Free Casey's Warriors (Bondmates) by Ann Mayburn Page B

stranger had moved off into the produce section and out of sight. Disappointment surged through her even as she let out a sigh of relief the night hadn’t started off with a robbery. Working the late shift at the grocery store sucked ass, but it was better than being unemployed. It gave her the money she needed to live on when she returned to college full-time in the fall.
    At the next register, Kimber fluffed her soft black curls, a blush warming her light brown skin, and stared at Casey, her eyes as wide as Casey had ever seen. “Holy. Fucking. Shit. Did Thor just walk into our grocery store?”
    “I have no idea.” Casey tried to stand on her tiptoes to see if she could find Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick, but at five foot three she didn’t see much of anything other than the endless rows of shelves.
    “Do you know him? You must know him because he looked like he was about to jump in your panties.”
    “No…not at all. Trust me, I’d remember someone like him. Holy fucking shit, indeed.”
    Casey rubbed her face and wished she’d done something with her hair other than tie it back in a dark, lumpy bun. Then again, she wasn’t exactly the kind of girl men lost their shit over. Short, chubby, with baby cheeks that never seemed to go away no matter how much she dieted and exercised. Yeah she had a nice rack, but that guy had been supermodel material.
    Kimber leaned over the empty conveyer belt between them with a grin. “Do you think he’s a movie star? Maybe I should get my phone out and take pictures. We could sell them to some gossip rag and have enough money to go on vacation. You know, a real vacation. Where we have to pack a bag for more than one day. Hell, with everyone still afraid to fly and tickets being super cheap we could probably go to Australia for three hundred bucks.”
    After The Event, many airlines went out of business as people swore never to fly again. As a result, more and more people were taking mass transit to go places. And the cruise ship industry was seeing a huge surge in business. The memory of all those planes falling from the sky still haunted the public’s mind. Casey figured if she was going to die it was just as likely to happen on the ground as in the air so her family had taken advantage of the cheap flights to fly down to Texas to visit relatives. One positive side effect of the natural disaster was that people seemed to spend more time with their families now and Casey made it a point every chance she got to tell her friends and family how much she loved them.
    Too bad she didn’t have anyone to share her love with. Someone who would be there when she went to sleep at night, someone who would hold her tight and murmur sweet nothings in her ears. A man who smelled as good as he looked and had the most amazing eyes.
    Still disconcerted by the memory of the man’s shimmering blue eyes and the raw lust she must have mistakenly read in them, Casey shrugged, then squatted down and pretended to rearrange the plastic bags beneath the counter. “With our luck he’ll turn out to be some wanted criminal who will stalk and kill us for your camera phone then make a dress out of our skin.” She giggled and said in a terrible accent, “It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again.”
    When Kimber didn’t respond and the conveyer belt of Casey’s register started up she closed her eyes and prayed to the gods of nerdy girls everywhere that fate wasn’t taking a crap on her yet again. Dread filled her stomach as she slowly stood and when she turned and found Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick staring at her intently she cringed. Hoping he didn’t know they were talking about him, and that he didn’t hear her terrible impression, she pasted a big, fake, and she was sure was a somewhat creepy smile on her face and tried to still the trembling in her hands. He was at least a foot taller than she and big enough to make a pro-football player look like a wimp.
    And so unbelievably hot it made her mouth