Book Boyfriends Wanted 4: His Curvy Frustration
Autor:in
Mary E Thompson
Gelesen
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Kapitel
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In the quaint town of MacKellar Cove, Trinity Mayer and Officer James Rucker navigate a web of past conflicts, budding romance, and community challenges. When Trinity is mugged and James steps in to help, their lives become intertwined in unexpected ways. As they confront their personal demons and work together to support their community, they discover that love and trust can emerge from the most unlikely of circumstances. Will their growing connection withstand the trials they face?
Chapter 1
Book 4: His Curvy Frustration
James
I sipped my beer and took in the crowd around me. It was a quiet night at O’Kelley’s, and I could drink in peace. I needed it. Everything in my life felt upside down lately. I didn’t know what it was, but having a new partner to work with was not going to help the situation.
“Hey,” a woman’s voice said next to me.
I looked up and forced a smile. She was pretty, but I wasn’t interested. “Hey.”
“Want to get out of here?” she asked.
I looked more closely at her and finally recognized her. We’d slept together before, so a preamble wasn’t necessary. It was good, but I was only out for a drink. I wasn’t looking for a woman to take home.
“Sorry, but I can’t,” I told her. I couldn’t even remember her name. What kind of person had I become?
“Are you sure? Because I can wait if you need to finish your drink or something?”
I shook my head. “Nah, it’s okay. You should go.”
She narrowed her eyes and stared at me for another minute. I waited for her to do something like toss a drink in my face, but she just walked away.
“Everything okay?” Hudson Grant, the owner and bartender of O’Kelley’s, asked me.
I nodded. “Just great. Give me another. I’ll be right back.”
Hudson nodded and replaced my empty beer with a full one as I slid off the stool and headed for the bathrooms.
I was not the kind of man who hid from people in the bathroom, but that was exactly what I was doing. I didn’t know who I’d become over the last year, but I did not like the man I was.
I washed my hands and walked out of the bathroom, only to have someone push me into the wall. My instinct was to shove them back and pin them, but her scent tickled my nose a second before she thrust her tongue into my mouth.
A part of me responded and kissed her back. I had no idea who she was, but it didn’t matter. She was a woman and she was willing. It had been a while since I’d let myself just enjoy life, women, anything. I was playing the good samaritan thing a little too well through the summer, walking women home and leaving them on their doorstep without going inside.
I was ready to get inside this one.
But there was a little part inside my head that said I shouldn’t. And that part won out.
I grabbed her shoulders and pried her off of me. It was the same woman who sat next to me at the bar. Her mouth was still open from trying to swallow me whole, and her lipstick was smeared on her lips. It took her a second to open her eyes.
“Why are you stopping? Want to just go into the bathroom?”
I blanched and wondered how big of an ass I really was. “No, sorry. Not tonight.”
“But you looked at me before you came back here. You gave me the signal. I’m all ready for you.” She pressed herself against me, rubbing her body on mine. My cock tried to get a rise out of her, but it was no better than watching a sappy movie. I was just not into it.
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t mean to give you any sort of signal. I’m…not tonight.”
“Are you meeting someone else?”
It sounded good. “Sure, yeah. I am.”
“Oh,” the woman finally said. She took a step back. “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
I nodded and stepped around her. Women were nuts.
I walked back toward the bar, wiping my face to remove the lipstick I was sure was all over, and caught Hudson’s eye. He smirked knowingly and walked away.
Another woman was sitting on the stool next to mine. She was stunning from behind. Perfect, round ass. Narrower through the waist. Curves for days. Even her hair was curly, tight black ringlets my fingers itched to run through.
But the last thing I needed was to have to fight off another woman. It didn’t matter that one glance had my dick twitching, I was there for a night off.
With a sigh, I reclaimed my stool. She turned to look at me, a smile already curling her lips up.
Until she saw who I was.
“What the hell are you doing?” she blurted.
My night just got worse. I should go back to the woman who tried to accost me in the hallway. It would have been a better spend of my time than trying to play nice with Trinity Mayer. “Well, I was trying to enjoy my evening. I guess that’s done now.”
“Go sit over there,” she snarled, nodding across the bar.
I picked up the glass in front of her and sniffed it, drawing back at the sweet scent. I set it down and lifted my glass, the one Hudson refilled before I went to the bathroom, and took a sip.
“I was here first,” I said, flashing her a grin.
Trinity Mayer was the last person I needed to see. We butted heads since the day she arrived in MacKellar Cove. I was on duty when I saw her trying to break into a car on Riverview Road. It was parked in front of the new Waterfront Villas. Anyone would have assumed she was trying to steal something. The fact that it was daylight didn’t mean people didn’t do bad things.
She didn’t see it that way. She thought I was profiling her and took offense to the fact that I tried to arrest her. Tried because the building manager saw us talking and vouched for her. Then he let her into her unit.
Trinity never let me forget that I made a mistake. I tried to talk to her about it when my friends became her friends, but she was less than interested. So instead, I tried to irritate the hell out of her every time we spoke.
She stood and picked up her drink, putting space between us. The way her shorts tugged at her ass had my cock pressing against my zipper.
“Are you running out on your check? Because I could arrest you for that,” I said, wanting her to stay.
She glared at me over her shoulder, and I grinned. I loved that fire in her eyes. The fire that said she was the kind of woman who would be fun in the bedroom.
I hadn’t had sex in a while, and great sex was definitely not happening. That had to be why I was thinking about sex with Trinity. She hated me, and I wasn’t a big fan of hers. We were not going to get together, even for a night.
“I’m not leaving, just moving to another seat. One that isn’t near you,” she spat.
I couldn’t stop my lips from lifting at her sassy words.
She walked away without another word. I watched her head for a table for two in the corner. She could see the whole place from there and no one could sneak up behind her. Smart woman.
Hudson walked over and leaned against the bar in front of me. “You survived the bathroom?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I think that woman is a sucker fish or something. She tried to leech onto me.”
“You didn’t have a problem with that a few months ago,” Hudson said.
I shook my head. “I’m too old. I feel like I should be doing something different.”
“We are not old,” Hudson said firmly. “And should is a stupid word. Do what makes you happy. And if it’s her, get the hell out of my bar.”
I was about to ask who when Hudson walked away. Almost immediately, the same woman wrapped herself around me. “Did your date not show up?”
I fought the urge to groan and forced a smile for her. “Not a date.”
“Oh, then you are free.”
“No, I’m not,” I said firmly, forcing her off of me. “I am not interested tonight. I don’t think I can get much more clear than that. Please, leave me alone.”
She glared at me like she couldn’t believe I was rejecting her. I really didn’t know what she expected, but she wasn’t about to get it from me.
She huffed and stomped away. She gestured to her girlfriends who all turned and glared at me. One of them flipped me off. I rolled my eyes and looked away.
Hudson carried a plate of food out of the back. The smell of fried food and charred meat made my stomach growl. I wanted to ask him who ordered it but he didn’t pause long enough. I watched as he headed for Trinity and set the plate in front of her.
Maybe if I played nice, she would share.
Before I reached her, another guy sat down. I pivoted to an empty stool, pretending that was my plan all along.
“Hey,” the guy said. “How are ya?”
Really? That was his opening line?
“Who are you?” Trinity asked.
I glanced behind me at them. The guy grinned. I rolled my eyes. He had to be a decade younger than Trinity. But I had no idea what kind of guys she went for so maybe he was her type.
“I’m your next boyfriend,” he said.
I snorted. He did not just say that.
Trinity leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, really? What makes you say that?”
He shrugged. “Well, you’re hot and I saw you looking at me.”
She nodded. There was no way she was buying his crap.
“Those are pretty low standards. What if I have a horrible personality? Or I talk while I eat?” she asked.
He grinned and leaned in. “You won’t be able to say anything with me in your mouth.”
I was up off my stool and grabbing the guy by the neck before she had time to respond. “Okay, time to go,” I told the guy.
“What the hell, dude?” Trinity’s next boyfriend shouted. “I was talking to her.”
I shook my head at the man-child. “And she’s here with me, son.” I flashed my badge. “I hear you saying things like that to another woman, you’ll be talking to a few bars all night, and not the kind you can walk out of when you choose.”
I crossed my arms and blocked the guy from looking at Trinity. I was sure she could handle herself, but a guy like that needed to know he couldn’t talk to any woman that way, not just Trinity.
“Whatever. She’s not that hot anyway,” the douche snarled before he walked away.
I glared after him for a second then turned to check on Trinity. She flipped me off.
“Really? Are you threatening an officer?”
She breathed a laugh and shook her head. “No, sir. That wasn’t meant for you.”
My cock ached at the sound of sir on her lips. I glanced toward where the guy went then sat down in the chair opposite her to hide my erection. “Why were you talking to him?” I asked a little more harshly than I intended.
She rolled her head back and stared up at the ceiling.
“He’s just trying to screw you. He isn’t really interested,” I added.
“How do you know that isn’t why I came here tonight?” she asked. One brow went up, daring me to argue with her.
I pulled back and studied her. My gaze slid down her curvy figure. She was stunning, if I was being honest. She usually wore low-cut tops that showed off her perfect breasts and tight bottoms that accented her hourglass figure. But she sat across from me in a fitted tee and long cotton shorts. She was not there to hook up. Not in those clothes.
“You aren’t here for that. You’d be in one of your outfits that leaves nothing to the imagination if you were.”
“Maybe I’m branching out. Looking for the kind of guy who wants a little mystery.”
I raised an eyebrow and considered her for a long moment. “Why would you want a guy like that?”
“A guy like what?”
“A guy who just wants sex and has no intention of anything more? You know what that says about you, right?” I asked, hating her just a little for wanting to screw some random guy.
“Do you really think you’re the only one who’s allowed to go home with someone and it’s okay? Are you really sitting here telling me I’m not allowed to sleep with whomever I want? Because last I checked, you have zero claim over my time or me, Officer,” she spat.
Her chest heaved with her angry words. Her breath came out in pants. She was furious, and so was I. She was seriously telling me she was going to go home with some random guy. Didn’t she know how dangerous and stupid that was?
“And here I thought you were smarter than that.”
She opened her mouth, probably to yell at me again, but Hudson interrupted us and asked, “You two okay?”
“Yep,” I said, getting up. “We’re great.” I walked into the crowd wondering why in the hell I cared anyway.
* * *
I sulked on my barstool and ignored the rest of the bar. I refused to look in Trinity’s direction again, telling myself it didn’t matter what she did with her night. If she wanted to take home half the bar, that was her business.
Hudson gave me space for the next hour or so, refilling my glass but not saying a word. Only when I asked for my fifth, or was it my sixth, beer of the night did he stop in front of me.
“What the hell was that?” he said.
I glared at him. We’d been friends for years. We played baseball together in high school. Hudson went on to play in college, but I wasn’t good enough for that. I barely scraped together enough loans to pay for two years of community college before I transferred to a state school to finish my criminal justice degree. I applied to the police academy as soon as I finished college, and by then, Hudson had moved back to MacKellar Cove with a wife and bought O’Kelley’s. I always planned to get the hell out of town and never look back, but life had other plans for me.
“Nothing,” I said, knowing I’d never be able to explain it.
“Want to try again?”
I shook my head. “Want to give me another beer?”
“Am I giving you a ride home?”
“You already have my keys.”
Hudson nodded. “Yeah, but I wasn’t sure if you were going to walk or stay here or if you wanted to go home.”
“I need to go home. I should have gone home with that other chick. The one who actually wanted me.”
Hudson’s brows went up, but he didn’t make a comment.
“I don’t get her. She said she was here to find some guy to take home but she didn’t look like she was all that interested. And that guy? I mean, really? Not him. He was like twelve.”
Hudson nodded so I kept going.
“And she’s not like that. Right? She flirts a lot, well, not with me, but with everyone else. But she was brushing the guy off. I didn’t ruin anything. She wasn’t really going to go home with him. Was she?”
Hudson just stared at me.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. She’s too good for me. I’m just the poor kid who thought she was a bad person. I’m the bad person. I didn’t give her a chance to explain. I should have listened to her, but I saw what she was doing and assumed she was taking advantage of someone leaving their keys in the car. I screwed up.”
“Piper,” Hudson called out.
“Yeah?” Piper said, walking over. She smiled at me and turned to Hudson.
“I need to take him home before he embarrasses himself more. Can you handle things for a little while?”
Piper nodded. “Of course. Take your time.”
“Don’t leave alone. Wait for me to get back,” Hudson said.
She smiled. “I will. And Steven is still here, too. We’ll all stick around.”
Hudson nodded and walked around the end of the bar. “Let’s go,” he told me, helping me to my feet.
Hudson got me into my truck and pulled out onto the street. I slumped against the door, letting the cool feel of the air conditioning sink into me.
Hudson didn’t say anything on the drive. When he pulled into my driveway, he parked in my usual spot and went to the door, leaving me to get myself out of the truck.
I hadn’t had that much to drink in a while, and I was feeling it as I worked my way to the door. Hudson waited for me to get inside and followed me in, putting my keys on the table by the door and waving as I staggered toward my room.
The front door closed quietly as I flopped onto my bed, thoughts of Trinity mixing with visions of her with someone else.
Yep, I was going to be sick.
