Chapter One
Four flirtatious fools. Three tipsy blondes. Two drunken sailors. If she looked in the bar’s back room, Natalie Lewis suspected she’d find a partridge in a pear tree roosting on the broken neon Bottom’s Up sign.
“Two more days until vacation,” she murmured, scooping ice into a pint glass for Drunken Sailor Number One’s water. If a road trip to Sin City to play the maid of honor role in her little sister’s wedding was considered a vacation. Behind her, the front door to the bar swung open, and Natalie glanced over her shoulder.
She let out a low, frustrated growl. It was as if the universe had sensed that her Monday afternoon shift needed an extra something to drive her bat-shit crazy and sent her five brown-haired, blue-eyed men led by U.S. Navy SEAL Jack Barnes—Chief Barnes to his teammates. Jack stopped in front of her bar and flashed his signature hand-over-your-panties smile to Natalie.
Another woman might have obeyed, falling for the SEAL’s potent combination of muscle and charm. But she was more of a give-me-your-boxers kind of girl.
Natalie eyed the pack. “Join a new team, Jack?”
The leader of the group shook his head, locks of straight brown hair falling across his forehead. “Thankfully, no,” he said, reaching up to brush the stray hair from his face. The sleeve of his T-shirt moved down his arm, revealing his toned, oh-so impressive bicep. Not that she was looking. When it came to Jack, she found it was best to just say no. No looking. No touching. No wanting what she couldn’t have.
“Miss Natalie Lewis,” the SEAL continued. “Meet my brothers—”
“Big brothers,” the man behind Jack’s right shoulder added, hooking his thumbs into his belt beside the metal buckle shaped like the state of Texas. The motion drew her attention to the man’s protruding belly. “Just because you’re a SEAL doesn’t mean I can’t still take you down, kid.”
Not a chance.
She mentally labeled Brother Number One an arrogant blowhard.
“Colton,” Jack said, pointing to Mr. Belt Buckle. “Andrew, Charles, and Patrick. Not that you need to remember their names. They’re heading out tomorrow.” Jack’s smile faded as he gestured to the pack behind him. “Some of the guys from the team are on their way. Mind if we stake out the corner tables?”
“All yours,” she said. “What can I get for you?”
“The usual for me,” Jack said.
Speaking for the pack, Colton ordered four lite beers on draft, adding a wink to the end of his request. Natalie stared blankly at Mr. Belt Buckle. She never flirted with customers. An extra buck here or there in tips wasn’t worth the aggravation of telling a sailor to take a hike at the end of the night if he got the wrong impression.
When it came to her love life, she called the shots. And she never followed the relationship path. That road led to a dead end labeled hurt and rejection. Bouncing between foster homes as a teenager, she’d had her fill of both, thank you very much.
She was done with people walking into her life, telling her how it was and how it would be, then abandoning her without any concern for the damage they’d left in their wake. The foster families, even the well-meaning ones, had seemingly stripped away her right to make decisions about her life. And then, when they’d found her wanting, they’d returned her to social services.
All of the foster families had said something similar when the social worker had come to pick up Natalie and her younger sister.
Not what we’re looking for in a daughter.
Too rebellious.
Too stubborn.
Those overheard comments still stung, like a wound she’d managed to cover with a Band-Aid, but it refused to heal.
Of course, her foster parents always waited until she’d started to trust them before they got rid of her. They didn’t send her packing until she’d finally let down her guard and hoped for some sort of permanence, for something good to happen to her and her sister. Then they took it all away, replacing her hope with hurt.
And after a handful of brief romantic flings, she’d learned that dating led to the same dead end. Even the well-meaning guys just wanted to control her “for her own good.” If happily ever after did exist, it only happened to other people. Never to her.
So she steered clear of getting close to anyone besides her sister. And that relationship had work-in-progress stamped all over it.
She glanced again at Jack and his bulging biceps, and that smile… His too charming grin made her heart stop one moment and spurred her temper the next.
“I’ll be back with your drinks.” She turne
d and headed for the row of taps behind the bar.
“Feisty little thang,” Mr. Belt Buckle announced in his thick Texas accent. His words carried over the flirtatious fools, tipsy blondes, and drunken sailors.
Natalie gritted her teeth and focused on pouring the blowhard’s beer.
“Leave her alone, Colton,” Jack said in the same no-nonsense tone he used when the youngest members of his SEAL team drank themselves under the table and started acting stupid.
“Don’t tell me you’re hitting that,” Colton sneered, and the pack of brothers cackled. “Kid, you wouldn’t know what to do with a wild one like her. There’s no way you’ve upped your game that much since you joined the Navy.”
Natalie set the glass down hard on the tray, sending beer spilling over the rim. Wouldn’t know what to do? Every time Jack walked into her bar, her imagination rioted, parading images of exactly what Jack could do with her.
He pressed her up against a wall, those powerful arms caging her in.
His eyes locked on her as she unbuttoned his pants and reached inside. And then she wrapped her hand around him, demanding that he follow her lead.
Fantasy Jack would know exactly what to do. He’d keep his mouth shut, biting back the stupid pick-up lines he tossed across the bar. And he’d listen to her instructions.
If she let down her guard, she just might join the women who walked into Bottom’s Up, took one look at Jack, and offered up their underwear. The man was a walking, talking Prince Charming. They all went home with him because they thought he was offering something more. But Natalie knew better than to fall for an illusion.
She shouldered the tray and headed for the corner table.