kyle Beckner

I couldn’t help laughing at the girl trying to order next to me, but then I looked at her and I swear to all things holy, I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman in all of my thirty-three years. She’s curvy and the blue dress with white polka dots on it makes her look like the pinup of my dreams. Her long blonde hair hangs halfway down her back. It looks rumpled like she’s been in bed all day and some man has been running his hands through it all day and something about that thought bothers me. I hear the bartender ask her for ID. It never accrued to me that could be underage and therefore off-limits. I breathe a sigh of relief when he tells her happy birthday.

I have never picked up a woman at a bar before, it’s too complicated. I don’t do complicated things when it comes to my personal life, not that I have much of one. A poker game here and there and getting together with some other law enforcement officials in town is pretty much it. I haven’t been with a woman in more than five years yet I’m suddenly ready to settle down. I never would have thought it would be the adorably awkward, sexy woman that sat down beside me in The Buckle.

My life has been mapped out since I was high school and I know what I want, and I am going for it. Politics have always been interesting to me and running for clerk of courts was just the first step of my political aspirations. I went to Harvard Law after getting a political science degree from Georgetown, I moved to Silver Falls to start my political career. The funny thing about that is that I threw a dart at a map and wound up here.