Shrinking Violet (Colors #2) (7 page)

Before I had a chance to formulate a response, two pilsner glasses were placed in front of us. I looked up to find Carson watching me once again.

Please, Lord, if you hear me, I’m begging you, please have made him temporarily deaf so he didn’t hear Lana. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease. Thank you and Amen.

“Need anything else?” he asked both of us, even though his eyes never strayed from me.

“Uh, no. Nope, I think we’re good. Thanks.”

He remained in place, silent, assessing. The irrational part of me was jumping up and down on the inside at his attention while the rational part just wanted him to go away. You could cut the intensity between us with a knife. He finally spoke again, releasing me from the hold his beautifully pale eyes had on me.

“You need a ride home? I get off in about a half hour.”

“Oh, um. I don’t…”

“We’re going to stick around for a while longer.” I could have kissed Lana for the rescue. “We still haven’t found a hotty for Cassidy to get her flirt on with.”

Carson’s brows dropped in an exaggerated furrow, the pale green glinting with something that looked none too happy, and I immediately took back my earlier gratefulness. Lana was a straight-up menace, and I was seriously contemplating ovary-punching her.

His voice dropped even lower than normal. “What?”

“Yeah,” Lana continued, without a care in the world. “Our girl here’s had a four-year dry spell. Tonight’s all about getting her back in the saddle.”

Jesus!
She was making it sound so much worse than it actually was.

“So, you’re here to find a hookup?” His tone wasn’t so much angry as it was intrigued. That set off red flags left and right.

“N-no…it’s not like that. I would never hook up with some random guy I just met.” I wanted to bang my head on the bar as soon as the words left my mouth. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” I quickly added, hoping I didn’t offend him. “It’s just not for me. I mean, to each their own and all that. We’re all grownups here…”

Quick as a flash, Lana’s hand shot out and covered my mouth, putting a stop to my excessive word vomit. And I wanted to kiss her again. Her ovaries were currently safe.

“What she means is, she’s just here to find a guy to flirt with…baby steps and all that. You get it.”

“Sure.” He chuckled. “Good luck with that, Violet.”

He turned and walked down the length of the bar, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief; that was, until I saw him lean down and say something to Nate, the other bartender we’d met earlier. Nate shot a brief look our way before whispering something to Carson. The two of them laughed and went about filling people’s drinks.

“What do you think that was all about?” Lana asked.

I gave my head a shake. “Honestly, I have no idea.”

“Well, one thing’s for damn sure. I think you need to ride Carson like a rodeo cowgirl, woman! Jesus, I think I just got off on the sparks you two were throwing.”

I laughed uncomfortably, picking up my beer and taking a much-needed swig. “You’re out of your damn mind. He just had sex with another woman. You want me to get in there
now
?”

“I’m not saying it’s gotta be tonight, but if he’s anywhere near as intense in the bedroom as he was just looking at you, I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to walk for a week. Be young, Cass! Be dumb! Live a little.”

“I can’t do that,” I told her quietly with a shake of my head. “I can’t be young and dumb. I have to think about Willow. I have to do what’s right by her.”

“Sweetheart, I’m not suggesting you take him home for a sleepover and introduce him as your boyfriend. All I’m saying is you’ve spent the past four years living like a nun. You give that little girl everything in the world because you’re a badass momma. It’s long past due that you had a little something for yourself. No one has to know except you, Carson, and if I’m guessing correctly, his neighbors.”

I let out a loud laugh at Lana’s sly wink. I couldn’t help but think she had a point. It had been a long time…a really,
really
long time. I didn’t miss who I used to be, but my body sure as hell missed sex. Could I handle something casual? Could I go into something with no strings attached and still walk away with a hold on my emotions?

Once Lana planted the seed, it was hard to think about much of anything else. I just had to figure out if I was strong enough.

“What the hell is going on?” Lana demanded.

Just as Carson had said, he got off work a little over a half-hour before. But he didn’t leave. Instead, he’d taken up residence a few stools down from us, chatting with Nate and the new bartender who’d just come on shift. He left Lana and me to ourselves, but every time a man came within a few feet of us, either Carson or one of the other bartenders would say something under their breaths that we couldn’t hear, and the guy immediately turned tail and walked away.

I’d psyched myself up to flirt with a man that night, but from the way they would look back in our direction, you’d think we were carriers for Ebola.

“Oh, that son of a bitch,” Lana seethed just as another guy casually started in our direction, only to be stopped by Carson. “He’s warning them off!”

“What?”

“That asshole and his friends are warning off every single dude who so much as looks at you! Watch.” She scanned the crowd for a moment before pointing someone out. “There, that guy.”

“What about him?”

“Shoot him a smile really quick. Get him to head this way. And make it sexy, none of that shy stuff. Really get his attention.”

I glanced over my shoulder to the guy in question. He wasn’t
bad
-looking, but he didn’t make my belly flutter, either. Average hair, average eyes, average…well,
everything
, really.

“I’m not really interested in that guy, Lana. Can you pick out someone else?”

“This isn’t about flirting anymore. This is strictly for testing purposes only. Now, bat those baby blues and get that guy over here!”

Releasing an indignant huff, I turned sideways and focused on Mr. Average across the bar. As soon as he felt my eyes on him, he turned and looked at me. Tapping into my past self—just a little—I lowered my chin, giving him a flirty grin beneath my lashes before biting down on my lower lip and lifting my hand in a small wave.

He fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

Damn, it’s just like riding a bike
.

That was easy…too easy.

Standing from his table, Mr. Average made a beeline straight for us. He couldn’t have been more than twenty feet away. It took him closing in ten feet before Nate lifted his chin in the guy’s direction; another two feet for Carson to turn around and spot who Nate just pointed out. By the time Mr. Average was five feet away, he was firmly on Carson’s radar.

Before he had a chance to come any closer, Carson’s arm shot out, blocking the guy’s path. A few words were exchanged in low voices, Mr. Average’s eyes came up to meet mine for all of two seconds, and then he turned and headed back to his own table.

“What the hell?” I breathed at the same time Lana shouted, “I
knew
it!”

“What the hell was that?” she yelled over at Carson. Nate, bless his deceptive little heart, obviously saw the storm clouds behind Lana’s eyes and wisely escaped to the other end of the bar once the two of us were up and on the move.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Carson tried—and failed—to hide his smirk behind his beer bottle.

My hands landed on my hips as I narrowed my angry eyes on him. “You’ve been cock-blocking for the past forty-five minutes!”

If the music in the bar hadn’t been so loud, I had no doubt I would have heard a menacing chuckle from deep in his chest. His expression clearly indicated how pleased he was with himself.

“Trust me, I was doing y’all a huge favor.”

The fury I’d worked tirelessly to suppress for so long began to simmer in my blood, rapidly approaching a full, roiling boil. I hadn’t been quick to anger in years, but just like with everything else, Carson seemed to bring out my most restrained emotions.

“How is that
your
call, asshole?!”

The slow, sexy smile that spread across his face was truly a thing of wonder. Soft, full lips framed a mouth full of brilliant white teeth. One of the front ones was just slightly crooked, giving his grin more character instead of taking away from it. He was handsome in a rugged, manly way, and when he smiled, that sexiness increased exponentially.

“I was right about you,” he spoke, so quietly I almost didn’t hear.

“What?”

“You’re not the shy, little wallflower I thought you were when we first met. I sensed it, but I wasn’t sure until just now. You wouldn’t answer me back at the ranch, but now I know. You got a fire in your belly that’s sexy as hell, sweetheart.”

I couldn’t form a response. Seriously, in an instant, my brain completely shut off and lost all function. My jaw hung slack in preparation, but no words came out.

Lifting the bottle to his lips, Carson finished off the last of his beer and set the bottle back down before standing. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride home.”

The feel of his fingers gripping my arm shook me from my momentary stupor. “Wait…what? No, I told you, I’m here with Lana. We’re not ready to go yet.”

Acting as if he hadn’t heard a word I just said, Carson began pulling me away from the bar, turning back only to call over his shoulder, “Nate, make sure Lana gets home safe, will ya?”

“You got it, man,” Nate yelled back.

The last thing I saw as Carson all but dragged me from the bar was the animated smile that had broken out across Lana’s face.
That’s it, starting now she’s being stripped of her ‘best friend’ status. The traitor.

“No offense, Carson, but so far tonight, you’ve had sex in a storage room, warned off any guy who came near me, and dragged me out of a bar. Forgive me if I’m not all gung-ho on riding home with you.”

We were halfway to his truck when he stopped dead in his tracks, releasing a pent-up breath before turning around to face me; however, he still didn’t relinquish hold of my arm.

“Look,” he started, running his free hand through his hair carelessly, making it stand on ends in a way that looked way-too-attractive. I had been sporting a pretty decent pissed when we walked out of the bar, though, I didn’t want anything to detract from that. “If there was one thing about tonight I could take back, it’s that you saw me walking out of that damn closet with that chick…”

My hackles were raised at that statement. With a lift of my chin, I asked, “So, what? You don’t regret having sex with a woman in a public place, it’s the fact that I
saw
you that you regret?”

He answered with blunt honesty. “Pretty much.”

I couldn’t have stopped my lip from curling in disgust if I wanted to…which I didn’t. “Wow.” I laughed humorlessly. “Let go of my arm. I’m not riding anywhere with you.” I tried pulling from his grasp but his fingers tightened, securing their hold on me.

“Violet, just hold on a second—”

“You’re unbelievable, you know that? You’re allowed to get your rocks off, but if a guy so much as tries to
speak
to me, you send them running scared. That’s a shitty double-standard, if you ask me.”