Boycotts and Barflies (20 page)

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Authors: Victoria Michaels

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“Can we join you, ladies?” Liam asked in a smooth voice.

Bianca, apparently in need of some entertainment, said with a flirty laugh, “Sure, guys, join us!” Meg and Grace both glared at her, but Bianca shrugged  and kept dancing a safe distance from the two intruders.

Liam started dancing right in front of Grace, blocking her view of not only the  bar, but of Meg and Bianca as well. His body thrashed around and amazingly he  managed to accomplish the incredibly difficult feat of dancing completely off  beat. Mortified to be dancing anywhere near him,  and even more embarrassed  for him, Grace tried to move away, but he only followed her. She realized it was  probably good that she couldn’t see Bianca or Meg because she might have  burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all. She tried to look at the floor,  allowing her long hair to fall over her face as a protective cocoon from his  offensive dancing, but Grace could still see his shoes, flailing around in front of  her. She tried casually scanning the room, looking at the person next to her, the  ceiling, over his shoulder—anywhere other than directly at his face. He, on the  other hand, stared mostly at Grace’s breasts, which only strengthened his  status as a major creeper in her book.

Grace did some evasive ducking move and managed to move in front of Liam  with her back to him. He’s probably staring at my ass now, but at least I can’t

see him doing it, Grace thought as she danced. Meg was on her right and Bianca

was on her left, waving her arm wildly to get Jack’s attention. Once Jack saw

their predicament,  he gave Michael’s shoulder a shove and pointed to the girls.

Together, they doubled over in laughter at the sight on the dance floor.

There was an odd shaking sensation that she knew could only be Liam

vibrating around behind her, but Grace couldn’t bring  herself to look at what

the hell he was doing back there. Annoyed by all the laughter, she flipped the

guys the bird, which only made them laugh harder.

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Liam “accidentally” bumped into her and grabbed her waist. “Sorry,” he mumbled in her ear. She could smell the nachos he had eaten on his breath.

Shuddering in disgust, Grace turned to Meg and found her shooting Rick dirty looks to try and repel him, but he seemed to somehow find it a turn-on and moved closer to her, doing some horrible popping moves he must have seen originally in a music video. Out of nowhere, Ryan appeared like a knight in shining armor and scooped Meg up in his arms, taking her over to the safety of the bar. Grace, on the other hand, remained with Mister Touchy who continued grinding his body against hers. When she felt his hand graze her rear, she snapped. Digging into her pocket, Grace pulled out her cell phone and dialed. She couldn’t make out the exact words through all the laughter when Michael picked up. She was standing twenty feet away, glaring at him while Liam stroked her hair.

“Is he … is he … petting you now?” Michael gasped.

“Yes, and he was petting my ass a minute ago. I’m glad he’s moved farther  north!” Grace growled, watching Michael wipe the tears out of his eyes. “I’m  glad this is so amusing to you.”

“Does he suffer from a neurological disorder that causes him to have erratic  muscle spasms? And how does he manage to dance completely off the beat like  that?” Even Grace had to laugh at that one. Liam’s dancing skills were  impressively pathetic.

“Can you please come save me? Please?” She was in the middle of her plea

when she saw Michael’s mouth hanging open as he looked over her shoulder at  Liam. “What is he doing?” she asked, suddenly paralyzed with fear.

“He’s pretending to smack your ass! Don’t turn around, whatever you do.” “Michael Andris, you better get your ass out here and save me!” Grace hissed  into the phone.

“Come on, honey, he looks like he’s really enjoying himself. Look out—he’s  preparing a spin move!” As Michael said the words, Liam’s body flew in front of  hers, a huge grin on his face. He turned around so Grace was facing his back.

He probably intended the move to impress her, however when he did his version of a booty drop, h e looked like he was crapping in the woods rather than doing a seductive dance move. She looked over at Michael and Jack, who were both hysterical now. Bianca had abandoned her long ago and was now standing at the bar with them.

Grace found herself alone,  dancing with a moron.

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Liam finished dumping his load on the dance floor and turned back to face  Grace. She still had the phone pressed to her ear, waiting for the laughter to stop. Somehow encouraged by the look of horror on her face, Liam came right up along side of her and started rubbing himself on her hip.

That was it.

“Michael. Michael, can you hear me?” She saw him look up and nod his head as he laughed. “He just rubbed his junk on my leg. What do you think about that?”  The smile immediately left his face. Grace breathed a sigh of relief when  Michael slammed the phone onto the bar top and catapulted himself over the top of it. She folded her phone shut and counted the seconds until her rescue. Liam, completely oblivious, continued gyrating against her hip.

Michael stalked over to where they were dancing while Grace glared at him.  “It’s all fun and games until some creeper rubs his penis on my leg, huh,  Michael?” He didn’t say a wor d. He simply bent over, wrapped his arms around  Grace’s knees and hoisted her over his shoulder. She could feel the blood

rushing to her head as she dangled mid air, screaming in surprise as her hair  fell into her face.

Even upside down, Grace had no probl em hearing Michael’s parting words to  Liam. “Stay away from her. Don’t look at her; don’t even think about her. If she  appears to you in your dreams, wake up and punch yourself in the face for me.  Come near her again, and I’ll cut your nuts off and put them in a jar on my  mantle. Do we understand each other?” Liam, too stunned by the threat to say  anything, simply stood there looking dumb.

Grace looked up as Michael turned and gave Liam a lame parting wave as they  disappeared into the crowd.

A man on a mission, Michael walked past the bar and continued down the  hallway until they came to a door. “Where are you taking me? Put me down!” Grace demanded as she kicked her legs wildly. All he did was laugh and tighten  his grip. When they were in a small room with  a couch, a television, and a  coffee machine, her feet finally hit the ground.

“Thank you for the caveman style rescue,” Grace started to sneer, but then she  realized how incredibly close Michael was standing to her.

“Are you going to say anything like ‘Sorry I left you out there with a creepy guy,  Grace’ or ‘I’m an idiot, Grace, please forgive me’? How about ‘Grace, are you all  right?’ Any of those would be a great place to start.” The more enraged she got,  the wider he smiled.

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Finally, he moved toward her and put his hands on either side of her face. “Grace, are you all right?” His voice was deep and husky, and the seductive tone of it set her body on fire. She tried to stay mad at him, but the longer he looked at her with those piercing, sexy eyes, the harder it was. With him so close and smelling so good, it was damn near impossible.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just completely grossed out, that’s all,” she said with a smile.

“Do you have any hand sanitizer handy?”

“What am I going to do with you? Every time you try to dance, you have a run in with an uninvited man.” He smiled and brushed the hair out of her face. “Well, it’s only happened twice. Once it was horrifying, but the other time it was … pretty great.” Grace sighed as his thumbs gently caressed her cheeks.

She took a moment to enjoy the sensation of his hands on her face.

“Do me a favor. Don’t move,” he whispered as he looked down at her.

Grace’s entire body froze. Unable to even breathe, all she could do was stare into his mesmerizing eyes and wait. He crept closer and when he was an inch from her face, she closed her eyes. As she did, Grace felt the explosive warmth of his lips on hers. Every part of her body was tingling as the adrenaline raced through her bloodstream. He h eld her lips tightly against his for a second, and then as quickly as the innocent kiss began, it ended.

“Impressive,” Grace murmured, her eyes still closed, their foreheads touching. “Thank you,” Michael laughed. “Are you still mad?”

“If I said yes, would you kiss me again?” she asked coyly.

“I can kiss you like this whenever I want, Grace. It’s allowed.”

“Then kiss me again, please.” And before she even had time to finish the sentence, his lips were on hers again, her head swimming. “I could get used to

this,” she mumbled against his lips.

“Me too.”

“Hey, guys what are you do —” Jack stopped in his tracks then turned on his  heel and headed for the door. “Never mind. As you were. Bianca!” They heard  him yell as he ran down the hall.

Grace took Michael by the hand. “Come on, before Jack tells her we were rolling around naked back here.” Before they walked out the door, she took a second to wipe the hint of lipstick off of his lips with her thumb.

Back at the bar, Michael pointed to an empty stool. “Sit here, so I can keep an eye on you.” He winked then kissed her cheek and slipped back behind the 154

long, polished bar. Grace sat quietly, watching him make drink after drink.

He slid a Cosmo with extra cherries over to her when he had a free minute to

keep her entertained.

Meg and Bianca flew to her side. “So did you do it? Do you have anything to  confess?” Their eyes were wide with excitement. Grace shook her head n o and  kept her attention on Michael who was lifting a heavy tray of clean glasses

from the back. The muscles of his arms tensed and flexed as Grace smirked and  plucked a cherry from its stem with her teeth.

“Wait a minute, Jack said you kissed Michael. He  saw you.” Bianca stood poised  with her hands on her hips.

“I did kiss him, but just on the lips. I kept my tongue to myself, and that’s

within the rules.” Grace smiled, remembering how wonderful it felt to have his  sinfully delicious lips on hers. Meg and  Bianca just continued to look at her

with puzzled expressions.

“Why are you still waiting to use your kiss?” Meg asked.

“The back room of the club is not the way I imagined our first real kiss.

I’m saving it.” Grace shrugged, unable to explain it any better than that. Of  course, the underlying reason was a bit more complicated than that. She just  hoped her answer was enough to appease them for now.

“You’re stronger than I gave you credit for, Grace. You may just win this thing,”  Bianca complimented her. “Do you want to dance?” she suggested, giving her  arm a small tug.

“You two go; I’m done dancing for now. You never know who may still be  lurking on that dance floor.” Grace laughed, remembering the spastic dancing  of one Liam Sullivan. Unafraid of the hazards of the dance floor, Meg and

Bianca smiled and headed off into the crowd. As they disappeared, a new group  of girls claimed the seats beside Grace at the bar. Total barflies, Grace thought  to herself then began eavesdropping on their conversation.

They cackled on about how cute the bartenders were, each picking their  favorite. Grace was glad Bianca was safely off dancing when the one girl started  mentioning all the things she wanted to do to Jack. Bianca would have most  certainly ripped her limb from limb  had she heard any of it. Grace watched as

they tried to flirt with him, but the most Jack would do was politely smile, and  then he moved to the other end of the bar. Ryan wasn’t paying them any  attention either; he was off to the side and had a glass in his hand that he kept  twirling, probably practicing for later.

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Michael, however, kept looking down at Grace and smiling like she was the only person in the entire bar. Every time their eyes met, her cheeks turned red, but  she couldn’t look away. He started walking over in her direction and the girls next to Grace thought they’d finally gotten his attention. But when he continued past them, without a word, and stopped in front of Grace, their smiles disappeared.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said with a smile on his lips as he kissed the top of Grace’s hand. She heard the girls next to her mumble, “Bitch.”

“How’s your evening going?” she asked, watching the barflies become angrier by the second.

“Not too bad. There’s this gorgeous woman at the bar who keeps checking me out. It’s a little distracting at times, but I have to say I kinda like it.”

“I hear you kissed her tonight,” Grace said, playing along. “How was it?”

“I believe she said it was impressive, but I thought it was more along the lines of … exquisite.”

It was pretty darn exquisite, Grace thought, her pulse racing at the memory. Before she could catch her now ragged breath to say anything, Ryan came over and interrupted them.

“Twenty minutes until show time. Grace, you may want to go hunt down your girls.” He looked down at their still interlocked hands, smiled, and then patted  Michael on the back. “Or maybe not just yet.”

“I better go get them,” Grace agreed, not wanting to let him go.

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