Author: Teresa Mummert

“My mother wore one of these every day.” He gave me a weak smile and grabbed my discarded clothing. I tried to push the thought of a young Tucker seeing his mother covered in bruises out of my mind.

I barely recognized myself in the mirror that hung behind the register. I no longer looked like a dirty girl from the trailer park. I raised my chin and smiled at myself.

“You look beautiful.” He took my hand and pulled me to the register.

I slipped out of my sneakers and slid on my new brown strappy sandals, mildly surprised he’d guessed my shoe size. No one had ever called me beautiful before, not even Jax. Hot maybe, but never beautiful. The word made me feel elegant, worldly. I wondered if he said it out of pity.

He grabbed a silver locket that hung next to the register. I gasped when I saw the price, but Tucker slid his credit card to the salesgirl, saying, “Please. I dragged you out tonight, and it’s the least I can do.”

He shoved my old belongings in a bag. We made our way back to the bike and he tucked my bag next to the helmets. “Turn around.”

I hesitated, but slowly turned toward the water.

“Lift your hair,” he whispered next to my ear, his warm, minty breath blowing against my neck.

I gathered my hair and held it up as he slipped the delicate chain around my neck and fastened it. I let my hair fall down over my shoulders and turned to face him, my fingers tracing the small piece of heart-shaped metal.

“Perfect,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine.

I couldn’t help but smile.

He took my hand again and pulled me across the cobblestone road. We passed Scarlett’s and made our way a few doors up to one of the livelier bars. The doors were wide-open and a mechanical bull sat straight ahead. I shot him a warning look and he just shook his head and smiled.

“Wait here.” His hand left mine as he snaked his way to the bar.

I stood awkwardly alone as I glanced around the bar. Three guys were looking in my direction, smiling and whispering something. I ran my hand over the front of my new dress and looked away, embarrassed. I wasn’t fooling anyone. I didn’t belong here.

Tucker returned with two beers. He held one out for me and I took it with an appreciative smile. He followed my gaze and glared at the men, who turned back to their table as if they didn’t see us.

“Thanks.” I took a long pull from the bottle, drinking half of it in one long sip. He laughed and ran his hand through his hair, following suit.

We stood together, watching the other patrons dance. The song switched and I immediately recognized it as “Loved” by Damaged, the song that had played at the diner.

Tucker smiled, taking a sip of his drink and setting it on the table behind him. He took the beer from my hand as well, set it down, and pulled me into the middle of the bar. “It’s our song,” he said with a laugh.

“Oh, no . . . no . . . no . . . I don’t dance.” I tried to pull back but he tightened his grip on my hand and winked.

“I don’t have to tell you another sad story to get my way, do I, sweetheart?”

My stomach knotted with guilt as I thought of Jax waiting at home for me. I knew that even if I jumped from a tree, he wouldn’t notice. My heart stopped for a moment, and the world around us seemed to fade away. All rational thought escaped me as I let myself be pulled onto the dance floor.

Once we were deep enough into the crowd, he stopped and pulled me into him. My hands landed on his hard chest as his found their way to my lower back, tugging me flush against him. His hips began to move against mine, and I was stuck, frozen like a deer.

“Just do what I do. It’s not hard.” His hips continued to rock. I slowly began to move against him as my hands slid up to his neck. He pulled me closer until our cheeks touched, his warm breath blowing against my ear. Quietly he sang along to the lyrics as we moved together—“ ‘I want to make you feel beautiful’ ”—sending a chill through my body even in the warmth of the room.

The place was packed, but it felt as if everyone else had disappeared. I closed my eyes and listened to his beautiful voice in my ear. My own private concert.

His hand slowly rubbed my back, relaxing me. In that moment, I forgot about everything. Forgot my life in the trailer park. About Jackson and my mother. All I saw was Tucker. All I felt was the sweet and gentle way he touched me. No one had ever held me like this before. Looking at Tucker, you wouldn’t think he had such a sweet side to him. I realized I had judged him the way people judge me. He was so much more under those sexy tattoos.

One song bled into the next. The tempo picked up, and with a little more liquid courage, I was dancing right along with Tucker. I felt free.

“Where did you learn to dance like this?” I asked loudly into his ear so he could hear me over the music.

“You like that? You know what they say about how a man dances?”

“I don’t want to know what they say.” I laughed and shook my head as our bodies moved together.

“I’d be happy to demonstrate.” He raised an eyebrow as I laughed.

“Now I know you were raised better than to talk to a lady like that.”

“Let’s have a shot,” Tucker said over the pulsing bass of the music. I smiled and nodded. He held up two fingers to the bartender and yelled, “Cuervo.” The bartender quickly poured two shots.

My eyes drifted over the crowd of carefree people letting go and having fun. I smiled as I turned back to Tucker, who was scribbling something down on a sliver of paper for a young brunette who had approached him. She looked as if it took all she had to keep from pouncing on top of him. He was giving out his phone number while he was out with me? I tried to hide the scowl from my face and the disappointment that settled in my belly like a rock. Tucker’s not your boyfriend, I admonished myself. You already have one of those, a fact that you seem all too willing to forget tonight. Tucker grabbed the shots from the bar and held one out for me. I paused, then relented. Why not let the fantasy continue, at least for a little while longer? I took it, my fingers lightly brushing against his. I smiled as I tilted my head back and drank it down in one gulp.

He smiled, taking the empty glass from my hand. “Another?”

“Why not?” I yelled over the music as a huge grin spread across his face.

“You tryin’ to outdrink me? Is this a challenge?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Drinking was in my blood. This was one game he couldn’t win. “You scared?”

“Hell no. I’m excited. Makes getting into your panties even easier.”

I smacked him on the arm with the back of my hand as hard as I could and turned to leave.

His hand shot out, catching me at the wrist. He pulled me back into his chest, causing my breath to catch in my throat. The look in his eyes was deadly serious. “I was kidding, Cass. I don’t want to take advantage of you. I want to have fun with you.”

“Let the fun begin.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” His hand found its place on the small of my back as we pushed through the crowd to the bar. His fingers slipped lower, and I reached behind me to raise them back into place, glaring at him in warning. He shot me a wink, not the least bit fazed by my attitude.

“Two more,” he called down to the bartender, who nodded in acknowledgment.

The bartender filled his other orders from the far end of the bar, then made his way to our end. I stared at the glass bottles on the wall behind him, watching the lights from the dance floor bounce off them, sending beams of colored light into the mirror behind them. I caught Tucker’s reflection, his eyes locked on me.

“Cuervo?” the bartender yelled over the noise, startling me from my trance.

“Two,” Tucker said, his eyes still not leaving me.

I looked down at the old wooden bar top in front of me, wishing. How did he make me feel so nervous and excited at the same time?

“You want a chaser?” The bartender filled our shot glasses, the liquid spilling over onto the bar.

“I’ve been chasing her all night.” Tucker laughed and I shook my head at the bartender. I grabbed our glasses and turned to hold one up for Tucker. His fingers wrapped around mine, and I was completely lost in the moment. That is, until the man behind me bumped into me, spilling my shot straight down my chest, into my cleavage.

Tucker grabbed a stack of napkins and began to blot the wetness, which caused me to turn ten shades of red before I pulled them from his hand and took care of it myself.

The man behind me was laughing with a friend and didn’t even think to apologize, not that I was surprised.

“Hey! You need to apologize for spilling my girl’s drink.”

“Just throw her an extra twenty. She won’t mind.”

“I mind, you asshole.”

My head was spinning with how quickly things went from amazing to shit. The bartender whistled through his fingers to get the attention of a bouncer near the door. He pointed to the man behind me, who groaned and slammed his glass on the bar.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I’m getting kicked out over that bitch?”

The bouncer reached our side in time to catch Tucker as he lurched at the man. Tucker’s fist connected with the side of the man’s face, sending him spinning backward into his friend.

“I said fucking apologize!”

I grabbed Tucker’s arm in an attempt to pull him away from the chaos. I didn’t want to spend the night in jail over some drunken prick.

“You’re out of here!” The bouncer grabbed the asshole’s arm and dragged him toward the door. “You’re next if you don’t calm the hell down!” The bouncer pointed at Tucker but was trying to hide a smile.

I didn’t find the situation quite as funny. I lived with violence every day of my life. I wanted to escape it. Not be thrown in the middle of more. “Don’t worry. I’m leaving.” I began to make my way to the door.

Tucker reached out and caught me by the waist. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll find my own way home.”

He sobered up immediately, placing his hands on my shoulders. “I was protecting you.”

“No, Tucker. You were being a macho prick. I don’t need someone to fight my battles. If I wanted to see someone get their ass kicked, I would have stayed home.”

He didn’t respond as my words sank in. He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. “Fuck, Cass. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m so sorry.”

I let my arms rise up to his sides, holding on to the fabric of his shirt.

“I would never hurt you, Cass.”

I nodded into the crook of his neck. I wanted to be angry but I couldn’t. As much as my mind wanted to compare all men to Jax, there was no comparison.

“It won’t happen again.” He pulled me back so I could look into his eyes. I believed him. His gaze didn’t waver.

“I trust you.”

“Not yet. But you will.”

I smiled and glanced around us. No one was paying attention to our conversation, the skirmish long forgotten now that a leggy blonde had climbed up on the mechanical bull.

“Come on.” He grinned, grabbing my hand and pulling me back onto the floor.

My fingers slid up his muscular arms and looped behind his neck as we danced through several more songs. I wasn’t sure if I was dancing to the beat of the song or his heart. Normally I would have felt embarrassed, or at least out of place, but with his strong arms around me, I felt safe. His hands never left my body as we moved. His cheek was pressed against mine as his minty, liquor-laced breath blew across my neck. I let my eyes fall closed as he pulled back slowly, certain he was going to kiss me. Instead, his thumb traced my lower lip, tugging on it slightly before his palm slid up my cheek to cup it. I opened my eyes to Tucker’s hungry gaze.