Besotted by Rebecca Sharp

Miles

Grunting, the tension in my body went slack as my release shot out onto the tiled shower wall. My shoulders heaved, air returning to my lungs.

Fuckin’ hell.

I turned the temperature up to scalding and washed the white streaks of my cum off of my brother’s old shower before flipping the handle in the opposite direction, dousing my body with the icy spray.

I was going to have to figure out a better shower situation especially after a day like today. I’d spent hours climbing, trying to work out my frustration from the night before, but the tile was streaked with reminders of my failure. Clearly, a whole day of exertion hadn’t made a difference.

When Mick and Jules moved to Monterey, he’d left me to keep an eye on their old condo. Their plan was to turn it into a rental property once they were settled in their new spot. The apartment was empty which left me with the feeling that Mick was taking his time to rent it out thinking I might need it.

Damn brother of mine. He got all the good.

I hadn’t told anyone I was letting the lease go on my old apartment. I hadn’t told anyone I was buying a fucking tent for my Jeep and debating leaving this town altogether.

I’d thought Carmel would be a fresh start. Now, I saw that it was only the first step in a lifetime of leaving. The longer I stayed, the more everything around me—my friends, my family—became something that was bound to leave me, too.

And the longer I stayed here, the more I had to see her.

Eve Williams.

My temptation.

Grabbing the towel I’d brought over, I quickly dried off and changed.

She was the reason I was here, jerking off in the fucking shower before heading down to the Pub. She was the salt in my wound, her presence a painful and burning reminder of the mistakes of my past, though the nagging thought that maybe she could heal those wounds wasn’t lost on me.

Seeing her on the beach yesterday, her pert body wrapped up tight in her yoga pants and sheer top was a punishment I didn’t deserve. I’d stayed in the water for another twenty minutes after she’d stalked off yesterday because the cold water was the only thing that would keep my desire at bay. It had only been the adrenaline of the moment, the need to see how far I could push her, that kept my dick from standing rock solid during our whole conversation.

Wanting Eve was like wanting to taste the proverbial apple. Years of Sunday school in Texas had taught me the consequences of that decision well enough. One fuckin’ taste, and I knew she’d destroy me.

Another groan escaped as I locked up my brother’s place, tossing my towel over my shoulder and making my way up the road to the crosswalk that led to the parking lot and subsequent path down to the cove.

God. The open intrigue… the blatant desire in her eyes… she was truth personified. There was no guile with Eve. No filter. She was like a raw, uncut diamond, shining in her natural beauty.

When we first moved, I stayed away from women altogether. I was angry, and it was easier. Then Laurel came back, and Eli was the first to fall. In that process, my brother met Jules and found his heart spoken for. And I was left with the reminder of what I’d lost.

I believed that forevers existed. I just didn’t believe they existed for me. I’d found my forever, and she’d fucked me.

Since celibacy wasn’t a viable long-term option, I began my string of casual flings. They were enough to keep me going without the threat of taking more. And it had been working fairly well until I found myself thinking about the vibrant four-eyed barista from Roasters long after my coffee turned cold.

Eve wasn’t the kind of beauty that stopped you in your tracks. She was damn pretty, there was no doubt about that. Her caramel-brown hair and honest honey eyes were enough to stop a grown man in his tracks, but it was her kindheartedness and unabashed innocence that changed everything. They were addictive. Infectious. Gorgeous. And it was those things that latched on to something deep inside me, changing the way I saw her—and the way no other woman began to compare.

She was younger and worked for Eli and Laurel, so I kept my distance, thinking I’d get over it. I should know by now that my instincts about women are always wrong. And while she was open about a lot of things, she’d never made her interest in me crystal clear until the night of their wedding. I’d kissed her and thought ‘fucking finally,’ we’ll have a great night and then I could move on.

Then she’d mentioned the F-word, and I realized how royally fucked I was.

Grunting, I adjusted my dick that was already hard again thinking of her and tossed my dirty clothes into my Jeep on top of the rest of my laundry that I’d take to the laundromat tomorrow. Shutting the door, I headed for the other exit of the hidden cove that would take me to the Pub. After yesterday, I needed a very stiff drink. And a mindless screw.

She may have invaded my cove, but at least the bar would be a safe haven from all things Eve.

“Where are you from? I just love your accent!” the woman with the cropped bleach-blonde hair said as she took another sip of her drink.

“Born and raised in Texas, doll.” I let my accent linger a bit with each word.

Jill was visiting down from Seattle for the weekend, I’d learned, and she was meeting some friends tomorrow afternoon for a wine tour. She’d been sitting at the bar when I walked in, her sizable tits on display in her tight black top and her short white skirt riding up to reveal long, shapely legs. She was the exact opposite of Eve: short light hair compared to Eve’s long, dark locks. Large, probably fake, tits compared to Eve’s perfect handfuls. Pale to Eve’s sun-kissed skin… Nothing compared to Eve’s everything.

Biting back a curse, I tightened my hair in its tie to the point of pain, hoping it could pull the frustrating-as-hell reminders from my head.

Normally, I would’ve taken a moment to scan the room before picking out the woman I wanted to talk to, but I didn’t want to leave any more free time for a certain tempting barista to trespass even farther into my night. So, I’d walked up next to Jill, ordered myself a drink and struck up a conversation with her, seeing no man and no ring on her finger. She was pleasant enough, if a little ditzy—and a little too good of a drinker.

I looked down at the Manhattan she’d ordered not even ten minutes ago and the glass was almost completely drained.

Jill was the type of woman I came here to meet. Good conversation, here just for a trip or vacation, and not looking for anything more than a good time. I wasn’t a dick looking for a quick fuck for the sake of a fuck, I just wanted to meet a woman who had similar, non-committal needs, who was looking to enjoy the attraction and leave it at that.

“Can I get you another drink, doll?” I offered politely.

She glanced to her glass and giggled. “Wow, that went down easy.” Her eyes that were far more lucid than the amount of alcohol she consumed suggested they should be slid back up to mine. “You aren’t trying to take advantage of me, Texas, are you?” she asked coyly, with the inflection that said she wanted my answer to be ’yes.’

My mouth opened but nothing came out, my reply assaulted by the memory of last night. Of a similar conversation with a very different woman.

I wanted nothing more than to take advantage of Eve… to take advantage of her desire she so obviously didn’t know how to handle. It made my pulse pound and my cock thicken to know she was so thrown off by it. Naively. Innocently. Addictively.

Which stacked another reason onto the immense pile of why I needed to keep miles away from her.

Why I needed to keep myself away from her.

“How ‘bout I’ll order you another drink, and you only drink it if you want to be takin’ advantage of?” I replied with a low voice and a wink.

I felt the wave of lust roll off of her as she let out a throaty laugh and relief settled in. At least something was going to go right for me this weekend.

“Well then, by all means.” Jill licked her lips. “I’m pretty thirsty.”

Grinning, I looked up as she excused herself to use the restroom while I called for Benny.

Since he was the only bartender at the Pub it wasn’t hard to miss the fact that he’d disappeared from his post behind the counter. Strange. Slowly, my eyes scanned down the lined of filled stools before I leaned back to check over by the booths and see if he was delivering a drink over there. Still, no sign of him.

“Benny—”

The glass I’d been holding in my hand slipped from my grip and landed with a rattled thud on the bar a few inches below it. My fist tightened on itself as my eyes focused on Benny coming out from the back room of the Pub.

Followed by Eve.

I’d been the first to see her, so she’d missed how my body faltered when she was around. She was wearing black yoga pants again and the same Keds she’d had on under her dress at the wedding. Her black tee wasn’t nearly as lowcut as the one on the woman next to me—the one whose name I couldn’t even remember at the moment. And her hair was pulled back and braided onto her back just like it had been on the beach.

I wanted to unravel it. Just like I wanted to unravel her fairy tale idea of forever. I wanted to thread my fingers into its silken depths like I wanted to bury myself inside her and never leave.

As soon as she saw me, I was treated to the pink tint that crept up over her neck and into her cheeks as she met my gaze.

“Miles.” Benny gave me the same nod he had every time I was in over the past few weeks, and I returned it, acknowledging that even though we were friends, he wouldn’t hesitate to throw me out if I got too drunk, now that I didn’t have Mick or Eli to pull me back.

“What’s she doing here?” I demanded of him, not her.

Benny grinned over his shoulder, and I had the urge to punch him. I didn’t care how good of a guy he was. And I didn’t give a shit how big and bad his brothers were. He didn’t get to smile at Eve like that. Not in front of me.

“Eve’s going to be helping me out behind the bar on the weekends now.” His smile grew as he stepped to the side so she could stand right in front of me. Then he leveled me with a harsher warning stare. “It’s her first night, so take it easy on her.”

His head tipped to the side for a split second before he patted Eve on the shoulder and disappeared to the other end of the bar where he’d be summoned, leaving the one woman I’d done every-fucking-thing I could to forget about standing right in front of me—impossible to ignore.

She licked her lips, and I followed her eyes as they ran over me. She was remembering she was this close to me last night, with much less between us.

“Wasn’t enough you had to invade my beach, now you’re going after my bar, too?” I growled through clenched teeth.

She laughed and shook her head. “It’s not your beach and unless I was just hired by an imposter, it’s not your bar either. But at least you remembered to put clothes on this time…”

She folded her arms over her chest and, though her shirt showed nothing, it revealed everything. I grunted, unable to stop my eyes from lingering on the soft swells of her tits and, because there was nothing I wanted to see more, I found the faint outlines of her hard-tipped nipples against the black.

I’d murder anyone else who looked at her this closely. But for myself, the image burning into my mind was potent, pleasurable poison. And it would kill me slowly.

“What are you doin’, Eve?” I demanded, needing to know why everything was changing now—just when I’d developed a better plan.

No permanent woman. No permanent home.

Zero permanence.

Aside from the business that kept me in the area, over the past several months I’d worked to remove every other tether to anything and anyone that could be lost, finding solace in a bar that could make me forget and women that didn’t want to be remembered.

Until Eve.

Who was now every-fuckin’-where I looked.

“Working,” she replied with a tight smile.

“No shit,” I scoffed. “Why here? Why now?” I let out a loud groan as I ran a hand over my mouth and stubble. “First, your damn yoga class treks all over my new ho—hangout. Now, you’re workin’ at my second home.” My eyes jerked to hers as I planted my hands on the edge of the bar. “Is this because you like me? Because you can’t get over me that you’re following me around?”

Like I was the sun, her cheeks burned under my words.

My voice lowered angrily, one drink and a desire that wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone pushing me over the edge into a canyon of cruelty.

“Is this because you still like me, Evie? Because you think if you traipse around in front of me in your tight-ass pants always lookin’ like you’re beggin’ for a kiss that I’ll change my mind about you? That I’ll want you too bad to forget what I’ve been through? That there’s somethin’ magical between us to change me?” I sneered, hating the words almost as much as I hated how they tugged on the almost invisible thread that they might be true. “Because there isn’t.”

She stood frozen and guilt washed over me for it.

I let out a long sigh. “Eve—” I broke off when I felt Jill slide against my back on purpose as she worked back into her seat. Only then did Eve take notice.

“What can I get you?” she asked with a pleasant smile that lit every feature except her eyes; they were dark and stormy, rolling with the current of her disdain.

I watched her reel her emotions back in, their hurt—their truth. They were so refreshing I wanted to reach out and grip onto them, apologize, and never let go.

But that wasn’t realistic. Just like her fairy tales.

And that left only one option.

I felt Eve’s eyes follow me as I turned to Jill and smiled. “Another Manhattan, doll?”

To my benefit, and probably her own, if Jill had caught that there was more to the patron-bartender interaction going on, she didn’t let it show.

“Yes, please.” She beamed at me and wrapped her arms around herself in excitement, squeezing her already crammed breasts together.

Looking at Eve, her whole demeanor had changed.

My stomach twisted even further, like mangled roots of a tree, where any attempt to unknot it would only make it worse. Fuck. It was so damn hard not to be affected when this girl’s emotions were written all over her skin like the Rosetta Stone.

Shock. Hurt. Anger. Desire.

I kept my face passive and added, “Make that two.”

And still Eve’s smile didn’t falter because even though she felt all those things, she didn’t let them deter her from doing her job. She walked that perfect line between being full of emotions without becoming emotional.

“Of course.” She nodded and turned away to make the drinks.

I watched the way her hands moved. I watched the way her hips swayed. I watched the way her head tipped and mirrored the angle of the bottle as she poured liquor into the two cups. And I watched the way she pushed her glasses up higher on her nose, just like she’d done yesterday, before delivering the drinks to us with a kind smile even as she couldn’t stop her eyes from looking to me for some sort of explanation.

My jaw tightened as I handed her my card and focused on Jill.

I didn’t believe for a second that she’d taken this job because of me… because I might be here. I’d only said it because I wanted to know why she’d taken this job. I wanted to know why, after how many years of working at Roasters, she now needed a second job.

And I wanted to know without her realizing.

The truth was I was in a war with myself, both craving her and needing to stay away from her. And unfortunately, she ended up caught in the middle—an utterly captivating casualty.

Eve

I’m not looking.

I’m not looking.

I’m. Not. Looking.

I swallowed a groan and slid the vodka on the rocks across the bar to Gavin Ross, Carmel’s most prominent attorney, with a smile on my face. Guess it was a bad day in court.

As I turned to take another order, I looked.

Crap.

I wanted to call it anger, but mostly what I felt was hurt. Hurt seeing him with her when I swore his eyes confessed to wanting me. Hurt watching him buy her a drink and flirt with her. Hurt listening to him lash out at me but hearing the raw pain in his voice.

But I shouldn’t be hurt. Or angry.

Because Miles wasn’t mine.

He wasn’t mine to taste. Or touch. Or take.

But just like the apple, I wanted him anyway.