“How’d she get the keys?” I look over and see Joey standing behind the counter. I give her a hard glare, and she holds her hands up in defense.

“They were sitting right here. I thought she was good to go.” She raises an eyebrow in question, but I don’t answer her.

Fuck me, I don’t even know her name.

Two

Penelope

“Let’s do a shot!” my cousin Lizzy shouts as she jumps up from our table and starts dancing backwards to the bar. Her brown curly hair bounces with her steps as she nearly runs into two people along the way. Her moonwalk makes it clear she doesn’t need another drink, but I sure do.

My body is still buzzing from the orgasm Paine gave me hours ago, and I need something to take the edge off. If this is what orgasms are really like, I’ve been missing out. I’m starting to think the ones I’ve been giving myself aren’t orgasms at all. When Paine touched me, it was as if my body came to life for the first time.

I still can’t believe I did that. I’m chalking it up as one final dirty thing I did before I get married next week. I’m guessing Scott would never talk to me the way Paine did today. I know for a fact he doesn’t get the response from my body that Paine does.

I follow Lizzy to the bar, needing another shot so I can forget about my impending nuptials to a man I’ve met a handful of times. The only time I ever talk to him is when I’m trying to reach my father. I’ve not so much as hugged the guy. I was just as shocked as everyone else when I got the wedding invitation in the mail. An invitation to a wedding I didn’t even know was happening until two weeks ago. Apparently, right after I graduated from college I was to be wed. Glad I got the invitation, otherwise I may have not known.

I’d planned to come to town and tell my father that I would marry his lawyer over my dead body, but I got shut down fast when he informed me that if I didn’t do as he commanded, he’d cut me off from seeing my grandmother. I’ve just graduated with my business degree, and I don’t need him or his money anymore. I can get a job and make my own life, but telling me he’ll never let me see my bedridden grandmother again was enough to have me doing whatever it is he wants. It was the nail in my wedding coffin.

My grandmother is all I have. I have no idea how she puts up with him, but she doesn’t have anyone else to rely on. Having never known my mother, I clung to her as I was growing up. She was the only softness in my life. My father just treats me like an object he can use to further his political career. I was shipped off to boarding school at the age of eight, where I stayed until I graduated high school and went right into college. Both were all-girls schools. My mother died in childbirth, so my grandmother stepped in as best as she could. My father had the final say, though, using my need for a good education as a reason to send me away. Thankfully, I had my grandmother’s letters to keep me company, and any holiday I had, she would come visit me, saying I didn’t need to come home. I think she knew even then that he held all the power over me, and as she got older and her health began to fail, he now has power over her. The two of us try to cling to one another while someone else calls the shots.

Maybe that’s why I had my reaction to Paine. I’d never met a man like him. He has power within him, but it didn’t feel like he wanted to control me. No, it felt like so much more than that. It felt like Paine wanted to devour me. He wanted to consume my body, yet in his presence I felt like I had the dominance. He oozed sex and masculinity, and it woke something inside me I didn’t even know was there.

“Two lemon drop shots, please,” Lizzy says to the bartender, and he gives her a look like really? What did she expect? The bar is worn, with old pool tables, dartboards, and a wooden floor that has seen better days. I like it, though. It goes with the town. The place feels homey, like everyone knows everyone else. Sadly, I don’t know anyone here, and I grew up in the town. Well, technically it was my home address, but I was never here. I was always away at school or some kind of summer program. When I did get to come home, I spent all my time with my grandmother at the family estate. My father now lives in the mayor’s mansion, and oddly enough, I’ve never even been inside it. Although I’m going to see it soon because I’m getting married there next week. I have to hold back the eye roll at my own thoughts.

“Two vodka shots will be fine,” I finally say, seeing that neither one of them is going to move. “Whatever kind of vodka you’ve got is fine.” The bartender fills two shot glasses and slides them across the bar to us.

“He didn’t even chill them.” Lizzy eyes the vodka like it might bite her. I don’t blame her, but at this point I just don’t care. I’d take a shot of anything. “Told you we should have gone to DeDe’s.” She pouts at not going to the nice bar in town, but I wanted to come here because it’s different to places I normally go to. I find myself wanting different a lot lately.

“Just do it fast.” I grab one of the shots and shoot it back. The burn of cheap vodka makes me cringe, but for some reason I smile.

Lizzy coughs, then grabs the man’s beer next to us to use as a chaser. She’s comical about it, and it gives the stranger an in to talk to us. “Can I buy you ladies another? It’s the least I could do for the bride-to-be.”

I adjust the stupid sash I’m wearing. Lizzy and Deb demanded I put on the pink band emblazoned with ‘Bride-To-Be’ in pink lettering. The guy is hot, but not Paine-hot. The thought pulls my mind back to Paine again. His thick, muscular body leaning close into mine. His huge hand on my waist as he holds me in place. His dark-blond, shaggy hair and scruffy beard made him look wild. His waist was trim, exaggerating his broad shoulders, and those arms looked like he could pick up ten of me. He looked like he’d run a motorcycle club on one of those TV shows. I bet he even drives one. God, what would it feel like to be on the back of his bike? I squeeze my thighs together as I remember his long thick cock. I think about the vibrations from a motorcycle and having him between me like that, and it’s enough to have me soaking my panties all over again. Just the thought of Paine has me hotter than I’ve ever been in my life, and all I can think about are his dirty hands on me.