Risky Business Read online

  Meeting his gaze again, she gave him her best I dare you look.

  He eyeballed the shot’s pinky goodness, scowling, then he surprised her by holding the glass up, exclaimed what sounded like “Viva les Nordiques,” and shot it back. The others followed suit.

  Harper was still standing near them, as per Allison’s orders. She reclaimed Theo’s attention by holding something out for him. His credit card, Allison realized. Harper gestured to Allison again, presumably along with an explanation that she’d paid for the drinks.

  The other guys exploded with laughter that made all the other conversations in the joint pause while people craned their necks to see what was going on. Theo’s face reddened. His jaw grew tight. He tried to hand the card back to Harper, and Allison imagined he was telling her to void the transaction so he could pay. Harper shook her head.

  “Oh, snap. He’s pissed at you now,” Olivia said in a sing-songy voice.

  The ladies huddled close to Allison for moral support as Theo marched in her direction while waving a receipt, his friends in tow.

  “Pas drôle.” He smacked his forehead, his expression turning downright livid. “That wasn’t funny.”

  She smiled sweetly. “It’s a little funny.”

  “You don’t get to do that, paying my tab.”

  She ran her index finger down his chest, bumping over the curve of his pec muscle. “I already did.”

  Splaying her hand over that same curve, she looked past him, to Harper. “We need another round of pink marshmallows, please. On my tab.”

  Theo clamped a hand over her wrist, then held his credit card out to Harper. There was a fire in his eyes, frustrated but affectionate. And really turned on. Her breath caught. “She’s right,” he said to Harper without taking his eyes off Allison. “We need another round.”

  Harper took his card. “I’ll be right back.”

  Allison sent her a what the hell? look. “Coward.”

  “I’m an equal opportunity kind of gal. I’m happy to take both your money.”

  The warmth of her first shot was creeping up Allison’s body. It didn’t hurt that Theo was all up in her personal space. Even his hand on her wrist revved her engine. Damn, he was strong and big. She could smell that aftershave that turned her to putty. If she wanted to, she was close enough to stick her tongue out and lick the stubble on his jaw.

  “Don’t you ever shave?”

  “All the time. The hair has the nerve to keep growing back.”

  She tipped her chin up and looked into his eyes. If she wasn’t careful, she’d kiss him right there in front of everyone, and even if it’d feel great and go along with her new plan to live boldly, she didn’t like the idea of all their friends being in their private business.

  “Let’s find a table,” she said. “I think I’d like to sit down now.”

  If they were all at a table, as a group, then she couldn’t get so close to him like this, where she could block out the others and pretend it was just the two of them in their own world, chests brushing each other, his hands strong and sure on her skin, with her wrapped up in the scent of him.

  Yeah, a table was the ticket.

  The hand he had on her wrist slid up her forearm to brace her elbow, steadying. “Are you sure you’re good for another shot?”

  His words were quietly spoken, for her ears only, and his tone was one of caring, as though he’d interpreted her request to sit down to mean she was too drunk to stand, which was far from the case. She loved that he could turn off his annoyance at her like that. He was so easy to tease, so outwardly grouchy and distant, but he kept his true, heroic self right below the surface. He didn’t want anyone to know about it, but she saw him clearly enough.

  He found two small tables that Brandon pushed together while Presley and Olivia gathered chairs. Allison chose a seat between Will and Marlena. Liam wandered away.

  “Is your brother okay?” she asked Olivia.

  “Yeah. He’s just not into people. Sitting at a table is too much of a commitment.”

  The way she said it made Allison think there was some important detail she was leaving out of that explanation, but Drunk Allison decided she didn’t give a flying leap. “I guess that means we’ll have one too many shots. Maybe Harper can join us.”

  ***

  Theo took a seat directly across the table from Allison, the better to make sure he didn’t throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of the tavern and directly to his bedroom. He could only imagine how long it would take the two of them to live down that maneuver. Besides, he was having too much fun watching her let loose, as though the booze had kicked her usual personality into overdrive. He’d never met a woman who could pull off being both obnoxious and endearingly sexy so well.

  When their shots arrived, they brought an instant smile to his face. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d consumed a pink drink, and never anything with the word marshmallow in the title.

  “This is like drinking liquid cotton candy,” he said.

  “I know, delicious,” Allison said.

  Brandon initiated a toast and after everyone clinked glasses and sloshed pink liquor on the table, they all kicked their drinks back.

  He liked himself like this, having decided to stop fighting Allison’s ownership of Cloud Nine and his feelings for her. He hadn’t realized what an energy drain it’d been to resist her or worry about the hit to his honor it would have been to sue her, not to mention worrying about the effect a lawsuit would have had on her. He still hated being Allison’s employee, but he’d have to find another way around that. For now, he had enough to think about with getting her up to snuff with the business and preparing for the exhibition game.

  Being the savvy businesswoman that Harper was, she appeared tableside as soon as their shot glasses were empty. “Another round?”

  “Not for me,” Theo said. “I’ll have a rum, neat. Allison?”

  She leaned over the table, strumming her fingers like she was trying to think deeply on the matter. “What was in that shot, vodka?”

  “Marshmallow vodka, yes.”

  “I’m going to need a different kind of vodka drink, something that’ll last a little longer than a shot. Bartender’s choice.”

  Harper got a mischievous gleam in her eye not unlike Allison’s. “You want me to start you your own tab?”

  The reminder that Allison had paid that huge tab of Theo’s set his teeth on edge. “No, she doesn’t.”

  The night progressed in a haze, with rounds of drinks and pockets of conversation. Theo never considered himself a fan of large groups, but this was fun, getting both their groups of friends together. Maybe it was time to stop resisting it when his Bomb Squad teammates invited him out for post-game drinks, as long as he could get Allison to come with him, too.

  An hour or so after they sat down, he caught Allison watching him, a private smile on her lips.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  She leaned across the table as though she were going to share a secret. “There are legends about you.”

  Olivia smacked Allison lightly on the arm in drunk indignation. “You’re telling him what we said?”

  Ah, so Harper’s friends were behind this. That explained a lot.

  “If there was a legend about me, I’d want to know,” Allison said by way of justification.

  “There will be now with that tab paying move and those nasty pink shots,” Will said. “I’m going to start the legend myself.”

  Allison preened and gave Will a hug. “Thank you.”

  Will was way too interested in Allison for Theo’s taste. That was going to have to be something he kept an eye on. To reclaim her attention, he brushed his leg against hers beneath the table. That got her interest fast.

  “Legends? That’s impossible,” he said. By careful design, there wasn�
�t anything mysterious about him. He worked hard to lead a straightforward, simple life that left no room for speculation. He prided himself in being irredeemably boring.

  “Not really. You’re private and handsome and French.”

  “French Canadian. And Canadians are never mysterious.”

  She took a sip of the blue liquid in her martini glass. “You have an enigmatic air about you.”

  “Are you going to tell me what these legends are or are you just going to hold the secret over my head?”

  She licked her lips. “They say you have a lover in every town along the canal.”

  Over the years, Theo had had a few lovers and girlfriends in towns along the canal, nothing of legendary proportion. “That would be a lot of lovers.”

  She beamed at him. “That’s exactly what I said.”

  “Who has time for that many lovers?” he teased.

  “Well, maybe you do because the legend says you’re insatiable.”

  This time, Presley smacked Allison. “We didn’t tell you that. Now you’re making stuff up.”

  He was growing quite fond of Allison while she was tipsy. Spilling gossip secrets and embellishing an already outlandish rumor. He fought off a smile. “And am I hung like a horse, too?”

  Her cheeks turned the same color as a pink marshmallow shot. Gorgeous. “I figured that was why all these mysterious ladies are into you,” she said.

  “Not my winning personality?”

  She laughed loud enough and long enough that he might have been offended if it’d been any other person but her, but with Allison, he was too busy strategizing how to get her home as fast as possible without raising eyebrows.

  Then she tapped her shoe on his and said, “I have another question for you.” At his gesture of invitation, she said, “What did you mean earlier by ‘viva la Nordiques’? Is that some kind of Quebec festival?”

  Theo nearly sprayed rum all over the table. She didn’t know about the Nordiques? If they were going to have any kind of a relationship, then she needed to know.

  A collective groan emanated from the table.

  “Now she’s done it,” Brandon whispered.

  Theo pounded his fist on the table. The glasses on it rattled. Maybe he was slightly more drunk than he’d estimated. Now that he was considering it, he could sense the fuzz in his brain. Those ridiculous marshmallow shots hadn’t even tasted like they had alcohol in them, much less enough to affect him. “Hey, all you American hockey posers can go fuck yourself. This is important.”

  Not that he expected anyone on Bomb Squad to understand. You could fix ugly, and you could sometimes fix stupid, but there was no fixing American. He chuckled at his joke. That was a good one. Too bad it wouldn’t go over in this crowd.

  “The Nordiques are over, dude. Done. They’re never coming back.” Typical Will, trying to get Theo’s back up, hoping for a fight. Theo was a mellow drunk, but if Will kept insulting the greatest sports franchise of all time, then Theo might just get his fight on anyway.

  “Shut your face, Corgan. Allison needs to know this if I’m going to have a truce with her.”

  Truce was going to be his new private code word for fucking Allison’s brains out every chance he got. He smiled again at his own cleverness.

  “Allison, here’s what you have to understand. The Quebec Nordiques was the greatest hockey team of all time. When I was growing up, all I wanted—no, all my parents wanted—was for me to play for the Nordiques. That’s why I’m number sixteen. Michel Goudet. The best left wing on the best team of all time.”

  “You mean, you don’t support the Buffalo Sabres?” Allison asked.

  Will threw his hands up. “Don’t egg him on. He could wax poetic on the Nordiques for hours.”

  Asshat. “The Buffalo Sabres are a bunch of pussies.”

  Allison rolled her empty martini glass on its edge, a glint of anger in her eye. “There’s nothing wrong with pussy.”

  ***

  Will laughed too loud at Allison’s declaration. Brandon shook his head, smiling. Theo gave her a dark look, his eyes sharper than a drunk man’s should be.

  She slouched, feigning flippancy, when the truth was that she hated it when men talked as though being a woman, or at least acting like one, was disgraceful. Lowell had done that a lot and it chapped her hide every time. Theo using such a slur didn’t make her want him any less, but she wasn’t afraid to publicly put him in his place about it, either.

  “Struck a nerve, did I?” His voice was gravelly and thick. He tossed back the rest of his drink.

  “You did.”

  He brought his empty glass to the table with a thud. “I like the way you say that word.”

  They were on dangerous ground here, in front of both their friends, too drunk on pink marshmallow shots to know what was good for them. She nearly asked him what word? But Drunk Allison wanted to be the one to do the honor. “You mean pussy?”

  His eyes shone darkly with lusty intent. “Allison Whitley, you have a filthy mouth.”

  “I usually don’t, but you bring out the worst in me.” The best, too, but that was beside the point. There was no middle ground with Theo. He either froze her until her heart and soul were ice or he scorched her until all she could think about was crushing her mouth and body to his and hanging on for dear life.

  “That is a dubious honor. Shall we have another round of drinks, then see what other nastiness I can coax out of your mouth?”

  “Tempting, because if anyone could coax nastiness out of me, it’d be you.” And she had no doubt she’d enjoy every second of it with him, as turned on as she already was. It was time to set up her exit. If Theo had any gentlemanly sensibilities left in him, he’d want to walk her home, which seemed like the simplest way to get him alone at the moment. “But I should probably give myself a chance to sober up before morning. Katie’s an early riser.”

  She wobbled when she stood, just a little—not a ready-to-barf level of drunkenness, though she was feeling no pain—but, still, Will shot from his chair and steadied her.

  “I’ll walk you home,” he said.

  Darn it. Will was a sweetie, but not the man she needed tonight.

  “Thanks anyway, but I’m pretty sure I can walk across the grass without getting lost, and the only time I’ve fallen into the canal was when Theo pushed me.”

  Then Theo was next to Will, shoving his shoulder. “Sit the hell down. I thought we talked about this.”

  Will shoved back. “Fuck off, Theo. I’m just going to walk her home.”

  But Theo was already pushing past Will. With a hand on Allison’s back, he moved her toward the door with more force than she was ready for. She tried to plant her feet, because she discovered that she very much wanted to know what Theo was saying about her to his friends, but she was no match for Theo’s determination to keep her moving forward.

  “Talk about what?” she asked. “What did you tell Will about me?”

  Theo ignored her. He caught a waitress’s attention as they neared the door. “I’ll be back to settle my bill tomorrow.”

  A flare of mischief lit inside her, tripped by his words. She gave Theo a shove to get him to stop pushing her to the door and waved her credit card at the waitress. “Not if I pay your tab first!”

  He looped an arm around her waist and dragged her through the door. She giggled at that, because it was funny that he was so much stronger than she, but yet so easy to mess with. She pushed him, and he pushed her right back. She liked that. And she liked him. She loved Locks and all the people inside it. This was the greatest idea she ever had, coming to Destiny Falls.

  Linked arm-in-arm, they started out over the dew-slick lawn. “What did you tell Will about me?”

  “Not just Will. All of them. They think you’re a hot piece of ass.”

  She beamed at that. “I am a hot pi
ece of ass.” For all the good it was doing her. She hadn’t gotten laid in over a year and a half. Probably more than that if she’d been capable of doing math tonight.

  He chuckled and grabbed her backside, bringing her body even tighter against his side. “That’s true. But they don’t get to think that about you.” His words were slurred, his steps as laborious as hers, so he had to be just as looped. She approved, was proud even, that he’d let go of his restraint around her.

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’re off-limits.”

  What a letdown. She didn’t want to be off-limits. She wanted sex. Lots and lots of kissing and flirting and sex. She deserved it, damn it. “For everyone?”

  Probably, it was good that she wasn’t being videotaped because she’d sounded pathetic with that question and its accompanying pout.

  “Yes.”

  Figuring that he wasn’t the only one who could play grab ass, she slipped her fingertips from where she was holding tight around his middle to the warm, smooth skin beneath the elastic band of his underwear. “Even you?”

  He laughed again, a low, hard chuckle. “Especially me.”

  Just outside Cloud Nine’s back door, in the shadow of the building, he spun her up against the wall. She’d made it over the grass with little problem, but the abrupt movement made her dizzy, so she laughed and put her arms around his neck to steady herself. “I wish you hadn’t told them that. I need—”

  His mouth came down on hers, more demanding than it had been the last time they kissed. She kissed him right back, thrilled at the idea of more push and pull. Theo was way too good a kisser to care about anything except more, and harder. And if this is good, then it’d be even better if we took our clothes off.

  She worked her hands up under his shirt. His stomach was hairy and ridged with muscle. She couldn’t wait to see it. His lips moved to her neck; his hands roved over her breasts and hips and ass. It felt so good to be touched. She hadn’t fully grasped how much she needed that in her life. She probably still didn’t, as intoxicated as she was.