After the Hurt Read Free Page B

him mesmerized, especially when she’d hooked a high heel on the rung, crossing one leg over the other. He swore those were the same heels she’d worn the last time they’d fucked. Once he would have called it making love. That didn’t suit them anymore. That was the past.
    But those damn shoes. They matched her flaming red hair, and the memory of her sprawled naked before him, arms flung wide, was imprinted on his brain forever. Like it was yesterday, he could still see her alabaster skin in vivid contrast against the glossy black sheets. The clear violet of her eyes gazing at him under her finely arched ginger brows. She’d lain there, taunting him to do as he wanted with her. And he had.
    That scorching image gave way to her face so close to his right now. Merely inches apart. Close enough to kiss. But there’d be no fucking her again, ever. Even though his raging hard-on wanted it, it could not happen. Tank cursed himself for his involuntary reaction to the raw sexuality she radiated, and at her for showing up out of the blue. Now here she was in his bar—correction,
their
bar—and the six months and eighteen days she’d been gone no longer seemed real. As much as he wanted to shove her away, he couldn’t stop himself from pulling her closer. He ached to feel her and inhale her oh-so-familiar exotic fragrance a little deeper. Her quick breaths snapped him out of his trance as he tried to regain his senses.
    Pepper was a temptress, no doubt about that. Tank was fighting to keep from getting caught up in her sultry web all over again. She’d torn his heart out when she left him. Seeing and touching her now only reminded him how painful it had been to wake up to an empty bed. He insisted the staff always stream music into the restaurant, even in the off hours, to help him forget her; the white noise kept him from hearing the ghostly echo of her voice, her laugh, her sweet moans. But now here she was. Back in his world and about to turn it upside down, all over again.
    Holding her, Tank noticed Pepper seemed smaller, more tan than he remembered. He wanted to rattle and shake her until she cried, then toss her the hell out of there before the engagement partygoers showed up, and before he lost his heart to her once more. But he didn’t do any of the above. Instead he held her, then pulled her closer; she felt too damn good to stop. He bit back a groan, urging himself to let go before he made a complete fool of himself.
    She looked up at him, now limp in his arms, and he allowed his gaze to roam over her ever so briefly. One last look, he told himself. A reminder before he insisted she leave. Her short, excited breaths never failed to turn him on. Sure enough, history repeated itself and, as he feared, her sultry magic was working on him. His cock had a mind of its own and no matter how hard he wanted to tell her to go, his dick had other ideas. The last thing he wanted was to have his guests come through the door and find him banging her on the bar. Which in Pepper and Tank’s previous life was a total possibility.
    But he couldn’t resist teasing her a little more, nuzzling her ear and letting the silken strands of her hair shroud his face. Her breathy sighs told him everything he needed to know. She was craving him. And that meant it was time to push her away. Reject her.
    As she’d rejected him.
    The tips of her fingers brushed his chest and a shot of lightning went straight to his cock. The sensations gave him clarity that ironically only increased his confusion. He wanted her, and it was getting harder and harder to deny it. He’d never wanted anyone like he did her.
    “Oh, Francis.” Her angel’s voice, all breathy and full of desire, broke through the roaring blood in his ears. Hearing his real name brought him out of his lust-filled haze just as if a bucket of icy water was dumped over him. Nothing like hearing the name he’d been born with coming from her lips. She knew better than to use his birth