Read Online Undeniably Yours by Shannon Stacey - Free Book Online Page B

bright magenta lipstick kiss shone like a beacon. Dammit.
    Beth was not only stubborn, but she was fast and she snatched it up before he could. “I have whipped cream and cherry lube…want to make a sundae?”
    Even though the words weren’t hers, hearing them come out of Beth’s mouth triggered a craving for ice cream so strong his mouth watered. Other parts of his body reacted, too, and he was very thankful he was standing on the other side of the bar.
    “I never call them,” he told her.
    “Them? You get these a lot?”
    He gestured over his shoulder. “There’s a basket. I get a few.”
    She tossed the napkin at him with a snort of disgust. “A basket. Of course you save them.”
    “Paulie and the rest of the staff get a kick out of reading them. I’ve never called a napkin kisser and you can go look in the office and in my apartment and you won’t find a single phone number written in lipstick on a napkin.”
    She looked doubtful, not that he could blame her. “When was your last serious relationship, and I don’t mean with the women who kiss your napkins?”
    And there it was. The only thing he didn’t like talking about and there was no way to get out of it. More privacy would have been nice, but at least nobody was close enough to eavesdrop. “My last serious relationship would have been my marriage.”
    She doodled in the condensation on her glass. “You were married?”
    “Yeah. We divorced a little over two years ago.”
    “What happened? Oh wait…none of my business. Sorry.”
    That hurt. They were having a baby together. He’d think she’d want to get to know him a little better. “Before I bought Jasper’s Bar and Grille, I was cop. One of Boston’s finest.”
    “You were a cop? Really?”
    “Yup.”
    She propped her chin on her hands. “I can’t picture you in a uniform, with a gun and everything.”
    “I’ve got a picture. I can show it to you later.”
    “I’d like to see it, but I think what you’re doing now really suits you.”
    He smiled, looking her in the eye. “There’s a lot about my life now that suits me.”
    “Charming.” She rolled her eyes. “So you were a cop…”
    Damn, she was a tough sell. “Yeah, so I always got shitty shifts in the bad parts of town, but I didn’t think much of it. Then, one night, I went back to the house to pick up some paperwork I’d forgotten. I didn’t usually bring paperwork home because the time I had with Vicky, I thought I should spend with Vicky. Found my captain there, banging my wife. And I guess it’d been going on for a while.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “I beat his ass until I couldn’t swing my arm anymore. Thank God the captain was married to some big-shot’s daughter so he had to avoid the bad press. He didn’t press charges, I dumped the wife and the job and came home. Bought Jasper’s and here we are.”
    The way she looked at him told him he hadn’t quite succeeded in making it sound like no big deal. Bullshit, of course. Losing his marriage and his badge—everything he cared about—at the same time had been a pretty big fucking deal. Even the memory of his captain’s nose busting under his fist didn’t make the memory of seeing the asshole’s dick in his wife any easier to take.
    “Did you have any children together?”
    “No. That’s about the only good thing about it.” He helped himself to a sip of her soda, hoping to wash some of the bad taste out of his mouth. Didn’t really help. “That Jasper-burger-craving bun in your oven is my first.”
    For a few seconds he thought she might dig deeper, but then she smiled. “If the baby’s craving Jasper burgers already, I’m going to weigh a ton by spring.”
    “And you’ll still be the hottest woman in the bar.”
    He wondered if she was even aware of the pink creeping into her face from under the collar of her white work blouse. “Sadly, I’m never going to kiss a napkin for you.”
    “If you did, I’d not only keep it, I’d frame it