Seduce Me (Austin Singles 1)

Rolling my eyes, I took a red cocktail dress off the hanger and headed over to my bed. “Why would you have me on speakerphone? You know the shit that comes out of my mouth.”

“Well, I didn’t at first, but then I needed to come back in and help Jim and Tucker move something, and I needed both hands.”

I froze in place as my hand covered my mouth. It felt as if an elephant sat on my chest. “Please tell me they didn’t hear me say that.”

Please tell me Tucker didn’t hear me say that!

“Everyone heard you say it, which is why I dropped the phone,” she mumbled.

Shit.

Note to self: Always make sure I’m not on speakerphone before talking about sex.

“Am I still on speakerphone?” I asked.

“No. I quickly walked off. I’m pretty sure it was only Tucker and Jim who heard you.”

My hands started sweating. Great. The last person I wanted to hear me say that was Tucker. Not that he would care. He hardly ever even looked at me, let alone talked to me.

“Well, that’s nice. Now they both think I’m a slut.”

Terri chuckled. “I’m pretty sure they don’t think that. I will say though, Tucker sure perked up when he heard you needed a ‘hard drink and a harder dick’ and then the whole married thing. I’m thinking he wouldn’t mind helping you out with one of those needs. Hell, it’s been long enough for you two, maybe both!”

My lower stomach pulled. I’d been with two guys since I slept with Tucker in college. While all my friends had revolving doors of boyfriends, I was stuck in law school studying my ass off. The first guy, Sam, was more of a fuck buddy, and that didn’t work out so great after I found out he had a girlfriend. The second guy was Josh. We met in law school and dated off and on for four months. It would have never have worked out for us. He wanted a commitment, and I had no desire to be tied down. Plus, he wasn’t … Tucker.

With a frustrated sigh, I sank down on my bed. Jesus. My grandmother’s vagina saw more action than mine.

Swallowing hard, I cleared my throat. “I doubt that. In case you haven’t been around for the last seven years, you’d know that Tucker Middleton can’t stand me.”

“Uh-huh. If you think so. At any rate, be ready in an hour. I’m heading home to change then coming to get you. I have the perfect place to go tonight.”

I stood and pushed my skirt then slip off and kicked them away. “Good. The sooner I forget this day the better.”

WHEN THE TAXI pulled up, I glanced up at the blue neon sign that read Sedotto. “What’s this place?”

“New bar. Just opened.”

Stepping out of the car, I read what it said under the name. “Sports bar and craft beer. I like it already,” I said with a big smile. The fact that it was in a historical building also piqued my interest.

“Ready?” Terri asked me as she wrapped her arm around mine.

“Most definitely. By the way, Sedotto? What does that mean?”

“Seduced in Italian.”

I let out an awkward-sounding laugh. How fitting was that, seeing as I had a little more than three months to do just that? And I couldn’t forget it had to be to a man who held a fucking business degree. “That’s perfect. But why not just call it Seduced? What’s with the Italian?”

With a wink, she replied, “You’ll have to ask the owner.”

What the hell did she mean by that?

The moment we walked into the bar, I took it all in. It was sophisticated and sexy as hell, yet most of the bar maintained that old historical feel to it. I could totally see why they picked the name they did. The ambient lighting set the perfect mood. I loved the Warehouse District in Austin and was glad to see we would have a new place to come and hang out.

My eyes scanned the place. The place was packed. From what I could see, there were two bars. Large-screen TVs were all over with every kind of sports game on you could imagine. “This place is pretty cool. Better not let Tucker see it. He’d be jealous.”

After college, Tucker had decided to piss away his degree. He became a bartender in one of the places we hung out in our last year of college. Needless to say, his father, a prominent businessman in Austin, was not too pleased with his son’s decision to continue that occupation rather than pursue an actual career by going to work for him at his marketing firm. Lily did, though, and she was making a name for herself in Austin. We’d even used her for a few of our clients, and I hoped to utilize her even more now that I was in charge.

My stomach twisted.