"Trouble?" Megan asked.
"No. Just chatting up my boy," Reece said, surprised at how casual his voice sounded. Because the scenario had trouble printed all over it. He just wasn't sure what kind of trouble.
He focused again on Cam. "What about the waitstaff?" Normally, Tiffany would be in the main bar taking care of the customers who sat at tables. "He didn't send them home, too, did he?"
"Oh, no," Cam said. "Tiffany and Aly are scheduled to be on until closing, and they're in the back with--"
But his last words were drowned out by a high-pitched squeal of "You're here!" and Reece looked up to find Jenna Montgomery--the woman he craved--barreling across the room and flinging herself into his arms.
Chapter Two
"I didn't think I'd see you until tomorrow." Excitement laced Jenna's voice, and she clung to him with gleeful ferocity. Her arms tightened around his neck, and her legs--strong from years of cycling the Austin hills--captured his waist with a vise-grip. "What a fabulous surprise!"
When she'd launched herself at him--her long, ginger hair flying behind her--he'd stumbled backward from the force of her enthusiasm, locking his arms around her in reflex. Now he continued to hold her tight, relishing this delicious, stolen moment with her curves pressed soft against him and her heartbeat reverberating through him. She was close enough that he could count her freckles, and her breath was intoxicating, smelling of lime and Corona and rum. Just like it had that night.
"Loaded Coronas," he murmured, his body tightening with the memory of that other time when he'd held her close and breathed that heady scent.
"Cam made me one." She loosened her grip, and all he had to do was let go so that she could slip out of his arms. It should have been easy. Instead, it felt as though he were holding a live wire, sparking all the wild and heated impulses he'd worked so hard to suppress.
She started to squirm, obviously intending to slide down his body, basically using him like a stripper pole. Not that Jenna would think of it that way. To her, she was just getting back on her feet. But in the process, she'd undoubtedly feel the evidence of the dangerous direction his mind was wandering.
That, he thought, would be a very bad thing.
So, with a heroic effort, he closed his hands around her waist and eased her to the ground, keeping enough distance between them that there was no contact between her body and his crotch.
"In fact," she continued, as if there'd been no gap at all in the conversation, "I think Cam needs to make me another." She winked at Reece, her green eyes twinkling. "They really are amazing."
"Amazing," he repeated, his eyes narrowing with both amusement and mock reprobation. "I seem to remember you telling me they were sneaky, dangerous drinks, and that I was an evil genius for thinking them up in the first place."
One shoulder lifted in a casual shrug as she headed toward the bar where Cameron was pouring the neck off of a fresh Corona before filling the space with rum. She wore her shoulder-length hair parted in the middle, and it fell like sheets of fire around her shoulders. "They are, and you are, and they're still damn delicious," Jenna announced. "Besides, my flight was horrible. I deserve this." She took the finished drink from Cam, pulled a long swallow, and made the kind of satisfied noise a man likes to hear from a woman in bed.
Reece shifted again, trying to dissuade his cock from leaping to attention, then felt a wash of metaphorical cold water splash over him when Megan came up beside him, her eyes dancing with amusement. "I'm guessing this is the friend who flew in tonight?"
"This is indeed," Jenna said, thrusting her hand out to Megan. "I'm Jenna. And I'm guessing you're the reason my so-called best friend blew me off?"
From down the bar, Reece heard Griff stifle a laugh. He rolled his eyes and scowled at Jenna. "Come on, Jen. You know I--"
But Jenna held up her hand, cutting him off. "I'm teasing. Brent's perfectly capable of picking me up. And it looks like you had other plans, anyway," she added, eyeing Megan with what appeared to be approval before taking another long sip.
His gut tightened. He wanted to tell her that Megan was a great girl, but she wasn't his girl. Right then, that seemed to be the most important thing in the world.
Fortunately, he recognized the asinine impulse for what it was, and shifted the topic entirely. "Speaking of Brent, where is he?"
Jenna started to turn, probably to find Brent and call him over. But before she answered, Megan gasped.
"Jenna?" Her voice rose with incredulity. "Oh my gosh, I thought you looked familiar. You organized the Kempinski wedding, right?"
For a moment, Jenna looked baffled, then her eyes widened. "Makeup Megan! What on earth are you doing in Austin? For that matter, why are you slumming with that one?" She hooked her thumb toward Reece, her voice teasing.
"Makeup Megan?" Reece repeated. "What the hell?"
"She's a makeup artist." Jenna looked from Megan to Reece. "Didn't you know?"
Megan's lips twitched as she took Reece's hand. "Let's just say that we're still getting to know each other."
Jenna's brows rose as she faced Reece. She looked amused. Reece wasn't sharing the emotion. "We met in LA," she said. "Megan did some work for my first and only event for the evil Company That Shall Not Be Named," Jenna explained, then finished off her drink.
"Oh, you got caught up in that crap?" Megan asked. "I'm so sorry."