Cocktail Page 6

  Aubree felt like an invisible fist just punched her in the chest. Matthew had told his boss about her? He’d said he rescued her like some pity date?

  Oh God… Was she a game to Matthew?

  “I really should go…” She grabbed her coat where it lay on the bar along with her purse.

  “Aubree wait!” Jenny called after her.

  “Tell Matthew…” She started to say something and shook her head and fled out of the bar. She didn’t go home. She just hailed a cab and had him drive her to Park and Field. She needed to think… She needed to escape the tight knot of pain growing inside her before it consumed her.

  7

  Hanky Panky

  “Where’s Aubree?” Matthew asked Jenny as he came out of the storeroom with a case of craft beers in his arms. Jenny was scowling, one hand on her hip.

  “Ask him.” She pointed at Will who stood by the bar looking like a chastened schoolboy.

  “What did you do?” Matthew asked. When he saw Will’s deepening chagrin, he repeated more firmly. “What did you do?”

  Will raised his hands in surrender. “I guess I put my foot in my mouth.”

  “Where’s Aubree?” Matthew repeated in a low growl as he slammed the beer case onto the counter.

  “She left,” Jenny said. “After he,” she jerked her hand at Will. “Made a wise ass comment about you rescuing Aubree from some disastrous dates. He made it sound like you were pity dating her.”

  “I was being funny.” Will grumbled as he slumped into a bar stool. He took one of the beers from the case in front of him and popped the cap using the edge of the bar before taking a long drink.

  “Dammit, Will.” Matthew cursed. “I like her. A lot.” He turned to Jenny. “When did she leave?”

  “A few minutes ago. I think I saw her get into a cab.”

  Matthew snatched his coat and shot one more warning glare toward his best friend before he rushed out into the snowy night.

  “Aubree!” He shouted her name, but the streets were mostly empty, and he didn’t see her, which meant she must have gotten into a cab like Jenny thought.

  Thinking she’d gone home, he ran the block back to their apartment building and went straight to her door. He knocked a dozen times, but either she wasn’t there or she didn’t want to answer. He pulled his cell phone out of his coat pocket and dialed her number. Nothing. No answer. He waited for her voicemail to beep.

  “Aubree, please call me back,” he said.

  Matthew stood in the hallway for what felt like forever before he turned to face his apartment just across the hall. His shoulders slumped as he headed inside. How the hell had Will wrecked this so fast? And how the hell was he going to fix it, assuming he could?

  He pulled up the Meet Cute app and signed into his account, then he examined the hanky-panky challenges, looking over his options. This might be the last way to reach her since she didn’t know who had been sending her the romantic challenges. It was one last thing he could try. He chose the “Design your own hanky-panky challenge” and crafted it carefully and hit send. Now all he could do was wait and have faith.

  Aubree was sitting by the fire in the Park and Field restaurant, a mug of warm apple cider in her hands as she stared off at the flickering vermilion flames. Despite the cozy warmth of the restaurant, she felt numb. Empty. Cold on the inside and out. A chasm had opened inside her chest and darkness was slowly spreading through her from that bleak fissure. She’d fallen in love with Matthew. Too fast. Too foolish.

  Her phone pinged and she almost ignored it but finally curiosity got the better of her. She winced when she saw was a Meet Cute app notification. She clicked on it and saw Vesper1 had sent her another challenge. Whoever this Vesper1 was, he had sent her a string of fun adventures that had ended in heartbreak. Her finger hovered over the delete button before she finally tapped read.

  Hanky-panky challenge: Love is friendship that has caught fire. If you still believe this… Give love a second chance. Give me a second chance.

  She stared at the words. Give me a second chance? But ...

  “Oh my God…” She murmured. She didn’t know Vesper1, he just sent her some messages for the challenges, that was it. But every challenge had led her to Matthew. She was torn between fury and confusion. Was Matthew the mysterious online user Vesper1? And if he was, why had Matthew used the app?

  Aubree closed her eyes, remembering all the wonderful moments she’d had with him and how everything had been destroyed by one man’s stupid comments. Was she really going to walk away from Matthew without an explanation at least? She owed him that, but she also owed herself. She hit the accept button on the challenge and replied to Vesper1.

  “Meet me at millennium Park in 20 minutes.”

  She paid for her drink and hailed a cab. When she got to the park, it was filled with people and light. Snow flurries were falling from the skies in delicate swirling patterns making the night feel strangely intimate. She smiled as a couple of children in thick coats and brightly colored knit caps rushed past, shouting about building snowmen. Their beleaguered parents trudged behind them, carrying steamy cups of coffee. Ahead of her, the park was full of people enjoying snowy night and the skating ring in the distance was lit with sparkling white lights.

  The closer she got to the rink, the more she could make out in the snow. A man stood with his back to her, his gloved hands braced on the walls of the rink. His dark blond hair was lightly dusted with snow, but she would recognize him anywhere.

  “Vesper1?” She spoke the screen name and the man turned.

  Matthew stood before her, pain in his hauntingly beautiful blue eyes.

  “Aubree… Please let me explain and if you still never want to see me again, I understand.”

  She nodded, keeping herself a few feet away from him. If she came any closer, she would be tempted to run into his arms, but she needed answers.

  “That night you showed me the Meet Cute app, I decided to create an account. I liked you. More than liked you. That first night we met, I wanted to find a way to make you come back, but I was also worried you might not take me seriously. Most women in high-powered jobs don’t want to date a bartender. So, I used the app to find you and send you the challenge. I knew you could have gone anywhere to do them, but I hoped you would come to me. You did and as crazy as it sounds, I fell in love with you. After Lena, I never thought I’d fall in love so hard and fast again, but I did with you.” His lips curved in a soft, slightly surprised smile that threatened to break down every wall she’d tried to build in the last few hours. He cleared his throat and continued.

  “Will, that man in the bar, that idiot who speaks without thinking sometimes, I told him about you, about how I met you. Will always says the wrong things at the worst times. I never thought you needed rescuing and I didn’t do any of this out of pity. I did it because I liked you and I wanted to be with you.”

  Aubree processed everything he said, a little stunned. Okay, way stunned. “Did you get fired?” she asked quietly.

  “What? No… Will can’t fire me.”

  “He can’t? But Jenny said he was the boss.”

  Matthew smiled a little. “Of her, yes. But not me. You remember I told you that my best friend was here in Chicago? That was Will. He and I both co-own Love Potion #9 together.”

  “What? Why didn’t you tell me?” For some reason that upset her too. It was another deception.

  “I didn’t tell you right away because I wanted you to like me for me. Unlike Will, I like doing the work behind the bar. That will always be part of who I am, and most women think that kind of job is temporary. I love making drinks, love talking to customers. I like staying engaged in the human experience. I wanted you to see that part of me first before I showed you the business side of me.”

  Aubree was silent, still processing everything he’d said. So, he was the owner of the bar, but he was afraid she would judge him if he was just a bartender? She could understand that. After all, she had
wondered why he tended bar when he he’d attended Cambridge and the London School of Economics.

  Matthew held out a hand to her. “Will you give me a second chance? Please?”

  Aubree gazed into his eyes, seeing only honesty and a tender hunger for her. A hunger that echoed the loneliness and desire within her own heart.

  “If you want me, I’m yours, Aubree. You remember that quote I put on my sign? I meant every word and I was talking about you. I love you and that’s the beginning and the end of everything.”

  Aubree bit her lip hard as her eyes burned. She was so afraid to believe in magic of love anymore. She was afraid to trust her heart, yet she’d began this journey to find love. What kind of person was she if she turned her back on it now? Her friendship with the sexy Australian bartender had indeed caught fire and she wanted those flames to burn even brighter. With a trembling hand, she touched his gloved palm and he pulled her slowly into his arms, the embrace full of fire and tenderness.

  “I’m afraid of getting hurt,” she whispered as he nuzzled her cheek. His soft, delighted sigh filled her heart with a blinding tightness and cottony warmth.

  “Me too,” he said. “But it’s worth the risk. I feel deep inside that you are the answer to every question I’ll ever ask. I never thought I could fall in love again this hard and fast, but I don’t regret a second of it.”

  Aubree couldn’t stop the tears that followed as she clung to Matthew. “How is it possible to feel like I’ve loved you and missed you my whole life, even though we’ve only just met?”

  Matthew cupped her face in his hands. “Aristotle once said love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. I believe we’ve finally connected our two missing pieces.”

  A hot ache burned her throat as she pulled him down to kiss her. Explosive currents danced between them when their lips met. Snow stung her cheeks in wintry kisses. Aubree didn’t want to be anywhere else in that moment. The magic she’d forgotten to believe in long ago pulsed, and soft, seductive intimacy formed between them as their mouths met over and over in slow kisses.

  “You are the beginning, the end, my everything,” Matthew murmured between fervent kisses.

  “And you are mine.” She meant it to the depths of her soul.

  Love is friendship that has caught fire.

  Epilogue

  Six months later…

  Warm white sand burned Aubree’s feet as she stepped out of the shallows of the pure blue waters of the Bahamas and headed toward the white canopy bed tucked beneath a thick shelter of palm trees. Matthew stood by the bed, wearing a pair of pale blue board shorts that made him far too sexy for a public beach. Aubree was glad they’d splurged on a private bungalow overlooking the water at their honeymoon resort. She was still getting used to the elegant diamond ring and the wedding band on her finger, but she loved being married to Matthew.

  “You cool off?” he asked as he wrapped her up in a red and white striped beach towel. He draped it around her like a cloak and pulled her to him for a kiss using the towel to keep her body pressed flush to him. She giggled against his mouth.

  “Yes. But you’re making me hot again.”

  “Good,” he chuckled, that rich sound melting her into a puddle in his arms, then he ravaged her mouth. His hands released the towel and he palmed her bottom, squeezing lightly in a way that made her moan with delight.

  “Matthew,” she said when he finally let her breathe.

  “Hmm?” He brushed his nose against hers. His arms banded around her as though he wished to never let her go.

  “What is a Vesper?” she whispered as she kissed his neck and bit his earlobe. His skin was slightly salty from the sea and his dark gold hair was still wet, leaving the strands to curl a bit at the ends.

  “A vesper?” he asked with his eyes still closed.

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “It’s a cocktail.”

  “Of course, it is,” she laughed again.

  Matthew looked down at her, mischief and love in his expression. “James Bond invented the Vesper cocktail in the first Bond book Casino Royale. He named it after the first woman he ever loved: the beautiful and doomed Vesper Lynd.”

  “Vesper1,” she repeated. “One for his first love?”

  “First and only,” Matthew smiled.

  “Could you make me one of those?”

  “Certainly, but I have another drink in mind just now.” He scooped her up in his arms and carried her back to the canopy bed.

  The white curtains billowed out around them and the island breeze tickled her skin. He settled on the bed beside her and she couldn’t resist touching him. She trailed a hand down his chest to his stomach, feeling his abdomen muscles clench beneath her exploring hands. He caught her hand and raised it to his lips for a kiss before reaching over to the bedside table where a brightly-colored orange and pink cocktail with a sassy looking little umbrella propped in it sat.

  “Up for a new hanky-panky challenge, wife?”

  “Always…” She laughed and sipped the drink. “What is it?”

  “Sex on the beach.” He was flashing her that naughty smirk that made her legs tremble in excitement and her womb quiver in anticipation.

  “The challenge or the drink?” she asked.

  “Both, my love. Both.”

  * * *

  Thank you so much for reading Aubree and Matthew’s story! If you want another swoony contemporary romance, be sure to check out Legally Charming where a workaholic attorney returns home from a business trip to find a woman in a princess costume asleep in his bed on halloween night - she turns out to be his little brother’s friend and totally off limits to a man like him! Turn the page to read the first three chapters! Or get the book now HERE!

  Legally Charming

  Chapter 1

  A man wearing only the bottom half of a Star Wars stormtrooper outfit streaked past Felicity Hart. She ducked out of the way as the half-naked frat boy whooped and bounced to the music, heading straight for a group of girls wearing white bunny ears who were gathered by the kitchen bar.

  So this is what grad student parties are like.

  Drinking, dancing, and insanity. Felicity shook her head, trying not to laugh. After growing up in a small town in Nebraska, she hadn’t been prepared for college life in Chicago. Talk about culture shock. She was used to everyone in town knowing not just her name, but far too much about her personal life. Even after six years of living here, being surrounded by thousands of strangers who knew absolutely nothing about her, it was still both completely unsettling and oddly liberating.

  For the first four years of college and the past two years of her master’s, she’d hidden in her little shell. But a few months ago she’d met Layla Russo, a graduate student just like her, and they’d hit it off. Layla was the only reason Felicity had pulled a Cinderella and come to the ball. She would have laughed at the thought, but she was dead tired and stifled a yawn instead. At this rate, she’d turn into a pumpkin before midnight.

  Happy Birthday to me, she thought and fisted her hands in the voluminous skirts of her Tudor gown. She stood out too much at this party—which happened when you skipped over the sexy cat costumes and zeroed in on the classy Anne Boleyn Tudor ball gown. Felicity should have worn some cheap costume, but she just couldn’t do it. Halloween was her favorite holiday. She’d scrimped and saved to buy a good costume, one that meant something to her. She’d been lucky enough to find this gown on a deep-discount rack at a costume warehouse. Hence the beautiful, elegant, yet still sexy gown she wore at that moment. At least it had been sexy in the sixteenth century.

  I am such a nerd.

  She had gotten her share of raised eyebrows and smothered laughs when she’d entered the apartment with her friends, but she didn’t care. She was ready to celebrate her entrance into adulthood at a normal party. Even if it had taken her until graduate school to be brave enough to attend a social gathering like this.

  And why shouldn’t she? She’d work
ed hard—late-night study sessions, endless art exhibit submissions—all in the hope of attaining grades that would be good enough to take her from a small Nebraska town to the hip art communities of Chicago. She deserved a party. And going to one at Layla’s boyfriend’s fancy apartment was safe enough since it was close to the school and the gallery where she worked.

  Several laughing girls bumped into her, plastic cups brimming with alcohol. She danced back a step, narrowly avoiding drenching her gown in cheap beer as one of the girls stumbled in her heels, sending her cup flying through the air.

  “Shit!” the girl hissed, then started giggling with her friends as she bent over to clean up the mess.

  The entire night had been one near miss after another. The last thing Felicity needed was her costume smelling like beer.

  She glanced at the group of pretty girls in the bunny ears and the gathering of boys around them.

  Why didn’t I think of wearing something like that? She glanced at the girls with their perfect bikini bodies, and she blushed. There was no way she could run around in something skimpy like that and feel confident. She just didn’t look good in tight clothes…or revealing clothes. She was a size twelve, which was just a little too plump to look good in a skintight costume. She shuddered at the thought of being so exposed.

  The crowd of people thinned out as she headed toward the room she sought. She took a moment to pause, one hand resting on the wall as she tried to suck in a breath. Maybe the corset was a bad idea.

  “Hey!” A familiar feminine voice cut through the noise, and Felicity looked over her shoulder.

  Layla was the official hostess of the party even though the apartment belonged to her boyfriend, Tanner, and she certainly acted like it as she strode toward her. She was a sight—five foot, curvy, and completely rocking her zombie stripper costume. Amazingly, Layla managed to look both scary and cute as she crossed the room in her four-inch stilettos. Felicity knew without a doubt that she’d break her neck in shoes like that, which was why she’d opted for red silk slippers that matched her gown.