Blaire (Corked and Tapped Book 9) Read online

  Blaire

  Corked and Tapped, Book Nine

  Becca Jameson

  Copyright © 2019 by Becca Jameson

  Cover Artist: Julio Desir, Jr.

  Editor: Christa Soule

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. And resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  About the Book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Author’s Note

  Also by Becca Jameson

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  I have to thank my amazing, wonderful, fabulous beta reader most extraordinaire, Susan Whitney, for all her help reading these fun novellas and helping me every step of the way!

  I also want to thank my editor, Christa, for plotting with me on every one! She rocks!

  And my daughter, Rebecca, who read each one over her summer break!

  About the Book

  “I could take my shirt off if you want.” The moment she heard him speak, she knew his words were more than just flirtatious banter. At least she hoped that was the case. But when a random stranger accidentally punched her in the jaw, his intentions were confirmed. The larger-than-life bouncer at her favorite bar immediately lost his shit. She just prayed he was serious because her heart couldn’t take it if he wasn’t.

  Corked and Tapped: Because the best stories never start with someone eating a salad.

  Chapter 1

  “Blaire? What are you doing here on a Wednesday?” Kyle’s brow was furrowed as he held the door to Corked and Tapped open for her, but he was also smiling.

  She giggled as she slid under his arm. “Who says I can’t come on Wednesdays?”

  “Not me. You can come every night if you want. Makes the entire room a little brighter.” He winked at her with those deep blue eyes of his, making her insides flutter.

  Blaire rolled her eyes at him and then headed across the room. Too bad she would never have the nerve to flirt heavily enough with Kyle for him to realize how much she wished their relationship was more than just a friendship. As she took her usual seat on a barstool along the wall, she sighed. The spot afforded her a view of the entire room, was close to the bathrooms, and most importantly, kept her favorite sexy bouncer in her line of sight.

  Her infatuation with Kyle was absurd, but it didn’t matter. He was the highlight of nearly every week. Who cared if he didn’t know it?

  As she set her satchel on the round high-top table, she noticed he was still glancing her way. He wasn’t wrong to be confused. She never came on a Wednesday. Fridays were her night. And the reason she sat in this bar from seven o’clock until midnight every Friday night was because that was her roommate’s designated night to have their apartment to herself.

  Shelly’s boyfriend came over that night every week without fail, and Blaire didn’t even want to know what they did, nor in which rooms. The point was that Blaire needed to be scarce.

  Shelly wasn’t mean about it. She was perfectly fair. Blaire’s night was Saturday. And on that thought, Blaire laughed to herself. As if. Never once had she taken advantage of her night to bring a man home and have sex. Or even to just bring a man home. Or hell, even to have sex of any kind—with something without batteries anyway.

  She wasn’t a prude. Her single status wasn’t entirely on purpose. She simply hadn’t found the right man, and she had no interest in experimenting with random guys. If she was going to have sex, she wanted it to be good. No—great. Like in a romance novel.

  Fantasies, though… She had plenty of those. And most of them featured Kyle. As she slid a book out of her satchel, she glanced at him. He stood near the door, where he almost always hung out to monitor who came inside, check IDs, and keep a trained eye on the crowd in case anyone got out of hand.

  It happened. Not every Friday night. But since she sat there for five hours most weeks, she usually caught an interesting altercation between patrons, or noticed a drunk and disorderly asshole. Nothing serious, though. The patrons of Corked and Tapped weren’t the sort that often got into fights.

  And thank God, because Blaire didn’t think she could have returned over and over again if she’d had to worry about her safety. In truth, the first time she’d come had been purely random. She’d needed a place to go, and Corked and Tapped was close to her apartment. Ordinarily, a bar wouldn’t have been her first choice, but she’d stepped outside her comfort zone, and she’d never been sorry.

  Kyle had been at the door that night. His smile had caught her breath as she’d entered. When he realized she was alone, he’d pointed toward the very table she sat at now and stated in his deep voice, “You’re lucky. That table just opened up. Are you meeting someone?”

  Blaire had licked her lips and then swallowed, seconds ticking by before she found her voice. “No. I’m just going to, uh, study.” She’d wanted to take those words back the moment they left her mouth, but there was no hiding the book bag she carried, and besides, that had been her exact intention.

  What endeared Kyle to her was that he hadn’t laughed at her or in any way insinuated she was a freak. Instead, he’d responded, “With all this noise?”

  The volume had never bothered her, though. It was white noise that faded away as soon as she picked up a book. From that day forward, she nearly always sat at this very high-top table, alternately reading and stealing glances at the man who starred in her fantasies.

  Tonight was no different. Kyle had his back to her, so she didn’t bother to look away, instead taking in his short-cropped, thick, dark blond hair, broad shoulders, narrow waist, and amazing ass. He wore the same thing every week—stonewashed jeans that hugged his hips perfectly and a black T-shirt with the Corked and Tapped logo on the front.

  The thing was, that shirt barely fit him. It was tight around his biceps and across his chest. Mike, the owner, probably didn’t stock any shirts large enough for Kyle. Or maybe Kyle just preferred the way they fit.

  One thing was for sure, no part of his torso was left to the imagination. Except his tattoos. He had several on both tanned arms that extended from under his sleeves. She had wondered for months what else was under that shirt.

  “Gin and tonic, Blaire?”

  Blaire jerked her gaze from Kyle’s fine ass to meet Jade’s gaze. “Thanks.” The waitress knew her well. Heck, Jade knew the orders of every regular who came into the bar.

  “I’ll be right back.” Jade spun around with a smile and a pep in her step. The woman was only a few months older than Blaire and she attended the same university nearby. Blaire had seen her on campus a few times.

  Blaire chuckled as she heard Jade call out several orders to the bartender, Owen. Jade’s voice was filled with excitement. In the last few months, Jade had changed, and Blaire was pretty sure two men who had come into the bar one night several months ago were responsible. Blaire had watched them both flirt with Jade, and then the three of them had left together.

  The number of fantasies Blaire had conjured with regard to that threesome in the last few months was probably world-breaking. She was happy for Jade, but damn, why did J
ade get two men while Blaire hadn’t managed to snag even one?

  Granted, Blaire realized she was to blame. For one thing, she hardly met anyone’s gaze on campus. She was introverted and selective. For another thing, she did nothing to her appearance to make herself stand out. Also intentional.

  The last thing she wanted was for anyone to notice her, so she mostly blended in by wearing jeans, plain shirts, and short boots. Tonight, her V-cut, long-sleeved T-shirt of choice was white. And, since she’d been feeling flirty—which was ridiculous—she’d worn her favorite pink lace bra and panty set. As if anyone would ever see her lingerie. What a joke.

  “What are you doing here on a Wednesday?” Jade asked as she set the gin and tonic down in front of Blaire.

  “My roommate switched nights since tomorrow is Thanksgiving.”

  Jade laughed. “God forbid she should miss her weekly scheduled sexfest.”

  Blaire rolled her eyes. “Right?”

  Jade shook her head. “I don’t even get it. Who could have sex on a schedule? I would lose my mind if I needed to designate seven o’clock on a certain day to fuck.”

  “Agreed,” Blaire responded, as if she had one single clue whether or not people should, could, or would schedule sex. She took a sip of her drink.

  “Since tomorrow is a holiday, this place is going to be packed tonight. You’re lucky you got your favorite seat.” She pointed at the book Blaire had pulled out. “Are you seriously going to do homework on the first night of a four-day break?”

  Blaire shrugged. “Yeah. Figured I would get it out of the way.”

  Jade tipped her head to one side to look at the spine. “Ah, Jane Austin. Well, at least that one’s not too bad. I don’t think I could ever be a literature major. I would never be able to keep up with the reading.”

  Mike called out Jade’s name, so she winced and rushed back to the bar.

  Jade had a point. No wonder Blaire didn’t have men begging to go out with her. She sat in this bar every Friday doing homework like a total nerd. She undoubtedly looked like one too with her reading glasses and her pin-straight brown hair clipped away from her face.

  No man was ever going to ask her out since she never interacted with anyone except Kyle and the people who worked at Corked and Tapped. Hell, besides the owner and the bartender, Kyle was one of the few men she ever spoke to in the bar. Even that had been a stretch the first several weeks she came in. She’d been tongue-tied every time Kyle spoke to her at first, and no matter how many ridiculous fantasies he starred in, she figured he was only polite to her because it was his job.

  Luckily, she’d loosened up over the months. As time passed, Kyle became a friend. She even began to meet his gaze dead-on. He always spoke to her during his breaks. By now, she knew they were friends, but that didn’t stop her from dreaming of more.

  He seemed genuinely interested in hearing about what she was reading and other aspects of her life too. She’d also learned quite a bit about him.

  She knew he was a trainer in a gym during the day and that he hoped to open his own gym in the future. He knew she was working on her master’s in literature and intended to teach. They had laughed over a mutual distaste for wine and horror movies and cold weather and a plethora of other odd things.

  She had no idea why he kept coming back to speak to her, but she wasn’t going to complain. Every time she left Corked and Tapped, she felt lighter, as if she’d been on a great date. In truth, her time with Kyle during his breaks was the closest she’d had to dates in a long time. He brought out the best in her, making her feel far less introverted. No way was she going to give up her fantasy that a man like Kyle—who could date anyone he met—was interested in a shy, studious, literature major who’d never put herself out there.

  She shook thoughts of her imaginary relationship from her mind and groaned inwardly as she picked up this week’s required literature and opened it to the page she was on. She glanced around as she took another sip of her gin and tonic. Jade would bring her a second drink in an hour that would be just tonic, and then, in another hour, her second alcoholic drink.

  Blaire cringed. Was she that different from her scheduler roommate? After all, Shelly planned what day and hour she had sex while Blaire planned which hours she read the classics.

  The truth was Blaire often grew bored of the required literature. She’d rather be reading contemporary romance novels. So, she rationed the hours she read for pleasure. Two hours of homework first then after nine o’clock she permitted herself some well-earned pleasure reading.

  Yeah, she was a nerd.

  Chapter 2

  An hour later, Blaire jumped in her seat when someone set their elbows on the table across from her and leaned into her space. She jerked her gaze up to find Kyle grinning at her.

  He looked at the book and back at her. “Riveting?”

  She shrugged as she sat taller, took off her glasses, and flipped Austen over to set it on the table, holding her place.

  Jade’s shadow loomed across the table as she reached her arm between them and set a plate of fries on the surface. She took off as fast as she appeared.

  Kyle grabbed a fry and stuffed it in his mouth.

  “I don’t know how you can eat so much fried food and yet not have an ounce of fat on your body. If I ate that, I’d weigh five pounds more tomorrow morning.”

  Kyle let his gaze wander down her body and back up. “First of all, I work out more hours a day than you go to class,” he pointed out. “Second of all, your smokin’ hot body is perfect. Don’t change a thing.”

  She sucked in a breath. Smokin’ hot body? Perfect? He’d never once said anything that explicit to her. Was he teasing her? Just making conversation?

  He winked and leaned closer. “And third of all, most men like women to be a little softer, curvy, and feminine. There are a lot of women at the gym—other instructors and clients—who work their asses off to be muscular. Some of them flirt with me.” He shrugged. “Personally, I don’t find them attractive. It’s like they’re too…stiff or something.”

  She lifted her tonic water and took a sip. If Kyle liked his women curvy, she was not in the running for that contest. She was almost too skinny, with small breasts and no butt. How could he say she was perfect in one breath and that he liked curvy women in the next?

  And why the hell was she thinking about impressing Kyle anyway? The man was totally not her type. No, that wasn’t correct. It was the other way around. She was totally not his type.

  Curvy… Gah.

  “So, it’s a four-day weekend, and you’re doing homework. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Why didn’t you go home for the holiday?”

  She shrugged. “My parents are divorced, they live several hours away, and they’re both going to dinner with their new spouses. I’d rather be alone than pretending to be an extrovert with total strangers.”

  He paused, a fry hanging in the air. His gaze narrowed. “Alone? On Thanksgiving?”

  She lifted both shoulders and held them high for a moment. “It’s just a day.”

  “Just a day?” His voice rose. “It’s a day for family and loved ones. It’s one of my favorite days of the year. My mom cooks a huge turkey with all the fixings. My aunt and uncle come over. Two of my cousins. My sister will be there. I can’t even imagine being alone.” He frowned.

  Blaire forced a ridiculous partial smile and waved a dismissive hand between them. “Eh. I’ll be fine. I’m not good with people. I could have gone with my mom or my dad or even my roommate, but I turned them all down. Strangers make me nervous.”

  Kyle put the fry in his mouth and chewed slowly, his expression thoughtful.

  Blaire sat up straighter and changed the subject. “It’s busy in here tonight.”

  He was still staring at her, but then he finally glanced around. “Yeah. Expected.” He ate his fries slower now, leaning closer. “Why don’t you ever date?”

  She flinched before she licked her lips and shrugged yet again. “What
makes you think I don’t date?” she murmured. They didn’t usually discuss anything so personal.

  He cocked his head. “Because if you did, you wouldn’t be here every Friday night.”

  She sighed. Touché. “I’m not opposed to the concept. I just haven’t met the right guy.”

  He gave her a slow half grin. “Opposed to the concept?”

  She flushed. “Are you making fun of me?”

  He shook his head. “I would never. You’re just so eloquent.”

  She pointed at the novel in front of her. “I have a literature degree. It’s a requirement that I be good with words.”

  He chuckled. “And literature majors don’t date?”

  She started wringing her fingers together in her lap but attempted to keep up the banter. “Nope. It’s not permitted.”

  Kyle laughed. “Probably because there’s too much reading.”

  His damn muscles bulged every time he leaned toward her. She couldn’t help but lower her gaze to his chest. She would give almost anything to flatten her palms on his pecs and explore the hardness of his body.

  He wanted to know why she didn’t date? Because the wimpy, skinny boys on her campus couldn’t hold a candle to him. Ever since she’d started fantasizing about what his body would feel like under her palms, she’d lost interest in college guys altogether.

  “I could take my shirt off if you want.”

  She jerked her gaze back to his, mortified. Her mouth fell open, and her face heated to two hundred degrees. It would be super cool if she could drop through a crack in the universe and disappear right about now.